Scotland -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
Our party remained two days more in Glasgow, and visited quite a number
of objects of interest and curiosity in and around the city.
At one end of the town there was a large open space, laid out for a
pleasure ground; being somewhat similar in character to Boston Common,
only it lay on the margin of the river, and commanded delightful views,
both of the city itself and of the surrounding country. The grounds were
adorned with trees and shrubbery, and paths were laid out over every
portion of it, that were delightful to walk in. There were seats, too,
at every point that commanded a pretty view. This place was called the
Green.
The Green was at the eastern extremity of the city. At the other end,
that is, towards the west, there was a region more elevated than the
rest of the town, where the wealthy people resided. The streets were
arranged in crescents and terraces, and were very magnificent. The
houses were almost all built of stone, and were of a very massive and
substantial, as well as elegant character.
Nearer the centre of the town was a very large and ancient church,
called the cathedral. It was a solemn-looking pile of buildings,
standing by itself in a green yard, back from the road, and thousands of
swallows were twittering and chirping high up among the pinnacles and
cornices of the roof. Although it was in the midst of a crowded city,
the whole structure wore an expression of great seclusion and solitude.
Behind the church, and separated from it by a narrow valley, there was a
steep hill, that was covered, in every part, with tombs, and monuments,
and sepulchral enclosures. The hill was two or three hundred feet high,
and there was a very tall monument on the top of it. There was a bridge
across the valley behind the cathedral leading to this cemetery.
"Ah," said Mr. George, "that is the Necropolis."
"The Necropolis?" repeated Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "I read about it in the guide book. Necropolis
means 'City of the Dead,' and it is a city of the dead indeed."
There were pathways leading up the side of the hill by many zigzags and
windings. Across the bridge leading to it was a great iron gateway,
with a small iron gate open in the middle of it. The boys wanted to go
immediately to the cemetery, in order to have the pleasure of climbing
up the zigzag paths to the top of the hill. But Mr. George said he
wished first to go into the cathedral.
There was a gate leading into the cathedral yard, and a porter's lodge
just inside of it. There was a sign up at the lodge, saying that the
price of admission to see the interior of the cathedral was sixpence for
each person. Waldron said that he did not think it was worth sixpence to
go, and Rollo said that he did not care much about going. He had seen
cathedrals enough, he said, on the continent. So it was agreed that the
boys should go to the cemetery, and wait there till Mr. George came.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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