IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Main Street, ALEXANDRIA, G83 0PB

The view is from near Image, part of which can be seen at the far right. The construction site includes all of those parts of the eastern side of Main Street that are shown in this picture.

Main Street is in the foreground. The building site is on its eastern side, and this picture shows its southern part. Bank Street is at the far right, and Alexander Street is at the far left.

The view is across Main Street. Receding on the left is a path, which is also shown in Image; that path is a continuation of the line of Alexander Street, which lies beyond it. Bank Street is at the right-hand edge of the picture. Image is just out of shot to the right. Another part of the new housing is, with respect to the present picture, just out of shot to the left: see Image

Bus beneath the sign in Alexandria at the junction of Main Street and Bank Street.

The view is from the pavement beside the main road. See Image for another picture. Compare Image, taken five years earlier; the area shown in the foreground, snow-covered but free of buildings, is the construction site shown in the present photograph.

The view is from the pavement beside the main road. See Image for another picture. Compare Image, taken five years earlier; the area in the foreground, snow-covered but free of buildings, is the construction site shown in the present photograph.

"Erected in honour of Alexander Smollett of Bonhill by his feuars and tenants and other friends in the county to perpetuate his name as a kind and just landlord and in appreciation of valuable services rendered to the county both in its local courts and as its representative in Parliament A.D. 1870." The fountain as a whole is shown in Image, and in three other contributors' earlier pictures: Image, Image, and Image For the information panel on its northern side, see Image Click on the end-note title, below, to see various architectural details of the fountain. The book "Dumbarton, Vale of Leven, and Loch Lomond" (Donald MacLeod, 1884) supplies the following information (see pages 111 and 112 on the fountain, and pages 114 to 116 on Mr Greenlees): the inscription, quoted above, was composed by Mr William Greenlees (cashier of the Alexandria Works of John Orr Ewing & Co); the fountain was built to the designs of John McLeod (Image); the memorial stone was laid with Masonic honours by Mr W.C.Steele, Advocate, Sheriff-Substitute of the County (Image); on the day, there was also a large procession. Until just a few years before this fountain was erected, an oak tree stood only a short distance from this spot; the oak served as a gathering point for meetings of various kinds. An information panel beside the fountain states that it was built by the local builder William Barlas (Image), using sandstone from Bannockburn and Aberdeen. It also notes that the design of the fountain had been made the subject of a competition; the architectural practice of Adamson & McLeod were awarded the contract after submitting the winning design (there were 36 entries in total).

The fountain, which stands at the junction of Bank Street and Main Street, was erected in 1870 in honour of local laird Alexander Smollett of Bonhill. See Image for further details, and for links to other views of the fountain. Click on the end-note title to see various details from the fountain. For information on some other members of the Smollett family, see Image

See Image for the whole structure, and Image for further information, and for links to other contributors' images. Click on the end-note title for further architectural details. The present photograph shows one of several depictions on the fountain of the Smollett family crest. The details on the shield are a bugle horn and a lion rampant holding a banner. On top is a stump sprouting fresh growth, in line with the Latin motto "Viresco" that can be seen below the shield; the full motto is "adhuc viresco" meaning "I yet grow green", in the sense "I continue to put forth fresh growth" or "I still flourish". A far more worn example can be seen 2 kilometres away, on the south lodge of Cameron house: Image The lodge also features a larger version of the tree stump: Image

See Image for the whole structure, and Image for further information, and for links to other contributors' images. Click on the end-note title for further architectural details. The details visible in the present photograph include an "AS" monogram.