The educational arrangements of Greenock are in the hands of a school-board of 11 members, elected under Lord Young's Education Act. The burgh records abound in notices of the Grammar School of the town, and from them we learn that in 1761 the master of the school was reckoned `a genteel appointment,' with £20 a year, payable as follows:--Sir John Shaw and his heirs, £3, 1s 11/2d; Crawford of Cartsburn £l, 2s 21/2d.; old kirk session, £4, 5s 91/3d.; new kirk session £3, 0s. 63/4d.; and the remainder from the burgh. In 1772 the English teacher received £20, with school fees of 3s. per pupil and the `Candlemas offerings,' calculated at £40. In 1835 the teacher of the grammar School received a salary of £50 with fees. In 1855 Greenock Academy, a large and commodious edifice in Nelson Street, was opened at a cost of £7243, half of the directors being appointed by the town council and half by the proprietors. It was transferred to the school-board in 1881. It is governed by a rector, assisted by a lady superintendent, 13 masters, 4 mistresses, etc. Besides this academy, the burgh school-board has under its control eleven public schools, upwards of £70,000 having been spent in the erection of new schools, in addition to those taken over by the board. A handsome new school (Ardgowan) was erected by the board in 1896-97. The other schools in the town embrace a number of ladies' and other `adventure' schools, 2 schools maintained by the Episcopalian church, a charity school in Ann Street, and 2 schools maintained by the Roman Catholic Church. There are also a school of art and a school of navigation and engineering, to afford scientific training to the seafaring men, of whom the burgh is so productive.
      There are in the town an industrial school, a night asylum for poor persons, a philosophical society, a medical and chirurgical association, a horticultural society, an agricultural society, a society for promoting Christian knowledge, Sailors' Home and reading-room, public baths, etc. Letterpress printing was established here in 1765 by Mr. MacAlpine, who was also the first bookseller. It was confined to handbills, jobbing, etc., till 1810, when the first book was printed by William Scott. In 1821 Mr. John Mennons began the printing of books; and many accurate and elegant specimens of typography, original and selected, issued from his press. There are two newspapers published in the town--the Greenock Telegraph, with which is incorporated the Greenock Advertiser (1802), a halfpenny evening newspaper established in 1857, the first in Great Britain; and the Greenock Herald, established in 1852, issued on Saturday at a penny.
      Sir Gabriel Wood's Asylum for Mariners, already referred to, is an edifice in the Elizabethan style, in Newark Street, on the high road to Gourock, beyond the western outskirts of the town, built in 1851 at a cost of about £60,000, and liberally endowed for the maintenance of aged, infirm, and disabled seamen belonging to the counties bordering on the Clyde. This fine institution arose out of a bequest of £80,000 by Sir Gabriel Wood, who died in London in 1845. A beautiful new cemetery, extending to 90 acres, and already well decorated with tasteful monuments and other designs, has been laid out in the western outskirts of the town. From its higher points magnificent views are to be had. It contains a handsome memorial to Mr. Robert Wallace, M.P., another, with bust, to Mr. Walter Baine, provost and M.P., and other good monuments, notable among them being one in the form of a cairn, to the memory of Watt, embracing stones in marble, granite, freestone, etc., sent from many parts of the world, and many of them bearing appropriate inscriptions.
      There are in Greenock branches of the Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank (two offices), the British Linen Co.'s Bank, the Clydesdale Bank (two offices), the Commercial Bank (two offices), a Provident Bank, the National Bank of Scotland, and the Union Bank. The Greenock Bank, founded in 1785, was in 1843 amalgamated with the Western Bank of Scotland, which failed in 1857. The Renfrewshire Bank, established in 1812, continued to do business for 30 years, and was sequestrated in 1842. The town has numerous insurance agencies, a Lloyd's register, a Lloyd's agent, a local marine board, a chamber of commerce, a merchant seamen's fund, a fishery office, and full staffs of officials connected with the harbour and the public revenue. A weekly market is held on Friday; and fairs are held on the first Thursday of July and the third Tuesday of November. Nearly opposite the new post office, in Cathcart Street, are the Exchange buildings, finished in 1814 at a cost of £7000, and containing two assembly rooms and other accommodation. A news-room, coffee-room, and exchange was opened in Cathcart Square in 1821. Greenock Club is a handsome building in Ardgowan Square, part of which Square is occupied by the Ardgowan Bowling Club. The gas-works were constructed on the Glebe in 1828, and cost £8731, but in 1872 new gas-works were erected on Inchgreen, at the E of the town, at a cost of £150,000. The gas supply is in the hands of the corporation. There are three gasometers, with a total capacity of 1,750,000 cubic feet, the latest addition to this number having been made in November 1892, at a cost of over £6000. Its dimensions are 125 feet in diameter by 50 feet deep, with a capacity of 60,000 cubic feet. The new poorhouse and lunatic asylum for Greenock and the Lower Ward of Renfrewshire is a large and imposing building in the Scottish Baronial style, erected in 1874-79 on an elevated position at Smithston, to the S of the town. They were estimated to cost £50,000, but were only erected at a cost of £100,000. The infirmary in Duncan Street was built in 1809, and enlarged in 1869, from a legacy of £30,000 left by the late Mr. Ferguson, sugar refiner. The Craigieknowes Hospital for smallpox is situated in Sinclair Street above the town to the E, where also provision is made for a cholera hospital. The Eye Infirmary, in the cottage-hospital style, and erected in 1893, at the corner of Nelson Street and Brisbane Street, was virtually the gift of Mr. Anderson Rodger, shipbuilder, Port-Glasgow, and cost about £2000. Extensive and elegant premises were erected in the same year in Roxburgh Street for the Greenock Central Co-operative Society, at a cost of over £10,000.
      Greenock is well provided with places of public recreation. Well Park was presented to the town in 1851 by Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, who later, in 1872, gifted the Wellington Park, on the higher ground behind, with cricket, bowling, and play grounds. The summit of the Whin Hill, beyond the Wellington Park, is also open as a public park. In 1879-80, during a depression of trade, the burgh police board gave employment to a large number of men in constructing Lyle Road, now one of the most delightful resorts of the people. It proceeds over the hill behind the Mariners' Asylum; and at Craig's Top,' 500 feet above sea-level, it affords a magnificent view. The road is 2 miles long, and descends in zigzag fashion to its termination at Gourock toll bar. The ground was gifted by Sir Michael Shaw Stewart, and the cost of the work was £17,000.
      The railway passenger arrangements of Greenock, which were at one time of a rather unsatisfactory nature, the difficulty of the site preventing good station accommodation from being obtained, are now very complete. The Glasgow, Paisley, and Greenock railway was one of the earliest in Scotland, and now forms part of the Caledonian system. The old Cathcart Street station has now been remodelled, and almost entirely rebuilt, and the line continued on to Gourock. Cartsdyke station and Bogston, on this line, accommodate the most eastern portion of the town, where the new docks are situated. These are well provided with railway accommodation by both the Caledonian and South-Western companies. The last-named company is proprietor of a line on a higher level, which brings passengers to Lynedoch station, at the top of Dellingburn Street, on the southern elevated part of the town, and thence runs down to Princes Pier through two tunnels. From Princes Pier the Anchor line of steamers to America embark their passengers, who travel from Glasgow by special train upon this line. A third railway access to Greenock is provided by the Wemyss Bay section, the connection being at Upper Greenock, where there is a passenger station. From the two principal railways service lines run down to the various harbours and basins, so that the facilities tor loading and unloading goods at the port are of a comprehensive kind. The Vale of Clyde Tramway Company has a line through Greenock, extending to Gourock and Ashton along the coast a distance of about 4 miles, the Greenock portion of which is owned by the corporation, who have also, by an Act of Parliament in 1893, acquired power to purchase the Gourock section of the line.
     The water supply of Greenock is copious and excellent. The rainfall at the gauges at the waterworks shows great diversity, but in every year the fall is large. The Shaws Waterworks, incorporated as a private company in 1825, but now, like the other works, in the hands of the corporation, were opened in April 1827. The largest reservoir, called Loch Thom, after Mr. Robert Thom, the engineer, had at first a depth of 48 feet and a capacity of 284,678, 550 cubic feet, but this has been raised to 56 feet, giving an additional capacity of 110,000,000 cubic feet. A compensation reservoir on the Gryfe, built (1873) when the waters of that stream were impounded by the Water Trust, two large reservoirs on that water, the Whinhill reservoir, and thirteen smaller reservoirs, give a total capacity of 642,379,230 cubic feet of water. The original intention of the engineer of the Shaws Water Scheme was to bring an aqueduct round the face of the hill so that water power might be given off to public works, and this has been steadily kept in view in the extensions of the water supply. The aqueduct is about 7 miles in length, and provides a favourite and beautiful walk. There are twenty-five falls, varying in power from 21 horse-power in Scott's sugar refinery to 578 horse-power in the six falls connected with the mills of Fleming, Reid, & Co. The falls have a supply of 1300 cubic feet per minute, 12 hours a day, 310 days a year, and ground to the extent of 2 acres Scots goes with each fall, at a nominal feu duty. One of the sugar refineries has a water-wheel of 240 horse-power. It is 70 feet in diameter, and has buckets of 12 feet in breadth. The Shaws Water was acquired by the corporation in 1867, and in 1892 the revenue was £25,435. In 1815 the dam of a reservoir built in 1796 to drive the machinery of the Cartsburn Cotton Spinning Company burst, but without serious results. It was restored in 1821, and in 1825 the reservoir was taken over by the Shaws Water Company. In November 1835 an unhappy accident occurred. There had been an unusually heavy rainfall, reaching 31 inches in 48 hours, unparalleled even in Greenock. About eleven at night the dam burst, rushing down the gorge of the Cartsburn to the town, and besides destroying much property, causing a loss of thirty-eight lives.
      The new post office is a handsome pile of buildings situated near the centre of the town. It formerly occupied a building erected in 1880 by the corporation, and leased to the Crown, in Wallace Square, an open space adjoining the municipal buildings and town-hall on the W, and created by clearing away a number of squalid alleys. This square takes its name from Mr. Robert Wallace (1773-1855), who represented the burgh from 1833 to 1845, and whose labours in parliament to promote the penny post--of which he almost disputes the parentage with Rowland Hill--are, as already stated, commemorated in a fine monument on a prominent point in Greenock cemetery. There are eleven branch post offices, in Blackhall Street, Brougham Street, Cathcart Street, Eldon Street, James Watt Dock, Lynedoch Street, Morton Terrace, Nelson Street, Roxburgh Street, Rue End Street, and Shore Street. Telegraph messages are also received at Princes Pier railway station. The National Telephone Company has an `exchange' in Greenock, and a wire to Glasgow brings a limited number of subscribers into communication with the large Telephone Exchange system in that city.
     Greenock's most famous son, James Watt (1736-1819), is commemorated, as already seen, in many ways-in statue, monument, institution, etc., bearing his name. John Galt (1779-1839), author of The Ayrshire Legatees, etc., resided here from 1790 till 1804, and again from 1832 till his death, in a house in West Burn Street, marked by a bronze medallion (1887). Jean Adams (1710-65), who contests with Mickle the authorship of There's Nae Luck about the House, was a native; and so too was Principal Caird of Glasgow University (b. 1820), and Hamish MacCunn the composer (b. 1868). As already mentioned, a monument to Burns's `Highland Mary' stands in the old churchyard, commemorating the fact that here she died in 1786. James Melville M`Culloch, D.D. (1801-83), educational writer, was minister of the West Parish from 1843 till his death.
     Till 1751 the affairs of Greenock continued to be superintended by the superior, or by a baron bailie appointed by him. The commissioners on municipal corporations stated in their report, in 1833, that the manner of electing the magistrates by signed lists was much approved of in the town. They also reported, that `the affairs of this flourishing town appear to have been managed with great care and ability. The expenditure is economical, the remuneration to officers moderate, and the accounts of the different trusts are clear and accurate.' The municipal government and jurisdiction of the town continue to be administered under the charter of 1751, without any alteration or enlargement, until the Burgh Reform Act of 1833 came into operation. Under that Act, the town council consisted of a provost, 4 bailies, a treasurer, and 10 councillors, for the election of whom the town was divided into five wards. Four of these returned 3 councillors each, and one returned 4, this latter having a preponderance of electors. By the Corporation and Police Act of 1882, the town council now consists of a provost, 6 bailies, a treasurer, and 17 councillors, for the election of whom the town is divided into eight wards, seven of which return 3 each, whilst the West End ward, with a preponderance of voters, returns 4. Greenock is one of the five burghs exempted from the operation of the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act of 1892. The bailie court of Greenock has the jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, competent to a royal burgh. In 1894-95 the corporation revenue, including all the public trusts, was £106,976. The magistrates and town council, together with nine persons elected by the feuars, householders, and ratepayers, are a board of trustees for paving, lighting, cleansing, and watching the town, and for supplying it with water. Previous to the passing of the Reform Act of 1832 Greenock had no voice in the parliamentary representation, but since then the burgh has sent one member to Parliament. In 1895 its parliamentary constituency numbered 8094; and its municipal, under the `Greenock Burgh Extension Act, 1882,' 9371. Till 1815 the sheriff court for the whole of Renfrewshire was held at Paisley, but in that year an additional sheriff-substitute, to be resident at Greenock, was appointed; and by an act of court promulgated by the sheriff-depute, dated 3 May, it was declared that the district or territory falling under the ordinary jurisdiction of the court at Greenock should be termed `the Lower Ward,' and that it should consist of the towns and parishes of Greenock and Port Glasgow, and the parish of Innerkip. To this ward the parish of Kilmalcolm has since been annexed. The court-houses occupy a fine building in Nelson Street, with the prison in rear. A sheriff court is held every Friday, a sheriff small debt court every Wednesday, and a justice of peace court every Thursday. Annual value of real property (1862) £142,422, (1872) £271,946, (1882) £369,081, (1895) £374,140. The valuation of the town reached its highest point in 1884, when it was £412,030. Pop. of the burgh (1735) 4100, (1841) 35,921, (1851) 36,689, (1861) 42,098, (1871) 57,146, (1881) 63,902, (1891) 63,096; of burgh and suburbs (1871) 57,821, (1881) 66,704, (1891) 63,423, of whom 31,761 were males and 31,662 females. Houses (1891) inhabited 12,761, vacant 1315, building 46. See D. Weir's History of the Town of Greenock (Greenock, 1829); G. Williamson's Memorials of James Watt (1856); Provost Dugald Campbell's Historical Sketches of the Town and Harbours of Greenock (2 vols., 1879-81); and Old Greenock (1888).
Greenock, Upper. A station in Greenock parish, in the southern outskirts of Greenock town, on the Wemyss Bay section of the Caledonian railway, 1/2 mile S by W of Cathcart Street Station, and 3 miles W of Port-Glasgow.
Gryfe or Gryffe Water. A stream rising on the north side of Creuch Hill, flowing through the Gryfe Reservoir (2 miles x 1/4 mile; 530 feet) of the GREENOCK Waterworks, and winding 16 miles east-south-eastward, till it falls into the Black CART at Walkinshaw House, 2 miles NNW of Paisley. It intersects or bounds the parishes of Greenock, Kilmalcolm, Houston, Kilbarchan, Erskine, Inchinnan, and Renfrew; traverses first bleak heathy uplands, and then the broad Renfrewshire plain; is fed by at least a dozen little affluents; and contains trout, with a few grayling, its waters being preserved. Anciently it gave the name of Strathgryfe either to its own proper basin or to all the territory now forming Renfrewshire. Gryffe Castle, near its left bank, 1/2 mile NNW of Bridge of Weir, is a seat of A. H. Freeland Barbour, M.D.--Ord. Sur., sh. 30, 1866.