Glasgow

The cathedral stayed at the heart of the town. In 1492 the see was raised to an archbishopric, and Glasgow then ran in a single line from the cathedral and university down the High Street to the bridge over the Clyde. The Reformation sent Archbishop James Beaton into exile in France with the diocesan records, but the cathedral came through almost unscathed, for in 1579 the men of the town's trade crafts turned out to defend it from plunder; in 1638 it was the meeting place of the General Assembly that abolished bishops in the Church of Scotland.

The town's later fortune came across the Atlantic. The Clyde was too shallow for seagoing ships, so in 1668 the magistrates built a harbour some twenty miles downriver at Port Glasgow. Once the Union of 1707 opened the English colonies to Scottish merchants, the Tobacco Lords grew rich on American tobacco grown by enslaved labour, and by the late 18th century the deepened Clyde carried much of Britain's tobacco trade. Their mansions spread west of the old town on a new grid of streets, and by 1821 Glasgow had outgrown Edinburgh.