IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Cronin Street, DUMBARTON, G82 1AS

For context, see Image Like the other stones in this passage, the one shown in the present photograph is partly buried. The modern metal plaque gives the inscription; however, as I had suspected from the rhyming scheme, it has omitted a whole line (the third line) of the verse, and it contains numerous typos in the other lines. In the following, I have therefore relied instead upon the accurate transcription that is given in the book "Dumbarton Parish Church in History" (David Wilson, 2004): "In memory of William McAlla, Light Company, Ayrshire Militia, who was cut off in the flower of his youth by a fall from the East Rock of Dumbarton Castle, 26th June 1812, in the 24th year of his age. No more the shrill reveille shall convey Unto his breathless corpse the dawn of day, No evening drum will beat To him the tidings of the sun's retreat; No more he'll breathe the sweet salubrious gale, Nor listen more to love's unwearied tale, Nor tune the pipe to nature's charming choir, Nor yield again to youth's ecstatic fire. This stone was erected in his memory by his brother officers." The plaque also mentions that Dorothy Wordsworth visited the area on the 20th of September 1822, and thought the verse on this stone to be rather poor. The book by David Wilson that is cited above provides more details: the occasion was Dorothy Wordsworth's second tour(*) in Scotland. Dorothy had arrived in Dumbarton by boat, had breakfasted at the town's Elephant Hotel (on which, see Image), and then made her way along the High Street to the parish kirkyard. She found it to be rather overgrown and poorly tended, but it was nevertheless a pleasant place in which to sit and look out over the River Leven. Dorothy noticed this stone (which would have been fully exposed to view at the time), mainly because of the verse on it. The stone's carvings include a thistle, an anchor, and a square and compasses; the thistle can be seen at the top of the stone. Oddly, an adjacent gravestone is that of Charles Kerr, private, a soldier in the 72nd Regiment, Duke of Albany's Own Highlanders, who died on the 21st of May 1825, aged 24. He was killed in much the same manner as William McAlla, by a fall from the north east side of Dumbarton Castle. (*) Dorothy's first tour in Scotland took place in 1803, when she was accompanied by her brother William and the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. They had also visited Dumbarton on that occasion. Amongst other places, they explored Dumbarton Castle, and they also walked around the base of the Rock at low water; see Image and Image

For context, see Image The stone is not visible in that picture, but it is one of several that are set against the southern boundary wall of the kirkyard, beside the path of stones that is shown in that photograph. The lower half of this gravestone is buried (as is true of the other stones on the southern boundary wall), but its inscription is as follows: "Agnes Lang, in memory of her husband, Captain James Lang, who died 15th June 1850, aged 45 years; also their daughter Marion Houston, who died 22nd January 1842 aged 2 years and 3 months." James Lang was one of the Langs of Chapelton (also mentioned in Image). He was born in Dumbarton in 1805, and was educated there. James became a law clerk in the Town Clerk's office, but he later served on the town's steamers. In 1830, he became the captain of one of the Dumbarton Steamboat Company's vessels. He commanded, in succession, the "Dumbarton", the "Leven", the "Prince Albert", the "Lochlomond", and the "Queen". In 1835, he married Agnes MacCallum of Greenock; she was the daughter of Peter MacCallum, founder of P MacCallum & Sons, iron and steel merchants, Greenock. (James Lang is also commemorated by a memorial in Greenock Cemetery: Image The above-mentioned Peter and Agnes MacCallum are listed there.) As captain, James Lang used to communicate with his engineer using a worked-out system of knocks, banging the heel of his boot against the wooden cover of the steeple engine. It was at Captain Lang's recommendation that the firm of Denny Bros built a better method of communication into their vessel "Lochlomond", in the form of a mechanical indicator. James Lang was a partner of the Dumbarton Steamboat Company. Contemporary accounts show that he was irreproachable in character, a man of good morals. He died at Castleroad House in 1850. His son John went on to head the above-mentioned Greenock firm of P MacCallum & Sons, and he became prominent in Greenock's civic life, attaining the positions of Burgh Treasurer and Second Magistrate. Reference: Donald MacLeod, "The God's Acres of Dumbarton" (1888), pages 230 to 232.

Viewed from High Street.

In the church grounds.

For context, see Image, where the stone can be seen in the left foreground, built into the southern boundary wall of the kirkyard. "Sacred to the memory of John Bell, flesher in Dumbarton, who died on the 19th day of October 1825 in the 55th year of his age." The date of death given in this inscription is incorrect, as will be explained below. For reasons that will also become clear below, I will refer to the John Bell of this gravestone as John Bell (II). John Bell (II) was from Brampton, Cumberland (c.Image), and was born on the 23rd November 1770. Donald MacLeod gives his obituary on page 232 of his book "The God's Acres of Dumbarton" (1888). MacLeod has the family being from "Bampton", and, confusingly, there is a Little Bampton and a nearby Kirkbampton in Cumberland, but the family was not from that area. The ancestry of the family can be traced back a little further, to John's grandfather Richard Bell, who was a flesher in Brampton, Carlisle. On pages 59-61 of "Ancient Records of Dumbarton and Glasgow", we are presented with the text of a document recording that Richard's son John (I) had bound himself apprentice to his father (this took place in Brampton, before the family had come to Dumbarton). The document dates from 1748, and reads, in part, as follows: "This Indenture made the first day of May in the twenty first year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the second, ... and in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty eight Witnesseth that John Bell, son of Richard Bell of Brampton, in the parish of Brampton in the county of Cumberland, hath of his own free and voluntary will placed and bound himself apprentice unto the said Richard Bell his father, Butcher, to learn the said Trade, Mistery or occupation of a Butcher, which he the said Richard Bell now useth, and with him as an Apprentice, to dwell continually with him from the day of the date hereof to the full term of seven years from thence, next insuing and fully to be compleat and ended." The John Bell (I) named here is presumably the father of the one named on the gravestone, who I have therefore called John (II). Note that John Bell (II) had not yet been born when this Indenture was recorded in 1748. The book "Ancient Records ..." goes on to explain that "the John Bell of the above indenture was grandfather of Messrs John Bell and George Bell, Dumbarton, and Finlay Bell, Glasgow". The last-named John Bell (III) is most likely John Bell of Clydeview (d.1899), eldest son of John (II). For more on him, see below. As for John (I), who was apprenticed to his father Richard, the book "Ancient Records ..." also presents, on pages 61-62, the text of his burgess ticket: it was made "at Dumbarton the twentieth day of April seventeen hundred and seventy nine years", and it records that "Mr John Bell Flesher in Carlile ... was admitted and received an Burgess and Guild Brother of Dumbarton with power to him to hold and enjoy all the priviledges and Immunities thereto belonging". - - • - - Coming now to the John (II) of the gravestone, his obituary is, as noted above, given by Donald MacLeod on page 232 of his book "The God's Acres of Dumbarton" (1888); it can be summarised as follows: John was born on November 23rd 1770. When he was still young, John and his brother William were brought by their father [not named by MacLeod, but presumably John (I)] to Dumbarton, where John (II) was trained to become a flesher by trade. He became a burgess of the town in 1787, and he married one of the Langs of Chapelton (compare Image). Five sons (John, William, George, Thomas, Finlay) and one daughter (Margaret Lang) survived their father. At the time the book was written (1888), only the eldest son John (III) and youngest son Finlay were still alive. On the morning of Friday the 21st of October, 1825, the John Bell (II) who is commemorated by this gravestone was, in connection with his work, returning from a cattle fair at Kilmichael (c.Image), Lochgilphead. Unfortunately, he was returning on the ill-fated steamer "Comet II"; later on the same morning, it would be involved in a collision with the steamship "Ayr". John was among the many who drowned as a result; his body was recovered on the following day. The date of death that appears on the stone is incorrect. [The PS Comet and the PS Comet II were both built by Henry Bell: Image The first Comet was built in 1811, and was shipwrecked in 1820. The Comet II was built in 1822, and sank, as mentioned above, in 1825.] The family's trade as fleshers (butchers) in Dumbarton is also mentioned in passing by Donald MacLeod in another of his works, "Dumbarton Ancient and Modern" (1893). The relevant passage is in section VI, "Old Flesh Market and Town's Well", which faces an illustration of the old flesh market; that section begins: "The Flesh Market was the last of the public markets of the burgh to be discontinued. It was built in 1670, and pulled down in 1852. Mr William Taylor's public house of entertainment now stands on its site. The Slaughter-house of the burgh was in the back part of the premises, and the town's well was in front of them, and it was supplied by water from St Shear's Well, on the opposite side of the Leven, by a lead pipe laid in 1714 on its bed, the whole works costing £54 sterling. Many a flutter have I seen among the attendant maidens when infuriated cattle were being driven past them by half fu' drovers to meet their doom. There were for many long years six or eight fleshers who occupied stalls in the market, but they dwindled down by slow degrees till in my early days there was only one, and that one was Mr William Bell, father of our esteemed townsman, ex-Bailie George Bell, and uncle to our much revered oldest inhabitant, Mr John Bell of Clydeview, late flesher, whose father (a native of Brampton, Cumberland) came to reside in the burgh about 110 years ago, and he at one time also occupied a stall in the market, and met his death by drowning when the second steamship 'Comet' was run down by the steamer 'Ayr' off Kempoch Point, Gourock, on the morning of Friday, 21st October, 1825, when seventy lives were sacrificed." My comments on that passage: ● For St Shear's Well and the water pipe from there, see Image ● "Our much revered oldest inhabitant, Mr John Bell of Clydeview": presumably John (III), eldest son of John (II); he was therefore alive, though very elderly, in 1893. In fact, he went on to live several years longer (7th June 1803 - 2nd May 1899. The following biographical details of John Bell are taken mainly from his obituary in the 6th May 1899 edition of the Lennox Herald newspaper. John Bell (III) stayed in the house called Clydeview until 1897, the year his wife died; at that time, he sold Clydeview to Mr Leslie Denny, a Dumbarton shipbuilder, and moved to the British Linen Bank House, Alexandria, where he stayed with Thomas McLean, whose wife was a niece of Mr Bell. John Bell was a flesher by trade, retiring in 1866. He had been a town councillor, long associated with the management of the parochial boards of Dumbarton and Cardross, and with the Dumbarton Combination Poorhouse, before these passed into the control of the parish councils. John Bell was a very early shareholder of the Loch Lomond Steamboat Company, and had been one of its directors for many years, until the steamers were purchased in 1889 by the North British Company. As a youth, John had been present at the launch of the steamer "Marion", built for Loch Lomond by William Denny, Dumbarton. He also remembered well the arrival in Dumbarton of news about the Battle of Waterloo, and the excitement it caused there. In 1822, John Bell joined the Dumbartonshire Yeomanry Cavalry, whose captain was Alexander Smollett of Bonhill (see Image). In 1822, he visited Edinburgh, to see the King George IV, who was visiting the city. In John's early years, travel was mainly by stagecoach, but he saw the progress of the railways; in 1832, he travelled on the Manchester & Liverpool line the day after it opened. He had a vivid recollection of the Chartist Riots at the time of passing of the Reform Bill, and was present when three Chartists were on trial in Dumbarton Parish Church (Image). John Bell (III) became a Freemason early in 1826; at the time of his death in 1899, his record of 73 years made him the oldest Freemason in Scotland. He belonged to Lodge No 18, St John Kilwinning, Dumbarton. He attended many masonic functions, being present, for example, at the laying of the foundation stone of the first Hutchesontown stone bridge in Glasgow, in 1826. His first wife was a daughter of Mr James Watson of Glenfalloch, Loch Lomond. John Bell attributed his long life to "early rising, temperate in everything, avoiding medicine if possible, and taking a cold bath every morning". Some details not given in that obituary: his first wife was called Elizabeth Watson; she was born in 1812, and died in 1847. His second wife was Louisa Hamilton; she was born in 1826, and died in 1897. ● "Mr William Bell, father of our esteemed townsman, ex-Bailie George Bell": this William is the brother of John (II); William is mentioned by name in the "God's Acres" obituary, summarised above, as being brought with John (II) to Dumbarton by their father. By the time John (II) met his death by drowning, he had already given up his stall in the old Flesh Market, and for a good many years had instead been conducting his business from a shop. His brother William, the last to have had a stall in the Flesh Market, went about his work quietly, minding his own business; he therefore attracted little comment, but he is known to have enlisted in the local yeomanry, and to have done duty at Stirling [for the references in this paragraph, see Donald MacLeod's book "Past Worthies of the Lennox" (1894)]. Ex-Bailie George Bell (son of William) was a good friend of Donald MacLeod, the author of most of the reference works that I have relied on in this item. They were both members of the Dumbarton lodge of the Oddfellows: note the mention of George Bell on Image in Dumbarton Cemetery. George Bell's own gravestone is located in the same cemetery, and is about midway between Image and the statue of John Proudfoot (Image). The gravestone of John Bell (III) is just a few feet from the White Memorial. For John Bell (III), ex-Bailie George Bell, and their relatives, see Image, which shows some of the stones just mentioned. - - • - - It may be useful to summarise the successive generations: (1) Richard Bell, flesher in Brampton, Carlisle. (2) John (I), apprenticed to his father in 1748, and made a burgess of Dumbarton in 1779. (3) John (II) of this gravestone, and William his brother, brought to Dumbarton by their father in the late 1770s or early 1780s ("about 110 years ago" according to the 1893 book "Dumbarton Ancient and Modern"); presumably in 1779 or just before, since John (I) was made a burgess of Dumbarton in that year. John (II) became a burgess of Dumbarton in 1787. (4) John (III) of Clydeview (d.1899), son of John (II); his cousin, Bailie George Bell, was the son of the above William. For some of those later generations, see Image, in Dumbarton Cemetery. If the dates listed in "God's Acres" are correct, John (II), said to have been born in November 1770, was just 16 years old when he was made a burgess of Dumbarton in 1787. Providing some corroboration for the dates when various members of that family were made burgesses are the following entries from the published "Roll of Dumbarton Burgesses and Guild-Brethren 1600-1846 with a continuation thereof to the present day" (Edinburgh, 1937; compiled by Fergus Roberts, Town Clerk of Dumbarton): • Bell, John, flesher in Carlisle, B. and G., gratis, by act of C. – 20 Apr 1779. • Bell, John, junior, butcher, B. and G. – 8 May 1787. • Bell, John, junior, flesher, B. and G., by r. of being s. to a B. – 19 May 1824. • Bell, William, butcher, B. and G. – 7 Aug 1807. "B." = burgess of Dumbarton. "G." = guild-brother. "By act of C" = by act of Council. "By r. of being s. to a B." = by right of being son to a burgess of Dumbarton. "Gratis": created an honorary burgess. As the work just cited points out, large numbers of honorary burgesses were created from 1767–87 because it provided revenue for the Common Good and for the Town Clerk, and because it "made possible a carousal for the members of the Council"; in other words, it provided an excuse for the Council to have a drinking party.

This plaque is one of several that are located at the foot of a wall alongside a narrow and probably seldom-visited lane (visible on the left, behind a gate, in Image) behind the church halls of Image The plaques indicate the positions of some old gravestones that have been placed, and almost entirely buried, at the foot of the wall; for a discussion of the location, and of the other stones to be found here, see http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Dumbarton-Cemetery#the-parish-churchyard The text on this plaque is rather terse: "JOHN AROLL (Schoolmaster Rhu) Died 2nd February 1760 Aged 52 John Aroll was murdered." The original stone is also located here, but is largely buried to preserve it. Only its very top can be seen; in this picture, the top of the stone can be seen at the base of the wall, right behind the plaque, partly covered in moss. The other old stones that are set along this wall (click on the end-note title and look for the memorials to John Bell, Captain James Lang, and William McAlla) have likewise been partly buried. The inscription on the original stone cannot be seen, but reads as follows (with original quirks of spelling retained): "Here lyes the body of John Aroll, shoolmaster of Row, who died febuar the 2, 1760. Aged 52 years. Omnibus est Odio, Crudelitas et simulatio Repugnat Amicitie." [The part in Latin means "cruelty is hateful to all, and insincerity is repugnant to friendship". Row is an older spelling of the place-name Rhu (Image). For an illustration of the gravestone, see Donald MacLeod's "Dumbarton Ancient & Modern" (1893).] The story behind the gravestone is recounted by Dr I M M MacPhail in "Dumbarton through the Centuries"; the story can also be found in Donald MacLeod's book, cited above. Aroll had gone to Dumbarton to collect the then very considerable debt of £30 from a man named Cunningham, who, after obtaining a receipt from Aroll, killed him, and took back the money. For a while, Cunningham concealed the body in a disused chimney, but he later threw it into the River Leven under cover of darkness. There was, at the time, a superstitious belief that if a murderer touched his victim's body, then the latter would bleed (this was called "ordeal by touch"). Cunningham was a chief suspect when Aroll's body was found, but, when asked to touch the corpse, he refused, claiming to believe that the corpse would bleed because he (Cunningham) had shaved on a Sunday. In response, the parish minister pointed out that he himself had occasionally shaved on a Sunday, and that he had touched the corpse without causing it to bleed. Nevertheless, Cunningham managed to evade justice for the rest of his life, confessing only on his deathbed.

Click on the end-note title for related pictures. The present view is from the White Tower Crag of Dumbarton Rock. The former location of the tall brick tower, which had until recently been the last remnant of the distillery, is just below the centre of the picture, where a darker brown heap can be seen among the generally pale material on the site. Just behind the site, Image is visible on the right, and part of Image on the left. The River Leven is in the foreground; along the bottom edge of the picture are boats and buildings at Image

Derelict pub on High Street, near Riverside Parish Church.

The tower is pretty much all that remains of the distillery which once dominated the centre of the town. Viewed from the B789 road near East Langbank. Leven Perch and its Cardinal Mark Image can be seen in the right foreground.

I have used the location of the large brick tower, Image, as subject. In the seven years since that earlier picture was taken, a few differences are visible. Vegetation has begun to overgrow the mounds to the right of the tower, a visual reminder that a housing development that was originally planned for that area stalled. Seven years on, the brick tower is set to be demolished, and development of the area in which it stands is to resume. In fact, about seven weeks after the present picture was taken, demolition was already under way: Image / Image On the left, in the present view, a crane can be seen, almost behind the spire of Image The crane is in fact behind the facade of Image, the top of whose tower can be seen at the far left; see Image