Thanks very much Jeff! These illustrations and your explanations help a lot. So the 'Glasgow' hilts seem to carry more traditional form, and the one of the key features would be the fluted and incribed bars.
The Stirling is as you note, more rounded bars and artistic free form. As you note these were 'garrison' towns which of course were British occupied and it seems Stirling was closer to the English border. Possibly more of the freeform resulted with more military oriented styling for instance the blank saltire plates and so on. It seems mid 18th century there were more grid type forms and functionally developed examples that evolved in Birmingham, in England,along with other horsemans swords.
By the 1770's I think of the regimental pattern that had the tall conical pommel from Birmingham, I think the suppliers were Drury and Jeffries.
All the best,
Jim
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