Hugh Macdonald, ‘Rambles Round Glasgow: Descriptive, Historical, and Traditional’, 1860: Govan

On page 264, a description of Govan:

“Altogether Govan has a genuine old world look, which is perfectly unique in these days of improvement and change. and which forms a not unpleasing contrast to the stiff though stately angularity of our own somewhat overgrown town.

“In the vicinity of Govan there are a considerable number of elegant villas, embowered in cosie garden-plots, screened amidst hedgerows and trees, and generally occupied by well-to-do citizens of the Western Metropolis, who can afford to combine the pleasures and profits of the city with the charms of rural retirement. These are in many instances so situated as to command a view of the river, with its steamers and sailing vessels ever passing and repassing on their watery way; while the country around, with its fertile haughs, gentle undulations, belts and clumps of trees, all chequered with the verdant fences of the thorn, presents many a sweet snatch of landscape of the fairest English type. The village itself, as seen from the margin of the Clyde, with is handsome church and elegant spire – a fac-simile of that at Stratford-on-Avon, the birth and burial-place of the great dramatist – has an exceedingly fine effect, and has often tempted into action the imitative skill of the artist. The church is a chaste Gothic structure and the church-yard is one of the most beautiful that we know. It is surrounded by a girdle of tall and rugged elms, which throw their chequered shadows over the green mounds below, lending an air of quiet and seclusion to the spot, which harmonizes appropriately with those sombre reflections which the field of graves is so well calculated to excite.”