George Street.] THE MASONIC HALL. k5 1
Glasgow Union Bank Company, which dates from
1830; in 1843 the name was changed to the
Union Bank of Scotland. ? As was stated by Mr.
Gairdner to the Committee of the House of
Commons on ?Banks of Issue? (1874), several
private and public banks were incorporated from
time to time in the Union: notably, the Thistle
Bank of Glasgow in 1836, the Paisley Union Bank
iri 1838, the Ayr Bank, the Glasgow Arms and
Ship Gank in 1843, Sir William Forbes and J.
Hunter and Co. in the same year. The Aberdeen
Bank was also absorbed in the Union system in
1849, and the Perth Banking Company in 1857.
The special general ;meeting ?or ? considering
whether or not this bank should be registered
under the Companies Act, 1862,? was called on
the 10th December, 1862, but the bank had in
fact %een so registered on the 3rd November of
the same year. At the meeting, Sir John Stuart
Forbes, Bart., was in the chair, and it was unanimously
agreed ?that it is expedient that the
bank register itself 9s an unliniited company under
the Companies Act, 1862, and that the meeting do
now assent to the. bank being so registered, and
authorise the directors to take all necessary steps
for carrying the motion into effect.?
Opposite the Northern Club-3 mere plain
dwelling-house-is the Masonic Hall and offices
of the grand lodge of Scotland, No. 98, George
Street. The foundation &one was laid on the
24th of June, 1858, with due masonic honours, by
the Grand Master, the Duke of Athole, whose
henchman, a bearded Celt of vast proportions, in
Drumrnond tartan, armed with shield and claymore,
attracted great attention. The streets were lined
by the i7th Lancers and the Staffordshire Militia.
The building was finished in. the following year,
snd, among many objects of great masonic interest,
contains the large picture of the ? Inauguration of
Robert Bums as Poet Laureate of the Grand
Lodge of Scotland,? by William Stewart Watson,
a deceased artist, nephew of George Watson, first
president of the Scottish Academy, and cousin of
the late Sir John Watson-Gordon. He was an ardent
Freemason, and for twenty years was secretary
to the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge.
His picture is a very valuable one, as containing
excellent portraits of many eminent men who took
part in that ceremony. He was the same artist
who designed the embellishments of the library at
Abbotsford, at the special request of Sir Walter
Scott, to whom he was nearly related.
In this office are the rooms and records of the
Grand Secretary, and there the whole general
business of the? entire masonic body in Scotland is
transacted.
Three fine bronze pedestrian statues decorate
this long and stately street.
The first of these statues, at the intersection of
George Street and Hanover Street, to the memory
of George IV., is by Chantrey, and was erected in
November, 183r. It is twelve feet in height, on a
granite pedestal of eighteen feet, executed by Mr.
Wallace. The largest of the blocks weighed
fifteen tons, and all were placed by meatls of some
of the cranes used in the erection of the National
Monument.
The second, at the intersection of Frederick
Street, is ?also by Chantrey, to the memory of
William Pitt, and was erected in 1833.
The third, at the intersection of Castle Street, on
a red granite pedestal, was erected in 1878 to the
memory of Dr. Chalmers, and is by the hand of
Sir John Steel.
CHAPTER XX
QUEEN STREET.
The Philosophical Iostitution-House of Bamn Ode-New Physicians? Hall-Sir James Y. Simpron, M.D.-The House of hf-
Wilson-Sir John Leslic-Lord Rockville-Sir Jams Grant of Grant-The Hopetoun Rooms-Edinburgh Educational Institution
for Ladies.
QUEEN STREET was a facsimile of Princes Street,
but its grouping and surroundings are altogether
different.
Like Princes Street, it is a noble terrace, but not
overlooked at a short distance by the magnificent
castle and the Dunedin of the Middle Ages. It
looks northward pver its whole length on beautiful
gardens laid out in shrubs and flowers, beyond
which lie fair white terraces and streets that far
excel itself-the assembled beauties of another new
town spreading away to the wide blue waters of the
Firth of Forth. How true are the lines of Scott !-
