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
as at Glasgow, the station is some forty feet above the ground. A
railway cart at the foot of a long stair receives the luggage of
passengers, and then sets off at a gallop down a dirty little lane.
We follow at a run; and, a hundred and fifty yards off, we come
on a long range of wharf, beside which lie half-a-dozen steamers,
sputtering out their white steam with a roar, as though calling
impatiently for their passengers to come faster. Our train has
brought passengers for a score of places on the Frith; and in the
course of the next hour and a half, these vessels will disperse
them to their various destinations. By way of guidance to the
inexperienced, a post is erected on the wharf, from which arms
project, pointing to the places of the different steamers. The idea
is a good one, and if carried out with the boldness with which it
was conceived, much advantage might be derived by strangers. But a
serious drawback about these indicators is, that they are invariably
pointed in the wrong direction, which renders them considerably less
useful than they might otherwise be. Fortunately we have a guide,
for there is not a moment to lose. We hasten on board, over an
awkward little gangway, kept by a policeman of rueful countenance,
who punches the heads of several little boys who look on with awe.
Bareheaded and bare-footed girls offer baskets of gooseberries
and plums of no tempting appearance. Ragged urchins bellow 'Day's
Penny Paper! Glasgow Daily News!' In a minute or two, the ropes
are cast off, and the steamers diverge as from a centre to their
various ports.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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