The Recreations of a Country ParsonBoyd, Andrew Kennedy Hutchison
General
The Recreations of a Country Parson
Boyd, Andrew Kennedy Hutchison
Clergy -- Anecdotes; Country life -- England; Rural clergy -- England
'Meet me at Bridge-street station at five minutes to four,' says
Mr. B--, after we have agreed to spend a few days on the Clyde.
There are a couple of hours to spare, which we give to a basin of
very middling soup at McLerie's, and to a visit to the cathedral,
which is a magnificent specimen of the severest style of Gothic
architecture. We are living at the Royal Hotel in George Square,
which we can heartily recommend to tourists; and when our hour
approaches, Boots brings us a cab. We are not aware whether there
is any police regulation requiring the cabs of Glasgow to be extremely
dirty, and the horses that draw them to be broken-winded, and lame
of not more than four nor less than two legs. Perhaps it is merely
the general wish of the inhabitants that has brought about the
present state of things. However this may be, the unhappy animal
that draws us reaches Bridge-street station at last. As our carriage
draws up we catch a glimpse of half-a-dozen men, in that peculiar
green dress which railway servants affect, hastening to conceal
themselves behind the pillars which decorate the front of the building,
while two or three excited ticket-porters seize our baggage, and
offer to carry it up-stairs. But our friend with Scotch foresight
and economy, has told us to make the servants of the Company do
thein work. 'Hands off,' we say to the ticket-porters; and walking
up the steps we round a pillar, and smartly tapping on the shoulder
one of the green-dressed gentlemen lurking there, we indicate
to him the locality of our port-manteau. Sulkily he shoulders it,
and precedes us to the booking-office. The fares are moderate;
eighteen-pence to Greenock, first class: and we understand that
persona who go daily, by taking season tickets, travel for much
less. The steamers afford a still cheaper access to the sea-side,
conveying passengers from Glasgow to Rothesay, about forty-five
miles, for sixpence cabin and three-pence deck. The trains start
from a light and spacious shed, which has the very great disadvantage
of being at an elevation of thirty or forty feet above the ground
level. Railway companies have sometimes spent thousands of pounds
to accomplish ends not a tenth part so desirable as is the arranging
their stations in such a manner as that people in departing, and
still more in arriving, shall be spared the annoyance and peril of
a break-neck staircase like that at the Glasgow railway station. It
is a vast comfort when cabs can draw up alongside the train, under
cover, so that people can get into them at once, as at Euston-square.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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