The chapbook of the Rottenrow / edited by Mrs Robert Jardine.

Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The chapbook of the Rottenrow / edited by Mrs Robert Jardine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    A local habitation and a name By Prof. Glaister Derivations Rat-hat-an-ratk, the road of the fort or stronghold Rathactn Righ, the road of the king Route-en-roi, the king's highway The Rottenrow, spelled so in 1643, but later as Rattonraw, Rattounraw, Ratonraw, Rattenrau, or other variant, is one of the oldest thoroughfares in Glasgow. From its height it has seen the gradual development of the city through the centuries. It has in its time been the abode of prominent Scotsmen, lay and ecclesiastical. It was before the Reformation the aristocratic residential quarter of the town. It was the birth-place of the University. The name appears first in history in a legal document of 1283, in which it is recorded that Gilbert, the chamberlain of the archbishop, Robert Wischard, held land in the Ratonraw to the extent of three roods. At its east end, according to Blind Harry, was fought the battle or skirmish of the Bell o' the Brae between Wallace and some of the troops of Edward I. in 1298. Some are inclined to the view that it was in the near vicinity of the Rottenrow, in a house just outside its gate or port, that the betrayal of Wallace took place, and not
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