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NEWARK CASTLE PORT GLASGOW
Migs Publicbut by table & Lea

R Scott Sculp

THE

Scots Magazine,

AND

EDINBURGH LITERARY MISCELLANY, For NOVEMBER 1815.

Description of NEWARK CASTLE, near PORT GLASGOW.

THE castle of Newark (which must

not be confounded with two others of the same name, one in Ayrshire, and the other near Selkirk) is situated in the county of Renfrew, upon an elevated neck of land overhanging the Clyde; in the parish, and a short distance to the east of the town, of Port Glasgow. Few spots in Scotland command a finer and more varied prospect. On the west, are the populous towns of Port Glasgow and Greenock, with the numerous shipping in their barbours, the Firth of Clyde, and the heath-clad hills of Dumbarton and Argylleshire: on the north, towers the huge Benlomond; while Dumbarton Castle, and numerous seats of noblemen and gentlemen in the counties of Renfrew and Dumbarton, appear on the east.

The

Castle consists chiefly of a square tower, with a battlement on the top, and seems to have been a place of some strength. It is decorated with turrets of neat, substantial workmanship, in the ancient castellated mode of building. Over the window are the letters P. M.; denoting that the castle belonged to Sir Patrick Maxwell; and above the entrance of the most ancient part of the Castle, are the arms of some family, so much defaced, that it cannot be ascertained to whom they belonged; it may perhaps

have been to the Lesslies, who in ancient times took their title from the adjoining Barony of Newark, which title is now dormant. The castle seems to have been built at different periods; for over the principal gateway are the words, "The blessing of God be herein 1597," on another corner "1599," but the front towards the west is of the greatest antiquity.

Most of the rooms are now ruinous, except the hall, which is spacious: the roof is empannelled, having the arms of the principal families connected with the Maxwells painted on wood : there are also some scriptural paintings very rudely executed, but in very vivid colours, which are now nearly gone to decay.

It is supposed to have been first built early in the 14th century, as it appears by Crawford's history of Renfrewshire, that King James the Third granted a charter, dated at Edinburgh, 3d January 1477, to George Maxwell, son to John Maxwell of Calderwood, for the Barony of Newark. The castle continued long in possession of that family, till it descended to George Maxwell Napier of Kilmahew, in Dumbartonshire, who sold it to William Cochran, E-q. of Kilmaronock: it was purchased from him by Sir James Hamilton of Rosehall, who died without male issue, and it descended to Charles Hamilton, Esq, of Wishaw, who died unmarried, and was succeeded by his

brother,

brother, Robert Hamilton of Wishaw, grandfather to the present proprietor, Lord Belhaven.

The town of Port Glasgow, in the immediate vicinity of the castle, is of modern origin. In the year 1668, the city of Glasgow purchased 22 acres of land from Sir P. Maxwell of Newark, when they afterwards built their harbour, and feued out streets and lanes for a New Town, which, with the bay of Newark, was erected into a burgh of Barony by King Charles II., and with a number of farms in the vicinity, was, in the year 1694, disjoined from the parish of Kilmalcom, and erected into a distinct parish in the year 1730, when the population was 1426 souls. In the year 1810, In

1811,

3865

5116

And now in 1815, - 6000
It is now the third seaport in Scot-
land, in regard to commerce; and the
improvements of the town have kept
pace with its increased population.

The merchants are accommodated with extensive warehouses for West Indian and American produce, and large ponds for the reception of imported timber. The harbour trustees have expended, within these ten years, £.15,000 upon improvements, which are still going on. They have just now (1815) contracted for extensive sheds on the quays and breasts for preserving goods from the effects of the weather, and the large and beautiful corporation warehouses, now building, will be inferior to none in the country.

The first dry, or graving dock, in Scotland, was built here in the year 1760, by the Magistrates of Glasgor, whe sold it a few years since to the Magistrates and council of Port Glas gow they have expended £.2000 in deepening and improving it, and it now yields a very handsome revenue to the town.

In 1804, the vessels which arrived from foreign ports at this port, were, Ships: Tons. Men: Foreign Trade,...... 113 18722 1081 Coasters,.......

Inwards,
Outwards,

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551

182 7226
177 25137 1692

119 7202 424

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The extent of commerce may be inferred from the total duties of cus toms received for the year ending

5th January 1807 amounting to £.282,408 5 10.
5th January 1811
307,187 6 1.

The revenue of the Town is principally collected from a tax of 5 cent. on house rents, on impost, on beer sold in the town, and the market and harbour dues. The Magistrates

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are now expending £.10,000, in the erection of an elegant suite of buildings, for a town-house, council chambers, court hall, and other public offices, with a handsome spire of 165 feet high.

The

The beautiful steam boats, (the first that succeeded in Scotland) and which are now plying on the Clyde, were built here by Messrs John Wood & Co. and planned by Mr Bell of Helensburgh. C.

MONTHLY MEMORANDA IN NATURAL HISTORY.

Fire-Damp.

THIS, it is well known, is the name given to carbureted hydrogen in coal mines. This gas is generated most copiously in deep workings. It seldom proves troublesome in the mines near Edinburgh, but in those of West-Lothian and of Ayrshire, fatal accidents sometimes arise from it. At the extensive Newcastle works, such accidents are frequent, and their consequences dreadful. At the Felling colliery alone, two miles below Newcastle, different explosions took place, in the years 1813 and 1814, by which not fewer than 120 persons perished, many of them leaving widows and children. To discover a preventive of the explosions of firedamp has therefore become an object of the first importance, not only to those engaged in supplying the metropolis with coal, but even to the interests of humanity. Greater attention to the ventilating of the mines has with much propriety been recommended; and it has been proposed, that it should be daily ascertained by chemical experiment in what proportion the inflammable gas exists in the mine, there being no danger of explosion till it amount to about onetwelfth in bulk of the common air but this last is probably too nice and too tedious an operation to be regularly performed by miners.

:

We trust that all danger of the recurrence of such dismal events will soon be removed, by the adopting of an appa

rently simple contrivance, suggested by an eminent chemist of this place, Dr Murray. The principle may be explained in a very few words. The specific gravity of the inflammable gas is little more than one-half that of common air; of course, the former must occupy the upper part of the passages and rooms of the mine, and in point of fact it is found to do so.It seems only necessary, therefore, that the candle or lamp of the workman should be contained within a glass case, having attached to it a tube reaching to the floor of the mine, and from thence conveying the air necessary for the combustion of the lamp. If the top of the glass case have but a small aperture, the access of inflammable gas will be prevented by the continual exit of heated air. The using of lanterns was, we believe, recommended by Dr Clanny, two years ago; but the propriety of feeding the flame only from the air next to the floor of the mine, (however obvious an expedient it appears when once pointed out), had escaped the notice of all who have written on the subject of fire-damp.

Some other circumstances connected with Dr Murray's contrivance, deserve notice; and we shall state them from our recollection of the contents of his paper read at the meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh on Monday the 20th inst.

To guard against the possibility of carbureted hydrogen rising through rents in the floor of the mine, and the mouth of the tubes being placed over such rents, he proposed that the tubes should be turned up two or three inches at the bottom-this, it is evident, would completely obviate any such danger, as the inflammable gas must rise to the roof as fast as it escapes from the rents.

The lamps may be either fixed or portable. For the former, the tubes may be made of iron or copper: but as movable lights are probably indis

pen

pensable, he shewed, that small flexible tubes, perhaps between three and four feet long, made of prepared leather, covered with oiled silk, and var nished, might be commodiously at tached to the case including the lamp. The additional weight of the lamp would be very inconsiderable, and the workmen might move freely along, with the end of the flexible tube trailing on the floor of the mine.

He observed, that any mixture of the inflammable gas capable of explosion must first be formed near the roof of the mine; and that before such an accumulation of the carbureted hydrogen as should fill the mine to the floor, could possibly take place, the state of matters would be indicated, not only by the smell, but by the breathing of the workmen being affected.

But he mentioned still other circumstances connected with this arrangement, which give additional security; and these, for a reason which will presently appear, it would be wrong to pass over. He remarked that the inflammability of all the inflammable gases is much dependent on their state of condensation, so much so, that mixtures of them with common air in a state of rarefaction cannot be inflamed: now, if any mixture of fire-damp (which is an elastic fluid not very highly inflammable) with common air, did, from some singular circumstance, enter at the bottom of the tube, it would not, from the state of rarefaction within the case, be it self inflamed, but would rather tend to extinguish the flame; and even supposing it were inflamed, the inflammation could not be communicated to the external air, and there would either be no explosion, or one so feeble, that it would be confined entirely. within the case. In situations peculiarly dangerous, he observed, a large tube could be brought from any part of the mine where the air was known to be pure, in order to sustain the

combustion of the lamps within the

cases.

To this account of Dr Murray's invention, we have now to add, that, by a curious coincidence, a distinguished chemist at London, Sir Humphry Davy, had, about the very same time, suggested a safety lamp, allied to a certain extent to the one now described. The Secretary of the Royal Society here, before the reading of Dr Murray's paper, mentioned that that paper had been put into his hands by the author on the 14th of November*; and the propriety of noticing this circumstance appeared, when a letter (received either that day or the day before) was read, explaining the principle of Sir Humphry's lamp. According to that letter, it was proposed, that an air-tight lantern should be provided with two perforations in the lower part of it), merely sufficient to admit air enough for the combustion of a common oillamp, and that there should be an aperture at top, to permit the escape of the heated air. In this way, as long as the lamp should continue to be surrounded by common atmosphe ric air, it would burn undisturbed, but the moment it should come in contact with the foul air, the flame of the lamp would be so much increased in volume by the accession of portions of the carbureted hydrogen, that the air within the lantern would be speedily exhausted, and the light thus extinguished, without any explosion taking place.

Such is Sir Humphry Davy's plan; and we must say that it appears to us to embrace only a part of Dr Murray's: on the other hand, Dr Mur

ray's

It may be added, that Dr Murray had communicated his views to several of his fr ends in the very beginning of November, more than a week before he sent his paper to the Secretary of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.—N.

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