window in recognition of their enterprise. The crypt beneath the choir is not the least remarkable part of the edifice, being without equal in Scotland. It is borne on 65 pillars and lighted by 41 windows. The sculpture of the capitals of the columns and bosses of the groined vaulting is exquisite and the whole is in excellent preservation. Strictly speaking, it is not a crypt, but a lower church adapted to the sloping ground of the right bank of the Molendinar burn. The dripping aisle is so named from the constant dropping of water from the roof. St Mungo’s Well in the south-eastern corner was considered to possess therapeutic virtues, and in the crypt a recumbent effigy, headless and handless, is faithfully accepted as the tomb of Kentigern. The cathedral contains few monuments of exceptional merit, but the surrounding graveyard is almost completely paved with tombstones. In 1115 an investigation was ordered by David, prince of Cumbria, into the lands and churches belonging to the bishopric, and from the deed then drawn up it is clear that at that date a cathedral had already been endowed. When David ascended the throne in 1124 he gave to the see of Glasgow the lands of Partick, besides restoring many possessions of which it had been deprived. Jocelin (d. 1199), made bishop in 1174, was the first great bishop, and is memorable for his efforts to replace the cathedral built in 1136 by Bishop John Achaius, which had been destroyed by fire. The crypt is his work, and he began the choir, Lady chapel, and central tower. The new structure was sufficiently advanced to be dedicated in 1197. Other famous bishops were Robert Wishart (d. 1316), appointed in 1272, who was among the first to join in the revolt of Wallace, and received Robert Bruce when he lay under the ban of the church for the murder of Comyn; John Cameron (d. 1446), appointed in 1428, under whom the building as it stands was completed; and William Turnbull (d. 1454), appointed in 1447, who founded the university in 1450. James Beaton or Bethune (1517–1603) was the last Roman Catholic archbishop. He fled to France at the reformation in 1560, and took with him the treasures and records of the see, including the Red Book of Glasgow dating from the reign of Robert III. The documents were deposited in the Scots College in Paris, were sent at the outbreak of the Revolution for safety to St Omer, and were never recovered. This loss explains the paucity of the earlier annals of the city. The zeal of the Reformers led them to threaten to mutilate the cathedral, but the building was saved by the prompt action of the craftsmen, who mustered in force and dispersed the fanatics.
Excepting the cathedral, none of the Glasgow churches possesses historical interest; and, speaking generally, it is only the buildings that have been erected since the beginning of the 19th century that have pronounced architectural merit. This was due largely to the long survival Churches. of the severe sentiment of the Covenanters, who discouraged, if they did not actually forbid, the raising of temples of beautiful
