Lanark

Coordinates: 55°40′30″N 3°46′37″W / 55.674903°N 3.777019°W / 55.674903; -3.777019

Lanark (/ˈlænərk/; Scottish Gaelic: Lannraig,Scots: Lanrik) is a small town in the central belt of Scotland. The name is believed to come from the Cumbric Lanerc meaning "clear space, glade".

Lanark is traditionally the county town of Lanarkshire, though there are several larger towns in the county. Lanark railway station and coach station have frequent services to Glasgow. There is little industry in Lanark and some residents commute to work in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Its shops serve the local agricultural community and surrounding villages. There is a large modern livestock auction market on the outskirts of the town.

History

Lanark has served as an important market town since medieval times, and King David I made it a Royal Burgh in 1140, giving it certain mercantile privileges relating to government and taxation. King David I realised that greater prosperity could result from encouraging trade. He decided to create a chain of new towns across Scotland. These would be centres of Norman civilisation in a largely Celtic country, and would be established in such a way as to encourage the development of trade within their area. These new towns were to be known as Burghs. Bastides were established in France for much the same reason.

Lanark: A Life in Four Books

Lanark, subtitled A Life in Four Books, is the first novel of Scottish writer Alasdair Gray. Written over a period of almost thirty years, it combines realist and dystopian surrealist depictions of his home city of Glasgow.

Its publication in 1981 prompted Anthony Burgess to call Gray "the best Scottish novelist since Walter Scott".Lanark won the inaugural Saltire Society Book of the Year award in 1982, and was also named Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year. The book, still his best known, has since become a cult classic. In 2008, The Guardian heralded Lanark as "one of the landmarks of 20th-century fiction."

Plot summary

Lanark comprises four books, arranged in the order Three, One, Two, Four (there is also a Prologue before Book One, and an Epilogue four chapters before the end of the book). In the Epilogue, the author explains this by saying that "I want Lanark to be read in one order but eventually thought of in another", and that the epilogue itself is "too important" to go at the end (p. 483).

Lanark (electoral district)

Lanark was a federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1917 to 1968. It was located in the province of Ontario. This riding was first created in 1914 from Lanark North and Lanark South ridings.

It consisted of the county of Lanark.

The electoral district was abolished in 1966 when it was redistributed between Frontenac—Lennox and Addington and Lanark and Renfrew ridings.

Electoral history

On Mr. Hanna's death, 27 February 1918:

On Mr. Stewart's death, 7 October 1922:

On Mr. Preston's death, 8 February 1929:

On Mr. Blair's death, 16 June 1957:

See also

External links