ounces and a half. The poor-houfe is a large buildings very we||
laid out, and Hands oppofite to the quay, in a fine free air: itj,
fupported by a fmall tax, impofed upon the inhabitants quarterly
There are at prefent in the houfe above fixty, o f which numlw
about thirty-fix are boys and girls, who are carefully educated'
and the boys put out to bufinefs at the expence of the houfe
Befides thefe, many out-penfioners have weekly fupplies. Mol
o f the mechanics and artificers in town, and feyeral others tint
fall not'under thefe denominations, have formed themfelves i*
focieties, and have eftabliihed funds for the aid of their diftrefij
members : thefe funds are generally well managed, and of very
great benefit to individuals.
The old part of the town runs from Eaft to Weft upon tk
South Hope o f a ridge of hills, from which there is a plcafa
and very extenfive profpeCt of the city o f Glafgow, and the adjacent
country on all ftdes, but to the Southward, where the view ter;
minates on a ridge o f green hills, about two miles diftant. In
eluding the late buildings and fuburbs, it is about an EngliJh\M,
long, and much about the fame breadth. So late as the y*
1746, by a very accurate furvey, it was found to contain fcarce fouf
thoufand inhabitants a but it is now thought to have no fewer ttoa
from ten to twelve thoufand, all ages included. The Earl cf
Abercom’s burial place is by much the greateft curiofity in A #
it is an old Gothic chapel, without pulpit or pew, or any ornament
whatever ; but has the fineft echo perhaps in the world : when tit
end-door (the only one it has) is Ihut, the noife is equal to a loti
and not very diftant clap o f thunder; if you ftrike a fingle note (f
mulic, you hear the found gradually afcending, till it dies away;
is
1 if at an immenfe diffiance, and all the while diffufing itfelf through
the circumambient air : if a good voice fings, or a mufical inftru-
raent is well played upon, the effeCt is inexpreffibly agreeable. In
this chapel is the monument of Marjory Bruce: fhe lies recumbent,
with her hands clofed, in the attitude o f prayer: above was once a
rich arch, with fculptures of the arms, &c. Her ftory is Angular :
(he was daughter of Robert Bruce, and wife o f Walter, Great Steward
of Scotland, and mother o f Robert the lid . In the year j 317, when
ihh was big with child, ihe broke her neck in hunting near this
Mace: the Cefarian operation was inftantly performed, and the
child taken out alive; but the operator chancing to hurt one eye
with his inftrument, occafioned the blemifh that gave him afterwards
the epithet of Blear-eye ; and the monument is alfo ftyled that of
Queen Bleary. In the fame chapel were interred Elizabeth Muir
a® Ewphemia Rofs, both conforts to the fame monarch : the firft
d(ed before his accefiion.
■About half a mile S. Weft of Paijley lies Maxwelton : a very neat
little village, ereited fince the year 1746, where the manufactures o f
iilpc gauze are carried on to a confiderable extent.
Rrhere is fcarce a veftige remaining of the monaftery, founded in
1160 by Walter fon o f Allan, ‘ Dapifer Regis Scotia pro anima
‘ quondam regis David et anima Henrici regis Anglia et anima co-
-tnitis Henrici et pro falute corporis et animas regis Malcolmi et pro
flniniabus omnium parentum meorum, et benefaCtorum nec non
‘ i t mei ipfius falute, & c .’ The mosaks, who were inftru&ed with
this weighty charge, were firft of the order o f Cluniacs, afterwards
changed to Cijtercians; and laftly, the firft order was again re-
ftpred.
Z The