Around the Clyde: Toward: Rhanna

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Toward: Rhanna

Just around the corner from Toward Lighthouse on Cowal in Argyll, stands Rhanna - the house where the popular novelist, Christine Marion Fraser (1938-2002) lived. Her books (22 in 18 years) outsold even Catherine Cookson's and were translated into many languages at the height of her success. Although she grew up in Govan, Glasgow, she moved to Toward with her husband, naming the house after her successful Rhanna series of novels. She suffered from ill health all her life, being confined to a wheelchair for most of the time.

I enjoyed reading the two volumes of her autobiography ('Blue Above the Chimneys' and 'Roses Round the Door') a few years ago, and it was quite a moving experience to see this lovely house where Christine lived so happily.

Rhanna

The attractive gates at the front

The road immediately outside Rhanna

Looking straight across the field to the Clyde

Flag in the sky!

There's an obituary here

SONG OF THE CLYDE

"I sing of a river I'm happy beside
The song that I sing is a song of the Clyde
Of all Scottish rivers it’s dearest to me
It flows from Leadhills all the way to the sea
It borders the orchards of Lanark so fair
Meanders through meadows with sheep grazing there
But from Glasgow to Greenock, in towns on each side
The hammers’ ding-dong is the song of the Clyde

(Chorus)
Oh the river Clyde, the wonderful Clyde
The name of it thrills me and fills me with pride
And I'm satisfied whate'er may betide
The sweetest of songs is the song of the Clyde

Imagine we’ve left Craigendoran behind
And wind-happy yachts by Kilcreggan we find
At Kirn and Dunoon and Innellan we stay
Then Scotland’s Madeira that’s Rothesay, they say
Or maybe by Fairlie and Largs we will go
Or over to Millport that thrills people so
Maybe journey to Arran it can't be denied
Those scenes all belong to the song of the Clyde

When sun sets on dockland, there’s beauty to see
The cry of a seabird is music to me
The blast of a horn loudly echoes, and then
A stillness descends on the water again
'Tis here that the sea-going liners are born
But unlike the salmon, they seldom return
Can you wonder the Scots o’er the ocean so wide
Should constantly long for the song of the Clyde?"

The first song I learnt to sing from memory! I don't know who wrote it though I've heard it sung by many well known singers. Here is a link to it sung by Kenneth McKellar (over a great video)!