[Scotland Illustrated Contents]
THE most bustling and important part of the town of Dundee is the High-street, called also the Market-place, and the Cross. This is an oblong square, or rectangle, 360 feet long, and 100 feet broad, wearing much of that opulent and commercially great and dignified appearance which characterizes the Trongate or Argyle-street of Glasgow, or even the less crowded parts of the great thoroughfares of London. The houses are of freestone, four stories high, rich and gaudy in their shops, and generally regular and modern in their structure, though in two or three instances, surmounted on the front by the gable-end construction. On the south side, projecting several feet from the line of the other buildings, stands the Town-hall. This is a fine Roman structure erected in 1734; but, being built of a mouldering, dark-coloured stone, it has a dingy and somewhat defaced appearance. Beneath, it lies open in piazzas, and above, it towers up in a spire of about 140 feet in height. At each end of the High-street, is a building which closes up the wide and stirring area of the rectangle, but allows, on both sides, sufficient space for thoroughfares into the adjoining streets. That which occupies the east-end, is the Trades’ hall, dividing the commencement of the Sea-gate from that of Murray-gate. It is a neat though plain building, adorned in the front with Ionic pillars, and surmounted by an elegant cupola. From the High-street, Castle-street goes off at right angles with the commencement of the Sea-gate, and leads down to the Harbour, of part of which a view has already been presented in Plate X. of the present series.
