Scottish Football Reminiscences and SketchesBone, David Drummond
History
Scottish Football Reminiscences and Sketches
Bone, David Drummond
Football
"The match, you may be sure, was the general topic of conversation all
over Scotland several weeks before it came off, and on the Friday
evening, when the Americans arrived and put up at the Express Hotel,
Glasgow, the excitement was great. The preparations and arrangements for
the struggle were on a grand scale, and good weather alone was wanting
to make it a success. That evening several of the Scotch team strolled
into the billiard-room of the Express Hotel to welcome the young
Americans, and had a chat with them about football in general, and the
spread of the rules all over the world.
"The eventful day at last dawned, and a finer April morning could not
have been desired. Play was announced to begin at 3.30 p.m., and long
before that time Bruce Park, Cathcart Road, was half-filled with
spectators, and presented a fine sight.
"The crowd around the field was certainly the most remarkable that had
ever gathered together in Glasgow. As the game was no ordinary one, they
flocked from all quarters. Most of the towns in Scotland supplied their
quota to swell the multitude, and as railway travelling was cheap and
convenient now compared to the original football days of the Queen's
Park, Clydesdale, Vale of Leven, Rangers, Dumbarton, Granville, 3rd
Lanark Volunteers, Partick, Clyde, Alexandra Athletic (of which poor
Duncan was hon. secy.), and a host of other clubs, a two-hundred-mile
journey, which was easily accomplished in an hour, was considered next
to nothing. They were there--young men and maidens from London,
Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Blackburn, Darwen, Bolton, and
Sheffield--all bent on making a day of it. The road to Bruce Park,
indeed, was a sight to see, despite the fact that the Cathcart Railway
carried its thousands that afternoon to the south-side. There were not a
few buxom country girls in the crowd, enticed thither by no great love
of the game--which, of course, they did not understand--but by their
sweethearts, just to let the young persons of the place see that they
had lads as well as their neighbours. There was one winsome lassie among
them, however, who would have done credit to Burns' incomparable 'Queen
o' the Glen.'
"Emma was the only sister of a young farmer in the district. It is a
mistaken notion to suppose that farmers in Scotland are by far too
plodding a class to indulge themselves in anything savouring of English
games and pastimes, particularly football, but this is a mistake. I know
several farmers in the country who love the dribbling game dearly, and
do their best to promote its interests in the way of supplying ground to
not a few young clubs dotted over the country. In fact, Emma was the
beauty of the whole parish, and all the young men for miles around were
well aware of it. No one could deny it, and even the most unreasonable
of fellows, Charley M'Gowan, the schoolmaster, and Alfred Walker, the
lawyer's clerk, were forced to acknowledge it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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