Ardgowan's laird for me : Air - "Scotland yet".
Rean, John,former owner.StEdNL
[Greenock? : s.n.,
1880?]
Caption title.
Poem within an ornamental border.
Poem in praise of Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart (1826-1903), 7th baronet of Greenock and Blackhall, who lived in Ardgowan House and was MP for Renfrewshire from 1855-65.
The poem mentions Well Park and Wellington Park in Greenock and John Gray, a prominent local citizen of the town. "Wellington Park ... comprises within its present limits three separate gifts. The first was devoted to the formation of a Corporation bowling green, cricket and football pitches, flower plots, and pleasure grounds. In 1864 the coming of the Wemyss Bay railway cut off a portion to the south, in lieu of which Sir Michael Shaw Stewart granted additional ground to the west. Sometime later the Greenock line of the Glasgow and South-Western Company ran through the park, and again Sir Michael more than made up the loss by the gift of what is known as the new Wellington Park." (Robert Murray Smith, The History of Greenock, 1921)
Manuscript signature of "John Rean" at the foot of the sheet.
Scotland Greenock.