A Walk in the Park by John Cairney sampler

that Spencer’s English Traveller in 1871 called Glasgow ‘the most
handsome city in Scotland’.
In Victorian times, the initial rush of weavers were the first to
put these acres to recreational use after they helped create them.
The Irish incomers followed suit after their potato famine forced
them into lives abroad and they found relief and escape in the park
from the over-crowded slum closes and wynds hurriedly built up
to accommodate them.
In our own day, with the sheer number of parks, golf courses,
bowling greens, putting greens and children’s play spaces in Green
Glasgow it is hard to believe that its parks are indeed the city’s
best-kept secret, but there is at least some relief in knowing that
it’s in them ordinary people can enjoy the pleasures of what is still
their common land. The public park is the green symbol of basic
democracy and long may it remain so.
As its motto maintains, Glasgow has flourished, but it also
thrived by the planting of the seed and the raising of the plant.
The seed fell in most unlikely ground, but the plants flowered
eventually. Daniel Defoe confirmed this when writing of Glasgow
in his Tour Through the Island of Great Britain between 1724
and 1726. He described Glasgow thus:
‘In a word, ‘tis one of the cleanest, most beautiful and bestbuilt
cities in Great Britain.’
It is a pleasant surprise to note how many English citizens like
Glasgow. My own experience among fellow actors confirms this
and a big surprise is that its theme song, ‘I Belong to Glasgow’ was
written by an Englishman for Will Fyffe, a Dundonian, to sing. But
then everything about the place, even today, is a surprise. That is
one of its principal attractions. For instance, there is a modern office
building in Parkhead, my own home district, entirely devoted to
the study and use of natural energy. This is one resource that has
never been in short supply in Glasgow. Indeed, it could be said that
contemporary Glasgow is the energy centre for arts and culture in
Scotland as is verified by attendances at each of the new performing
arenas built along the riverside which attract thousands.
Yet all this new status confirmation with its attendant hysteria
sprang from a simple medieval religious enthusiasm which can
still be seen yet in nearly 150 of the city’s street names and places. It
28 a walk in the park