Tuesday 22 February 2011

9 February Glasgow – Ancient Places, Deid Folk und Deutsches Bier

Alan, Allan, Davie, Ian, Johnny, Jimmy, Paul, Rex & Ronnie

Another wet Wednesday saw a cancellation of the Durisdeer jaunt yet again, but this time we were prepared. A quick bout of phoning round on Tuesday saw nine of us gather in Ian’s in Kilmarnock this morning with the intention of taking another trip to Glasgow, a bus trip. At least in the city we could get some relief from the wet.
The twenty past nine bus leaving Killie dropped us in Buchanan Street bus station just before ten. Ian was put in charge of finding a suitable destination for, though he came to God’s county early in life, this is his home city and he seems quietly proud of it. He chose to point us towards the oldest part of it, the area round the cathedral.
The St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art was our first stop. Though only one or two of us would claim to be religious, the museum had something for every one of us. From the history of Kentigern and the founding of Glasgow Cathedral, through the reformation to comparative religious practices and artefacts, the interest was held. Particularly of interest us Ayrshiremen was the huge painting of the martyrdom of John Brown of Priesthill near Muirkirk. And then of course no Glasgow museum would be complete without reference to the Billies and the Tims.
But examining all this religion is thirsty work and some were in dire need of bodily sustenance. Coffee and cake were taken in the tearoom while we laughed at the rain falling outside.
The next port of call was just over the road from the museum. Provand’s Lordship is the oldest building in Glasgow, dating from the late fifteenth century (1471) when it was built as part of a hospital. Following extensive restoration and a donation of 17th-century Scottish furniture by Sir William Burrell, it now gives some idea of what the home of a Glasgow merchant of around 1700 would have been like. Again there was something for everyone to enjoy; Jimmy was particularly taken by an early portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots when she was eleven or twelve, Davie was taken by the pictures of early Glasgow painted in an untutored naive style while the trio of Davie, Allan and Jimmy were most interested in the blonde in the car stopped at the traffic lights outside the window. Yes, there was something for everyone.
Glasgow Cathedral is an impressive building, even more so on the inside than the out. For a description of it see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Cathedral. We wandered around the two levels in small groups and individually, taking in the medieval feel of the place and absorbing the peaceful atmosphere. When we gathered again ready for leaving Davie was found to be missing. Ten minutes we waited for him. While impatience is not in our nature, most were raring to go. Yet, even when Davie did join us we couldn’t get away until the ‘fishul photie’ was took by Allan.
In the cemetery surrounding the cathedral we came across the burial place of Hugh Tennent, the founder of the brewing empire. Jimmy thought that there might be an Ayrshire connection here, a kinsman of John Tennant of Glenconner, trusted friend of Robert Burns. Since Jimmy knows such things there was no reason to doubt him and we wandered on.*
We left the grounds of the Cathedral, crossed the Bridge of Sighs and entered the Necropolis. Ian had the guide to the graveyard and directed us to some grandiose edifices to the famous dead. Dead they may be but on the whole far from famous as far as we were concerned. None of us had heard of the first half dozen or so and only one or two had heard of others. Yet there were a couple of monuments worth our seeing. The first crowns the hill and is a monument to John Knox and the Scottish Reformation. Apart from Knox being a leader of the reformation, here was a definite Ayrshire connection. The bold John, at the age of fifty, married seventeen-year-old Margaret Stewart of Ochiltree. Imagine for yourself the comments from the Ooters when this piece of information was delivered.
The second monument was over the grave of Charles Tennant founder of the chemical works at St. Rollox and a son of James Tennent of Glenconner, Ochiltree. We knew that this was true for it said so on his tombstone. Charles was also the progenitor of the Lords Glenconner whose family home is called Glen after Burns’ ‘guid auld Glen’
All this history-ing fairly used up the energy and, by the time the Necropolis had outworn its interest, we were in need of lunch. Since we were in the city we would take a bar lunch. Davie had the perfect place in mind, WEST, the German pub in the old Templeton’s factory on Glasgow Green. So down the Molindinar valley we went, past where stood Tennant’s St. Rollox works, past the Barras, onto the Green and into the pub.
A genial couple of hours were spent while we dined and sampled der Weiss Bier oder Dunkel Bier# brought to us by a delightful German Fraulein. But pleasures are like poppie’ spread and the time approached for us tae head. (Sorry about that.)
We came across the Green to the riverside at a fairly brisk pace. But this pace was nothing to what was to follow. When they realized what the time was and when the bus left, Davie, Jimmy, Johnny and Rex upped it to racing speed. Away from the river they sped; up through the city they raced; up to the bus station they sprinted, leaving the rest of us trailing behind. We – all of us for the slow were only five minutes behind the speedsters - made the four o’clock bus. Aren’t bus passes wonderful?

*Further research by Jimmy himself revealed this not to be the case. Hugh was born in Glasgow to a family of brewers and distillers of whisky.

# Jimmy mentioned to his German friend that we had sample Weiss Bier and Dunkel Bier to which she replied ‘Dunkel Bier is only for old ladies and pregnant women!’ This goes some way to explaining the shape of some Ooters.

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