Scotland -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
The boys accordingly went down the walk that led to the bridge. They
stopped a moment at the open gate, not knowing whether it was right for
them to go in or not. As, however, the gate was open, and there was
nobody there to forbid the passage, they stepped over the iron
threshold, and entered. There was a porter's lodge just inside, and a
man standing at the door of it.
"Can we go in and see the cemetery?" asked Waldron.
"Certainly," said the porter. "Are you strangers in Glasgow?"
"Yes, sir," said Rollo, "we are Americans. My uncle is in the cathedral,
and he is coming pretty soon."
"Then please to come in," said the porter, "and enter your names in the
visitors' book."
So the boys went in. They found a very pleasant room, with a large book
open on a desk, near a window. They wrote their names in this book, and
also their residences, and they stopped a few minutes to look over the
names that had been written there before, in order to see if any persons
from America had recently visited the cemetery. They found several names
of persons from New York on the list, and two or three from
Philadelphia. While the boys were looking over the book the porter asked
them a great many questions about America.
In a few minutes they went on. They stopped on the middle of the bridge,
and looked down over the balustrade into the ravine. The ravine was very
deep, and there was a little brook at the bottom of it, and a sort of
road or street along the side of it, far below them.
The boys then went on into the cemetery. They walked about it for some
time, ascending continually higher and higher, and stopping at every
turn to read the inscriptions and monuments. At length they reached the
summit of the hill, where the lofty column stood which had been erected
to the memory of John Knox, the great Scottish reformer. The column
stood upon a pedestal, which contained an inscription on each of the
four sides of it. One of these inscriptions said that John Knox was a
man who could never be made to swerve from his duty by any fear or any
danger, and that, although his life was often threatened by "dag and
dagger," he was still carried safely through every difficulty and
danger, and died, at last, in peace and happiness; and that the people
of Glasgow, mindful of the invaluable services he rendered to his
country, had erected that monument in honor of his memory.
The boys had just finished reading the inscription, when, looking down
upon the bridge, they saw Mr. George coming. They went down to meet him,
and then showed him the way up to the monument.
Mr. George first looked up to the summit of it, and then walked all
around it, reading the inscriptions. He read them aloud, and the boys
listened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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