OLD Glasgow, as can be gathered from the many interesting records that have been preserved of the lives and customs of its inhabitants, was one of the most sociable and convivial towns to be found within the realm. The citizens, always thrifty, industrious and enterprising, never forgot in the heat of the race for wealth that there is true philosophy in the line of the poet which inculcates the wisdom of "living by the way as we travel through life." With the exception of London, there is perhaps no city which can show an array of "Clubs" whose aim was good eating, good drinking and good fellowship, to equal that of Glasgow. Its old streets and closes had taverns in abundance, the common evening resort of respectable burgesses, where high jinks were held, and where, with West India limes and rum of their own importation, they

"Mixed the genuine stuff

As they made it long ago,"

but the Hotel, as we now understand it, was an institution of the future. Even so late as the beginning of the present century there were only four hotels of respectability in the city, and these were the "Black Bull," "Buck's Head," "Star," and "Tontine," all of which have now been converted to other uses. The first Inn worthy of the name which Glasgow could boast of was the "Saracen's Head." It was situated in the Gallowgate, and was built upon the old burying-ground attached to St. Mungo's Chapel, which, we gather from Lottimer's Glasgow Delineated, "was gifted by the town to a Mr. Tennent, on condition of his building a commodious Inn upon it for the convenience of strangers, and for this purpose he was allowed to take stones from the ruins of the Castle." For many years the "Saracen's Head" remained the Inn of Glasgow. It was here that in 1773 Dr. Samuel Johnson and his biographer put up on returning from their tour to the Hebrides, and where the lexicographer expressed his delight at once more sitting by a "sea-coal fire" and enjoying the comforts of civilization. It was the residence of the Lords of Justiciary on their half-yearly visits to the town, and from it they marched in procession along the Gallowgate to the Court Hall in the ancient Tolbooth; and here in July, 1788, the citizens gathered to witness the arrival of the first London mail coach. The "Black Bull" Inn, built by the Glasgow Highland Society, succeeded the "Saracen's Head" as the leading hostelry of the city, which for many years it remained.

The " Buck's Head Hotel," the subject of the drawing, is interesting not so much on account of its history as for the fact that it presents us with an example of the spacious mansions built by the wealthy Virginia Lords of other days. It was one of the first two tenements erected in Argyll Street, and was built in 1757 by Provost John Murdoch for his own residence. By Provost Murdoch's settlement it was left as a jointure house to his widow; and in 1790 it was sold to Colin McFarlane, when it was converted into a hotel. The adjoining building shown in the drawing was built about the same time as the "Buck's Head" by Mr. Colin Dunlop. who subsequently became Chief Magistrate of the city, and from whom the neighbouring street takes its name. Perhaps the old " Buck's Head" witnessed no more exciting period than in the early days of April, 1820, when rumours of rebellion and civil war were rife, and when the good folks of Glasgow more than half expected their city to be sacked by the dreaded Radicals who were hourly expected to "rise." It was then occupied by the City Magistrates, who remained on the alert night and day ready to cope with any emergency. It was also the head-quarters of the officers of the 7th and 10th Hussars, while in the old circus behind horses stood saddled and bridled, and soldiers bivouacked under arms ready to turn out the moment the bugle sounded the alarm in the street. Fortunately the popular panic was founded upon a very slender basis, and the "Radical rising" culminated in about a hundred half-starved artizans gathering under the cloud of night in the Fir-park, only some thirty of whom persevered long enough to "assist" in the sorrowful fiasco of Bonnymuir

The site of the Hotel is now occupied by a warehouse, but the adjoining mansion, although greatly changed, still displays part of its original facade.