Excerpts from The old country houses of the old Glasgow gentry, 2d Edition, 1878
John Guthrie Smith and John Oswald Mitchell

“The Barony of Caldwell originally belonged to the Caldwells of Caldwell, who were a very ancient family, one of them being Chancellor of Scotland in 1349. Gilchrist More or Mure of Coodham, second son of Sir Reginald More of Abercorn, Chamberlain of Scotland in 1329, appears to have acquired by purchase or marriage the lands of Easter Caldwell. The lands of Wester Caldwell remained in the possession of the Caldwells of Caldwell until that family failed in the person of John Caldwell of Caldwell, whose testament is recorded in the Commissariat of Edinburgh, dated 1707. He was a member of the Scots Parliament.

“It seems as if the lands of Wester Caldwell had then gone by succession through the female line to the Cochrans of Dundonald, by whom they were sold to the Duke of Hamilton, from whom again in 1766 they were purchased by Mure of Caldwell, and joined with Easter Caldwell together constitute the present property of Caldwell belonging to Colonel Mure, M.P.

“Ninian Hill, the husband of Jean Caldwell, was mixed up with Maxwell of Pollok, Sir Archibald Stewart of Castlemilk, the laird of Dunlop, James Hamilton of Aikenhead, Gabriel Hamilton of Westburn and others in the offence of attending conventicles, and after being cited before a commission of Parliament in 1676, was imprisoned in the tolbooth until released on paying a heavy fine.”

Introduction to the First Edition [1870]

"We get nothing for nothing in this world, and our wonderful present prosperity costs us, among more valuable things, many an interesting monument of the past in Glasgow and round Glasgow.

"Within the town the flood has almost spent itself. The High Kirk and St. Andrew's Church are not likely to be swept away, nor is the Tolbooth Tower, nor the Tron and Bridgegate Steeples; and of what was worth preserving of old Glasgow not much else is now left us except the College. Its sands, indeed, are nearly run: its grey courts have seen their last of the red gowns : and Professors and Students are moving to abode so much ampler, on a site so much nobler, that the most bigoted antiquary would not hinder them. But pen and pencil and photograph will still preserve every architectural and historical detail of the old home in High Street, and similar records preserve the features and the story of the most important of the other monuments that have disappeared within the town.

"But the waters still rise: they overflow their ancient banks, and outside the town are sweeping away our old land-marks, North, South, East, and West. It is the purpose of this book to keep some of these from being forgotten when their places shall know them no more. The pity is that the work was not sooner taken in hand. The flood has risen so fast that some of the houses in the volume are already gone, and we shall turn the leaves over in vain for many a well-remembered residence that can now live only in memory. (1)

"For the local antiquary the volume will have a special interest as a memorial of the old Burgher Aristocracy, who built or owned so many of these hundred houses. But it should be of more than mere antiquarian interest. It should be to us like a deep quarry to a geologist, and enable us, as we compare the ancient with the modern mansion (say Rosebank with its stately neighbour Aikenhead), or dissect a house that has been added and added to (like Killermont), to trace in the successive strata the progress of that command over matter and taste for expense that sometimes pass for civilization and refinement.

"Certainly these old houses, with their little windows, low roofs, and rough cast walls, and the plat of roses and southernwood in front, would make a poor show beside our great modern mansions, with their plate-glass oriels and polished fronts, their broad terraces and gay conservatories. And the magnates of our Exchange would smile at the sums that used to pass here for fortunes. ..

"Now-a-days, when the capable man can so readily get at both information and connection and capital, the best built business can only be kept up by a succession of talent and application not common in rich families. But, in old times, if a position was worse to win, it was the easier to hold, and a good business was almost as good as an entailed estate. … All experience shows that this quality of good birth passes current for more than its worth in communities much more democratic than Old Glasgow. But it is worth something. Hereditary opulence does, in the main, soften manners, and the sense of his conspicuous position ought to do good service both in encouraging and in restraining the bearer of a well-known name. "Majorum gloria posteris lumen est : nec bona nec mala in occulto patitur."

"We are apt to forget how long some of these old merchants' names had been known. Glasgow looks almost as new as Chicago. But the luxuriant growth hides an ancient stem. Glasgow was a place of trade before Columbus had sighted the new world, and many of our old families could show their burgess tickets, or point to their names in the Civic Fasti for generations and generations. Others had had the Jus Imaginum before they had had anything to do with Glasgow. As long as Scotland has been a trading country, Scotchmen of good family (wiser than their English fellows) have freely engaged in trade, and many of our old merchants were men of gentle, some even of noble, blood. (4)

"Whatever the origin of these old Brahmins, the caste exists no longer. Some families have died out : some have gone back in the world and disappeared : others have undergone the inevitable fate of the too prosperous Scot, and sunk into lairds : the few who survive are lost in the crowd. And we would speak gently of the departed. They had their faults, no doubt : they were exclusive and intolerant, they carried things with a high hand, and altogether thought more of themselves than there was any need for. But their recognised position at least freed them from the temptation to a vulgar display of wealth : and, if they had strong prejudices, and were as slow to take in new ideas as to admit outsiders to their circle, at least they had the courage of their opinions, and were outspoken, sometimes too outspoken in expressing them….

"Now-a-days, our leading merchant has too often ceased to be a citizen. Glasgow is the place where he has his office, and which is always wanting subscriptions from him. But he lives as far from it as he can. He cultivates other society. Outside of his own business the circle of his acquaintance here is gradually narrowing. He would no more mix in municipal matters than Lord Westminster would join the Pimlico Paving Board. If he has himself the misfortune to "speak Glasgow," his sons and his daughters shall escape that unmelodious shibboleth, (7) and they come back from their English schools strangers, knowing nothing and caring nothing about Glasgow or Glasgow folk, and rather ashamed of having anything to do with the big smoky town. They may never have heard the Tolbooth chimes, and could hardly find their way to King William or the Green. They read Burns or Scott, if at all, with a glossary. And they have no idea of the difference between a Free Kirker and a U.P., or any other of those puzzling Scotch sects.

"Such observations are not mere antiquarian or dilettanti trilling. The life of a people depends more on its social than on its political conditions, and this disintegration of society, which affects all classes and all places, is bringing about a great revolution. The political machinery that has fallen out of gear with its social system is like a pump that has lost the fang. And the general revolt against aristocracies means not so much that they have ruled badly as that men will not have these strangers to rule over them. We may think "the loons "weel awa'" : we may wish all success to the revolt, and yet regret the cause of it. It may be well that society should tend like a heap of sand to a level, but it must be ill that it should hang as loosely together. How much estrangement and misunderstanding (the very words tell their own tale), how much contempt paid back in hatred, how many of the dangers that threaten the future of our country, would disappear before a better acquaintance of class with class!"