Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, 1654
| Name: | Blaeu, Joan, 1596-1673 |
| Title: | Clvydesdale |
| Pagination: | 62 |
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Translation of text:
Neither the wealth of Pontiffs nor the Fillet,
The cause of dread ill to you, has adorned you as much
As, Glasgow, the Clyde’s Muses decorate you,
Who raise their head high under the bright stars.
The CLYDE, distinguished entity, famous for its fishy waters,
Recreates the joyous acres of the nearby soil.
But the distinction of the Clyde and glory to neighbouring lands,
Glasgow makes everything fruitful with its river.
[And Arthur Johnston wrote thus on Glasgow (Section Note):
Glasgow, you hold out your head among allied cities,
And the great globe has nothing more beautiful than you.
Under the western sun Zephyr’s breeze cools you,
And you fear neither frost’s cold nor Dog’s face.
The Clyde girding your side is purer than all amber,
Here you rule a thousand sails with your power.
A bridge joins the opposite banks with worked stone,
And makes for you a safe way through the water.
Your orchards are rivals to the woods of the Phaeacians,
And your countryside is full of Paestan roses.
Ceres gives you grain, Pales cattle, Thetis shoals of the race
Of scale-bearers, Diva the beasts of the woods.
Your roofs shine and touch the very clouds with their peak,
Yet they have inside more by which to be commended.
Temples outdo houses, they gleam with pure marble
And the noble work overcomes the marble’s price.
Not far from here the halls of Themis rise up, where
You see elders clad in purple laying down the law.
Sitting in the midst Phoebus opens his doors,
Here the water of Pegasus flows along with Permessus.
To the citizens the armed God provides spirit, the arts
Jove’s daughter, Juno enduring riches.
Grynaean Apollo set up the walls of the Dardanians,
And the God who rules the waters of the sea.
Glasgow, with a favourable star all the Gods built you
Whom sea, whom land, whom even air contains.
The Insignia of the City of Glasgow (Section Note)
A salmon, an oak, in which sits a reddish bird, a bell, and a golden ring projecting from the salmon’s mouth.
Salmon of the sea, tree of the land, bird of the air, to the city
They promise all that the three elements bear.
And the bell (as the city may frequently attend at god’s altars)
Teaches that it survives in the heavens and will not perish.
And lest anyone doubts that the eternal is joined to the transitory,
The ring, the marriage pledge, indicates it.
In memory of his mother city hurriedly put forth by Robert Mayne, Doctor of Medicine and
Professor at Glasgow University.
On the same subject once thus Mark Alexander Boyd wrote (Section Note).
Clyde, offspring of the sea, over whose smooth water presides
Glasgow, love of bloody Mars and of art.]
