AT the beginning of the present
century the eccentric Robert Dreghorn, Esq. of Ruchill, better known in
Glasgow as Bob Dragon, was said to have been the ugliest man in Glasgow.
His body was of a tall, gaunt, and
lean nature, with an inward bend in the small of the back his head,
which was of enormous dimensions, was admirably suited by a face of the
strangest and most repulsive aspect. His nose was acquiline, and turned
considerably to one side of the face, on which, indeed, it is said to
have almost lain flat. He was blind of one eye, and squinted with the
other, while his cheeks had been dreadfully ploughed and furrowed by the
small-pox, some of the marks being as big as three-penny pieces.
He dressed generally in a
single-breasted coat, which reached below his knees; his hair was
powdered, and his queue, or pig-tail, was ornamented with a bow of black
ribbon. He always walked the street with a cane in his hand, and did not
spare the rod on the persons of such little urchins as came in his way,
so that to them he became quite a bughear, and they would make off
helter-skelter whenever they saw him appear. He also served as bogie
to the matrons of Glasgow with which to frighten their little ones
to rest.
