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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34876-8.txt b/34876-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4dde5af --- /dev/null +++ b/34876-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4611 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The "Blackwood" Group, by Sir George Douglas + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The "Blackwood" Group + Famous Scots Series + + +Author: Sir George Douglas + + + +Release Date: January 7, 2011 [eBook #34876] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE "BLACKWOOD" GROUP*** + + +E-text prepared by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THE 'BLACKWOOD' GROUP + +by + +SIR GEORGE DOUGLAS + +Famous·Scots·Series + + + + + + + +Published by Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier · Edinburgh and London + + + * * * * * + +FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES + + +_The following Volumes are now ready:_-- + +THOMAS CARLYLE. By Hector C. Macpherson. +ALLAN RAMSAY. By Oliphant Smeaton. +HUGH MILLER. By W. Keith Leask. +JOHN KNOX. By A. Taylor Innes. +ROBERT BURNS. By Gabriel Setoun. +THE BALLADISTS. By John Geddie. +RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor Herkless. +SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By Eve Blantyre Simpson. +THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor W. Garden Blaikie. +JAMES BOSWELL. By W. Keith Leask. +TOBIAS SMOLLETT. By Oliphant Smeaton. +FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. By G. W. T. Omond. +THE BLACKWOOD GROUP. By Sir George Douglas. + + * * * * * + +The designs and ornaments of this volume are by Mr Joseph Brown, and +the printing from the press of Messrs Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh. + +_April 1897._ + + * * * * * + +To + +Major-General Sir WILLIAM CROSSMAN, K.C.M.G., + +IN REMEMBRANCE OF HOURS IN TWO LIBRARIES. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE BLACKWOOD GROUP. + + +JOHN WILSON. + +JOHN GALT. + +D. M. MOIR ('DELTA'). + +MISS FERRIER. + +MICHAEL SCOTT. + +THOMAS HAMILTON. + +_Note_--The Ettrick Shepherd and John Gibson Lockhart, conspicuous by +their absence from the above list of writers associated with the early +days of the publishing-house of Blackwood, will receive attention in +forthcoming volumes of the series. + + + + +JOHN WILSON + + +Is it too bold a thing to say that the reputation of 'Christopher +North,' the man, has survived that of his works? Third in the great +dynasty of Scottish literary sovereigns, he ascended the throne upon the +death of Scott, reigned gloriously and held high state in the Northern +Capital--whence in earlier days he had waged direst war--and at his +death passed on the sceptre to Carlyle, from whom in turn it descended +to Stevenson. To us of to-day, he looms on the horizon of the past, the +representative of a vanished race of physical and intellectual +giants,--the historic legend revealing him as before all things a good +man of his inches, a prince of boon-companions and good-fellows, a wit, +a hard hitter, the soul and centre of a brilliant circle, and the author +of the _Noctes Ambrosianæ_. Many other works he wrote--important in +their own day--but now not unjustly forgotten, or all but forgotten. But +the man himself was greater than his works; he, more than they, is our +enduring possession; his memory it behoves us to preserve. + + * * * * * + +The story of his life has been told, in terms of affectionate +appreciation, by his daughter, Mrs Gordon. Born at Paisley--in a +neighbourhood where that natural beauty to which he was so susceptible +was still at that time almost unsullied--on the 18th May 1785, he was +the eldest of his parents' sons and their fourth child. His father, a +gauze-manufacturer by trade, was possessed of considerable wealth; +whilst through his mother, whose maiden name was Sym, and who claimed +descent from the great Marquis of Montrose, he had inherited a strain of +'gentle' blood. From the first he was a robust and lively boy, and his +childhood, being passed under the most favourable of conditions, was an +entirely happy one. His taste for field-sport first declared itself at +the early age of three years, when equipped with willow-wand, thread, +and crooked pin, he set off, unattended, on an adventurous angling +expedition. Meantime the parallel mental activity, which was to be +through life his characteristic, was manifested in quaint infantine +pulpit-oratory at home. After receiving the rudiments of instruction at +Paisley, he was placed as a boarder with the minister of the +neighbouring parish of Mearns, with whom he remained until his twelfth +year. Here he was not less happy than at home. Without doors--and one +thinks of him as a boy whose life was spent chiefly in the open air--he +had a wide and beautiful country to range; whilst within, his education +proceeded merrily--he was foremost among his young companions at the +task as well as in the playground--and he was carefully trained in the +paths of wisdom and virtue. In later life his memory reverted fondly to +these days, to which his writings contain various references--as when he +tells of boyish shooting experiences, with an antiquated musket, +traditionally supposed to have been 'out' in both the Fifteen and the +Forty-five, of an adventure in a storm when lost upon the moors, and so +forth. In his twelfth year he lost his father, and soon afterwards he +was placed at the University of Glasgow, where he continued to attend +classes until the year 1803. Here he resided in the house of the +Professor of Logic, Professor Jardine, to whom and to the Greek +Professor, Young, he in later life gratefully acknowledged his debt. +Meantime his mother with her young family had gone to live in Edinburgh. + +There and at Glasgow, from January to October 1801, young Wilson kept a +diary, which was preserved, and from which his biographer prints some +extracts. These are disappointing; but the document itself is remarkable +for orderliness and precision, exhibiting the writer as the very pattern +of a well-brought-up youth. More interesting, however, as a +manifestation of character is the impulse which, in the year following, +led the seventeen-year-old young man to address a letter of generous +admiration, not, however, untempered with criticism, to the author of +the _Lyrical Ballads_. Wordsworth replied, and thus was begun an +intercourse which was afterwards destined to ripen into friendship. + +In June 1803, Wilson was transferred from Glasgow to Oxford, where he +was entered as a gentleman-commoner of Magdalen College. He began his +career there with ambitious views, his course of study, as shown by his +commonplace books, being designed to embrace not only the prescribed +curriculum in the Ancient Classics, but studies in Law, History, +Philosophy, and Poetry as well. But, if he read hard--as, with +occasional intermissions, he undoubtedly did--he also entered with zest +into the athletics and other amusements of the place, testing his +prowess in wrestling, leaping, boating, and running, and, at the same +time, indulging in what to a later age may appear the more questionable +sports of pugilism and cock-fighting. Some traditions of the feats then +performed by him survive. Among these are stories of his triumphant +encounter with a certain redoubtable pugilist who had insulted him; of +his coming out one night from a dinner-party in Grosvenor Square, and +proceeding then and there to walk back to Oxford--accomplishing the +distance of fifty-eight miles in some eight or nine hours; or, of his +clearing the river Cherwell at a flying leap--twenty-three feet in +breadth on the dead level. Yet, these distractions notwithstanding, he +succeeded in passing the examination for his Bachelor's Degree, in a +manner which his tutor characterised as 'glorious,' and in producing +such an impression of scholarship on the minds of the Examiners as to +call forth the rare testimony of a public expression of their thanks. He +also carried off the Newdigate Prize, awarded for English verse. In +commenting on the amiability of his disposition, his biographer observes +that he harboured not an envious thought. But surely to have done so +were a very superfluity of naughtiness; for, gifted as he was, by +fortune as well as nature, whom was it possible for this admirable youth +to envy? + +After taking his degree, he still continued for a time to frequent +Oxford, astonishing the younger members of the common-room of his +college by his extraordinary conversational powers and by occasional +quaint freaks, but at the same time delighting them by his good-humour. +It is told of him at this time that he would sometimes indulge his fancy +by resorting to the coaching-inns at the hour of the arrival of the +mails, presiding at the travellers' supper-table, and hob-nobbing with +all and sundry, whom his wit and pleasantry seldom failed to impress. At +this era his personal appearance is described as especially striking. +It was that of a man of great muscular strength, but lightly built; +about five feet ten inches in height, with uncommon breadth of chest; +florid, and wearing a profusion of hair, and enormous whiskers--the +latter being in those days very unusual. De Quincey says he was not +handsome, but against such testimony we may surely set off that of +Raeburn's portrait, painted a few years earlier. + +These ought to have been golden days, indeed, but much of their +happiness was marred by an unlucky love-affair. At Glasgow, some years +before, Wilson had made the acquaintance of a young lady of great charm +of person and character, who in the biography figures as 'Margaret,' or +The Orphan Maid. The impression which she produced upon him was profound +and lasting, and at parting he had inscribed to her a small volume of +manuscript poems of his own. From this point the biographer is rather +vague in her account of the progress of the attachment; yet we have +abundant evidence that its course was a most troubled one. For instance, +in August 1803, we find our hero writing to a friend in the following +desperate strain:--'By heavens! I will, perhaps, some day blow my brains +out, and there is an end of the matter.' Later he says: 'The word happy +will never again be joined to the name of John Wilson.' And again he +speaks of summoning two friends to support him and pass with him the +night on which Margaret was to be married to another. This dreaded +marriage did not take place, but it is quite evident that the lover long +continued in a most unsettled state of mind. Thus we hear of his having +swallowed laudanum, lost his powers of study, indulged in 'unbridled +dissipation'; of sudden aimless journeys, undertaken on the spur of the +moment, and landing him at nightfall at such unlikely places as Coventry +or Nottingham; of solitary rambles in Ireland and in Wales. 'Whilst I +keep moving,' he writes, in October 1805, 'life goes on well enough; but +whenever I pause the fever of the soul begins.' He even entertained an +idea of joining the expedition of Mungo Park to Timbuctoo. No doubt in +all this he believed himself sincere enough at the time, but it is not +necessary for us to take his utterances quite seriously. The blowing out +of brains has been alluded to, and it seems more than probable that a +point of Wertherism entered into his distemper. At any rate, in giving +an order for the works of Rousseau at the time, he is careful to +emphasize his desire to have them complete. In dismissing the episode it +may be mentioned that, though the various obstacles to a union between +himself and Margaret are not detailed, in his case filial obedience +would seem to have been the final deterrent. + +During a tour in the English lake country in 1805, Wilson had fallen in +love with and purchased the property of Elleray, consisting of a +delightful cottage-residence, standing in grounds of its own, and +commanding lovely views of mountain, lawn, and forest scenery, rising +above the waters of Lake Windermere; and it was there that, on leaving +Oxford in 1807, he took up his abode. He was now in the fullest sense +his own master, and at this point it may be worth while briefly to take +note of his attitude towards life. + +The ideal of the sound mind in the sound body has been universally +recognised as a good one; but, whether deliberately or instinctively, +Wilson seems to have aimed higher still. He aspired to the mind of a +philosopher in the body of an athlete; and the word philosopher must +here be taken in its highest sense--to signify not the thinker only, but +the lover of wisdom for its own sake. A saner or loftier ideal could +scarcely be conceived; and Nature, who too often unites the soaring mind +with the body which does it previous wrong, had in this case given the +means of attaining, or at least approaching it. Thus the Christopher +North of this period remains a possession and a standard of manhood to +his countrymen. He brings home to them the Hellenic ideal, pure and +unvitiated by any taint of Keatsian sensuality, as Goethe had brought it +home to Germany. In the process of naturalization that ideal underwent +some modification; but the fact that the poetry which North wrote at +this time was of perishable quality does not in reality detract from the +service which he rendered to his country. + +For poetical composition seems to have been now the serious business of +his life. As for his diversions, they remained of the same healthy type +as in his Oxford days. The sailing of a fleet of boats on Windermere, +and the rearing of game birds were perhaps his special hobbies; but +wherever manly exercises were to the fore, there was he to be found. The +country in which he was now located being a wrestling country, he became +an enthusiastic patron of that excellent exercise, and effected much for +its encouragement. And at the same time he was free of the society of +Wordsworth, Coleridge, De Quincey, and the other able and gifted men +whose presence made the district at that era a centre of intellectual +light. + +Amid these varied interests, two or three years were passed contentedly +enough; but at the end of that time we find Wilson writing to a friend +of his need of an anchor in life. 'I do not, I hope, want either +ballast, or cargo, or sail,' he writes, 'but I do want an anchor most +confoundedly, and, without it, shall keep beating about the great sea of +life to very little purpose.' This 'anchor' he was fated to find in the +person of Miss Jane Penny, the daughter of a Liverpool merchant, a +favourite partner of his own at the local dances, and at that time the +'leading belle of the Lake Country,' to whom he was happily married on +the 11th May 1811. + +His marriage had the effect of somewhat delaying the publication of a +volume of poetry which he had previously been preparing for the press, +and it was not until February of the following year that _The Isle of +Palms, and Other Poems_ made its appearance--having been shortly +preceded by an anonymously-published elegy on the death of James +Grahame, author of _The Sabbath_. + +_The Isle of Palms_ tells in mellifluous numbers the story of a pair of +lovers, shipwrecked on an island paradise in tropic seas, who espouse +each other in the sight of Nature and Heaven. Of course the idyll +irresistibly recalls Bernardin's masterpiece, and, judging between the +two, it must be acknowledged that in originality and artistic perfection +the Frenchman's prose has greatly the advantage. But it is noticeable +and must be counted to Wilson's credit that, whilst profoundly +influenced by pre-Revolutionary thought, he never, even at this early +period of his life, allows himself to be led away from the paths +prescribed by virtue and religion. His healthy instinct, fortified by +excellent training, sufficed to show him that anarchy in the moral world +is no more a part of nature's scheme than is habitual excess; and thus +the worship of Liberty and the State of Nature, which afterwards led to +such questionable results in the cases of Byron and of Shelley, left him +entirely unharmed. It is true that rigid formalists have been found to +object to the 'natural marriage' of the lovers in the poem, deploring +the absence of a clergyman on the island. But with these we need not +concern ourselves. + +The success of the poems was but moderate; yet it sufficed to bring the +author into notice in Edinburgh, where he and his wife were spending the +season with his mother and sisters, and whence Sir Walter Scott wrote of +him, in a letter to Joanna Baillie, as 'an excellent, warm-hearted, and +enthusiastic young man,' adding that, 'Something too much, perhaps, of +the latter quality' placed him upon the list of originals. + +Dividing his time between Edinburgh and Elleray, the young poet now +continued to vary his active open-air life by the plotting and +composition of new poems, and in these pursuits, had his affairs +continued prosperous, it is quite possible that the remainder of his +life might have been spent. For it is a truism that any large measure of +happiness is unfavourable to enterprise, and what young Wilson now +really stood in need of was some stimulus to exertion from without. Such +stimulus duly arrived, taking the form of what in a worldly sense is +known as ruin. To speak more circumstantially, in the fourth year after +his marriage, the unencumbered fortune of £50,000 which he had enjoyed +from the time of his father's death, was, through the dishonesty of an +uncle who had acted as steward of the estate, entirely lost to him.[1] +But, severe as this blow was, his biographers are agreed in pronouncing +it to have been a blessing in disguise, and the means of bringing out +much that was in the man, which would otherwise in all probability have +been lost to the world. + +It was now, of course, necessary for him to put his shoulder to the +wheel, and, with the exception of Sir Walter Scott, perhaps no man ever +rose more manfully or uncomplainingly to the occasion. But between these +parallel cases there was one great difference; for Scott's misfortunes +fell upon him when he was advanced in years and worn with toil, whilst +Wilson was able to bring the prime of youth and strength to bear upon +his troubles. He now took up his abode altogether in Edinburgh, being +gladly received into the house of his mother,--a lady who to a fine +presence and strong and amiable character added notable house-keeping +talents, which enabled her during several successive years to accomplish +the somewhat difficult and delicate task of making three separate +families comfortable and happy under one roof. In the same year, 1815, +Wilson was called to the Scots Bar. But, though for a year or two to +come he seems to have made a point of staying in Edinburgh whilst the +Courts were sitting, a short experience sufficed to convince him that +his vocation did not lie in that direction. It was some time before he +succeeded in settling down to congenial work, and, indeed, what we hear +most of during the next year or so are pedestrian and fishing excursions +to the Highlands. Whilst on these expeditions great would be the +distances which he compassed on foot, immense the baskets of fish which +he brought home. On one of them, he had his wife as his companion, when +the happy Bohemianism of the young couple--or, as some would have it, +the poet's eccentricity of conduct--led them into some queer +experiences. Among his adventures we may specify a contest in the four +manly arts of running, leaping, wrestling, and drinking, with a local +champion nicknamed King of the Drovers, in which Wilson came off +victorious. + +In March 1816 appeared his second volume of verse, entitled _The City of +the Plague_. This poem forms a startling contrast to the _Isle of +Palms_, for, in place of nature at its softest and sentiment sweet to +the point of cloying, we are now presented with the gloomiest and +ghastliest of studies in the charnel-house style. Several of the scenes +depicting the madness of the London streets at the period of the great +pestilential visitation are by no means without a certain power, which, +however, inclines to degenerate into violence. Two young +sailors--certainly most unlike to all preconceived notions of the seamen +of the age of Blake--help to supply the necessary relief and +'sentiment,' of which there is no lack. But, from beginning to end, +there is little or nothing truly poetical in the tragedy. The movement +of its blank verse is most frequently harsh and jolting, and serves to +confirm one in the opinion that the author was well-inspired when he +abandoned poetry, as he was now to do. Nor do the minor poems which make +up the remainder of the volume show cause for altering this judgment. +Certainly they abound, even to excess, in evidence of the love of +nature; but that alone never yet made a poet. + +The transition which now lay before the author was an abrupt and violent +one. From the world of nature and sentiment in which he had hitherto +dwelt undisturbed, he found himself summoned to pass into the arena of +periodical literature, and that in an age when not only was it the +misfortune of such literature to be before all things political, but +when political feeling ran to a pitch of which at the present day it is +difficult even to form a conception,--when the mere designations Whig +and Tory, as mutually applied, were regarded less as party distinctions +than as terms of abuse or reproach. And, to add to the contrast which +lay before Wilson, the place in which he was called to take this step +was precisely that in which the war of periodicals was destined to be +waged most keenly. In order properly to understand the circumstances +which led to this warfare, it is necessary to go back some years. + +The horrors of the French Revolution had been followed in Edinburgh by a +strong Tory reaction--a reaction of the excesses of which Henry +Cockburn, in his Memorials, has left a highly-coloured and perhaps not +unprejudiced account. In 1802, as a counterpoise to overwhelming Tory +supremacy, and a rallying-point for those thereto opposed, the +_Edinburgh Review_ had been established. It was supported by a group of +remarkably able young men, whose talents soon raised it to a position of +unexampled influence in the world of letters. That it performed +excellent service in the cause of enlightenment is undeniable; yet it +failed to bear itself with all the moderation proper to success, and in +time showed signs of becoming in its turn a tyranny. Those who were +opposed to it, whilst regarding as dangerous its opinions in politics +and religion, also grew tired (in their own words) of its flippancy and +conceit. Now it happened that about this time a certain new magazine, +recently founded by a very shrewd and enterprising Edinburgh publisher, +after languishing for some months under incompetent editorship, had +reached the very point of dissolution. In this periodical the Tory +malcontents saw an instrument ready to their hands. New spirit was +infused into its nerveless frame, and in October 1817 appeared the first +number of Blackwood's remodelled Edinburgh Magazine. And among those who +gave the hot fresh blood of youth to revive its languishing existence, +one of the foremost was John Wilson. It may be mentioned that before +this he had contributed a literary article to the rival organ, with the +presiding genius of which he was on terms of friendship. His new +departure led to a rupture of that friendship, but to hold that his acts +had committed him to the support of the _Edinburgh Review_ would be to +put an altogether strained construction upon them. + +A detailed history of the stormy first years of the new publication, +however piquant and racy it might be made, forms no part of our present +scheme. Suffice it to remind the reader that the 'success of scandal' +which the magazine at once obtained is matter of notoriety; nor can that +success be pronounced undeserved. Indeed the very first number of the +new issue, besides scathing articles on Coleridge and Leigh Hunt, +contained the celebrated 'Translation from an Ancient Chaldee +Manuscript'--afterwards suppressed--consisting of a thinly-veiled attack +upon a rival magazine, and abounding in gross personalities to the +address of leading citizens of Edinburgh. These excesses, though the +cause of much heart-burning at the time, can scarcely be pronounced of +enduring interest; and it is more profitable, as well as more pleasing, +to turn to the other side of the picture. For it must not by any means +be supposed that the new venture relied solely upon objectionable +personalities for attracting and holding its readers. 'These,' as +Wilson's biographer observes, 'would have excited but a slight and +temporary notice, had the bulk of the articles not displayed a rare +combination of much higher qualities;' and she goes on to say that +whatever subjects were discussed were handled with a masterly vigour and +freshness, and developed with a fulness of knowledge and variety of +talent that could not fail to command respect even from the least +approving critic. Still it is undeniable that for many months to come +the series of onslaughts was kept up almost without intermission, whilst +even persons locally as highly and as justly respected as Chalmers and +Playfair were made to feel the sting of the lash. Consisting as it did +of a recrudescence of the discountenanced literary methods of the age of +Smollett, all this is regrettable enough, and of much of it there can be +little doubt that 'The Leopard'--to give Wilson the name which he bore +in the magazine--was art and part. His exact share in productions which +were not merely anonymous but of which mystification was an essential +feature is impossible to trace; but we are glad at least to have the +assurance of his daughter that, amid all the violence of language and +extravagance of censure which disfigured his early contributions to the +magazine, she has been unable to bring home to his hand 'any instance of +unmanly attack, or one shade of real malignity.' Our knowledge of the +man's character makes us ready enough to believe that he did not mean to +give pain; whilst there is always this excuse--whatever it may be +worth--for Maga's early indiscretions: that they were the work of +inexperienced men, carried away by the exuberance of their spirits, and +genuinely--if indefensibly--ignorant of the laws of literary good +manners, or, as one of themselves has expressed it, of the 'structure +and practice of literature' as it existed at that day in Britain. With +which reflection, an unthankful subject may be dismissed. For ourselves +the real significance of the magazine in its early days consists, not in +stories of challenges sent or damages paid, but in the fact that it +afforded to John Wilson a first opportunity of giving full and free play +to his talents. The characteristic of his genius was not so much +_fineness_ as abundance, and thus we may believe that his gain from the +new stimulus to constant and rapid production more than balanced his +loss from absence of opportunities of polishing his work. Certainly from +the time of his active and regular employment, he began to throw off +those tendencies to affectation and philandering which had characterised +his early efforts in the 'Lake' school, and though he never quite lost +the habit of as the French say 'caressing his phrase,' he became from +henceforth more virile, more himself. + +Standing now to all appearance committed to literature as his vocation, +in the year 1819 he left his mother's hospitable roof, and removed with +his wife and family to a small house of his own, situated in Ann Street, +on the outskirts of the town, where, besides having Watson Gordon, the +portrait-painter, for his immediate neighbour, he enjoyed the society of +Raeburn and Allan among artists, and of Lockhart, Galt, Hogg, and the +Hamiltons among literary men. + +In April of the year following, by the death of Dr Thomas Brown, the +Chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh became vacant. +Wilson thereupon resolved to present himself as a candidate for it, as +did Sir William Hamilton, and though the names of other aspirants are +mentioned, from the first the real contest lay between these two. They +had both been brilliant students at Oxford, but in almost every other +respect their qualifications for the coveted post were about as +different as could be; for since his college days Hamilton had devoted +himself exclusively to the study of philosophy, and had now substantial +results of his labours to exhibit, whilst Wilson--though we are +expressly told that the study in question had always had a powerful +attraction for him--was yet known to the world only as a daring and +brilliant littérateur, and a genial and somewhat Bohemian personality. +There is no need to say with which of the two, in such a competition, +the advantage at first sight seemed to lie. But it is necessary to +explain that the election was fought on political grounds, that Hamilton +was a Whig, and that the electing body was the Town Council of +Edinburgh. It is gratifying to be able to record that the candidates +themselves remained upon friendly terms. But never had party-feeling +been known to run so high as between their respective adherents,--so +that, before the election was over, Wilson had been called on to face +charges of being a 'reveller,' which he probably was, a blasphemer, +which we cannot think him ever to have been, and a bad husband and +father, which he certainly was not. In the end he secured a majority of +twelve out of thirty votes; whilst an attempt to set aside his election, +which was made at a subsequent meeting of the Council, ignominiously +collapsed. + +Keenly alive to the responsibilities of a position which he cannot long +have looked forward to occupying, the newly-made Professor at once +devoted himself to preparation for the discharge of his duties. Whilst +thus engaged, his application was intense,--as well it might be, for it +was stipulated that he was to deliver some hundred-and-fifty lectures +during the forthcoming Session, and he had but four months in which to +prepare them. Native genius, pluck and perseverance, however, carried +him triumphantly over every obstacle. His first lecture has thus been +described by one who was present on the occasion.[2] + + 'There was a furious bitterness of feeling against him among the + classes of which probably most of his pupils would consist, and + although I had no prospect of being among them, I went to his first + lecture prepared to join in a cabal, which I understood was formed + to put him down. The lecture-room was crowded to the ceiling. Such a + collection of hard-browed, scowling Scotsmen, muttering over their + knobsticks, I never saw. The Professor entered with a bold step, + amid profound silence. Everyone expected some deprecatory or + propitiatory introduction of himself, and his subject, upon which + the mass was to decide against him, reason or no reason; but he + began in a voice of thunder right into the _matter_ of his lecture, + kept up unflinchingly and unhesitatingly, without a pause, a flow of + rhetoric such as Dugald Stewart or Thomas Brown, his predecessors, + never delivered in the same place. Not a word, not a murmur escaped + his captivated, I ought to say his conquered, audience, and at the + end they gave him a right-down unanimous burst of applause. Those + who came to scoff remained to praise.' + +And from henceforth the Professor's enemies were silenced. + +It can scarcely fail to strike the reader that into Wilson's election to +the professorship there had entered not a little of what was casual, or +the result of impulse; still his lucky star must have ruled at the +moment, for the sequel far more than justified his rashness. As poet he +had been mediocre, and as lawyer 'out of his element,' but there exists +abundant testimony to prove that as lecturer and instructor of youth he +was the right man in the right place. As was the way of his spirited and +generous nature, he threw himself heart and soul into his new work; but +though we are assured that his attainments in that department left +nothing to be desired, it was far less to these than to character and +personality that he owed the success which he undoubtedly won. Certainly +philosophers more profound, and probably men of greater general +attainments have occupied his Chair, but assuredly never one who united +his happy powers of breathing life into the instruction which he +imparted and inspiring his scholars with a keen and quickening +enthusiasm for himself. And that he succeeded so well in this was +perhaps due to the fact that, in addition to his wide and general +humanity, there was about him a certain boyishness, which, when joined +with the dignity and character of manhood, seldom fails in its appeal to +youth. + +From among the multitude of pupils who cherished grateful and happy +recollections of his class, his biographer has presented us with the +testimony of three. The first of these is Hill Burton, the historian of +Scotland, who warmly acknowledges his kindness, and whose future +eminence the Professor would seem to have divined; for, though at all +times accessible to his pupils and conscientious in the discharge of his +duties, he appears to have made a friend of Burton almost at the first +meeting. Another of his students, Mr Alexander Taylor Innes, has left a +picture of North in his lecture-room, from which, though it belongs by +rights to a later date, I make no apology for quoting here. + + 'His appearance in his class-room,' says that gentleman, 'it is far + easier to remember than to forget. He strode into it with the + professor's gown hanging loosely on his arms, took a comprehensive + look over the mob of young faces, laid down his watch so as to be + out of the reach of his sledge-hammer fist, glanced at the notes of + his lecture, and then, to the bewilderment of those who had never + heard him before, looked long and earnestly out of the north window + towards the spire of the old Tron Kirk; until, having at last got + his idea, he faced round and uttered it with eye and hand, and voice + and soul and spirit, and bore the class along with him. As he spoke + the bright blue eye looked with a strange gaze into vacancy, + sometimes sparkling with a coming joke, sometimes darkening before a + rush of indignant eloquence; the tremulous upper lip curving with + every wave of thought or hint of passion, and the golden-grey hair + floating on the old man's mighty shoulders--if, indeed, that could + be called age which seemed but the immortality of a more majestic + youth. And occasionally, in the finer frenzy of his more imaginative + passages--as when he spoke of Alexander, clay-cold at Babylon, with + the world lying conquered around his tomb, or of the Highland hills, + that pour the rage of cataracts adown their riven cliffs, or even of + the human mind, with its "primeval granitic truths," the grand old + face flushed with the proud thought, and the eyes grew dim with + tears and the magnificent frame quivered with a universal emotion.' + +Yet another pupil, the Reverend Dr William Smith, of North Leith, has +thus recorded his impressions:-- + + 'Of Professor Wilson as a lecturer on Moral Philosophy, it is not + easy to convey any adequate idea to strangers,--to those who never + saw his grand and noble form excited into bold and passionate action + behind that strange, old-fashioned desk, nor heard his manly and + eloquent voice sounding forth its stirring utterances with all the + strange and fitful cadence of a music quite peculiar to itself. The + many-sidedness of the man, and the unconventional character of his + prelections, combine to make it exceedingly difficult to define the + nature and grounds of his wonderful power as a lecturer. I am + certain that if every student who ever attended his class were to + place on record his impressions of these, the impressions of each + student would be widely different, and yet they would not, taken + all together, exhaust the subject, or supply a complete + representation either of his matter or his manner.... The roll of + papers on which each lecture was written, which he carried into the + class-room firmly grasped in his hand, and suddenly unrolled and + spread out on the desk before him, commencing to read the same + moment, could not fail to attract the notice of any stranger in his + class-room. It was composed in large measure of portions of old + letters--the addresses and postage-marks on which could be easily + seen as he turned the leaf, yet it was equally evident that the + writing was neat, careful and distinct; and, except in a more than + usually dark and murk day, it was read with perfect ease and + fluency.' + +And, in reference to a certain specific lecture, the same gentleman +adds, 'The whole soul of the man seemed infused into his subject, and to +be rushing forth with resistless force in the torrent of his +rapidly-rolling words. As he spoke, his whole frame quivered with +emotion. He evidently saw the scene he described, and such was the +sympathetic force of his strong poetic imagination, that he made us, +whether we would or not, see it too. Now dead silence held the class +captive. In the interval of his words you would have heard a pin fall. +Again, at some point, the applause could not be restrained, and was +vociferous.' The writer concludes by stating that he has heard some of +the greatest orators of the day, naming Lords Derby, Brougham, +Lyndhurst; Peel, O'Connell, Sheil, Follett, Chalmers, Caird, Guthrie, +M'Neile; and has heard them 'in their very best styles make some of +their most celebrated appearances; but for popular eloquence, for +resistless force, for the seeming inspiration that swayed the soul, and +the glowing sympathy that entranced the hearts of his entire audience, +that lecture by Professor Wilson far excelled the best of these I ever +listened to.' + +This, within its proper limits, is the strongest praise. And, on the +other hand, we must guard against the supposition that these +lectures--highly-coloured and emotional as they undoubtedly +were--consisted solely, or even mainly, of oratorical, or conscious or +unconscious dramatic display. We are assured that this was by no means +the case; that the Professor scorned to sacrifice the serviceable to the +ornamental, never for a moment hesitating to grapple with the central +difficulties of his subject, or shirking the irksome duty of 'hammering' +at them during the greater part of a Session. + +Increased financial resources now enabled him to resume occupation of +his beloved Elleray, where a new and larger dwelling-house, suitable to +the accommodation of a family, had by this time been built. There, many +of the intervals of his busy University life were spent in happy +domesticity, and there, in 1825, he was visited by Sir Walter Scott, +whom he fêted with a brilliant regatta on Windermere. It is to these +years of professional duties varied by vacations in the country that his +novels and tales belong. They comprise three volumes, and, as their +characteristics are identical, may be considered side by side. They +consist uniformly of tales of pastoral or humble life, and the author +has recorded that his object in writing them was to speak of the +'elementary feelings of the human soul in isolation, under the light of +a veil of poetry.' The impression which they produce upon a reader of +the present day is that this programme has been but too systematically +adhered to. The stories themselves do not lack interest, and their +motives are at all times human; but they are deliberately localized in +some other world than ours, and if there thence ensues a certain +æsthetic gain, it is accompanied by a more than proportionate loss in +vraisemblance and in moral force. To speak more plainly, if the world of +Wilson's tales is a better world than ours, it yet remains an artificial +one, his stories develope in accordance with the rules of a preconceived +ideal, and a weakening of their interest is the result. For though many +a writer has seen life in a way of his own, Wilson seems to have +deliberately set himself to see it in a way belonging to somebody else. +In fact, throughout this series of little books, he aspires to appear in +the character of a prose Wordsworth; but he is a Wordsworth who has lost +the noble plainness of his original, and though his actual style is less +marred by floridness and redundancy here than elsewhere, still the vices +of prettiness, self-consciousness, artificiality, and sentiment suffice +to stamp his work as an imitation, decadent from the lofty source of its +inspiration. + +Of the _Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life_, a volume of short tales +published in 1822, the not impartial author of the biography, writing in +the early sixties, remarks that it has acquired a popularity of the most +enduring kind--a statement which to-day one would hesitate to endorse. +She adds that the stories are 'poems in prose, in which, amid fanciful +scenes and characters, the struggles of humanity are depicted with +pathetic fidelity, and the noblest lessons of virtue and religion are +interwoven, in no imaginary harmony, with the homely realities of +Scottish peasant life.' And subject to the not inconsiderable abatements +noted above, this may no doubt be accepted. + +_The Foresters_ (1825) is the history of the family of one Michael +Forester, who is exhibited in turn in his relation as a dutiful son, a +kind self-sacrificing brother, a loving and faithful husband, and a +wise affectionate father; whilst from time to time we are also enabled +to trace his beneficent influence in the affairs of other members of the +small community in which he lives. The tone of the book is peaceful and +soothing; it inculcates cheerfulness and resignation, and holds up for +our edification a picture of that contentment which springs from the +practice of virtue. A group of faultless creatures--for none but the +subordinate characters have any faults--pursue the tenor of their lives +amid fair scenes of nature, and, when sorrow or misfortune falls to +their lot, meet it with an inspiring fortitude. To scoff at such a book +were to supply proof of incompetence in criticism--of which the very +soul consists in sympathy with all that is sincere in spirit and not +inadequate in execution. Yet equally uncritical were it to fail to mark +how far short this story falls of the exquisite spontaneity of such work +as Goldsmith's immortal essay in the same style. + +Possibly, however, of the three volumes, the _Trials of Margaret +Lyndsay_ (1823) is that which most forcibly conveys the lessons common +to all--the teaching of Wordsworth, that is to say, as made plain by a +sympathetic disciple. It is the story of a beautiful and virtuous +maiden, the daughter of a printer who, having become imbued with the +doctrines of Tom Paine, falls into evil courses and is imprisoned on a +charge of sedition. His family--consisting of Margaret, her ailing +mother, aged grandmother, and two sisters, one of whom is mentally +afflicted and the other blind--are in consequence reduced to great +poverty, which, supported by their piety, they endure without complaint. +Removing from their country home to a dark and narrow street in +Edinburgh, they open a small school, and for a time with fair success +make head against their troubles. But misfortune follows relentlessly +upon their traces. Lyndsay dies in disgrace, Margaret's sailor +sweetheart perishes by drowning, and one after the other she sees the +members of the little group which surrounds her removed by death. Still +she does not lose heart. Left alone in the world, she is received into +the house of a benevolent young lady, and, there, is happy enough, until +the undesired attentions of the young lady's brother compel her to seek +another home. Journeying alone and on foot, she seeks a refuge with a +distant and estranged relation; by whom she is coldly received, but upon +whose withered heart her gentle influence in time works the most happy +change. And now, at length, it seems that her hardly-won happiness is to +be crowned by marriage to the man of her choice. But what has seemed her +good fortune turns out to be in reality the worst of all her woes; for +the brave but dissolute soldier who has won her heart is discovered to +possess a wife already. Thus from trial to trial do we follow her, until +at last she is left in possession of a very modest share of felicity, +whilst from her story we learn the lesson of the duties of courage and +cheerfulness, the consolations of virtue, and the healing power of +nature. + +But of course it is not to the department of fiction that Wilson's most +conspicuous literary achievements belong. When once he had settled down +into the swing of his professorial duties, his connexion with +Blackwood's Magazine was resumed, and his biographer truly remarks that +probably no periodical was ever more indebted to one individual than was +'Maga' to Christopher North. And, in passing, it may be stated that +this name, which had at first been assumed by various of the +contributors, was soon exclusively associated with himself. As to the +number, variety, and extent of his contributions, Mrs Gordon has +furnished some curious information. During many years these were never +fewer than on an average two to each number; whilst on more than one +occasion he produced, within the month, almost the entire contents of an +issue. In the year 1830, he contributed in the month of January two +articles; in February four; three in March; one each in April and May; +four in June; three in July; seven (or 116 pages) in August; one in +September; two in October; and one each in November and December--being +thirty articles, or one thousand two hundred columns in the year. +(Against this, however, there must be set off his extremely liberal +quotations from books under review.) The subjects dealt with in the +month of August were the following:--'The Great Moray Floods'; 'The Lay +of the Desert'; 'The Wild Garland, and Sacred Melodies'; 'Wild Fowl +Shooting'; 'Colman's Random Records'; 'Clark on Climate'; 'Noctes, No. +51.' In the year following, by the month of September he had already +contributed twenty articles, five of which were in the August number. +And, finally, in 1833, he wrote no fewer than fifty-four articles, or +upwards of two thousand four hundred closely-printed columns, on +politics, and general literature! Nor, when the extraordinary influence +and popularity enjoyed by Blackwood's Magazine at that period, and the +fact that these were mainly due to Christopher North are borne in mind, +will these labours run any risk of being confounded with those of the +ordinary literary hack. At the same time it may be necessary to caution +the reader against the oft-repeated error that Wilson was at any time +editor of the Magazine. + +Of his habits of composition at this the most brilliant and prolific +period of his career, his daughter furnishes the following account, from +which it will be seen that his literary procedure was ordered with +complete disregard to comfort. He was now living in a house which he had +built for himself in Gloucester Place, which was to be his home for the +remainder of his life. + + 'The amazing rapidity with which he wrote, caused him too often to + delay his work to the very last moment, so that he almost always + wrote under compulsion, and every second of time was of consequence. + Under such a mode of labour there was no hour left for relaxation. + When regularly in for an article for Blackwood, his whole strength + was put forth, and it may be said he struck into life what he had to + do at a blow. He at these times began to write immediately after + breakfast, that meal being despatched with a swiftness commensurate + with the necessity of the case before him. He then shut himself into + his study, with an express command that no one was to disturb him, + and he never stirred from his writing-table until perhaps the + greater part of a _Noctes_ was written, or some paper of equal + brilliancy and interest completed. The idea of breaking his labour + by taking a constitutional walk never entered his thoughts for a + moment. Whatever he had to write, even though a day or two were to + keep him close at work, he never interrupted his pen, saving to take + his night's rest, and a late dinner served to him in his study. The + hour for that meal was on these occasions nine o'clock; his dinner + then consisted invariably of a boiled fowl, potatoes, and a glass of + water--he allowed himself no wine. After dinner he resumed his pen + till midnight, when he retired to bed, not unfrequently to be + disturbed by an early printer's boy.' + +His rapidly turned-out 'copy' would soon cover the table at which he +wrote, after which the floor about his feet would be strewn with pages +of his MS. 'thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa.' Nor did he, even +in the depth of winter, indulge in a fire in his study, or in any other +illumination than that afforded by a tallow candle set in a kitchen +candlestick. + +In the meantime he had not lost his love of the country and of country +pursuits, and we hear of holidays spent at Innerleithen, in Ettrick +Forest--where he rented Thirlestane--near Langholm, where his son John +was established in a farm, in the Highlands, and in a cruise with an +'Experimental Squadron' of the Navy, during which he was accommodated +with a swinging cot in the cockpit of H.M.S. _Vernon_. As is the case in +the lives of so many celebrated men, these years, though the most +fruitful, were not the most eventful of his life, and therefore call for +less detailed examination than those which had preceded them. His +character was formed, he was in the full swing of his labours, and the +best key to the history of this period is to be found in the study of +the _Noctes_, the _Recreations_, and the other works which it produced. + +His heroic literary activity was continued down to 1840, in which year +he was attacked by a paralytic affection of the right hand, which made +writing irksome to him, so that for the next five years he contributed +but two papers to the magazine. This ailment was the first warning he +received that his wonderful constitution and great physical strength +were subject to the universal law. But already the hand of death had +been busy among his circle. In 1834 he had lost his esteemed friend +Blackwood, in 1835 the Ettrick Shepherd had followed the publisher, +whilst in 1837 he sustained the supreme bereavement by losing his +beloved and devoted wife. His grief on this occasion was profound and +lasting, and a touching picture of its uncontrollable outbursts in the +presence of his class has been preserved. There, if anything occurred to +renew the memory of his sorrow, he would pause for a moment or two in +his lecture, 'fling himself forward on the desk, bury his face in his +hands, and while his whole frame heaved with visible emotion, would weep +and sob like a very child.' So, in his work and his play, his joy and +his sorrow, the whole man was cast in an heroic mould. And, with that +singular but sincere, though oft misunderstood, fantasticness, which in +imaginative natures demands the outward visible sign, as long as he +lived he continued with scrupulous care the habit of wearing white +cambric weepers on the sleeves of his coat or gown, out of respect for +the memory of his faithful partner. + +The shadows were already falling thick about the lion-like head of the +old Professor, and we have now to acknowledge that between his last +years and the rest of his life there exists a discrepancy as regrettable +as it is unexpected. The highest of animal spirits had been his through +the brilliant promise of youth and the happy activity and domesticity of +maturity, and when we remember his robust constitution and mellow +philosophy, we naturally look forward to see him enjoy a green and +peaceful old age. But such prognostications are apt to be fallacious, +and the fact stands that his old age was a melancholy one. Nor was its +melancholy of that kind, by no means incompatible with a large measure +of serenity, which is directly traceable to evils common to all men +whose years are prolonged; it was a peculiar despondency, profound and +unexplained. Indeed the last pages of the _Life_ are sad reading, and +we pass hastily over them to the end. + +The first symptom of the alteration in his character of which we hear is +his sense of loneliness. There was no occasion for him to be lonely, for +he was rich in affectionate children and grand-children, yet in spite of +these his habits insensibly became solitary, he grew to dislike being +intruded upon, and at last was seldom seen in public. Still for a time +his broad-brimmed hat with its deep crape band, his flowing locks, and +his stately figure buttoned in its black coat, continued to be welcome +sights in the streets of Edinburgh, and still he continued, without +intermission, his labours among his class, until, in the winter of 1850, +an alarming seizure which occurred in his retiring-room at the +University compelled him to absent himself from his duties. In the +following year he finally retired from the Professorship, which he had +held for thirty years, his services being recognized by Government with +a pension of £300 a year. + +He now felt that his usefulness in life was over, and from henceforth +his despondency deepened. We read that 'something of a settled +melancholy rested on his spirit, and for days he would scarcely utter a +word or allow a smile to lighten up his face;' and, again, that 'long +and mournful meditation took possession of him; days of silence revealed +the depth of his suffering, and it was only by fits and starts that +anything like composure visited his heart.' He himself speaks of his +'hopeless misery.' 'Nothing,' he said to his daughter, 'can give you an +idea of how utterly wretched I am; my mind is going, I feel it.' And, +indeed, it seems that a gradual mental decline had set in. But he was +spared its progress. On the 1st April 1854, at his house in Gloucester +Place, he was attacked by paralysis, and there two days later, mourned +by an almost patriarchal family of descendants, he breathed his last. + +In the details of his daily life, Wilson was accustomed to follow his +own inclinations more than 'tis given to most men to do, his robust +individuality disdaining the minor fashions and conventions of the day, +whilst his native independence, and still more his love of home, made +him completely indifferent to what is known as social success. It is not +in the 'great world,' therefore, that we must seek for the traits which +characterize him. But a man is what he is at home, and within his own +sphere Wilson's sympathies were of the widest and deepest. He was adored +by every member of his large family, whilst his own large-hearted +affection embraced all, down to--or, as perhaps I should say, +remembering his special love for young children, up to the youngest babe +in the household. Such anecdotes, too, as those told by his daughter of +his generous treatment of his defaulting uncle, of his relations with +his superannuated henchman, Billy Balmer, or of his sitting up all night +at the bedside of an old female servant who was dying, 'arranging with +gentle but awkward hand the pillow beneath her head,' or cheering her +with encouraging words,--these speak more for the genuine humanity of +the man than a thousand triumphs gained in an artificial world. + +He also shared with Sir Walter Scott the love of birds and animals of +all kinds, from the dog, Rover--one of many dogs--who, crawling upstairs +in its last moments, died with its paw in its master's hand, to the +sparrow which inhabited his study for eleven years, and which, boldly +perching on his shoulder, would sometimes carry off a hair from his +shaggy head to build its nest. In these matters animals have an instinct +which rarely misleads them, and that they had good grounds for +recognizing a friend in the Professor is proved by the following +incident. One afternoon Wilson, then far advanced in life, was observed +remonstrating with a carter who was driving an overladen horse through +the streets of Edinburgh-- + + 'The carter, exasperated at this interference, took up his whip in a + threatening way, as if with intent to strike the Professor. In an + instant that well-nerved hand twisted it from the coarse fist of the + man, as if it had been a straw, and walking quietly up to the cart + he unfastened its _trams_, and hurled the whole weight of coals into + the street. The rapidity with which this was done left the driver of + the cart speechless. Meanwhile, poor Rosinante, freed from his + burden, crept slowly away, and the Professor, still clutching the + whip in one hand, and leading the horse in the other, proceeded + through Moray Place to deposit the wretched animal in better keeping + than that of his driver.' + +'This little episode,' adds the writer, 'is delightfully characteristic +of his impulsive nature, and the benevolence of his heart.' + +Whilst human nature remains what it is, traits of such broad and genial +humanity as this are never out of date; but when we turn from the writer +to the writings, it is to find the case altered, and ourselves brought +face to face with the devastations of time. In the sense of great and +immediate effect produced by his work, Wilson was unquestionably the +most brilliant, as--excepting the too-fertile Galt--he was the most +prolific, of the group of distinguished authors who are here associated +with the publishing-house of Blackwood; yet in vitality, in enduring +freshness, such a novel as _The Inheritance_, such a sea-piece as _Tom +Cringle's Log_, not to speak of such a character-study as _The Provost_, +to-day leaves his work far behind. Of course this is in large measure +due to the nature, not to the defects, of that work. North's most +distinctive writings were not creative, and in general it is only +creative work that lives. The critic's reputation is transitory; Time's +revenge deals swiftly, hardly by it; it has none of the +phoenix-property of the creator's. Of all our distinguished critical +reputations of the last hundred years or so, how many now survive? +To-day the critic Johnson is remembered chiefly for blindness, the +critic Jeffrey for overweening self-confidence when he was wrong, the +critic Macaulay for idle rhetoric and for consistent failure to strike +the mark. The appreciator Lamb is almost alone in holding his own. And +there is not one reader in a thousand who has time, or cares, for the +purely historical task of looking closer, of studying these eminent +writers in relation to the age in which they lived, and of estimating +accordingly the services which they performed. Christopher North, in so +far as he was a critic, has not escaped the common doom. Scattered over +the pages of the _Noctes_, there are no doubt some shrewd and pregnant +observations upon writers and upon literature. But these sparse grains +of salt are not enough to preserve the general fabric from decay; whilst +the more numerous errors of judgment in which his work abounds require +no pointing out. As a reviewer North was not lacking in discrimination, +as may be seen in the historical though generally misconceived essay on +Tennyson; and, granted a really good opportunity--as in the case of that +completion of _Christabel_ which was to Martin Tupper the pastime of +some idle days--no man knew better how to avail himself of it. The +pages signed by him also afford abundant evidence of the gentleness, +generosity, and enthusiasm of his spirit. But when so much has been +said, what remains to be added? Of stimulus to the reader, of +conspicuous insight into the subject discussed, we find but little. + +Turning to the essays, collected under the title of 'Recreations of +Christopher North,' we sometimes see the author to better advantage, as, +for instance, when he dons his 'Sporting Jacket,' and recounts in +mock-heroic style the Sportsman's Progress. The subject was one which +keenly appealed to him, rousing all the enthusiasm of his perfervid +nature, and some very bright and characteristic pages are the result. + +His hero is fishing, and has hooked a fish. + + 'But the salmon has grown sulky, and must be made to spring to the + plunging stone. There, suddenly, instinct with new passion, she + shoots out of the foam like a bar of silver bullion; and, relapsing + into the flood, is in another moment at the very head of the + waterfall! Give her the butt--give her the butt--or she is gone for + ever with the thunder into ten fathom deep!--Now comes the trial of + your tackle--and when was Phin ever known to fail at the edge of + cliff or cataract? Her snout is southwards--right up the middle of + the main current of the hill-born river, as if she would seek its + very source where she was spawned! She still swims swift, and + strong, and deep--and the line goes steady, boys, steady--stiff and + steady as a Tory in the roar of Opposition. There is yet an hour's + play in her dorsal fin--danger in the flap of her tail--and yet may + her silver shoulder shatter the gut against a rock. Why, the river + was yesterday in spate, and she is fresh run from the sea. All the + lesser waterfalls are now level with the flood, and she meets with + no impediment or obstruction--the coast is clear--no tree-roots + here--no floating branches--for during the night they have all been + swept down to the salt loch. _In medio tutissimus ibis_--ay, now you + feel she begins to fail--the butt tells now every time you deliver + your right. What! another mad leap! yet another sullen plunge! She + seems absolutely to have discovered, or rather to be an + impersonation of, the Perpetual Motion. Stand back out of the way, + you son of a sea-cook!--you in the tattered blue breeches, with the + tail of your shirt hanging out. Who the devil sent you all here, ye + vagabonds?--Ha! Watty Ritchie, my man, is that you? God bless your + honest laughing phiz! What, Watty, would you think of a Fish like + that about Peebles? Tam Grieve never gruppit sae heavy a ane since + first he belanged to the Council.--Curse that collie! Ay! well done, + Watty! Stone him to Stobbo. Confound these stirks--if that white + one, with caving horns, kicking heels, and straight-up tail, come + bellowing by between us and the river, then "Madam! all is lost, + except honour!" If we lose this Fish at six o'clock, then suicide at + seven. Our will is made--ten thousand to the Foundling--ditto to the + Thames Tunnel----ha--ha--my Beauty! Methinks we could fain and fond + kiss thy silver side, languidly lying afloat on the foam as if all + further resistance now were vain, and gracefully thou wert + surrendering thyself to death! No faith in female--she trusts to the + last trial of her tail--sweetly workest thou, O Reel of Reels! and + on thy smooth axle spinning sleep'st, even, as Milton describes her, + like our own worthy planet. Scrope--Bainbridge--Maule--princes among + Anglers--oh! that you were here! Where the devil is Sir Humphrey? At + his retort? By mysterious sympathy--far off at his own Trows, the + Kerss feels that we are killing the noblest Fish whose back ever + rippled the surface of deep or shallow in the Tweed. Tom Purdy + stands like a seer, entranced in glorious vision, beside turreted + Abbotsford. Shade of Sandy Govan! Alas! alas! Poor Sandy--why on thy + pale face that melancholy smile!--Peter! The Gaff! The Gaff! Into + the eddy she sails, sick and slow, and almost with a + swirl--whitening as she nears the sand--there she has it--struck + right into the shoulder, fairer than that of Juno, Diana, Minerva, + or Venus--and lies at last in all her glorious length and breadth of + beaming beauty, fit prey for giant or demigod angling before the + Flood!' + +Nor are his pictures of Coursing and of Fox-Hunting less good. But anon +his overladen style crops out again, as in this passage, where he has +just discharged his gun into the midst of a flock of wild-duck afloat +upon a loch:-- + + 'Now is the time for the snow-white, here and there ebon-spotted + Fro--who with burning eyes has lain couched like a spaniel, his + quick breath ever and anon trembling on a passionate whine, to + bounce up, as if discharged by a catapulta, and first with immense + and enormous high-and-far leaps, and then, fleet as any greyhound, + with a breast-brushing brattle down the brae, to dash, all-fours, + like a flying squirrel fearlessly from his tree, many yards into the + bay with one splashing and momentarily disappearing spang, and then, + head and shoulders and broad line of back and rudder tail, all + elevated above or level with the wavy water-line, to mouth first + that murdered mawsey of a mallard, lying as still as if she had been + dead for years, with her round, fat, brown bosom towards + heaven--then that old Drake, in a somewhat similar posture, but in + more gorgeous apparel, his belly being of a pale grey, and his back + delicately pencilled and crossed with numberless waved dusky + lines--precious prize to one skilled like us in the angling + art--next--nobly done, glorious Fro--that cream-colour-crowned + widgeon, with bright rufus chestnut breast, separated from the neck + by loveliest waved ash-brown and white lines, while our mind's eye + feasteth on the indescribable and changeable green beauty-spot of + his wings--and now, if we mistake not, a Golden Eye, best described + by his name--finally, that exquisite little duck the Teal; yes, + poetical in its delicately pencilled spots as an Indian shell, and + when kept to an hour, roasted to a minute, gravied in its own wild + richness, with some few other means and appliances to boot, carved + finely--most finely--by razor-like knife, in a hand skilful to + dissect and cunning to divide--tasted by a tongue and palate both + healthily pure as the dewy petal of a morning rose--swallowed by a + gullet felt gradually to be extending itself in its intense + delight--and received into a stomach yawning with greed and + gratitude,--Oh! surely the thrice-blessed of all web-footed birds; + the apex of Apician luxury; and able, were anything on the face of + this feeble earth able, to detain a soul, on the very brink of fate, + a short quarter of an hour from an inferior Elysium!' + +In point of style could anything well be much worse? Even the far-famed +_Noctes Ambrosianæ_, by much the most celebrated of Wilson's writings, +though they may still be dipped into with pleasure, will scarcely stand +critical examination nowadays. Of course, from their very nature, they +have come to labour under the disadvantage of being largely concerned +with topics and persons of long since exhausted interest. And, again, +their convivial setting, which pleased in its own day, is now probably +by many looked upon askance, and that, it must be confessed, not without +some show of excuse. If this were all, it would be well. As we have +seen, Wilson wrote his dialogues hastily and presumably wrote them for +the moment, so that to judge them as permanent contributions to +literature is to judge them by a standard contemplated not by the +author, but by his injudicious critics. Amongst these, Professor +Ferrier, in his introductory critique to the authoritative edition of +the _Noctes_, published forty years ago, most confidently claims that +they possess solid and lasting qualities, and in the front rank of these +qualities he places humour and dramatic power. Now to us, except in +outward form, the _Noctes_ appear almost anything rather than dramatic; +they are even less dramatic than the conversation-pieces of Thomas Love +Peacock. It is true that of the two principal talkers one speaks Scotch +and the other English; but in every other respect they might exchange +almost any of their longest and most important speeches without the +smallest loss to characterisation. The same authority (I use the word in +a purely empirical sense) enthusiastically lauds the creation of The +Shepherd; and upon him it is true that, by dint of insistence on two or +three superficial mannerisms, a certain shadowy individuality has been +conferred. But surely it is needless to point out that a label is not a +personality, and that this sort of thing is something quite apart from +dramatic creation. The critic then goes on to say that 'in wisdom the +Shepherd equals the Socrates of Plato; in humour he surpasses the +Falstaff of Shakespeare.' The last part of the sentence strikes us as +even more surprising than the first, for had our opinion of the +imaginary revellers at Ambrose's been asked we should have had to +confess that, though they possess high spirits in abundance and a +certain sense of the ludicrous, of humour in the true sense--of the +humour, I won't say of a Sterne, but of a Michael Scott--all are alike +entirely destitute. And one may even add that with persons of equally +high spirits such is almost always the case. Well then, it may be asked, +if they lack both humour and dramatic power, in what qualities, pray, do +these world-famed dialogues excel? The answer is, of course, that in +brilliant intellectual and rhetorical display the _Noctes_ are supreme. +Yet here, also, there is often about them something too much of +deliberate and self-conscious fine-writing. And yet, even to-day, when +tastes have changed and fashions altered, the exuberance of their +eloquence is hard to withstand, and in reading them we sometimes almost +believe that we are touched when in reality we are merely dazzled. This +dazzling quality is not one of the highest in literature: with the +single possible exception of Victor Hugo, the greatest writers have +always been without it. But it pervades, floods, overwhelms the +_Noctes_. It is a somewhat barren, and unendearing quality at best; yet, +after all, it is an undoubted manifestation of intellectual power; and +whatever it may be worth, let us give Wilson full credit for having +excelled in it. + +One last word. The literary workman has no more unpleasing task to +perform than that of so-called destructive criticism; but if Wilson +himself, as apart from his writings, be indeed, as we believe him to be, +an immortal figure, by releasing him from the burden of ill-judged +praise which like a mill-stone hangs about his neck, and by setting him +in his true light, we shall have done him no disservice. On the poetic +imagination, then, he looms as one heroically proportioned; whilst more +practical thinkers will cherish his memory as that of a most brilliant +contributor to the periodical literature of his day, a great inspirer of +youth, and a standard and pattern to his countrymen of physical and +intellectual manhood. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] It is distinctly stated in the _Life_, vol. 1, p. 180, that the loss +of fortune was complete; but a subsequent statement is somewhat at +variance with this. + +[2] Letter quoted by Mrs Gordon. + + + + +JOHN GALT + + +Through life the subject of this sketch was unfortunate; nor has +posthumous justice redressed the balance in his favour. His +fellow-countrymen and fellow-craftsmen, Scott and Smollett--with whom, +if below them, he is not unworthy to be mentioned--have long since been +accorded high rank among the great novelists of English literature: Galt +remains in obscurity. And yet it is easy to understand how his qualities +have failed of recognition. For though his character was in the ordinary +sense of the word exemplary, his genius extraordinary, yet in either +there was something lacking. Indeed the study of his life and works +reveals almost as much to be blamed as to be praised. + + * * * * * + +John Galt was born at Irvine, in Ayrshire, on the 2nd May, 1779, in that +humbler station of society, which--in so far as it dispenses with +screens and concealments, and so brings a child the sooner face to face +with life as it is--may be considered favourable to genius. In childhood +he was of infirm constitution and somewhat effeminate disposition--defects +which were, however, in due course amply rectified. At this time his +passion for flowers and for music gave evidence of a sensibility which, +if one is loth to condemn it as unwholesome, is at least of doubtful +augury for happiness in a workaday world. To these affections he joined +the love of ballads and story-books--in the midst of which he would +often pass the day in lounging upon his bed. Nor did oral tradition fail +him; for, frequenting the society of the indigent old women of the +locality, from their lips he would drink in to his heart's content that +lore of a departing age which he afterwards turned to such good account +in his works. To his own mother, whom nature had gifted with remarkable +mental powers, and in particular with a strong sense of humour and a +faculty of original expression, his debt was admitted to be great. Not +unnaturally Mrs Galt at first strenuously opposed her son's bookish +propensities, though it is recorded that she lived to regret having done +so. The father, who by profession was master of a West Indiaman, though, +in his son's words, 'one of the best as he was one of the handsomest of +men,' does not appear in mind and force of character to have risen above +mediocrity. + +The most striking incident in the childhood of the future novelist is +his association with the 'Buchanites,' a religious sect who took their +name from a demented female, Mrs Buchan. It happened that this person +had been much impressed by the preaching of Mr White, the Relief +Minister of Irvine, and had followed him from Glasgow to that place, +where some weak-headed members of the congregation mistook her ravings +for inspiration, and made her warmly welcome. White himself participated +in their delusion, and when authoritatively required to dismiss his +adherent, chose rather to resign his church. From this time meetings +would be held in a tent, generally in the night time, and there Mrs +Buchan would hold forth, announcing herself to be the woman spoken of +in the twelfth chapter of the Revelations, and Mr White as the man-child +whom she had brought forth. The proceedings attracted public attention, +rioting followed, and it was found advisable to expel the evangelists +from the town. Some forty or fifty disciples accompanied their exodus, +who sang as they went, and declared themselves _en route_ for the New +Jerusalem, and in the company of the crack-brained enthusiasts went the +infant Galt, his imagination captivated by the strangeness of their +doings. He had not proceeded far, however, ere that sensible woman, his +mother, pounced upon him and bore him off home. Nevertheless the wild +psalmody of the occasion abode in his memory, and when in later life, in +his fine novel of _Ringan Gilhaize_, he came to describe the +Covenanters, the recollection stood him in good stead. It is also +recorded of him that, after reading Pope's Iliad, he was so deeply +impressed by the book as to kneel then and there, and humbly and +fervently pray that it might be vouchsafed to him to accomplish +something equally great. It must not be thought, however, that in him +imagination predominated to the exclusion of everything else. On the +contrary, to the love of what was beautiful or strange, he united a +pronounced mechanical and engineering turn, which led him, among other +undertakings, to construct an Æolian harp, and to devise schemes for +improving the water-supply of Greenock, the town to which his family had +in the meantime removed. Thus was first manifested that diversity of +faculty which enabled him in later life with equal ease to pourtray men +and manners and to found cities and subdue wastes. + +Meantime his education, which had been begun at home and continued at +the grammar-school of Irvine, was carried on at Greenock, where it was +supplemented with advantage by independent reading in a well-chosen +public library. In Greenock, also, where he spent some fifteen years, he +was fortunate in having as associates a group of young men whom the +spirit of intellectual emulation characterised, and of whom more than +one was destined to attain distinction. Among these were Eckford, who is +referred to as the future architect and builder of the United States' +Navy, and Spence, afterwards the author of a treatise on Logarithmic +Transcendents. But undoubtedly young Galt's most congenial companion was +one James Park, a youth of elegant and scholarly tastes, who shared in +his passion for the _belles-lettres_, and criticised in a friendly +spirit the attempts which he was now beginning to make as a poet. Would +that this young man's influence had been exerted to greater effect, for +he seems to have been just the sort of mentor of whom Galt stood in +need, and whose discipline throughout life he missed! 'He seemed,' says +the _Autobiography_, 'to consider excellence in literature as of a more +sacred nature than ever I did, who looked upon it but as a means of +influence.' A means of influence! One would gladly believe this but the +querulous insincere utterance of a disappointed man. Unhappily evidence +is but too abundant that Galt was consistently lacking in the respect +due to his high calling. Among his earliest poetical efforts was a +tragedy on the life of Mary Queen of Scots, and in course of time he +began to contribute to the local newspaper and to the _Scots Magazine_. +With Park and other young men he also joined in essay and debating +societies, a recreation which they varied by walking-tours to +Edinburgh, Loch Lomond, the Border Counties, and elsewhere. Before this +time he had been placed in the Custom House at Greenock, to acquire some +training as a clerk, whence in due course he was transferred to work in +a mercantile office. It was the period of the resumption of the war with +France, and he took a leading part in the movement for forming local +companies of volunteer riflemen. + +This period of his adolescence strikes one as having been unusually +prolonged. It came to a sudden and violent end. It appears that about +this time a set of purse-proud upstarts, who stood much in need of +schooling in more ways than one, had made their appearance in Glasgow. +In relation to some matter of business, one of these had addressed an +insolent letter to the firm with which Galt was connected. It was +delivered into his hands. On discovering its contents his indignation +was boundless, and he proceeded to action with all the impetuosity of a +Hotspur. Missing the writer in Glasgow, he straightway tracked him to +his quarters in Edinburgh, and having bolted the door of the room in +which he sat, forced from him a written apology. So much was +satisfactory; but the turmoil excited in the young man's brain did not +subside immediately. He did not return to his employment, but, after +spending some time in an indeterminate sort of fashion, set off for +London 'to look about him.' In the _Autobiography_, written when he was +old and an invalid, all this is detailed in a loose and cursory manner. +There is no reference to emotion or the inner life, and the style is +that of one who, having written many books, is grown very tired of +writing. To the reader this is the reverse of stimulating; yet whatever +may be stated and whatever kept back, we may feel sure that, in so +emotional and imaginative a man, an intense inner life must have +existed, and one in all probability not of the smoothest. At the time of +leaving home, however, the writer acknowledges to having felt +exceedingly depressed. Then follows a description of sensations +experienced, whilst horses were being changed, on the road between +Greenock and Glasgow. His father accompanied him on his journey. + +'I walked back on the fields,' says the young man, 'alone, with no +buoyant heart. The view towards Argyleshire, from the brow of the hill, +is perhaps one of the most picturesque in the world. I have since seen +some of the finest scenes, but none superior. At the time it seemed as +if some pensive influence rested on the mountains, and silently allured +me back; and this feeling was superstitiously augmented by my happening +in the same moment to turn round and behold the eastern sky, which lay +in the direction of my journey, sullenly overcast. On returning to the +inn, the horses had been some time in harness, and my father was a +little impatient at my absence, but conjecturing what was passing in my +mind, said little; nor did we speak much to each other till the waiter +of the inn opened the door for us to alight at Glasgow. In truth I was +not blind to the perils which awaited me, but my obstinacy was too +indulgently considered.' The above reads like a passage from _The Omen_. +In it we see the true Galt, or at least one side of him--brooding, +fantastic, the devotee of mysticism, discerning, at this momentous point +in his career, the finger of fate where another would have seen but an +ordinary process of nature! + +As to the time he now spent in London, beyond an incidental admission +that it was one of the least satisfactory periods of his career, Galt +does not take us into his confidence. One guesses that had he consulted +his own feelings only, he would have enjoyed the luxury of writing +Confessions. But, after all, he was a Scotchman, though an unusual +variety of the class, and Scotchmen do not indulge in luxuries of that +kind. His Autobiography, when it came to be written, was in the main a +piece of book-making; certainly it has nothing of the confessional +character, and, indeed, what of self-revelation he at this time supplies +must be sought in his letters to Park. + +He had brought with him to the metropolis a goodly number of +introductions, which procured him much civility but nothing more. Whilst +waiting, however, to see what was to be done for him in the shape of +practical assistance, he employed himself in preparing for the press a +poem which had been inspired by his studies in antiquarianism, and +written some time earlier. The title of this production was _The Battle +of Largs_, and its theme the invasion of Scotland by Haco, King of +Norway, in the year 1263,--a subject which had already prompted the +Titanic suggestions of Lady Wardlaw's _Hardyknute_. The poem, as it +survives in extracts, is turgid, crude, and immature, exhibiting the +exact reverse of what is desirable in poetry--to wit, a great +expenditure of means to produce a very small result. For 'tis in vain we +are assured that desperate deeds are doing if we find it possible to +remain completely unmoved. A strain of somewhat similar kind was +afterwards taken up by Motherwell, and by Tom Stoddart in the unbridled +fantasy of his only half-serious 'Necromaunt,' called _The Death-Wake_. +To do Galt justice, he quickly realised that he had mounted the wrong +Pegasus, and almost immediately suppressed his poem. He acted wisely, +and here once for all it may be admitted that, in the specialised sense +of the term, he was no poet. Fancy, imagination, dramatic power, and +many another fine attribute of the poet he of course possessed in high +degree, but, whether because lacking the 'accomplishment of verse,' or +for some other reason, he failed to give expression to these gifts in +poetry. Metre seems to have impeded rather than assisted him, and he is +most poetic when writing in prose--a conclusion suggested by the poem +now under consideration, and borne out by his _Star of Destiny_, his +posthumous _Demon of Destiny_, and his poetic plays. From his own frank +avowal that, when drawing up a list of his works for publication, an +epic[3] was overlooked, we judge that not much of the labour of the file +was expended upon his verse. + +He waited for some months in London, whiling away the time, as he +pretends, by dabbling in astrology, alchemy, and other studies which +served to feed his love of the occult, and then at last, in despair, +decided to shift for himself. This led to his entering into partnership +with a young Scotchman named McLachlan, in a business which, for +reasons unknown, is mentioned only under the vague name of a 'commercial +enterprise.' Whatever may have been its nature, for Galt this +undertaking started badly, and after a period of better success, at the +end of three years ended in bankruptcy. The precise steps by which this +final consummation was reached are carefully detailed by Galt, yet to +minds unversed in commercial procedure they remain very far from clear. +In general terms, however, we gather that the failure was due to the +dishonesty of a debtor, occurring in conjunction with a succession of +financial misfortunes. + +Having failed in commerce, Galt's next thought was of the Law. He +entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, and whilst waiting to be formally +called to the Bar, went abroad in the hope of improving his health, +which was not good at the time. He tells us that by this time he had +realised that, without friends, there is no such thing as 'getting on' +in life possible. These he was conscious of lacking, and when he now +turned his back on England it was, in his own words, half desiring that +no event might occur to make him ever wish to return. He betook himself +in the first instance to Gibraltar, where, in the well-known Garrison +Library, he had his first glimpse of a young man whose feelings, had +they been revealed, might have been found to tally strangely with his +own. Lord Byron, at that time known only as the author of a mordant +satire, was starting upon the tour which was so soon to make him famous, +and as Galt had him and Hobhouse for fellow-travellers to Malta and +Sicily, he got to know them fairly well. It is noticeable that his first +impressions of the Pilgrim betray prejudice; and that long afterwards, +when he was called on to be his biographer, he complains that Moore's +portrait reveals only the sunny side of his lordship's character, and is +'too radiant and conciliatory.' + +After visiting Malta and Sicily, Galt proceeded to Athens. His active +mind, abhorring idleness, was soon at work again. It may be remembered +that this was the period of Buonaparte's endeavour to enforce his +nefarious Berlin and Milan Decrees, which had been designed with the +object of annihilating British commerce. Our traveller now conceived the +idea that they might be evaded by introducing British goods into the +Continent through Turkey. And here it may be noted that his biographers +have united in representing this scheme as the object of his going +abroad, whereas he himself distinctly, though incidentally, states that +he left England for the benefit of his health,[4] and that his scheme +first occurred to him when at Tripolizza.[5] This fact, immaterial in +itself, is of importance as affording evidence that his circumstances at +the time were fairly easy; for his travels must have been costly, yet +they do not appear to have brought him in any return until after his +written account of them had been published, when he was recouped for the +whole, or a part, of his outlay. + +In pursuance of the newly-devised scheme, it was now his object to find +a locality where a depôt of goods might be established. For this +purpose, after visiting various out of the way places, he selected +Mykoni, an island of the Archipelago, which possessed an excellent +harbour, where he acquired a large building, suited for a storehouse, +which had originally been erected by Orloff at a time when the Empress +Catherine the Second had designs on these islands. Hence, in the summer +of 1810, he returned to Malta, to make known and to develope his scheme, +and whilst awaiting the result of communications with England, he filled +up the time with further travels, visiting Constantinople and Widdin. +Turkey was now in arms against Russia, and in the course of his present +journey, which was performed in wintry weather, he saw something of the +hardships as well as of the pomp of war. Without presuming to question +that he kept business in view--as possibly also did George Borrow in his +rambles in Spain--we note the fact that in his own account of his +travels the details of his specific labours are kept well in the +background, if not indeed out of sight. At the worst his journeys, which +led him through some singularly wild and little known parts of the +globe, by bringing him acquainted with many picturesque and unusual +characters, must have been rich in suggestions of adventure and romance; +and, indeed, there is evidence that some of his experience of primitive +and martial life acquired at this time was afterwards turned to account +in painting similar life at home for his historical novels. His +expectations of patronage for his project were, however, disappointed, +and he resolved to return without delay to England, in the hope of there +finding support for it. In the meantime literature had not been entirely +neglected. Keeping his eyes well about him, he had amassed the notes on +which were subsequently based his _Voyages_, and _Letters from the +Levant_; whilst a translation from Goldoni, executed in a single wet day +at Missolonghi, and published in the 'New British Theatre' as _The Word +of Honour_, together with the tragedy of _Maddalen_, composed whilst +undergoing quarantine at Messina, belong also to this time. + +Back in London, he had the mortification of finding his commercial +scheme--as to the presumptive value of which one would wish to have +specialist opinion--regarded coldly by the Foreign Office, whilst at the +same time he seems to have satisfied himself of the inutility of +proceeding further in his legal career. But, whatever may have been his +defects, want of resourcefulness was certainly not among them. An +outburst of literary industry followed, and the year 1812 saw the +publication of his Voyages and Travels, his Life of Wolsey, and his +Tragedies. But in justice to one who has sins enough of slipshod +composition to answer for, it must be stated that most of the Life of +Wolsey--one of the most carefully composed of his books--had been +written at an earlier date. + +Of his _Voyages and Travels in the years 1809, 1810, and 1811, +containing statistical, commercial, and miscellaneous observations on +Gibraltar, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Cerigo and Turkey_, a competent +critic remarks that, 'while containing some interesting matter, they are +disfigured by grave faults of style and by rash judgments.' The public +received them favourably, but a contemptuous notice in the _Quarterly +Review_ was warmly resented by the author. + +It was whilst standing in the quadrangle of Christchurch College, when +on a visit to Oxford, that Galt had conceived the idea of his _Life of +Wolsey_. He had worked hard at the book before he went abroad, and he +claimed that it embodied new views, and the results of much original +research. Notwithstanding this, the _Quarterly Review_ assailed him +again, and this time so libellously as to lead him to think of a +criminal prosecution. He, however, dropped the idea, with the result +that when his Tragedies saw the light, the persecution--now as in the +case of the Travels conducted by Croker in person--was renewed with +additional pungency. In the general form of his _Maddalen, Agamemnon, +Lady Macbeth, Antonia, and Clytemnestra_, the author followed Alfieri, +whose works he had studied abroad and admired enthusiastically, though +with reservations. The plays are of a tentative character, and certainly +do not deserve Scott's condemnation as the 'worst ever seen.' _Lady +Macbeth_, which the author thought the 'best or the worst' of the +series, though not lacking in imaginative touches, is without +progression or story, and besides provoking irresistible comparisons, +fails by ending just where it began. And whilst on the subject of Galt's +drama, we may mention _The Witness_, the most important of several plays +contributed by him to the 'New British Theatre,' a publication +undertaken by Colbourn at his instigation. Here the dramatist had a +powerfully dramatic if also a somewhat inconsequent story to work +upon--a subject, in fact, after his own heart. Unfortunately the +execution of the piece is hasty, and by no means equal to its +conception. It was performed for some nights in Edinburgh as _The +Appeal_, when Scott wrote an Epilogue for it, said to be the only piece +of humorous verse existing from his pen. Galt himself rehandled the +subject in narrative form, under the title of _The Unguarded Hour_. + +He now embarked on a journalistic enterprise, assuming for a time the +editorship of the _Political Review_. But the work did not suit him. +After about a month he began to tire of it, and it was soon abandoned. +He also contributed lives of Hawke, Byron, and Rodney, to an edition of +Campbell's _Lives of the Admirals_; whilst, in 1813, his _Letters from +the Levant_ made their appearance. These contain 'views of the state of +society, manners, opinions, and commerce, in Greece and several of the +principal islands of the Archipelago,' and had actually been written as +letters at the places from which they are dated, being subsequently but +little altered. + +Perhaps we have already seen enough of the subject of this sketch to +convince us that any lengthy perseverance in one course of conduct must +not be expected of him, and, sure enough, the next thing we hear of him +is that he is bound for Gibraltar, on another commercial enterprise. +Before setting out, he had taken occasion to revisit the scenes of his +early years, going in turn to every place which he remembered having +frequented, even to the churchyard, amid whose tombstones, like his own +Andrew Wylie, he had haunted as a boy. Taking stock of himself and his +surroundings, he tells us that he was sensible of change everywhere, but +nowhere more than in his own hopes. 'I saw that a blight had settled on +them, and that my career must in future be circumscribed and sober.' +When it is remembered that he was now touching upon what is called the +prime of life, his tone of disillusion is pathetic. + +He had gone to Gibraltar as the emissary of Kirkman Finlay--a Glasgow +merchant, who afterwards bore a spirited part in the Greek War of +Independence--with a view to ascertain the feasibility of smuggling +British goods into Spain. But the victories of the Duke of Wellington in +the Peninsula were unfavourable to his mission, and much against his +will he found himself compelled to return to England, having +accomplished nothing, to seek surgical treatment for a painful malady +from which he was now suffering. Whilst in London he was married, his +wife being the daughter of a Dr Tilloch, editor of the _Philosophical +Magazine_, to which Galt was an occasional contributor. His marriage was +a very happy one, and on the principle, perhaps, that the happiest +countries have no history, his married life is not referred to in the +biographies. In 1814, at the time of the Restoration in France, we find +him visiting Holland and that country, with a view to promote yet +another 'abortive scheme.' + +It had now become imperative that he should exert himself, and having, +as one may say, nothing better to do on his return from the Continent, +he resumed the labours of the pen. His first known work of fiction was +the result. It was entitled _The Majolo_, founded upon a Sicilian +superstition, and published anonymously in 1816. It was a favourite with +its author, and has been described as a 'strange flighty production, +enjoyed only by a few peculiar minds.' With it may be mentioned _The +Earthquake_, a three-volume novel written in 1820, and founded on the +Messina earthquake of 1783. The latter, though an extravagant and +ill-constructed story, is said to describe Sicilian habits and +sentiments with accuracy. _The Majolo_ was followed in the same year by +the earlier instalment of a _Life of Benjamin West_, compiled from +materials supplied by the painter himself--a work which was completed +four years later, after his death. Then the eternal commercial scheme +cropped up again. This time it emanated from Glasgow, leading Galt to +move with his family to Finnart, near Greenock, where he spent a period +afterwards characterised as the most unsatisfactory in his whole life. +As usual the scheme in which he was interested failed, and he returned +to London, having accepted employment from the Union Canal Company, in +order to assist the passing through Parliament of a bill promoted by +that body. This being accomplished, he returned to the drudgery of the +desk, and, first and last, turned out a portentous body of hack-work, +the various items of which need not be catalogued. Fortunately for +himself, if not always for his reader, he had the strength and +_insouciance_ under labour of what he physically was, a giant. Among the +tasks performed at this time were the fascinating, if fabulous, Pictures +from English, Scottish, and Irish History; _The Wandering Jew_, +described as a 'conglomerate of history, biography, travel, and +descriptive geography,' and a collection of 'All the Voyages round the +World'--the last issued under the pen-name of Samuel Prior. + +This record of futile commercial enterprise, varied by uninspiring +literary work, constitutes dull reading; fortunately a happier period is +now reached. In 1820, Mr Blackwood accepted _The Ayrshire Legatees_ for +his magazine, and this book proved to be Galt's first real literary +success. Perhaps it is also the first deliberate attempt in our +literature to delineate, for their own sake, contemporary Scottish +manners and character. It will be seen that the mechanism of the story, +though of the simplest, is well contrived for supplying to these the +necessary relief. Dr Pringle, the minister of a secluded rural parish in +Ayrshire, having to his surprise been appointed residuary legatee of a +wealthy Indian cousin deceased, betakes himself to London to attend to +his affairs in person. He is accompanied by his wife and family--the +latter consisting of a son just called to the Scottish bar, and a +daughter. The Scottish characters are thus detached against an English +background, and the letters in which they describe their experiences in +the metropolis to their several correspondents at home make up the +staple of the book. The characters of this little group--of the simple, +but truly pious and kind-hearted minister, with his sturdy +presbyterianism and quaint traditional phraseology of the pulpit; of +that notable managing woman his spouse, like whom there was not another +within the jurisdiction of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr; and of the +really able and acute young advocate, with his Scottish magniloquence, +and his pose as a man of the world even whilst betraying his +inexperience--all these are well conceived and well drawn, their +unconscious self-revelation being cleverly and naturally managed. The +high-flown and romantic young lady, who so soon adapts herself to her +new circumstances, though a pleasing enough portrait, is less +distinctively Scottish than the rest. Fragments of narrative +interpolated among the letters serve to introduce us to the audience +before whom these are read out, and at the same time to present a second +series of slighter, though not less racy, character-sketches. The hint +of the book, with its unanswered correspondence, is obviously drawn from +_Humphrey Clinker_, and, as in that masterpiece, real persons and +events--such as the funeral of George the Third and the trial of Queen +Caroline, Braham the singer and Sir Francis Burdett--supply much of the +epistolary subject-matter. As in Smollett's novel, too, the same +subjects are at times discussed in turn by the different writers--a plan +which, though it serves the purpose of contrasting character, is not +entirely free from objection. + +_The Ayrshire Legatees_ was followed in the next year by the yet more +original _Annals of the Parish_. The history of the growth of this book +is identical with that of _Waverley_--it had been begun years before, +laid aside, and then resumed and completed--only that Galt has told us +that his reason for discontinuing it was that he had been assured that a +Scotch novel had no chance of success--an assurance which the case of +_Waverley_ has proved untrue. The _Annals_ stands in somewhat the same +relation to Scott's novel as does a Dutch to an Italian masterpiece, a +tale of Crabbe's to an Elizabethan tragedy. It is given out as an +account of the ministry of Micah Balwhidder, parish priest of Dalmailing +(Dreghorn), written by himself. Mr Balwhidder had happened to be +inducted on the very day on which King George the Third came to the +throne; and, irrespective of its merit as a work of fiction, his +narrative possesses real historical value as a record of the progress of +a rural parish during the half-century succeeding that event. Indeed, +with some omissions, the book might almost be printed as an appendix to +the old Statistical Account of the parishes of Scotland, drawn up by the +ministers. When rumours of great events--such as the American War of +Independence or the French Revolution--reach the secluded hamlet, their +sound is softened and their influence subdued. But the records of such +local matters as floods and bad seasons, improvement of land, making of +roads and planting of hedges, development of mineral resources, and so +on, are also in their degree the stuff of which history is made, and as +here set down they are worthy the attention of an Arthur Young. Then we +are incidentally informed of the fluctuations of prices, of the rise of +new industries, and the change of fashions--information which to the +ordinary novel-reader would appear dry, but for the human and personal +interest by which it is pervaded. For the history of the parishioners is +interwoven with that of the parish, and over the whole is cast the charm +of the kindly Doric and the simple and guileless personality of the +minister. In theory an uncompromising stickler for orthodoxy of +doctrine, and a terror to evil-doers in the abstract, Mr Balwhidder's +instinct is wiser than his creed, and where the two are at variance the +stronger insensibly gains the day. The tone of his fragmentary narrative +is of itself proof sufficient of his fatherly interest in his villagers. +And among those villagers, or at least within the narrow bounds of his +parish, he can exhibit a sufficiently motley and picturesque variety in +character and the experience of life. First of all we have Lord +Eaglesham, the kind landlord, genial gentleman and free liver; Mr +Cayenne, the irascible business-man, whose bark is worse than his bite, +and Lady Macadam, the flighty and high-handed Great Lady of the old +school. Then there is Mrs Malcolm, the pattern widow left with a large +young family, her son Charles, the frank sailor, and her handsome +daughter Kate; old Nanse Banks, the school-mistress, and her more +advanced successor, Miss Sabrina Hookey; Colin Mavis, the youthful poet; +the labourer who deserts his slatternly wife and family in order to +enlist; the 'naturals,' Jenny Gaffaw and her fantastic ill-fated +daughter; pious Mizy Mirkland, and many more. And if these figures be +not drawn life-size and set direct in the reader's eye, it is for the +sake of artistic keeping: the book is deliberately pitched in a lower +key than the ordinary novel, and its persons are shown to us, as it +were, afar off. But, none the less, every history is life-like, every +character consistent within itself--living as with the life of those +real people who flourished before our time, and of whom we have all of +us heard in fireside stories as children. In this respect the author's +aim is perfectly realised, and his work is a perfect work of art. + +As is the _Annals_ to ministerial and parochial life, so is _The +Provost_ (published in the following year) to the life of magistrates +and municipalities. Yet a greater contrast to the ingenuous pastor of +Dalmailing than that presented by the long-headed Provost of the Royal +Burgh of Gudetown it would be almost impossible to conceive. Either of +the two, in fact, presents a happy illustration of the respective shares +of personality and environment in the formation of character: each is in +part God's work, in part the world's. But it is in the magistrate that +the world has the larger share. Provost Pawkie, who is Galt's +masterpiece in the delineation of character, is worldly wisdom +incarnate. Entering public life at a period when jobbery and corruption +are rife, he simply takes the world as he finds it, and turns it to the +best account he can. Only, as nature has endowed him with a sharper wit +than his brother bailies and councillors, he is enabled to tread the +paths of policy to much better advantage than they, whilst in the midst +of very questionable transactions retaining the appearance of clean +hands. A fortunate geniality of temper, which is partly the cause and +partly the result of his prosperity, keeps him even at the worst from +entirely forfeiting our regard; while, strange as it may seem, the +warmth and rightness of his feeling in public or private matters where +his own interest is not concerned prove that his heart remains +unperverted by the element in which he works. As time goes on, the +public life around him becomes purer, and he himself keeps pace with the +times. Is this because he has seen the error of his ways, and like all +people who are good in the main grows better as he grows older; or is it +merely the result of policy trimming his sails to catch the popular +breeze? Perhaps the balance of the doubt is in his favour; yet assuredly +he is far too clear-sighted to persevere in methods which have become +publicly discredited. Galt's artistic instinct was too true to allow +him to make perfectly clear to us all the workings of so subtle a mind; +but the worthy cloth-mercer himself stands before us to the life, +shrewd, portly, and consequential, with the redeeming twinkle of a dry +Scotch humour in his eye and a racy Scotticism on his lip. + +As in the _Annals of the Parish_, so in _The Provost_ a chronicle of +external progress forms the background to the narrator's experiences, +and in the latter case this chronicle deals with improvements in the +burgh, sanitary enactments, paving and lighting, repairing the Tolbooth +steeple, and so forth. These affairs, though in their own way typical +also, are of narrower interest than the changes in a countryside, but +their inferiority in this respect is more than made up for by such +admirable passages of interpolated narrative as, for instance, those +which describe the execution of Jean Gaisling for child-murder, the +Windy Yule with its disasters on the sea and heart-break on land, the +duel, and the visit of the press-gang, or, in humorous vein, the fracas +with the strolling players in the change-house, and the incident of the +supposed French spy. + +Few writers have possessed a greater native gift of story-telling than +Galt, and few, it must alas! be added have used their gift more +carelessly. In the very slightest of his numberless tales, traces of +this gift are apt to appear, and perhaps in none of his writings is it +seen to greater advantage than in the incidental reminiscences of _The +Provost_. But, in fact, this little book possesses the merit, so rare +among our author's writings, of perfection as an artistic whole. In +reviewing Galt we are too apt to find ourselves driven to the naïve +conclusion of the man in the anecdote, 'that the work would have been +better if the craftsman had taken more pains.' But in this case he +either _did_ take more trouble than usual, or else, which is more +likely, his inspiration was better sustained. + +The period now under consideration may be defined as that of Galt's +masterpieces; yet even now a slight decline in his workmanship begins to +be manifest. In the same year with _The Provost_, he published _The +Steamboat_, and _Sir Andrew Wylie_, thus already betraying a tendency to +over-write. _The Steamboat_ consists mainly of an account of the +experiences of one Thomas Duffle, burgess of the Saltmarket, at the +Coronation of George the Fourth--which is described in detail--the said +experiences being couched in the racy autobiographical style already +familiar to readers of _The Provost_, and relieved by a series of short +stories supposed to be related by Duffle's fellow-travellers. In many of +these stories--and notably in those told by the Sailor Boy and the +Soldier's Mother, in _Deucalion of Kentucky_ and _The Dumbie's +Son_--Galt's powers are seen to advantage. Unfortunately their effect is +marred by the singularly ill-conceived and irritating device on the part +of the author of 'leaving off at the most interesting point.' In a +single instance this trick might have been tolerated, but the reader +loses patience when he finds it repeated again and again. This, however, +is but a single example out of many which might be cited from Galt's +writings of his propensity to ill-timed joking, and his seeming +inability to take his own work seriously. + +It has been asserted that, of all Galt's novels, _Sir Andrew Wylie_ was +the most popular south of the Tweed. If this was so, its popularity was +due far less to intrinsic desert than to the accident that a great part +of the action of the story takes place in England, whilst the principal +actors--among whom is included a portrait of Lord Blessington--instead +of belonging to the Scottish lower or middle classes, are members of the +English aristocracy. A success based upon such grounds as these has of +course no real value, and besides being of tedious length, the novel in +question falls in other ways far short of the author's best +achievements. Andrew Wylie is intended as the type of the canny young +Scot who goes up to London and makes his fortune. We see him first as a +queer 'auld-farrant' urchin, and then as an eident thrifty youth. He +fully means to get on, he has the sharpest of eyes to see on which side +his bread is buttered, and, above all, he has none of the ordinary +failings of youth, and sows no wild oats. In fact he is rich in all +those serviceable qualities of which perhaps the perfect exemplar in +real life is no Scot but the Yankee Benjamin Franklin, and he has a +quaint vein of native humour thrown in. And yet, notwithstanding so many +qualities and so few infirmities, he is no prig, but, like Franklin, +compels not only our respect, but our liking. So far the author has done +well. But when he goes on to describe 'Wheelie's' rise in the world, we +feel that the means of his advancement are altogether too phenomenal. +With such a friend as the Earl to help him, what young man might not +have risen? But this is only a single instance of his luck. Throughout +his career, the hero meets with the consistent and amazing good-fortune +of a prince in a fairy-tale, making conquests at first sight not only of +lackadaisical Riversdales and scatter-brain Dashingwells, but of the +King and of Pitt himself. And so, as the story progresses, its +improbability increases, until in the scenes between Andrew and the +dowager, and Andrew and the baronet, it becomes flatly and absolutely +incredible. In this particular--I mean in the entire disproportion +between the effect produced by the hero upon the reader and that which +he is supposed to exercise on the other characters in the book--the +story shares the fundamental defect of another Scottish novel, the work +of a much more pains-taking hand--_The Little Minister_. + +Galt's next publication of importance was _The Entail_--a novel of which +the theme is 'gear,' a Scotsman's pertinacity in gathering it, and his +tenacity in holding it when gathered--a matchless subject for the +illustration of national character. And in this case the mere desire of +acquisition is elevated and to some extent humanised by being associated +with another characteristic passion of the Scot--to wit, the pride of +family. The story turns upon the disinheriting, for estate reasons, by +Claud Walkinshaw, Laird of Grippy, of his eldest son, and on the events +which spring therefrom. Walkinshaw, who is the representative of an old +but ruined family, has been brought up in penury, but at an early age +has set before himself as his aim in life the reconquest of the family +estates. Towards this object every step he takes is directed; in its +interest every secondary consideration is sacrificed. His youth has been +spent in haggling as a pedlar, and when, having by his own exertions +established himself in trade, he decides to marry, he goes, of course, +'where money is.' His firstborn, Charles, is his favourite son; but even +paternal affection must give way before the ruling passion. Watty, the +second son (a masterly sketch) has been a 'natural' from his birth. But +he is heir to the estate of his maternal grandfather, and it is only +through a transaction depending on the possession of this property that +a Walkinshaw can be reinstated in possession of the undiminished +Walkinshaw estates. To these circumstances Charles is without hesitation +sacrificed, and his father's dream seems at last to be realised. But, +though he has gained his point, the old man finds himself further than +ever from contentment. The stars in their courses seem to fight against +him, the consequences of his unjust act recoil upon him, and he is even +driven to believe himself an object of heavenly vengeance. Thus--in his +character as a father visited by retributive justice through his +children--Claud Walkinshaw may be considered the Père Goriot of Scottish +fiction. And so far the book is fine; but unfortunately, from this +point--about midway--the level of excellence is not sustained. In the +midst of his woes, Claud is carried off by a shock of paralysis; but the +evil he has done lives after him, thus supplying material for the +remainder of the novel. But the calculating business-man, the youngest +of the three brothers, who now succeeds to the role of principal +character, is colourless in comparison with his father. The writing, +too, though relieved by the delightful sallies of the 'Leddy +Grippy'--one of the very best of Scotchwomen in fiction--becomes diffuse +to such a point that we wax impatient for the expiation of the old man's +misdeeds by his disinterested grandson. Both Scott and Byron are said to +have read this book three times, but the modern reader will probably +rest content with a single perusal. + +Its shortcomings notwithstanding, _The Entail_ was favourably received, +and by this time the author is said to have been so elated by success as +to boast that his literary resources were far greater than those of +Scott, or any other contemporary.[6] Whether in deliberate rivalry or +not, certain it is that, by turning his attention to the historical +romance, he now entered the field which the Wizard had made particularly +his own. In the meantime he had taken up his abode at Esk Grove, near +Musselburgh, where, in possible emulation of Abbotsford, he is said to +have contemplated building a 'veritable fortress,' exactly in the +fashion of the oldest times of rude warfare. + +The results of his bold literary enterprise were seen in _Ringan +Gilhaize_, _The Spaewife_, and _Rothelan_--the first two published in +1823, the third in the following year. In an article from the pen of Mr +Francis Espinasse, in the Dictionary of National Biography, these books +are disposed of as 'three forgotten novels'; but the description lacks +discrimination. Forgotten, for aught I know to the contrary, they may +be; but at least one of the three deserved a happier fate. _Ringan +Gilhaize_ is, in fact, a very fine historical romance, and one, it may +be said in passing, which would well repay resuscitation at the hands of +some enterprising publisher. A happy instinct had directed Galt in his +selection of a period which is certainly the most important, as it is +one of the two most romantically interesting, in Scottish history. For +though the War of Independence be the darling theme of Scottish +patriotism, what I may call the War of Religious Liberty enjoys the +two-fold advantage of a wider sympathy and a deeper intellectual +significance. Galt has skilfully conducted us through the entire period +of this struggle, for his story, opening during the regency of Marie of +Lorraine, concludes with the battle of Killiecrankie, whilst of +intermediate historical events which bear upon the main issue, the +greater number receive some notice in passing. Of course the danger of +such a proceeding is lest fiction become subordinate to fact, thus +making the main interest of the book an historical rather than an +imaginative one. But this danger Galt has cleverly avoided. His method +is to bring bygone times home to us through the imagination--as, for +instance, in the scene of the gathering of devout persons in Gilhaize's +house, or the open air preaching near Lasswade--whilst at the same time +quickening our interest in historical occurrences--such as the battle of +Drumclog, or the march of the Covenanting forces to Edinburgh--by +causing his imaginary characters to participate in them. This, I +conceive to be the true philosophy of the historical romance. And into +the spirit of the particular movement with which he deals, it must be +acknowledged that Galt has penetrated further than Scott. For the true +aim of the writer of a novel treating of these times in Scotland was +obviously to disregard such a non-essential as sporadic insincerity, to +penetrate the outer crust of dourness and intolerance, and whilst +maintaining the balance of perfect fairness, to compel the reader to +sympathise with the best of the Covenanters, not only in their bitter +resentment of cruel wrongs, but in their most earnestly cherished and +loftiest ideals. And this, which Scott did not care to do, Galt has +accomplished, in virtue of which achievement his book is entitled to +rank as the epic of the Scottish religious wars. + +In attempting to embrace within the compass of a single novel the one +hundred and thirty years or so of his period, the author of _Ringan +Gilhaize_ was certainly assaying a very hazardous experiment. For one +thing, of course it was necessary that he should change his hero more +than once, and the risk by so doing of dispersing and losing the +reader's interest was immense. But whilst by taking the family instead +of the individual as his unit, he has preserved artistic consistency, +from this danger he has escaped unscathed. For from the time of the +mission of Michael Gilhaize to St Andrews, and his adventures with the +wanton Madam Kilspinnie, to that of the death of Claverhouse by the hand +of the half-deranged or 'illuminated' Ringan, the interest of the story +never flags. It abounds in fascinating passages of adventure--such as +the journey of the elder Gilhaize to Eglinton, or the wanderings of +Ringan and Mr Witherspoon after the fight at Rullion Green; whilst, +having already referred to an advantage possessed by Galt over Scott, I +may here add that there are passages in this book evincing a literary +style, an intensity, and a delicacy with which Sir Walter could not +compete. Such is the passage describing Gilhaize's reflections whilst +waiting, in the grey of morning, at the gate of Lord James Stuart's +house; the passage which follows, describing the spreading of the news +that John Knox has arrived in Edinburgh, and that which describes the +dalliance of the Queen of Scots with the Reformer on Loch Leven shore. +That Scott was a far greater writer, as he was a far happier man than +his contemporary, no reviewer in his senses would venture to deny. But +that Galt possessed qualities which Scott did not possess, though less +freely acknowledged, is not less true. When the number and extent of his +works is considered, it must be owned that the occasions upon which Galt +puts forth his full powers, or allows us to praise him without reserve, +are sadly few. All the more reason, therefore, that when he does give +us such an opportunity, we should avail ourselves of it with courage and +without stint! It now only remains to add that the book is written in +clear and terse old Scots, to which a dash of the peculiar phraseology +of the Reformed Church adds a touch of quaintness. + +'Surely something must have come over Galt!' is one's involuntary +exclamation on reading his next book, for a greater falling off from +_Ringan Gilhaize_ than _The Spaewife_ can scarcely be imagined. Here +even the writing is slipshod; but, alas! these ups and downs are but too +characteristic of the author. Like the former work, in the cabals and +factions of the rival claimants--or, more properly, aspirants--to the +Crown of Scotland during the reign of James the First, _The Spaewife_ +has a promising and powerful theme. But of the treatment of this theme +it may be said that it can boast scarcely one redeeming feature. The +conduct of the tale is involved and obscure, and abounds in incidents +and dialogues which, while tedious and perplexing in themselves, serve +neither to illustrate character nor to advance action. Indeed, the +reader is heavily taxed to remember the motives and the relations with +one another of the different persons presented. Nor is the book +appreciably stronger in the department of character-drawing. Upon the +poet-king, the romantic ill-fated lover of Joanna Beaufort, one would +suppose that a novelist might delight to lavish his best art. Instead of +this, the King and Queen of the story are mere blanks. Catherine Douglas +is no better, and such originality in character-sketching as the book +can show--and that is not much--is to be found in the portraits of +Glenfruin, the deep though simple-seeming Highland chieftain, and of the +timorous and vacillating Earl of Athol. + +_Rothelan_, a tale of the times of Edward the Third--the historical +portions of which are drawn from an interesting work on that period +written by Joshua Barnes, an antiquary of the seventeenth century--is +unfortunately more nearly on the level of _The Spaewife_ than on that of +_Ringan Gilhaize_. The book is not wanting in spirited scenes, but the +welding of history and romance is but imperfectly accomplished, +notwithstanding an abuse of breaks and gaps, abrupt transitions and +passages irrelevant to the main narrative. Then again, between the +machinations of the conscience-haunted Amias and his inscrutable +henchman Ralph, and the counter-machinations of the wily Adonijah, the +intricacies of the tale are so much too subtle as to end in puzzling the +reader himself. In a passage which may perhaps have been intended as a +sly hit at Scott, the author expressly disclaims any attempt to +reanimate the 'scenes of chivalry, and the pride, pomp, and panoply of +war,' or to restore the archaic language, or the 'fashions of the +draperies, or the ornaments and architecture in the background.' His +concern, he tells us, is not with such subordinate matters as these, but +directly with the human heart itself. For a poet or novelist the +position is a perfectly tenable one, and it is not to this but to the +fact that he lets us see that he does not take his work seriously, that +the author's failure is due. For into his lighter scenes an element of +burlesque, which had already peeped out in his last book, again obtrudes +itself; and burlesque, though a capital thing in its way, is here +entirely out of place. Neither could it under any circumstances be +supposed by a writer of historical fiction that the illusion which it is +his business to produce would be assisted by discussion of such topics +current at the time of writing as Sir Walter Scott's _Redgauntlet_, or +the question of the three-volume novel. + +As under favourable conditions there is perhaps no form of labour more +delightful than literary work, so there can be none more sickening when +it is half-hearted or against the grain. Galt had now produced two +novels in succession in which it was but too apparent that his heart was +not, and he may well have felt weary of the work. Or their languor may +have been due to the fact that his interest had been drawn off in +another direction. At any rate, after a long and--if we judge it by its +best productions--an extremely brilliant spell at his desk, he now +practically abandoned it for some years to come. Well had it been, not +only for his best interests, but for his material happiness, had he +remained where he was! + +The immediate occasion of this change in his life was as follows:--It +happened that some of the principal inhabitants of Canada, whose +property had sustained damage in the American War of 1814, had recently +become urgent in their claims for compensation from the mother country. +As the result of 'proceedings' on which the _Autobiography_ throws no +light, Galt was commissioned to act as agent in this country for the +injured parties, which commission he accepted, undaunted by the worry +and demands upon his time which it must necessarily entail, and set +zealously to work to get the claims allowed by the Treasury. He gained +his point subject to conditions, it being agreed by Government that the +demands of the claimants should be satisfied from the proceeds of the +sale of certain Crown lands in Canada known as the 'reserves.' To find +purchasers for this land now became Galt's object, and mainly through +his instrumentality the 'Canada Company' was formed. But in the +meantime, the inhabitants of Upper Canada, among whom party spirit ran +unusually high, having prejudiced their case with Government, it was +determined that the money realised by selling the reserves should be +devoted to other purposes. Thus Galt found himself defeated in his +object, and in this juncture he was persuaded to join the Canada Company +as a member. He was then appointed a Commissioner to determine the value +of the land to be purchased by the Company, and having crossed the +Atlantic, he proceeded to York, the capital of Upper Canada, where the +Commission prosecuted its enquiries. His health at the time was bad, but +his task was congenial. From boyhood he had nourished a hankering after +colonisation, and if we abate a few comparatively trifling dissensions, +his experiences at this time seem on the whole to have been agreeable. +In due course the Commissioners signed their report and returned to +England, only to receive the news that their labours had been +unexpectedly complicated by action taken by the Canadian clergy in +relation to the 'clergy reserves.' After some difficulty this matter +also was at length adjusted, and the Company having obtained its +Charter, Galt was deputed to return to Canada to superintend the +founding of the new colony. Whilst the affairs above-mentioned had been +under discussion, he had, however, found time to produce _The Omen_ and +_The Last of the Lairds_, two small but admirable works in contrasted +styles. + +Indeed, the sustained excellence of the former suffices to constitute it +his masterpiece in the purely tragic vein. It is likewise in all +probability his most characteristic work, its unique and special claim +to attention consisting in the tense and lurid imaginative atmosphere +which the author has created and made to pervade his tale. Availing +himself of the autobiographical convention, and assuming a fantastic +dramatic guise, he gives the rein to his fancy and roams at large in a +world that is dominated by those presentiments, bodings, and subtle +hidden relations of things, which had always exercised so powerful a +fascination over his mind. And yet--what is of vital importance in the +effect which he obtains--these portents are never allowed to lead us +away from the firm earth, or from actual life. From the very first the +reader is brought under the potent spell of the author's imagination, +and so perfect is the art that ever as the dark tale unfolds the +author's grip gains in strength. There are passages of fervid and gloomy +eloquence in the writing which recall nothing in literature so much as +Chateaubriand's masterpiece, and it is notable that, whilst in other +respects the two stories are entirely distinct, the mysterious and +repellent point on which they turn is one. _René_ was almost pure +autobiography, and it is plain to those who have studied Galt's more +intimate utterances that into _The Omen_ he threw much of what was moody +and fantastic in his own mind and personality. + +_The Last of the Lairds_ is a pleasant comedy of old Scotch manners, +rich in the masterly painting of old Scotch character. The plot turns on +the making up by busybodies of a match between a withered spinster and +an elderly, partly imbecile, and ruined landlord--the threatened +ugliness of the theme being averted by a gaiety rare in Galt's work, and +also--as in the case of some of Hogarth's pictures--by sheer skill and +power displayed in the characterisation. The contrasted meddlers, the +bride and her sister, the Nabob, and the Laird's Jock are all of them +capital; whilst the Laird himself, though failing to attain the breadth +and dignity proper to a type, is at least a good and by no means +ungenial portrait. The change wrought in him by marriage, if surprising, +is not incredible, and serves to pave the way for the welcome happy +ending. This book, which was left incomplete by Galt when he returned to +America, received some finishing touches from his friend Moir, though +the hand of the latter cannot be said to be traceable in its pages. + +Late in the year 1826, the author returned to Canada, having already, by +his own account, some grounds for believing that he was regarded with +hostility. Whether these suspicions were purely morbid or not it is +impossible to say, but a general consideration of his fitness for the +work to which he had chosen to devote his life may not be out of place. +There is every reason to believe that he was afterwards harshly and +unjustly used; yet judging solely from what he himself has told of +himself, one must allow that he was not precisely the sort of man to +select for the discharge of important public business. That his ability +was extraordinary, and his power of work immense, has been amply +established; none the less does it remain true that in certain qualities +not less essential to business he was positively defective. Morbidly +sensitive, he lacked the wisdom to control his feelings under a sense of +injury, and was too much inclined to form conclusions, and to act, upon +impulse. In addition to this, imagination or fancy--of which, in a world +constituted as ours is, the mere suspicion will often suffice to +prejudice a man in his dealings with his fellow-men--was far too active +a power in his brain. But, to leave such considerations as are grounded +upon character and revert to substantial facts, what was the assumption +from Galt's previous history as a man of business? That history reveals +a goodly number of schemes and of attempts, scarce one of which but had +proved abortive or a failure. Surely, if he was in truth a competent +business man, ill-luck must have pursued him with uncommon pertinacity; +and even allowing this to have been the case, he will still stand +condemned as a wretched judge of the chances of success inherent in any +given business concern. The years at which we have now arrived were the +most momentous in his life as a man; but in a sketch of his literary +career, such as the present, their place is subordinate. + +Haunted by presentiments of evil even at the time of leaving home, Galt +had scarcely reached Canada when his troubles began. In fact his +differences with Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Lieutenant-Governor of the +province, date from the morning after his arrival. Of this disagreement +it is sufficient to say that Galt was not the aggressor, though very +likely his previous conduct had been less wary than behoved for one in +his delicate position. Certainly, with all due sympathy for a +much-suffering man of genius, it cannot be asserted that his temperament +was one calculated to smooth away difficulties, or, where self-love was +concerned, to carry him pleasantly out of a misunderstanding. The +Governor, besides suspecting him of unfriendliness to the Government, +was jealous of a supposed inclination to interfere in public matters +outside his sphere; and though these suspicions were alike groundless, +it unfortunately happened that a communication which Galt had addressed +to the editor of an opposition journal afforded a specific ground of +complaint. Here, at once, were all the materials for a very pretty +quarrel. + +A visit to Quebec, however, brought more agreeable experiences, social +and adventurous. Thence Galt proceeded to York, to commence the duties +of his mission. He was now practically in sole charge of the business of +the Company, but he seems to have felt quite equal to his +responsibilities, and when winter was over he decided to begin +operations by founding a city in the Company's territory. Determined to +clothe the occasion with as much impressiveness as possible, and having +selected St George's Day as an auspicious date, he accordingly travelled +to the appointed site--the last nine miles of the journey lying within +the primeval forest. Here is his account of the proceedings:-- + + 'It was consistent with my plan to invest our ceremony with a little + mystery, the better to make it be remembered. So intimating that the + main body of the men were not to come, we walked to the brow of the + neighbouring rising ground, and Mr Prior having shown the site + selected for the town, a large maple tree was chosen; on which, + taking an axe from one of the woodmen, I struck the first stroke. To + me at least the moment was impressive,--and the silence of the + woods, that echoed to the sound, was as the sigh of the solemn + genius of the wilderness departing for ever. The doctor followed me, + then, if I recollect correctly, Mr Prior, and the woodmen finished + the work. The tree fell with a crash of accumulating thunder, as if + ancient Nature were alarmed at the entrance of social man into her + innocent solitudes with his sorrows, his follies, and his crimes. I + do not suppose that the sublimity of the occasion was unfelt by the + others, for I noticed that after the tree fell, there was a funereal + pause, as when the coffin is lowered into the grave; it was, + however, of short duration, for the doctor pulled a flask of whisky + from his bosom, and we drank prosperity to the City of Guelph.' + +The name was chosen in compliment to the Royal Family. To matter-of-fact +minds the characteristic tone of this passage may appear dangerously +poetical, so perhaps it is well to add that the site of the new city had +been most judiciously chosen. Occupying a tongue of land projecting into +a river, almost in the centre of the district which separates the lakes +of Ontario, Simcoe, Huron, and Erie, the infant township enjoyed +extraordinary facilities for communication. It became prosperous, and +within the space of forty-five years its population had reached the +total of 50,000. + +Galt now threw himself with great zeal and energy into his work, which +was on a grand scale and of a stimulating character, and, besides the +founding of cities, included the felling of forests, exploration, and +the naming of places unnamed. To a voyage undertaken for the purpose of +finding a harbour on Lake Huron, was due the origin of the now +flourishing city of Goderich. Of course the romance of this sort of +life, together with the sense it gave him of playing an important part +in the spread of civilisation, were agreeable and flattering to Galt; +but in other respects his position was not without drawbacks. Those +symptoms of troubles to come which had so early presented themselves to +him had by no means disappeared; whilst, as he assures us, secret +enemies were also at work against him. There were not wanting signs of +friction between the Government and the Directors of the Company, the +stock of the latter fell to a discount, and the Directors thereupon +taxed their Commissioner with extravagance in the carrying out of his +plans. He began to find himself subjected to petty annoyances, and at +this time an incident in which he had humanely, but perhaps +injudiciously, befriended some helpless emigrants served further to +embroil matters. + +In this juncture, he received a private warning to expect a reprimand +from his Directors. No doubt there were faults on both sides, but +conscious that he had done his best, and smarting under the injustice of +being assumed unheard to be in fault, he placed his resignation in the +hands of a friend. The friend, however, decided not to present it, and +Galt therefore continued his labours as before, evincing an astonishing +fertility in projects and ideas, of which we may suppose a fair +proportion to have been applicable enough to his circumstances. +Unfortunately causes of annoyance continued to flow in upon him, and it +was evident that a climax was not far off. + +The spectacle now afforded by the _Autobiography_ is a melancholy one. +It is that of a gifted and generous-minded, though unduly irritable, +man-of-letters entangled in toils of red-tape, and in the meantime +exposed to the darts of his enemies. In such a contest--though in some +respects Galt was a giant pitted against pigmies--it was a foregone +conclusion that he must come off second-best. Matters were precipitated +by the Directors appointing an accountant to assist him in his duties. +The conduct of this person supplied grounds for a belief that he was +authorised to exercise surveillance over the Superintendent, and such a +position being intolerable, Galt resolved to return to England. Indeed +he found himself driven to the conclusion that it was intended to break +up the Company, and that his own removal from office would be a step +towards that end. Unfortunately he was destined to undergo treatment +even less agreeable than that which he anticipated. Circumstances +having compelled him to defer his return to England, he paid a final +visit to Goderich, and had arrived at New York on his homeward journey +when he was informed that he had been superseded. As he had been on the +point of retiring from the service, his material position remained +practically unaffected. But his resignation, if indeed it were +irrevocably determined on, had certainly not been publicly announced, +and to a man of his temperament it must have been gall and wormwood to +have forcibly taken from him even though 'twere but that which he was +ready to resign. No wonder that he felt himself to have been treated +with the vilest ingratitude. 'The Canada Company,' he writes, 'had +originated in my suggestions, it was established by my endeavours, +organised in disregard of many obstacles by my perseverance, and, though +extensive and complicated in its scheme, a system was formed by me upon +which it could be with ease conducted. Yet without the commission of any +fault, for I dare every charge of that kind, I was destined to reap from +it only troubles and mortifications, and something which I feel as an +attempt to disgrace me.'[7] + +The writer of the article, before referred to, in the Dictionary of +National Biography has spoken of the _Autobiography_ as 'remarkable for +self-complacency.' It is, therefore, only fair to state that the value +which Galt puts upon his own services as a colonial organiser is not +unsupported by testimony from without. The report of a local expert, +incorporated in Galt's narrative, testifies not only to the intrinsic +excellence of his system, but to the success attending it; whilst an +address of gratitude and good wishes presented by the settlers in the +new city bears witness to the personal estimation in which they held +him. Indeed one of the main causes of his failure seems to have been +that he took too high a view of his own mission, aspiring to aim at the +good of humanity, where his associates and principals were content to +contemplate gain: a Quixote set to perform the work of a Board composed +of Sancho Panzas. Even at this date, had he been informed at once that +his dismissal must be regarded as final, he would have been spared some +suffering. But his agony--the term is scarcely an exaggeration--was +prolonged by suspense and by unavailing struggles. And finally, as if +anything were yet wanting to complete the irony of his position, he +lived to see the Company which he had himself founded, and in the +service of which three of the best years of his life had been spent, +develop into a flourishing concern, yielding abundant profits in which +he had no share. + +Misfortunes come not singly, and the fall of the lion is the opportunity +of meaner creatures. The determining of his connection with the Canada +Company had hit Galt severely in his pecuniary circumstances. He now +found himself unable to meet the claims which were made upon him, and at +the suit of a certain Dr Valpy of Reading, one of the oldest of his +English acquaintances, to whom he owed the paltry sum of £80 for the +education of his sons, he was presently arrested. Conscious as he was of +unimpeachable probity of intention, and marking, as in his Utopian way +he did, a distinction between law and justice, he felt this last +indignity keenly. He, however, made no sign, but endured with +imperturbable stoicism a long period of confinement. None the +less--partly by the physical restraint to which he was so little +accustomed, partly, as he himself with only too much show of +probability suggests, by distress of mind--his constitution was +irreparably injured. He was now entirely dependent on his pen, and +though his literary activity continued as great as before, the literary +fruits which he put forth had lost the fineness of their old savour. Of +this he seems to have been aware, for he has put on record the fact that +his later novels were written to please the public, not himself, and +that he would not wish to be estimated by them. For our purpose, +therefore, a hasty glance at them may suffice. + +In 1830 he published _Lawrie Todd_, a tale of life in the backwoods, +which, with _Bogle Corbet, or The Emigrants_, (1831), was founded upon +fact, and designed by the author to serve the double purpose of amusing +the general reader and conveying reliable information to those +practically interested in the American colonies. _Southennan_, a tale of +the days of Mary Queen of Scots, also published in 1830, was inspired by +the tradition associated with a romantic old mansion-house, which had +impressed Galt's fancy in youth. In the same year he also produced his +_Life of Byron_, of which--so keen was public interest in the subject at +the time--three editions were exhausted in as many months. The author's +view of the noble poet's character has been already indicated; his work +has, however, been pronounced 'valueless.' About this time he also acted +as editor of _The Courier_, a Tory newspaper; but, finding the work +uncongenial, after a few months abandoned it. In 1831, by way of a +change of employment, at the suggestion of Lockhart, who was always a +good friend to him, he put together his amusing _Lives of the Players_. +In the same year he took up his abode at Brompton--a suburb in those +days not yet absolutely devoid of the charms of the country--where for +some three or four years to come he occupied Old Barnes Cottage, a +somewhat dilapidated building, but one which possessed the invaluable +appendage of a large and pleasant garden. + +It was at this time that Carlyle met him at a dinner-party at the house +of Fraser, the publisher, and wrote a description of him. But before +quoting this sketch, we may give that of Moir, penned some eight years +earlier. At that time, according to the Doctor's testimony, Galt was 'in +the full vigour of health,' a man of herculean frame, over six feet in +height and inclining to corpulency, with jet-black hair as yet +ungrizzled, nose almost straight, small but piercing eyes, and finely +rounded chin. When Carlyle saw him, trouble had already told upon him. +'Galt looks old,' he writes,[8] 'is deafish, has the air of a sedate +Greenock burgher; mouth indicating sly humour and self-satisfaction; the +eyes, old and without lashes, gave me a sort of wae interest for him.... +Said little, but that little peaceable, clear and _gutmüthig_. Wish to +see him again.' This account he supplemented a month later as follows: +'A broad gawsie Greenock man, old-growing, lovable with pity.' + +The need for pity soon increased. It has been stated that Galt's health +had suffered from his confinement, it was about this time further +affected by the first of a long series of shocks, which are described as +of a nature 'analogous to paralysis.' This sufficed to destroy such +hopes of active employment as remained to him--and he had been, as +usual, hard at work weaving schemes with all his former ingenuity--and +in process of time reduced him to a wreck. Still he clung to his pen, +adding to the already lengthy list of his works the novel of _Stanley +Buxton, or The Schoolfellows_, as well as two political satires entitled +_The Member_ and _The Radical_. Mrs Thomson, authoress of 'Recollections +of Literary Characters,' an old friend, who visited him when he was +growing ever more and more disabled, has left a touching account of his +helplessness. Galt received her without rising from his seat, gave her +his left hand, and pointing to his right, said, 'with a little +quickness, "Perhaps you have heard of my attack? It has fallen upon my +limbs; my head is clear."' Alas! though clear, his mental powers were by +no means what they had been. But, if on some former occasions he had +shown himself too much a prey to moral sensibility, where physical +suffering was concerned his behaviour was that of a stoic. Whilst the +progress of the disease deprived him of the use of one limb after +another, he continued, uncomplaining, to make the most of such powers as +yet remained. Indeed, during the three or four years immediately +following his first seizure, his annual literary output in the +departments of editing, book-making, and story-writing, seems if +anything larger than usual. But among all these undertakings, it is +sufficient here to name the novels of _Eben Erskine, or The Traveller_, +and _The Stolen Child_, with the three volumes of tales collected under +the title of _Stories of the Study_, and the _Autobiography_ and +_Literary Life and Miscellanies_. The lax composition of the latter +works is probably a symptom of mental decay in the author. The book last +named was dedicated by permission to William the Fourth, who in +acknowledgment of the compliment sent Galt £200, which money, together +with £50 obtained for him from the Literary Fund, may be said to +represent the sum of official, or quasi-official, recognition which he +received. For his claims against Government for 'brokerage,' or +commission, on the sale of lands to the Canada Company were refused, +whilst a pension said to have been promised him by the Company was never +paid. The last years of his life were spent in dependence, but it is +pleasing to note that the _Autobiography_ closes with an expression of +satisfaction over the payment of secured debts. He had in the meantime +been removed to the house of a sister at Greenock, where he died on the +11th April 1839, not having yet completed his sixtieth year. + +In summing up Galt's position, it may be said that he remains the most +unequal of all writers possessing equal claims to distinction--the man +who _could_ produce _The Provost_ and _Ringan Gilhaize_ and who _did_ +produce _The Spaewife_ and _The Literary Life_. For it is not enough to +say, as has been said, that in him there were two men, the man of +letters and the man of affairs: there were two literary men in him, the +creative artist and the book-maker. And the fact that, of these two, the +latter had things too much his own way was due to Galt's defective +appreciation of his high calling. 'My literary propensities,' he writes, +'were suspended during my residence in Upper Canada, not from +resolution, but because I had more interesting pastime. I did then think +myself qualified to do something more useful than "stringing blethers +into rhyme," or writing clishmaclavers in a closet.' And again: 'At no +time, as I frankly confess, have I been a great admirer of mere literary +character; to tell the truth, I have sometimes felt a little shamefaced +in thinking myself so much an author, in consequence of the estimation +in which I view the profession of book-making in general. A mere +literary man--an author by profession--stands low in my opinion.' The +petulance and perversity of the first statement, and the sheer vulgarity +of the second, may be palliated by the fact that the author was in low +spirits and bad health when he made them. It remains none the less true +that these opinions ruled his practice. But they carried their +punishment with them. For who will doubt that Galt would have been a +happier man had he been truer to his vocation, had he resisted the +temptation to fly off at a tangent in pursuit of every commercial +will-o'-the-wisp that might chance to catch his eye, and devoted his +great powers with something more of steadiness and of seriousness to +doing his best at what he was best qualified to do? + +He expected that fuller appreciation would come to him after death, and +perhaps this expectation, so fallacious in ninety-nine cases out of +every hundred, was in his case not without plausible grounds. For, from +a literary point of view, Galt, like De Stendhal, was in advance of his +time. Employing the word in its specialised sense, he was more 'modern' +than the greatest among his contemporaries. For example, as has been +already indicated, when most himself he had more of what we are pleased +to consider the characteristically modern qualities of sensitiveness and +imaginative intensity than had Scott. In illustration of this, perhaps +we cannot do better than cite the already quoted _Omen_, with its sombre +and lurid effects, the sense of bated breath, suspense, impending +tragedy, which pervades its every page. Nothing of all this, as I need +hardly say, was in Scott's line; even in the finest and most imaginative +of his shorter pieces, in _My Aunt Margaret's Mirror_, the tension is +eased by characteristic diffuseness of manner. And Galt's superior--some +will call it morbid--sensitiveness extended also to his style: his use +of words, when he is at his best, is much more interesting than Scott's. +It might possibly even be argued that his Scotch, if perhaps less +abundant, is more remarkable for nice appropriateness of word and phrase +than Sir Walter's. [And, by the way, the failure of Galt's reputation to +cross the Tweed may, perhaps, be partly explained by the fact that, +whereas in Scott's novels the dialogue alone is Scotch, in some of +Galt's best books the entire narrative is interspersed with dialect +words. One can fancy, for instance, the puzzled condition of a southern +reader who is informed by the author himself that 'Mrs Malcolm herself +was this winter brought to death's door by a terrible host that came on +her in the kirk,' or that a certain clock 'was a mortification to the +parish from the Lady Breadland.'] But, to continue our argument, besides +the above, Galt has more of the modern pictorial quality than Scott: +there is more in his descriptive work which is addressed directly to the +eye. Once more, he repeatedly gratifies a modern taste by choosing for +his theme what is fantastic, or occult, or what lies off the beaten +track. In stating all this, we would, of course, guard against being +understood to imply that all these characteristics are points of +advantage possessed by Galt over Scott. On the contrary, some of them +may even be symptoms of an age of literary decadence; what we do +maintain is that, in virtue of these characteristics, his chance of +appealing to a late nineteenth-century audience is improved. As a final +word under this heading, Galt may be called the forerunner of the +Realistic movement in Scottish fiction. _The Provost_ and _The Annals_ +might almost belong to the age of Tourguenieff and Mr Henry James, and +in this respect his works have been more studied than they have been +praised, their influence has been greater than their reputation. +Generally, and in conclusion, Galt may be credited with having done to +some extent for Glasgow and the West of Scotland what Scott triumphantly +accomplished for the Borders and the Highlands, and for the trading and +professional classes of his country what Scott did for its gentry and +peasantry. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] _The Crusade._ + +[4] _Literary Life_, p. 79. + +[5] _Autobiography_, vol. i., p. 147. + +[6] R. P. Gillies, _Memoirs of a Literary Veteran_, vol. iii., p. 59. + +[7] _Autobiography_, vol. ii., p. 157. + +[8] 'Journal,' under date January 21st, 1832. + + + + +D. M. MOIR + +'DELTA' + + +'After all, how precarious a thing is literary fame! Things to which I +have bent the whole force of my mind, and which are worth +remembering--if any things that I have done are at all worth +remembering--have attracted but a very doubtful share of applause from +critics; whilst things dashed off like _Mansie Wauch_, as mere sportive +freaks, and which for years and years I have hesitated to acknowledge, +have been out of sight my most popular productions.' Thus wrote Moir, +under date of April 12th, 1845--six years before his life's labours +closed--to his friend and biographer, Thomas Aird, author of _The +Devil's Dream_. And in this instance posterity has taken its cue from +contemporary popularity; for it is upon the homely and genial _Mansie +Wauch_, and on that alone, that the once considerable literary +reputation of 'the amiable Delta' rests to-day. + +David Macbeth Moir, born on the 5th January 1798, was the son of Robert +Moir and Elizabeth Macbeth, whom Aird describes simply as 'respectable +citizens.' His birthplace was Musselburgh, and to Musselburgh he +remained faithful through life. Indeed, though lives of +men-of-letters--from Shakespeare to Thomas Hardy--afford plenty of +instances of local attachment, there can be few instances I should +suppose of lives more closely associated with a single place. In +Musselburgh Moir's life was spent; Musselburgh he served faithfully, +both in his profession and as a public servant; and in the neighbourhood +of Musselburgh he placed the scene of his most popular work. Gratifying +is it, therefore, to know that Musselburgh has recognised him as her +poet--a minor writer certainly, yet exclusively her own. + +Having received his schooling in his native town, at the age of thirteen +young Moir was bound apprentice to a physician in practice there. His +apprenticeship lasted four years, during the latter part of which, as +also during the year following, he studied medicine in the Edinburgh +University. In 1816 he obtained his surgeon's diploma. In the following +year he lost his father, and being then eighteen, became the partner of +a Dr Brown of Musselburgh, whose practice kept him so occupied that for +more than ten years to come he is said not to have spent a single night +out of the town. + +Meantime, having a facile pen (too facile it has proved!) he had begun +to compose as far back as 1812, about which year he sent two essays to a +Haddington publication entitled _The Cheap Magazine_. In 1816 he +contributed to the _Scots Magazine_, and, further, commemorated the +exploit of Lord Exmouth by publishing anonymously _The Bombardment of +Algiers, and Other Poems_. Despite pressure of work, he did not give up +literature on entering the medical profession, but in time became a +contributor to Constable's and Blackwood's Magazine--to the latter of +which, over the signature '[Greek: Delta],' he came regularly to furnish +not only _jeux d'esprit_ but essays and serious verse as well, his +contributions in all amounting to the large total of nearly four +hundred. In this manner he became acquainted with John Wilson, for +whose showy poetry he entertained an admiration which was doubtless less +uncommon then than it would be now. Other periodicals to which he +contributed were _Fraser's Magazine_ and the _Edinburgh Literary +Gazette_. Between medicine and literature, his life now went on busily +but uneventfully. In the end of 1824 or the commencement of the next +year, he published, under his pseudonym, a volume of verse to which he +gave the title of the _Legend of Genevieve_, which he dedicated to the +veteran author of the _Man of Feeling_. The titular poem is a +sentimental story written in the manner of Byron's Tales, the remaining +pieces being on miscellaneous subjects. About the same time the first +instalments of _Mansie Wauch_ made their appearance in _Blackwood's +Magazine_, the completed story, with additions, being published as a +book in 1828. Moir was a man of an intensely domestic disposition, and +having become affianced in this year, in the following summer he took to +himself a wife in the person of Miss Catherine Bell of Leith, whom he +espoused in the Church of Carham in Northumberland, celebrating the +occasion by a series of Sonnets on the Scenery of the Tweed. By this +lady he eventually became the father of eleven children. His literary +reputation was now established, and in 1829 Mr Blackwood made him an +offer of the editorship of the _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_, +which, however, he declined. In remaining constant to the medical +profession, he has been credited with purely philanthropic motives; but, +without bating a jot of my respect for the man, the following (his own) +explanation of the case seems to me the more reasonable one. 'In early +youth,' says he, in a letter to David Vedder, the sailor poet of Orkney, +'I had many aspiring feelings to dedicate my life to literature, and to +literature alone; but I thank God--seeing what I have seen in Galt, in +Hogg, in Hood, and other friends--that I had resolution to resolve on a +profession, and to make poetry my crutch and not my staff. I have, in +consequence, lost the name which, probably, with due exertion, I might +have acquired; but I have gained many domestic blessings which more than +counter-balance it, and I can yet turn to my pen, in my short intervals +of occasional relaxation, with as much zest as in my days of romantic +adolescence.' This is the utterance of a sensible man who, having his +way to make in the world, decides on the expediency of a certain course +and adheres to it. Possibly Moir's estimate of his own powers was a +juster one than that of many of his friends; at any-rate it is +satisfactory to learn that, 'in spite of the common distrust of the +literary character,' he succeeded in making his way as a doctor even in +that place where proverbially a prophet is apt to lack honour. Mr +Blackwood and others of his friends also urged him to leave Musselburgh +and to set up in practice in Edinburgh, offering to use their interest +in obtaining patients for him. But these offers he likewise declined. +His next publication (1831) consisted of _Outlines of the Ancient +History of Medicine_, and was intended as the first instalment of a +complete history of the subject, although increased pressure of +professional duties, occasioned first by the events of the next year and +then by the retirement of his partner in the year following, prevented +his further execution of the design. + +The period at which we have now arrived is one of those which have been +rendered terribly memorable by a visitation of cholera, and in the +commencement of 1832 the town of Musselburgh was attacked with special +severity by the epidemic. So great was the terror prevailing throughout +the country that many physicians are said to have fled from their posts, +but now, as also during a later outbreak, was the time when Moir's +character shone out with peculiar lustre. Rising to the height of the +emergency, he was to be found night and day at his post, endeavouring +both to lessen the sufferings of the sick by his medical skill, and to +comfort the dying with the consolations of religion. His humane +exertions on behalf of the poor were, in particular, remarkable. This is +a period regarding which one would gladly supply further facts, for it +is, no doubt, the most interesting in Moir's life, and it is +consequently with regret that we find it passed over in a few lines in +the accredited biography. When that was written, circumstantial details +of his faithful labours might still have been collected, and these would +have brought the man nearer to us than anything else could do. But Aird +has given us nothing but generalities. During the outbreak, Moir held +the post of Secretary to the Board of Health of Musselburgh, and it was +as an answer to numberless enquiries addressed to him in this capacity +that he now wrote and published a pamphlet, entitled 'Practical +Observations on Malignant Cholera,' which, says Aird, flew like +wild-fire through the country, and which he shortly supplemented by +'Proofs of the Contagion of Malignant Cholera.' + +No doubt by way of recruiting after his labours, he this year attended +the Meeting of the British Association, which was held at Oxford, and +afterwards visited London, mainly in order to see Galt, with whom he had +become friendly some years before, and who was now living in broken +health at Brompton. On this occasion he had an interview with Coleridge +at Highgate. The sage, who received him in bed, and treated him to 'two +hours of divine monologue,' talked at first of his own early life, +incidentally reciting part of his early-written Monody on the Death of +Chatterton, and so far all went well. But Moir, who had a constitutional +dislike of mysticism, and who ought to have known better, had the +rashness to put a few questions to the poet, 'relative to his peculiar +speculations in philosophy,' and from that moment, needless to say, he +found himself involved in the intricacies of a labyrinth. + +As that of a medical man in the full swing of a large practice, Moir's +life now affords but little material to the biographer. In a letter to +Robert Macnish, his dearly-loved friend and brother in medicine and the +muses, he has himself described his daily existence. 'Our business,' +says he, 'has ramified itself so much in all directions of the +compass--save the north, where we are bounded by the sea--that on an +average I have sixteen or eighteen miles' daily riding; nor can this be +commenced before three or four hours of pedestrian exercise has been +hurried through. I seldom get from horseback till five o'clock; and by +half-past six I must be out to the evening rounds, which never terminate +till after nine. Add to this the medical casualties occurring between +sunset and sunrise, and you will see how much can be reasonably set down +to the score of my leisure.' Still, such leisure as he had, he +perseveringly devoted to literature. When driving upon his rounds, he +would read in his carriage; but his chief time for study was after the +house was shut up for the night, when all was quiet around him, and when +he could, with some degree of comfort, sit down in his library to read +and write. 'Even then, however, from the uncertainty of his profession, +he was never altogether sure of his own time. Often did he remark that, +whether it was the contrariety of human nature, or his own peculiar +sensitiveness to interruption at such a time, he was most liable to be +broken in upon when he was most deeply engaged in writing.' Under such +circumstances we cannot wonder that his literary work lacks finish. The +wonder is rather that he did not give up literature altogether; but we +read that he loved it too well to do this, and that he never seemed so +happy as when his mind was employed upon it. As a doctor of literary +men, he exercised a beneficial influence. Shortly before the death of Mr +Blackwood, that gentleman lay ill in Ainslie Place; whilst Galt, who was +also in bad health, was living in lodgings close by. Relations between +the two had been strained, and illness prevented their meeting. But it +is pleasing to read that their mutual respect and esteem were now +renewed, and that Moir, who was in attendance on both, carried kind +messages between them. + +A most affectionate parent, Moir had sustained a succession of cruel +bereavements by losing three of his children, who died in early +childhood, within the space of about eighteen months, in the years 1838 +and 1839. To relieve his feelings on these occasions, he wrote a series +of elegies, which, after being circulated among his friends, were +published, with a few other poems, in 1843, under the title of _Domestic +Verses_. It is as an elegiac poet--if as a poet at all--that the author +is now remembered, and one of these elegies--called by the +self-conferred name of one of the babes, 'Casa Wappy'--has enjoyed +great popularity and is still included in anthologies, though in my own +opinion a less meritorious composition than the the second of the three +poems on the same subject, entitled 'Casa's Dirge':-- + + 'Now winter with its snow departs, + The green leaves clothe the tree; + But summer smiles not on the hearts + That bleed and break for thee: + The young May weaves her flowery crown, + Her boughs in beauty wave; + They only shake their blossoms down + Upon thy silent grave.' + +His elegiac muse is sweet and fluent, and breathes the consolations of +Christianity. But, like Motherwell, he is apt to be over-lachrymose and +to insist upon his grief, which is fatal to pathos. His touch, too, is +uncertain. For instance, in one Sonnet we have this fine line, + + 'The bliss that feeds upon the heart destroys,' + +in near juxta-position with the ridiculous figure, + + 'Joy's icicles melt down before Time's sun.' + +Here as elsewhere, too, he freely repeats himself. Aird has named _The +Deserted Churchyard_ as Moir's highest imaginative piece. But Aird is no +critic, and description was not Moir's forte. He multiplies +touches--each perhaps good in its way--multiplies them, indeed, to +excess; but to combine and compose them into a whole is beyond him. And +the same defect--the mark either of an inferior talent, or of an +untutored one--is noticeable in his critical portraits. Of his poetry +generally, then, it must be confessed that it belongs to that class +which, finding acceptance to-day, is without significance for the +morrow. But, in justice, it must be remembered that in its own day it +not only pleased the general reader, but also drew warm praises from +such judges as Tennyson, Jeffrey, Wordsworth, and Lockhart. Moir's time, +as we have seen, was not at his disposal, but besides--or perhaps +because of this--he was an impatient composer. He chose--if such things +be determined by choice--to write much rather than to write well. As a +whole his poetry is inferior in style to that of his less prolific +contemporary, Thomas Pringle. And certainly, if poetry is intended to +endure, it must be moulded in some less pliant material than that which +Moir employed. + +Not much now remains to tell. In the year after the publication of his +_Domestic Verses_, Moir contracted a serious illness by sitting all +night in damp clothes by the bedside of a patient, and in 1846 his +general health suffered further from the effects of a carriage accident, +which also permanently lamed him. In 1848 he made an excursion, lasting +two and a half days, and meditated during seven previous years, to the +Lake District with Mrs Moir; and in the following year he visited the +Highlands, with Christopher North, who was 'in great force,' Henry +Glassford Bell, and one or two others. In spring of 1851, he delivered a +course of six lectures at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, his +subject being the Poetical Literature of the Past Half Century. On +appearing on the platform, he had a very warm reception, and his +lectures, proving popular, were soon afterwards published; nor have they +quite lost their interest yet. Of course at the present day no one would +be likely to turn to them for an estimate of the genius, say, of Byron +or of Shelley, or for a summing up of the poetical achievement of +Wordsworth, Coleridge, or Keats. It is in the nature of things that +truth in criticism, as in evidence, is arrived at by a slow process, and +abler pens have dealt with these great writers since Moir's day. But +should anyone wish to know the estimation in which they were held at the +date in question, he will generally find a good indication of it here. +And in so doing, as was inevitable, he will come across some curiosities +of criticism--as, for instance, where the lecturer, speaking of Byron +and Wilson together, as the two rising poetic lights of the year 1812, +adds that 'it is difficult even yet to say which of the two was most +distinguished for general scope of mind, for imaginative and +intellectual power.' Also, should any student desire a sketch--descriptive +rather than critical--of such half-forgotten literary figures as 'Monk' +Lewis and his followers, or of the 'artistic artificial school' of +Hayley, the 'Swan of Lichfield,' and the Della Cruscans, or seek for +appreciative observations on the author of _The Farmer's Boy_, on Kirke +White, or on Samuel Rogers, here he will find them. Besides these +lectures and the works already mentioned, Moir's literary undertakings +include an edition of the works of Mrs Hemans, an Account of the +Antiquities of the Parish of Inveresk, written for the Statistical +Account of Scotland (1845), and a few occasional monographs. + +On the 22nd of June of this year, in dismounting from his horse at the +door of a patient's house, Moir sustained further injuries to his +already partially disabled leg. Failing to rally from the effects of +this accident, and hoping to derive benefit from rest and change, about +a week later he set out upon a short excursion. Mrs Moir accompanied +him, and they had reached Ayr, and had visited the cottage where Burns +first saw the light, when the Doctor became seriously ill. Declining +medical assistance, however, he struggled on to Dumfries, where he +became so much worse as to be forced to take to his bed. It was soon +evident that death was at hand. On hearing of his illness, several of +his friends had hastened to his side, and surrounded by these and by +members of his family, faithfully attended by his wife, and fortified by +a firm religious faith, he passed away on the morning of Sunday, the 6th +July. The inhabitants of the town in which he had laboured so +indefatigably decreed him a public funeral, paying every mark of respect +in their power to his memory, and shortly afterwards his statue, +executed by a sculptor named Ritchie, who had been a pupil of +Thorwaldsen, was erected in a commanding situation on the banks of the +river Esk. Besides his professional labours, he had been a Member of the +Council of his native town and of its Kirk Session, had attended the +General Assembly as a Representative Elder, and had acted as Secretary +to a local Reform Committee appointed on the eve of the passing of the +great Bill. In fine, his life had been essentially that of the good +citizen--an honourable part for which we have so high a respect that we +should be glad to see it oftener adorned with literary distinction. + +In person Moir was tall, well-formed and erect, of sanguine complexion +and with hair tending to the 'sandy' hue, his keen sense of humour, +during friendly intercourse, being particularly manifest in his +countenance. In private life, he was amiable and exemplary, and much +beloved by many friends, including several distinguished writers--'a +man,' says the writer of his obituary in _Blackwood's Magazine_, 'who, +we verily believe, never had an enemy, and never harboured an angry or +vindictive thought against a human being.' Nor did this proceed from +any lack of determination or force of character, of which he had plenty. + + * * * * * + +Did not one recognise the relation subsisting between humour and pathos, +it would be a surprise to find the melancholy Moir--the mourner of a +score of dirges--figuring as author of a succession of broadly and +farcically comic episodes; for such, in the main, is the _Life of Mansie +Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith_. The book was conceived in avowed imitation +of Galt; and, in general outline, the autobiographical tailor, with his +unconscious self-revelation, is obviously suggested by the Provosts and +Micah Balwhidders of that writer. For in literature Galt is as much the +originator of the 'pawky' Scotsman of the commercial or professional +class as was the creator of Dinmont and Headrigg of the Scotsman living +on the soil and racy of it. But if Delta borrowed the first idea of the +story from his friend, the means by which he develops it owe little or +nothing to that source. There, indeed, the sprightly little volume +reminds us of a very different class of literature. In their frank +appeal to those who are easily amused (happily a numerous body), and in +the pleasant clownishness of their fooling, a large proportion of the +scenes recall forcibly the ancient folk-tales, 'drolls' and chap-books, +or the more modern collections of local stories founded upon the same, +and the peculiar style of humour associated with such time-honoured +popular favourites as Lothian Tom and George Buchanan, the King's +Jester. Incidents, for instance, like that of James Batter, the weaver, +concealed in the closet during the visit of the Minister, and of his +inopportune fall through the bottomless chair and imprisonment there, or +of the big suit of clothes being sent home to the little man, and the +little suit to the big man, belong to the primeval stock-in-trade of the +rustic humourist; whilst as for the episode of Deacon Paunch and the +cat--probably there are few parishes in the country boasting the +possession of a phenomenally heavy man where some 'variant' of this +story is not current at the present day. The epigram--if I may so call +it--of the book is also conceived after the popular model; as, for +instance, when the aggrieved collier-woman, taunting Cursecowl on the +prominence of one of his features, declares that he has 'run fast when +the noses were dealing'; when it is observed, in reference to the +various grades of society and their interdependence, that 'we all hang +at one another's tails like a rope of ingans'; or when the writer speaks +of an 'evendown pour of rain, washing the very cats off the house-tops,' +or remarks of hopes not quite likely to be fulfilled that 'many a +rottener ship has come to land.' Some of these phrases may perhaps be +proverbial, but at any rate into just such verbal moulds flows, or used +to flow, the expression of the livelier fancy of the people. The Scotch, +too, in which the book is written is singularly rich and racy. + +It may possibly be asked whether stories such as those referred to above +have much to gain from literary elaboration, brevity in this peculiar +form of wit appearing perhaps even more than usually desirable. The +answer is that the result has justified the experiment. For one thing, +_Mansie Wauch_--which preceded the _Pickwick Papers_ by some years--is +one of the earliest classic specimens of broad humour which is entirely +free from coarseness; and, secondly, in this instance, most of the +farcical episodes--such as the mock duel, the Volunteering scene, the +scenes in the watch-house or with the dumb spaewife, and the playhouse +scene, where Mansie so artlessly mistakes feigning for reality--are made +in a way to serve the purpose of illustrating character. In the case +last named--even allowing for the tailor's native simplicity, for the +fact that this is his first play, and for the 'three jugs' of which he +has partaken in the company of Glen, the farmer--a pretty strong call is +made on humorous convention, or on the credulity of the reader. But, +after all, in this style of writing, who would 'consider curiously'? No! +give the humourist his head is the rule, concede him a trifle of +exaggeration, and let him make you laugh if he can. This book was never +meant for closets and the midnight oil, but to be read aloud over the +fire on winter's eves in the family circle. + +Of course strokes of humorous portraiture somewhat subtler than the +above are by no means wanting, as is shown for instance, in the same +scene, in the fuddled tailor's preoccupation with the clothes worn by +the actors--the good coat 'with double gilt buttons and fashionable +lapells,' or 'the very well-made pair of buckskins, a thought the worse +of the wear, to be sure, but which if they had been cleaned, would have +looked almost as good as new.' But throughout the book little Mansie is +equally 'particular,' especially in regard to clothes,--he has the +loquacity of one occupied in a sedentary manual toil, and the abounding +detail in description of minute occurrences which characterises dwellers +in small towns. The scene of the stampede from the barn, following his +reply to the players, is quite in the best manner of the humourists and +caricaturists of that day,--when uncouth persons tumbling one over the +other in their haste, coat-tails torn off, bull-dogs fastening teeth in +human calves, and wigs flying to the winds, seem to have constituted a +never-failing resource for 'bringing down the house.' Pity that, like +Mercutio, we are become grave men since then! However by far the best +scene of this sort--a classic of its kind--is that which paints the +inroad of the gigantic butcher, infuriated at the misfit of his new +killing-coat, into the tailor's shop, and the subsequent tussle between +him on the one hand and Tommy Bodkin, the three 'prentices, Mansie, and +James Batter on the other. Everywhere George Cruikshank, the illustrator +of the book, is neck and neck with the author, hitting off the very +spirit of his fun, and indeed sometimes adding a point to it; but in his +delineations of this scene and of that with the spaewife he surpasses +himself. + +Of course the book would not be Moir's if it entirely lacked poetic and +pathetic relief, which is supplied in the contents of the papers found +in the Welshman's coat-pocket; in the episode of Mungo Glen, the +apprentice from the Lammermoors, who dies of home-sickness and of a +country boy's hatred of the town, and in the story of the _Maid of +Damascus_. + +Of the character of Mansie--the keystone, so to speak, of the book--it +cannot be said that it stands out with the firmness and clearness of +Galt's best work in the kind, still less of one of Miss Ferrier's +inimitable creations. Yet, if somewhat faintly limned, the little +tailor--so eager, so busy, and so thrifty, such a queer mixture of +guilelessness, shrewdness, and superstition, 'a douce elder of Maister +Wiggie's kirk,' and abounding in Scriptural allusion accordingly, +cautious, yet apt to be 'overtaken' as well as overreached, but with his +heart exactly in the right place--is a figure who in the long run wins +and holds a place in our sympathy. In the course of his professional +avocations, Moir may have had occasion to observe that tailors generally +are a nervous race of men, and from the commencement of the narrative we +are shown that Mansie is full of groundless fears and anxieties--terrified +to discharge his musket when on parade as a Volunteer, and frightened +out of his wits in the Kirk Session house by night. And yet in the hour +of need, when house and home are in danger on the night of the fire, we +see him brave as a lion and brimful of resource--saving 'the precious +life of a woman of eighty that had been four long years bed-ridden,' and +by well-directed efforts with his bucket accomplishing more than the +local fire-engine had done. Such a contrast as this--at once effective +and true to human nature--or as that where Mansie, finding the escaped +French prisoner concealed in his coal-hole, is divided between wrath +against the enemy of his country and sympathy for a fellow-creature in +distress, put the finishing touches to a genial figure, which in our +Scottish national literature has a little niche of its own. + + + + +MISS FERRIER + + +Susan Edmonstone Ferrier, the great mistress of the novel of manners in +Scotland, was born in Edinburgh on the 7th September 1782, and was the +youngest of her parents' ten children. Her father, James Ferrier, was a +younger son of John Ferrier, laird of Kirklands, in Renfrewshire, and +her mother--whose maiden name was Helen Coutts--was the daughter of a +farmer near Montrose. James Ferrier was by profession a Writer to the +Signet, having been admitted a member of the Society in the year 1770. +He had been trained to his vocation in the office of a distant relative, +who had the management of the Argyll estates, and to this gentleman's +business he ultimately succeeded. He was thus on terms of intimacy with +the Duke of Argyll, through whose instrumentality he was appointed a +Principal Clerk of Session. In this office he had Sir Walter Scott as a +colleague, and he was also so fortunate as to enjoy the friendship of +Henry Mackenzie, author of the admirable _Man of Feeling_, of Dr Blair, +and last, not least, of Burns. Thus, from her earliest years onward, his +young daughter must have been accustomed to see and to hear of the +literary lights of the Scotland of that day. + +After their marriage, Mr and Mrs Ferrier occupied a flat in Lady Stair's +Close in the Old Town. Their large family was made up of six sons and +four daughters. When Susan was fifteen she lost her mother, and soon +afterwards she was taken by her father to visit at Inverary Castle, the +seat of his patron the Duke. Here a new world was opened to the plainly +brought up Edinburgh girl. Here for the first time she saw fashion and +the 'high life,' and here--either on this or some subsequent +occasion--she formed several acquaintances which were destined to +influence her career. Under John, fifth Duke of Argyll, society at the +Castle had at that period a somewhat literary and artistic tone. Among +its visitors was the accomplished Lady Charlotte Campbell--afterwards +Lady Charlotte Bury--a name which, if unknown to the present generation, +was once of some repute in the world of letters. Lady Charlotte was the +Duke's younger daughter, and had inherited much of the beauty of her +mother, the celebrated Elizabeth Gunning. She was just seven years older +than Susan Ferrier, was distinguished by a passion for the +_belles-lettres_, and was accustomed to do the honours of Scotland to +the literary celebrities of the time. During the year of Miss Ferrier's +first visit to the Castle, she published anonymously a first literary +venture, which bore the conventional title of 'Poems upon Several +Occasions,' by 'A Lady.' + +It may readily be guessed that this fascinating and high-born +personage--distinguished as she was by the honours and the romance of +authorship--produced her due impression on the imagination of the young +visitor. Susan's literary instincts must certainly have been quickened +by the intimacy--for a friendship which lasted till death sprung up +between herself and Lady Charlotte. But, if she was a gainer in one +direction from the acquaintance, I am inclined to believe that she was a +loser in another. Years after, when she herself became an authoress, +her earliest work was disfigured by direct and unsparing portraiture of +living persons among her acquaintance. Now no doubt this kind of writing +may be productive of extreme mirth to persons qualified to read between +the lines, and it must be acknowledged that Miss Ferrier's talent has +made the mirth outlast its immediate occasion. Still, judged as art, +this kind of thing is neither great nor gracious, and to her credit be +it said that the authoress of _Marriage_ lived to see that this was so, +and to amend her style accordingly. It may be noted, however, that the +works attributed to her friend Lady Charlotte include conspicuous +instances of a similar error in taste. Amid the vicissitudes of many +years, her ladyship lived to produce a number of works of fiction, of +the contents of which such titles as _Flirtation_, _The Journal of the +Heart_, _A Marriage in High Life_, may afford some indication. But the +single work with which in the present day her name is associated--and if +she never acknowledged the authorship, it must be remembered that she +resisted all provocations to deny it--is the notorious Diary in which a +lady-in-waiting of Caroline of Brunswick has chronicled the follies and +indiscretions of that unhappy princess, and the unpleasantnesses of +daily life in her Court. Bearing this in mind, one can scarcely regard +the brilliant Lady Charlotte as the best of friends for a young woman, +her inferior in years and station, though greatly her superior in +talent. + +Among other visitors met by Susan at Inverary, two may be particularised +as having afterwards contributed by their oddities to enliven the pages +of her first book. These were the eccentric Mrs Seymour Damer, the +amateur sculptor and friend of Horace Walpole, and Lady Ferrers, widow +of the peer who was hanged for the murder of his steward. With a Miss +Clavering, a grand-daughter of the Duke, who was a child of eight at the +time of her first visit to the Castle, she struck up an eager +friendship. An animated correspondence was started between them, some of +the letters in which have been preserved. These are for the most part +undated, but have reference to a work of fiction which the young ladies +proposed to undertake in partnership, and it is thus that the germ of +_Marriage_ is first brought to light. + +'I do not recollect,' says Miss Ferrier, writing in high spirits; 'I do +not recollect ever to have seen the sudden transition of a high-bred +English beauty, who thinks she can sacrifice all for love, to an +uncomfortable solitary highland dwelling among tall red-haired sisters +and grim-faced aunts. Don't you think this would make a good opening of +the piece? Suppose each of us try our hands on it.' And, later on, after +submitting a portion of her work, she writes again:--'I am boiling to +hear from you, but I've taken a remorse of conscience about Lady +Maclaughlan and her friends: if I was ever to be detected, or even +suspected, I would have nothing for it but to drown myself. I mean, +therefore, to let her alone till I hear from you, as I think we might +compound some other kind of character for her that might do as well and +not be so dangerous. As to the misses, if ever it was to be published +they must be altered or I must fly my native land.' + +In this passage, even after allowing for girlish facetiousness of +expression, Susan Ferrier appears in the character of an accomplished +'quiz,' sailing dangerously close to the wind. Of course her +correspondent is delighted with the specimen of work submitted to her, +and will not hear of anything being altered. What school-girl would? She +essays to allay her friend's fear of discovery, and offers to take the +responsibility of the personalities upon herself. In a subsequent +letter, dated December 1810, she describes reading the manuscript to +Lady Charlotte during a drive. Her ladyship laughed as she had never +been seen to laugh before, and pronounced the fragment 'without the +least exception the cleverest thing that ever was written'--a verdict +which after more detailed examination she endorsed in writing, declaring +it to be '_capital_, with a dash under it.' Not otherwise do the +thoughtless and light-hearted egg each other on to mischief. + +But Miss Ferrier was by this time eight-and-twenty years of age. Her +native strong good sense asserted itself, and for a long time she +resolutely declined to publish her work. (I ought ere this to have +explained that the intended collaboration with Miss Clavering had fallen +through, the sole passage contributed by the younger lady being the +brief and not particularly interesting _History of Mrs Douglas_). In +course of time, however, the merits of the book became known to persons +having more authority to judge them than Lady Charlotte Bury or her +niece. Mr Blackwood, the publisher, read the manuscript, and strongly +urged the authoress to prepare it for publication; whilst no less a +personage than Sir Walter Scott, in the conclusion to his _Tales of My +Landlord_--then seemingly in proof--referred flatteringly to a 'very +lively work entitled _Marriage_,' and singled out its author for mention +among writers of fiction capable of gathering in the rich harvest +afforded by Scottish character. At length, in 1818--after undergoing +several changes in the interval--the book was given to the world. It was +published anonymously, and the authoress, speaking at a later date, +professes to have believed that her name 'never would be guessed at, or +the work heard of beyond a very limited sphere.' But from such obscurity +the gallery of portraits which it contained must alone have sufficed to +save it. For, in addition to the two ladies already mentioned--whose +oddities appear to have contributed jointly to the inimitable figure of +Lady Maclaughlan--the three spinster aunts were drawn from certain +Misses Edmonstone, whilst Mrs Fox represented Mary, Lady Clerk, a +well-known Edinburgh character of the time. It must not, however, be +supposed that the vogue of the book depended upon adventitious +circumstances alone; for _Marriage_ soon became popular far beyond the +limits of any local set. In London it was attributed to the pen of Sir +Walter Scott, and it is even stated to have been very successful in a +French translation. + +Its success at home can surprise no one, for never before had the +idiosyncrasies of Scottish society been so vigorously pourtrayed. As has +already been seen, the means adopted for showing them off are +ingeniously contrived. At the commencement of the story we are +introduced to the beautiful but shallow and artificial Juliana, the Earl +of Courtland's only daughter--a young lady who has been trained solely +with a view to social success and the formation of a brilliant alliance, +the more solid parts of education having in her case been systematically +neglected. She is betrothed to the elderly Duke of L----, but at the +last moment throws him over and elopes to Scotland. The companion of her +flight is Douglas, a handsome young officer in the army, the child of +Scotch parents, but brought up in England by a wealthy adoptive father. +The honeymoon is scarce over when the young people find themselves, not +only partially disabused of their illusions, but in actual pecuniary +straits. Juliana's elopement has hopelessly alienated the Earl; whilst +Douglas, absent from his regiment without leave, is superseded in the +_Gazette_. In these circumstances the only course open to them is to +take up their quarters with the bridegroom's father, at his castle of +Glenfern in the Highlands. Their proposal to do so is most cordially +received, and now the irony of circumstance begins to declare itself. +Lady Juliana has repeatedly protested that with the man of her choice +she could be happy in a desert. But then her idea of a desert, as she +avows when 'tis too late, is a beautiful place full of roses and +myrtles, which, though very retired, would not be absolutely out of the +world; where one could occasionally see one's friends and give +_déjeuners_ and _fêtes champêtres_. A very different kind of place is +Glenfern Castle. After a long journey in a drizzling rain through dreary +scenery, their destination is reached, and Juliana makes her _entrée_, +attended by her footman and lady's-maid, surrounded by her lap-dogs, +squirrel, and mackaw, and encumbered by all the paraphernalia of an +artificial elegance. Never was there a meeting between more opposed +extremes. + + 'At the entrance of the strangers, a flock of females rushed forward + to meet them. Douglas good-humouredly submitted to be hugged by + three long-chinned spinsters whom he recognised as his aunts, and + warmly saluted five awkward purple girls he guessed to be his + sisters: while Lady Juliana stood the image of despair, and, + scarcely conscious, admitted in silence the civilities of her new + relations.' + +The three elderly spinsters are the Laird's sisters--Miss Jacky, who is +esteemed the most sensible woman as well as the greatest orator in the +parish, Miss Grizzy the platitudinous, and Miss Nicky, who is not +wanting in sense either; and these representatives of a bygone social +order are the most celebrated characters in the book. + +Appalled by the sight of the surroundings amid which her life is to be +spent, and distressed by the insolence of a pampered lady's-maid who +instantly throws up her place, Juliana presently succumbs to hysterics. + + 'Douglas now attempted to account for the behaviour of his noble + spouse by ascribing it to the fatigue she had lately undergone, + joined to distress of mind at her father's unrelenting severity + towards her. + + '"O the amiable creature!" interrupted the unsuspecting spinsters, + almost stifling her with their caresses as they spoke. "Welcome, a + thousand times welcome, to Glenfern Castle!" said Miss Jacky. + "Nothing shall be wanting, dearest Lady Juliana, to compensate for a + parent's rigour, and make you happy and comfortable. Consider this + as your future home. My sisters and myself will be as mothers to + you: and see these charming young creatures," dragging forward two + tall frightened girls, with sandy hair and great purple arms; "thank + Providence for having blest you with such sisters!" + + '"Don't speak too much, Jacky, to our dear niece at present," said + Miss Grizzy; "I think one of Lady Maclaughlan's composing draughts + would be the best thing for her--there can be no doubt about that." + + '"Composing draughts at this time of day!" cried Miss Nicky; "I + should think a little good broth a much wiser thing. There are some + excellent family broth making below, and I'll desire Tibby to bring + a few." + + '"Will you take a little soup, love?" asked Douglas. His lady + assented; and Miss Nicky vanished, but quickly re-entered, followed + by Tibby, carrying a huge bowl of coarse Scotch broth, swimming with + leeks, greens, and grease. Lady Juliana attempted to taste it, but + her delicate palate revolted at the homely fare; and she gave up + the attempt, in spite of Miss Nicky's earnest entreaties to take a + few more of these excellent family broth. + + '"I should think," said Henry, as he vainly attempted to stir it + round, "that a little wine would be more to the purpose than this + stuff." + + 'The aunts looked at each other; and, withdrawing to a corner, a + whispering consultation took place, in which "Lady Maclaughlan's + opinion, birch, balm, currant, heating, cooling, running risks," &c. + &c. transpired. At length the question was carried; and some + tolerable sherry, and a piece of very substantial _short-bread_, + were produced. + + 'It was now voted by Miss Jacky, and carried _nem. con._, that her + ladyship ought to take a little repose till the hour of dinner.' + +So bad begins, but worse remains behind; for these are but the +occurrences of a few hours, whilst the visit is to be of long duration. +However enough has been said to indicate the lines along which the story +now develops. The feather-pate Juliana is not of those to whom Time +brings wisdom, and a further acquaintance with her surroundings only +serves to bring to light fresh disgusts. The gaunt apparitions of the +first evening grow no less tiresome as she knows them better, no less +hopelessly remote from every habit, tradition or association of her +life. But her poison is the reader's meat. In the course of the next few +pages we are introduced to Miss Grizzy's friend, Lady Maclaughlan, a +distinguished amateur of medicine and an object of awed admiration to +the sisters. As this lady steps upon the scene--fearfully and +wonderfully attired, and bearing in her hand her gold-headed cane--with +her deep-toned voice, her mercilessly blunt remarks, and her +uncompromising 'humph!'--her ineffectually recalcitrant little husband +borne behind her much as if he were a parcel--she is certainly one of +the most memorable figures in all fiction. And among the most laughable +scenes in all fiction must certainly be counted those in which in high +dudgeon she cuts short her visit to Glenfern Castle, and--still better, +and indeed unsurpassable--in which the ill-starred spinsters, mistaking +the day, arrive to visit her when they are not expected. + +Nor must it for a moment be supposed that such creations as this and the +Aunts are mere masterpieces of the caricaturist. In Miss Ferrier's best +characters it may almost be said to be a rule that caricature enters +only into the details, and is never allowed to interfere with the main +outline. An accusation far more justly to be brought against the +authoress of this book is that of hard-heartedness, or a defect of +sympathy and even of toleration for her own creations. Susan Ferrier was +an uncompromisingly candid woman, as her interesting account of the +visits paid by her to Sir Walter Scott are enough to show. That her +heart was a kind one we know; but when she took pen in hand it was not +her way to extenuate anything. Neither was she given to view persons or +occurrences through any softening light of imagination or feeling. 'What +a cruel thing is a farce to those engaged in it!' wrote another Scottish +author. But she, having devised a farcically cruel situation, squares +her shoulders and regards its development with a ruthlessness more +proper perhaps to science than to art. Not a touch of compunction has +she for her heroine--who, intolerably selfish and heartless as she is, +is yet but a child and the victim of the harshest circumstance; not a +touch of pity for the pathos and repression of such lives as those of +the Aunts. In a word, tolerance is not her strong point. And, admirable +as it is, her art yet suffers by the limitation of her sympathies. For +one pines for the hundred little humanising touches by virtue of which +the same characters--living though they be--might have lived with a +fuller and more gracious life. It is stated that Miss Ferrier's +favourite author was La Bruyère, and in such studies as those of Lady +Placid and Mrs Wiseacre he is obviously the model followed. And, though +her best creations surpass those of her master as a living character +will always surpass an abstract type, yet in this, her earliest effort, +she still retains a good deal too much of the frigid intellectual method +of the Frenchman. + +What will, perhaps, more generally be considered a legitimate ground for +the unpleasant task of fault-finding is, however, the extremely +inartistic construction of the book. As we approach the middle, we are +surprised to find the interest shifted to an almost entirely new set of +characters, who belong to a new generation. Thus at a time when Lady +Juliana cannot be much more than eighteen years of age, she ceases to be +prominent in the story, and after the briefest interval we are called on +to follow the fortunes of her twin daughters, who are now nearing that +age. The bridegroom, Douglas, and two of the Aunts disappear altogether +from the book; and this is the more to be regretted because there are +few readers but will infinitely prefer the racy humours of the elder +generation to the insipid long-drawn-out love-affairs of the contrasted +sisters, even when these are more or less successfully enlivened by the +sallies of the shrewd Lady Emily, by the caricature figure of Dr Redgill +the _gourmand_, and by the absurdities of the literary _précieuses_ of +Bath. + +The success of _Marriage_, justified by its painting of Scottish manners +and by the figures of Lady Maclaughlan and the spinster aunts, had the +right effect upon the sterling Scottish character of the authoress. It +led her to try how much better still she could do. Six years elapsed +before the appearance of her next book, which was published in +1824--like its predecessor, anonymously. Indeed secrecy as to her +literary undertakings appears to have been one of the novelist's +strongest desires; and, writing much of _The Inheritance_ at Morningside +House, near Edinburgh--where her father spent the summers--she complains +of the smallness of the house as making concealment very difficult. + +In the endeavour to improve upon her first achievement, Miss Ferrier was +triumphantly successful. 'The new book,' wrote one of Mr Blackwood's +correspondents at the time of its publication, 'is a hundred miles above +_Marriage_.' Nor does this assertion overshoot the mark; for if the one +is at most a bit of brilliant promise, the other is a superb +performance. Foremost among its advantages must be counted, in place of +the slip-slop of _Marriage_, an interesting and admirably-compacted +plot, and a vigorous literary style--the latter marked indeed, yet not +marred, by a mannerism of literary quotation. What was shapeless and +redundant in _Marriage_ is here moulded and restrained by exigencies of +the story, with the result that characters well-defined, and skilfully +contrasted and relieved, confront the reader standing boldly and firmly +on their feet. + +Several features of _The Inheritance_ seem to have been suggested by the +celebrated Douglas Cause. The Honourable Thomas St Clair, youngest son +of the Earl of Rossville, has forfeited the countenance of his family by +marrying out of his own rank in life. He settles with his wife in +France, and here in the course of years a succession of deaths places +him in the position of heir-presumptive to the earldom. He announces at +head-quarters the important tidings that Mrs St Clair is expecting to +be confined, and having done so, with the Earl's concurrence he and his +wife prepare to return to Scotland. But the confinement takes place, +prematurely, on the journey. A female child is born, after which event +the projected return is indefinitely postponed. So much by way of proem. +The opening of the story shows us Mrs St Clair, now a widow, and her +daughter, Gertrude, a beautiful and blooming maiden, taking up their +abode with the elderly and unmarried Lord Rossville, who recognises the +young lady as heiress to his title and estates. Under his roof, +attention is drawn to a likeness existing between Gertrude and the +portrait of one Lizzie Lundie, a low-born beauty of a bygone day, who +had sat as model for a painting in the Castle. This resemblance is +noticed by more than one person, and on more than one occasion, and +reference to it is generally accompanied by marks of agitation in Mrs St +Clair. Meantime the youthful heiress has won the admiration of two young +men, cousins of her own, who frequent the Castle--the handsome and +elegant Colonel Delmour, a man of fashion and of the world, and the less +showy but far deeper-natured Edward Lyndsay. A singular meeting now +takes place between Mrs St Clair and a stranger named Lewiston, and soon +afterwards it becomes apparent that the latter exercises a great, though +unexplained, power over the lady. The stranger's identity is presently +revealed as that of the husband--long supposed to be dead--of a nurse of +Gertrude's, to whom she had been tenderly attached. At a nocturnal +meeting with Lewiston, at which Mrs St Clair has by entreaty, and by +throwing out vague threats, compelled her daughter to be present, +Lyndsay arrives upon the scene in time to save Gertrude from +molestation, and thus earns her gratitude. However Delmour now declares +his passion, which Gertrude returns--with the result that an +understanding is come to between them. But the Earl has other intentions +regarding the disposal of the hand of his heir, which for family and +political reasons he designs to confer upon the Colonel's elder brother, +a colourless man-of-affairs. By asserting her independence in this +matter, Gertrude provokes Lord Rossville's displeasure; but the +unforeseen effect of his lordship's purblind and blundering intervention +is merely to bring to light the fact that Lyndsay also is in love with +his beautiful cousin. The Earl, who has power to dispose of his +possessions as he pleases, is meditating to disinherit Gertrude on +account of her disobedience, when his sudden death leaves her free to +follow her own wishes. In the meantime, Delmour's conduct has supplied +ground for doubting the purity of his motives; whilst Lyndsay, who has +again come to her rescue in a trying interview with Lewiston, has shown +himself throughout a staunch friend to her best interests. But Gertrude +is now Countess of Rossville in her own right; her lover returns to her +side, and she is herself too noble-minded to question his +disinterestedness. Under his influence she launches out into a variety +of extravagant schemes, and going to London, where she becomes the +admired of all admirers, devotes herself wholly to the pleasures of +society, which for a time have rather an injurious effect upon her +character. Lyndsay makes an appeal to her better self, but amid the +excitement of her surroundings his remonstrance passes unheeded. Jaded +by the excesses of fashionable life, at the end of the season she +returns to Rossville, where the intrusive Lewiston, who has been +thought drowned, now again appears upon the scene, and provoked by her +disdainful treatment divulges the secret that she is the daughter, not +of Mrs St Clair, but of her nurse, and that consequently she has no +title to her present position. Overwhelmed by this intelligence, which +Mrs St Clair's confession confirms, Gertrude loses no time in informing +her lover of the true state of matters, and in so doing reveals the +miserable shallowness of his nature. Delmour's love for the beautiful +and high-spirited girl is genuine; but nameless and without fortune as +she now is, he hesitates to fulfil his engagement towards her. Her love +for him has been of such a different nature that she is well-nigh +broken-hearted by the discovery. But the faithful Lyndsay stands her +friend in need, and the book closes with her reinstatement, long +afterwards, as his wife, in the brilliant position which she has already +wrongly, though innocently, occupied. + +The plot of _The Inheritance_, of which the above is a sketch, is a +model of its kind, whilst from first to last the conduct of the +narrative is perfect. Indeed the _form_ of the story could not be +improved--a rare merit even in a masterpiece of British fiction; and +though the book is a long one, it contains not a superfluous page. Among +the numerous authors quoted in the course of it are Shakespeare and the +Greek dramatists, and perhaps, without stretching probability too far, +we may assume that the authoress had studied the latter as well as the +former. In any case _The Inheritance_ in its own degree unites principal +characteristics of the Greek and the Shakespearian drama, for the web of +circumstance inexorably woven about the innocent and unconscious heroine +is entirely in the manner of the first, whilst the indifferent, +life-like alternation of tragic and ludicrous incident in the narrative +is of a piece with Shakespeare's irony. No finer example of the latter +could be cited than the impressive scene in which Lord Rossville, +looking blankly from his window one snowy afternoon, is amazed to see a +hearse approaching the Castle. Out of the vehicle, when it has reached +the door, steps his lordship's pet aversion and the reader's +delight--the undaunted and ubiquitous Miss Pratt. The voluble lady has a +long story to tell of the circumstances which have compelled her to +resort to this unconventional mode of conveyance, whilst the pompous +Earl is scandalised at the general impropriety of the proceedings, and +especially at thought of the hearse of Mr McVitae, the Radical +distiller, putting up for the night at the Castle. However there is no +help for it; nor as it turns out is the visit so ill-timed as had +seemed, for the next morning Lord Rossville is discovered dead upon his +bed. + +But if the book is remarkable for its admirable story, certainly not +less remarkable is it for the extraordinary wealth of character which it +portrays. Probably few 'novels of plot' are so rich in character, few +'novels of character' so strong in plot. It may be that some carping +critic of the ungentle sex will be found to object to Lyndsay and to +Delmour, the contrasted lovers of the heroine, as to 'a woman's men'--to +urge that their demeanour is too consistently emotional, too +demonstrative, to be founded upon any very solid base of character or of +disposition. But supposing (which I am far from granting) that there +were some truth in this, here at any rate all ground even for +hypercriticism must end. And where in fiction is there a heroine more +charming and more lovable than Gertrude St Clair--gentle yet +high-spirited as she is, natural, and the soul of truth? Her pretended +mother--ambitious and worldly-minded, violent, embittered by the slights +and mortifications of her youth and bent vindictively upon +retaliation--rises to the dignity of tragedy. Then we have the +inimitable rattle and busybody, Miss Pratt, at home everywhere except in +her own house, and incessantly referring to the sayings and doings of an +invisible 'Anthony Whyte'--a very masterpiece of humorous delineation; +and old Adam Ramsay, the cross-grained, misanthropic, Indian uncle, who +yet compels our sympathy by his sentimental attachment to the home of +his boyhood, and his constancy to the memory of his ill-starred love. +Miss Bell Black, afterwards Mrs Major Waddell, is delightful in her +perfect inanity and fatuity; and though her creator may not yet have +learned to suffer fools gladly, she certainly has by this time mastered +the art of portraying 'as though she loved' them. The Earl of Rossville, +puffed up by a sense of his own importance, long-winded, sesquepedalian +and null; Miss Lilly, the poetess, her Cockney lover and her brothers; +gentle Anne Black; Miss Becky Duguid, the accommodating poor relation; +Mrs Fairbairn, the materfamilias; and the peasant-woman whose misguided +foresight leads her to prepare betimes her ailing husband's +dead-clothes,--all of them are admirable, and all bear evidence of being +freshly observed from the life. But the writer has learnt the lesson of +substituting poetic for local truth; and if any portraits appear in this +gallery--and it is stated that Adam Ramsay to some extent represents the +authoress's father--they are such as can no longer rightly give offence +to anyone. Miss Ferrier had reached middle life when she wrote _The +Inheritance_, and perhaps the laughter which it provokes is less +boisterous than that aroused by the first essays of her youth. But for a +scene of high comedy--to select one from many--the first conversation of +Miss Pratt and Uncle Adam would certainly be difficult to surpass. +Finally, we have abundant evidence that in all that she wrote our +authoress was actuated by a genuine desire for the moral and religious +welfare of her reader; but in comparison to that of _Marriage_, her +_tone_ in this book is as is the influence of a well-guided life to a +sententious homily delivered from a pulpit. In one word, there is no +single point in her art in which she has not risen from what is crude +and tentative to what is finished and masterly. + +As it well deserved to be, _The Inheritance_ was a great success, and +amongst those from whom it elicited warm commendation the names of +Jeffrey and Sir Walter Scott may be particularised. Some of the chief +comic actors of the day wished to have it produced upon the stage, with +which object the manager of Covent Garden Theatre applied to Mrs Gore, +the novelist, for a dramatic version of the story. But that lady's +intentions were anticipated by one Fitzball, a purveyor of transpontine +wares in the kind, to whose unfitness for his task the complete failure +of the play, when it came to be produced, may probably be ascribed. For +in its strong, well-developed plot, and diversified characterisation, +the story possesses in a high degree the chief requisites of a +successful stage-play. _The Inheritance_ has also the distinction of +having furnished to Tennyson the outline of his beautiful ballad of +_Lady Clare_. + +Miss Ferrier was a very careful craftswoman--a fact to which much of her +success has been attributed--and it was not until 1831 that her next +book, _Destiny_, appeared. Much of it was written at Stirling Castle, +while she was on a visit to the wife of the Governor of the garrison. +The new novel was dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, to whom the authoress +had good reason to feel obliged, for it was largely in consequence of +his skilful bargaining that she had received for it the large sum of +£1700 from Cadell. The prices paid to her by Blackwood for her two +previous books had been £150 and £1000 respectively. + +As _The Inheritance_ represents the meridian of the writer's powers, so +_Destiny_ represents their decline--not because there are not some as +good things, or very nearly as good things, in the latter as in the +former, but because the whole is very much less good. The construction +of _Destiny_ is loose and inartificial, and almost from the outset the +want of a strong frame-work which shall hold the contents together and +keep them in place makes itself felt. Properly speaking, there are two +stories in the story,--namely, that which centres in the disposal of the +Inch Orran property and the adventures of Ronald Malcolm, and that which +concerns itself with the development of the relations between Edith and +her recalcitrant lover. In itself of course this would be no defect, but +instead of being interwoven, or subordinated one to the other, the two +stories are allowed to run parallel and distinct until near the end of +the book. Thus their interest is dissipated--an effect which diffuseness +of treatment materially increases. Idle pages and straggling incidents +abound, and in fact the sense of form which was so conspicuous in _The +Inheritance_ is in _Destiny_ conspicuous only by absence. + +If we judge it as an essay in character-painting, rather than as a +story, no doubt the novel comes off better. Again, as in _The +Inheritance_, we have a gallery of masterly portraits--though this time +the collection is smaller, and the paintings less highly-finished; and +again we feel that these portraits are drawn, not from some conventional +limbo of the novelist's, but from observation of life itself, backed up +by true imagination. Among the group, the Reverend Duncan M'Dow bears +off the palm from all competitors. This insufferable person, +imperturbable in his own conceit--with his horse-laugh over his own +jocularity, his grossness of manners, his greed for 'augmentation,' and +his wounded self-love mingling with overweening vanity at the end of the +book--is a piece of life itself, and the description of his +luncheon-party is as good as anything accomplished by the authoress. The +incarnation of fashionable selfishness and frivolity in the person of +Lady Elizabeth Malcolm runs him close; but she is probably a less +entirely original creation than the Minister--not that she is in any +sense a copy, but that the same sort of model has been oftener studied. +If we seek for something pleasanter to contemplate, the simple +warm-hearted Molly Macauley, the dreamer of dreams, and the devoted +adherent of the Chief who snubs her, is an endearing figure. The Chief +himself, who loves good eating, and does not disdain to truckle to his +rich childless kinsman, is a conspicuous example of materialisation and +degeneracy, though the dotage of his 'debilitated mind and despotic +temper' becomes almost as tiresome to the reader as it became to Edith +and Sir Reginald. The key to the character of Benbowie, Glenroy's echo, +is not quite apparent, and we should have liked to be assured (as we +believe) that it was mere ineptitude, and not meanness, which caused him +to disappear so hastily on an important occasion when money was +required, and to return bringing it with him when it could no longer be +of use. The vignettes of Inch Orran, the 'particular man,' and his wife, +also stand out in the memory, as does that of the odious Madame Latour. +And from this it will be seen that, with one or two exceptions, the more +disagreeable personages of the book remain the most in evidence, for the +Conways and the family of Captain Malcolm fade into insignificance +beside those whose names are enumerated above. And, though the crux is +an old one, where the high purpose of the writer is so much insisted on, +perhaps it may not be unfair to enquire how far exactly she can be held +to succeed in her aims, when even the regenerate reader is ill at ease +in the company of her good characters and enjoys himself among her awful +examples. The artificiality of some of its dialogues and the triteness +of some of its reflections are further symptoms of the enervation which +has begun to invade the book. + +Miss Ferrier's history is the history of her books, and to these remarks +upon her final literary production little need be added. Her mother +being dead, and her three sisters married, it fell to her lot to keep +house for her father, to whom she was devotedly attached, and with him +she continued to reside until his death in January 1829. Her life, which +was divided between Morningside House and Edinburgh, and varied by +occasional visits to her sisters, is described as a very quiet one, and +if we may accept the Adam Ramsay of _The Inheritance_ as at all a close +portrait of Mr Ferrier, it must have had its grim side too. She had long +suffered from her eyes, and in 1830 she paid her final visit to London, +in order to consult an oculist. From his treatment, however, she seems +to have derived little benefit; her eyesight failed, and it became +necessary for her to spend much of her time in a darkened room; and +though she still continued occasionally to receive a few friends at tea +in the evening, her life from henceforth was a very retired one. She +died in Edinburgh, on the 5th November 1854, at the house of her +brother, Mr Walter Ferrier, and was interred in St Cuthbert's +Churchyard. + +Her dislike of publicity characterized her to the last. It was not until +1851, when a new edition of her works was published, that she consented +to allow her name to appear upon the title-page, whilst her +unwillingness to be made the subject of a biography led her to destroy +all letters which might have been used for such a purpose, and in +particular a correspondence with one of her sisters, which contained +much biographical matter. The records of her life are consequently few, +but the following testimony of an intimate friend is interesting:-- + + 'The wonderful vivacity she maintained in the midst of darkness and + pain for so many years, the humour, wit, and honesty of her + character, as well as the Christian submission with which she bore + her great privation and general discomfort, when not suffering acute + pain, made everyone who knew her desirous to alleviate the + tediousness of her days; and I used to read a great deal to her at + one time, and I never left her darkened chamber without feeling that + I had gained something better than the book we might be reading, + from her quick perception of its faults and its beauties, and her + unmerciful remarks on all that was mean or unworthy in conduct or + expression.' + +Still more interesting is the sentence in Scott's diary which describes +her as 'A gifted personage, having, besides her great talents, +conversation the least _exigeante_ of any author-female, at least, whom +I have ever seen among the long list I have encountered; simple, full of +humour, and exceedingly ready at repartee, and all this without the +least affectation of the blue-stocking.' Of her considerate kindness to +the author of _Waverley_, then in failing health, on the occasion of her +last visit to Abbotsford, Lockhart gives this pleasing description:-- + + 'To assist in amusing him in the hours which he spent out of his + study, and especially that he might make these hours more frequent, + his daughter had invited his friend the authoress of _Marriage_ to + come out to Abbotsford; and her coming was serviceable. For she knew + and loved him well, and she had seen enough of affliction akin to + his to be well skilled in dealing with it. She could not be an hour + in his company without observing what filled his children with more + sorrow than all the rest of the case. He would begin a story as + gaily as ever, and go on, in spite of the hesitation in his speech, + to tell it with highly picturesque effect; but before he reached the + point, it would seem as if some internal spring had given way. He + paused and gazed around him with the blank anxiety of look that a + blind man has when he has dropped his staff. Unthinking friends + sometimes gave him the catchword abruptly. I noticed the delicacy of + Miss Ferrier on such occasions. Her sight was bad, and she took care + not to use her glasses when he was speaking, and she affected also + to be troubled with deafness, and would say, "Well, I am getting as + dull as a post, I have not heard a word since you said so and so," + being sure to mention a circumstance behind that at which he had + really halted. He then took up the thread with his habitual smile of + courtesy, as if forgetting his case entirely in the consideration of + the lady's infirmity.' + +In conclusion, if Miss Ferrier's work lacks the sweetness and delicacy +of Miss Austin's, it has at its best a strength to which her English +sister's makes no pretension. The portraits of the former are _bitten +in_ with a powerful acid unknown in the chemistry of the latter. But if +she was sometimes _downright_ to the verge of cruelty, Miss Ferrier's +view of life was a sound one. She strikes unsparingly at the rawness and +self-sufficiency which are characteristic defects of such large numbers +of our countrymen; yet she remains without rival as a painter of +Scottish society, and one at least of her novels deserves to rank with +the masterpieces of British fiction. + + + + +MICHAEL SCOTT + + +There used to be a tradition at Cambridge to the effect that an +undergraduate, being called on in examination to give some account of +John the Baptist, returned the answer, 'Little or nothing is known of +this extraordinary man,'--a reply which probably did not go far enough +to satisfy the examiner. Scarcely more satisfying, however, must be the +response of the biographer who is called on to gratify natural curiosity +regarding the author of _Tom Cringle's Log_--scarcely more satisfying, +though with apparently so much less of excuse. For it is only a little +over sixty years since the death of Michael Scott. Neither was his a +case of posthumous reputation, or of rehabilitation after long neglect, +which might have accounted for the obscuring of biographical detail--his +work, though it has lost nothing of popularity, or certainly of +readableness in the interim, having been received with acclamation on +its first appearance. And yet, after diligent and eager enquiry, the +present writer finds himself forced to acknowledge that all but a meagre +outline of the facts of Scott's life is lost. This is the more +remarkable in that he was obviously no bookworm or literary recluse, and +that all who know his writings will feel instinctively that one so +characterised by humour and the love of good company--to say nothing of +practical joking--should have strewn anecdote thick behind him wherever +he went. But if this was so, his traces have been most effectually +expunged. The sort of find which now rewards, or mocks, his would-be +biographer is, for example, such a tradition as that which records that +he was fond of whisky punch--a solitary survival in the mind of one who +remembers him in Glasgow, but a trait which, considering the times and +the society in which Scott lived, can scarcely be held as individual. +This, however, is not the worst. The writer has reason to believe that +the glorious sea masterpiece with which Scott's name is chiefly +associated was written, or at least partly written, in a house now +belonging to himself--namely, the secluded cottage of Birseslees, +situated on the banks of Ale, in Roxburghshire. Such, at least, is the +tradition which he received from his father, one constitutionally averse +to random statement, who had himself occupied the cottage within ten +years of Scott's decease, and who, as an enthusiastic yachtsman, +familiar with the West Indies, had special reasons for being interested +in his writings. Such testimony--as Mr Mowbray Morris, Scott's +biographer, remarks--is at least as good as that on which rest most of +the statements regarding his life, and no apology is made for adducing +it here. Yet, in despite of this testimony, a careful search, recently +conducted among the oldest inhabitants of the neighbourhood, has failed +to bring to light any but the vaguest and most uncertain references to +the author of the _Log_. Under these conditions, what is left for a +biographer to do? He has no choice but to content himself with a +recapitulation of the few facts already current. One person, indeed, +there is in whose power it almost certainly lies, by enlightening our +ignorance, to gratify our by no means unkindly curiosity; but it is +generally understood that, for reasons which we have no right to +challenge, and which at least in no wise concern the fair fame of the +author, that person's lips are sealed. It therefore now only remains to +consider whether the darkness which surrounds Scott's life is the result +of intention or of accident, and in support of the former conclusion it +may be stated that, among men-of-letters of the time, taking their cue +from the author of _Waverley_, and the practice of Maga, there existed +an undoubted taste for mystification; whilst that the younger Scott +shared in it is proved by the facts that his true name was never known +to his publisher otherwise than by hearsay, and that in his own family +circle and that of his immediate acquaintances the identity of Tom +Cringle was unknown. One suggestion is that these measures were taken +from a prudential point of view, in the interest of his business as a +merchant, which might possibly have suffered had it been known to +receive but divided attention. But as he avoided publicity in +authorship, he may also have chosen to do so in other things. Otherwise, +if internal evidence counts for anything, we should certainly suppose +him to have been the least self-conscious of men, and one of the last in +the world to trouble his head--unless he did it as a joke--as to what +might be known, or not known, about himself. + +Under existing circumstances, to write the life of Scott is to reproduce +the narrative of Mr Mowbray Morris. Born at Cowlairs, near Glasgow, on +the 30th October 1789, he was his father's fifth and youngest son. To +that father, Allan Scott by name, the estate of Cowlairs had come from +an elder brother, Robert, described as a Glasgow merchant of good +family, who had purchased it in 1778,--at which time the house stood in +the country, though its site has long since been swallowed up by the +encroachments of the town. Young Scott was sent first to the Grammar +School, as the High School of Glasgow was then called, and afterwards to +the University, where he matriculated when just twelve years of age. +Aird states that he was at school with John Wilson. At the University he +remained four years, during the latter part of which he had as his +inseparable companion the future author of _Cyril Thornton_, a +fellow-student of tastes akin to his own, who has furnished in that +novel a picture of the college life of the time. At the University Scott +does not appear to have gained distinction. Perhaps, like many another +author in embryo, he preferred miscellaneous reading to the college +course; at any rate, the few literary allusions scattered over the pages +of his books are generally apt and appreciative. However his taste seems +to have been for active life, spiced if possible by adventure, and +accordingly, in 1806, we find him leaving Scotland for the West Indies. + +At this point Mr Morris, our authority, makes a digression in order to +describe the magnitude and antiquity of the Clyde shipping-trade, and +the effect exercised upon it by the revolt of our American colonies, +which, by diverting it from Virginia to the West Indies, had changed its +staple from tobacco to sugar. It happened that a family friend of the +Scotts, Bogle by name--a Glasgow merchant and the descendant of Glasgow +merchants--had at that time a nephew resident in Jamaica, where he was +occupied as an estate-agent, and on his own account as a trader. To the +care of this gentleman young Scott is now supposed to have been +consigned, that he might be taught an estate-agent's duties. The agent's +name was George William Hamilton, and one feels sure that no admirer of +the _Log_ will hear with indifference that in him Scott found the +original of the most individual of his many droll planter portraits--the +portrait of Aaron Bang. + +After profiting for three or four years by the instructions of Hamilton, +who combined with his humorous propensities a very decided talent for +business, in the year 1810 Scott entered a mercantile house at Kingston, +in the employment of which he continued for seven years more. 'These +years,' says Mr Morris, 'were the making of the _Log_. His business, +coupled with Hamilton's friendship, not only brought him into contact +with every phase of society in Jamaica, but sent him on frequent voyages +among the islands and to the Spanish Main; and certainly few travellers +can have carried a more curious pair of eyes with them than Michael +Scott, or entered more heartily into the spirit of the passing hour.' In +1817 he returned to Scotland, and in the year following married +Margaret, daughter of the Mr Bogle previously referred to, and +consequently first cousin to Hamilton. He was soon back in Jamaica, +however, and it was presumably at this time that he occupied the +house--situated high up among the Blue Mountains, in midst of some of +the finest scenery in the world--which is still shown to visitors as +his. He remained in Jamaica till 1822, when he finally returned to his +native land to start business on his own account. This he seems to have +combined with a share in other mercantile concerns, being at the time of +his death a partner in a commission-house in Glasgow, as well as in a +Scottish commercial house in Maracaybo, on the Spanish Main. + +It was in 1829 that he first appeared as an author, in which year--again +to quote Mr Morris--'the _Log_ began to make its appearance in +Blackwood's Magazine as a disconnected series of sketches, published +intermittently as the author supplied them, or as the editor found it +convenient to print them. The first five, for instance, appeared in +September and November, 1829, and in June, July and October, 1830, under +the titles of "A Scene off Bermuda," "The Cruise of H.M.S. _Torch_," +"Heat and Thirst--a Scene in Jamaica," "Davy Jones and the Yankee +Privateer," and the "Quenching of the _Torch_"; and these five papers +now constitute the third chapter.' But shrewd Mr Blackwood, who greatly +admired the sketches, persuaded the author to give them some sort of +connecting link, 'which, without binding him to the strict rules of +narrative composition, would add a strain of personal and continuous +interest in the movement of the story. The young midshipman accordingly +began to cut a more conspicuous figure; and in July, 1832, the title of +"Tom Cringle's Log" was prefixed to what is now the eighth, but was then +called the eleventh chapter. Henceforward the _Log_ proceeded regularly +each month, with but one intermission, to its conclusion in August, +1833'; and a few months later, after some final touches, it made its +appearance as a book. Its success was immediate. It was hailed with +applause in particular by Coleridge, Christopher North, and Albany +Fonblanque--the first-named of whom pronounced it 'most excellent.' +Lockhart in the _Quarterly Review_, in an article on 'Monk' Lewis's +West Indian travels, also speaks of it as the most brilliant series of +magazine papers of the time; whilst the _Scottish Literary Gazette_ for +November 1833 concludes a glowing notice by adjuring the writer, +whatever he may undertake next, to remember that he is the author of +_Tom Cringle's Log_. + +Its successor, _The Cruise of the Midge_, made a more regular progress, +from its commencement in March 1834, to its conclusion in June of the +following year, though it also required some final overhauling before +its appearance as a volume. These two books constitute the literary +output of their author, and the completion of the _Cruise of the Midge_ +brings us within a short distance of his death, which occurred at his +house in Glasgow[9] on the 7th November 1835, when he had just completed +his forty-sixth year. A large family survived to mourn his loss. He is +buried in the Necropolis, where an unpretending monument marks his +resting-place and that of his wife and several of their children. In the +inscription which it bears, no allusion whatever is made to his literary +achievements. I have been told that in private life Scott was a quiet +easy-going man, of modest and retiring disposition, and also, on the +authority of an old lady who remembers his death, that great was the +surprise in Glasgow when it became known that he had been the author of +thrilling tales of adventure by sea and land. It is said, by the way, +that certain of Cringle's adventures were drawn from the experiences of +a Captain Hobson, father of the Arctic explorer of that name, who when a +lieutenant, about the year 1821, was engaged in putting down piracy in +the West Indies. The character of Paul Gelid can likewise be traced to +an original. + +Here ends what is to be known about Scott's life, and if it is with +regret that we accept this fact as inevitable, there is at least a +certain consolation to be derived from reflecting that, in this prying +age, at least one gallant literary figure stands secure from the +mishandling of meddlers. But--the author himself having evaded the +biographer--it is scarcely less remarkable that the popularity of his +works seems to have won them no adequate eulogy. For, so far as I know, +we may search in vain among critical essays for an appreciation of these +masterpieces. Possibly their character as books of adventure relegated +to the boys' shelf may be in part accountable for this; whilst doubtless +the frequent roughness and homeliness of their style--whether casual, or +introduced for the purpose of fitting the speech to the speaker--may +have scared off many such pedants and wiseacres as have yet to learn +that mere _correctness_ is one of the very humblest of literary +qualities, or at least that genius--so it _be_ genius--is like King +Sigismund, above the grammar-books. At an age when most boys are still +puzzling over syntax and orthography, Mr Thomas Cringle and Lieutenant +Benjamin Brail had already brought stout hearts and ready hands to bear +upon the work of men, and it is quite true that in the records of their +experiences not only do we find foreigners talking their own languages +very imperfectly, but also the authors themselves from time to time +making use of faulty constructions and of novel spelling. Now had their +business been mainly an affair of words and phrases, this had been +serious indeed; but as, instead, it happens to be one of thoughts, +feelings, sensations, and the art of communicating them, the case is +very different. And we may add that had any man composed ten times as +loosely as Cringle sometimes chose to do, whilst still retaining +Cringle's power to make us see and feel with him, that man had still +remained a most remarkable writer. However already more than enough has +been said on the subject of these few and very trifling errors, which in +fact interfere not at all with a style which is usually clear, nervous +and straightforward. + +As has been already indicated, Scott's principal literary gift lay in +his power of presentation--his power, that is, of putting simply, +sufficingly, and without redundancy, a scene or person before the +reader, so that he shall see the one and hear the other speak. From the +days of Homer to those of the world-wide success of the youngest of our +distinguished novelists, this gift has been recognised as quintessential +in the story-teller. In the two broad classes of temperaments, it is +wont to assume two separate forms, which differ from one another--in +class-room terms--as the objective from the subjective. Of the latter of +these--by virtue of which a reader is compelled so completely to +identify himself with scenes depicted that he not only seems to witness +them, but actually for the time being to participate and play the +leading part in them--the works of Currer Bell, and perhaps especially +_Villette_, the most highly-finished of her novels, afford notable +examples. The converse side of the gift is displayed by the virile and +active temperament of Michael Scott; and, of this particular quality, +many a writer of far higher reputation has possessed greatly less than +he. In illustration of this, the example of his greater namesake may be +quoted, for with all his many other excellences, Sir Walter's pictorial +or mimetic effects are seldom, or never, perfectly 'clean'--direct, and +free from surplusage or alloy. Michael Scott's, on the other hand, are +about as direct as it is possible to be. Illustrations might be quoted +at will, for if there is one thing more surprising than the gift itself, +it is the lavish use made of it by its possessor on page after page of +his writings. The following characteristic scene may serve as an +example, and it must be borne in mind that all Scott's fine scenes are +incidental: he never, so to speak, makes a point of them. + + 'It was eleven o'clock in the forenoon, a fine clear breezy day, + fresh and pleasant, sometimes cloudy overhead, but always breaking + away again, with a bit of a sneezer, and a small shower. As the sun + rose there were indications of squalls in the north-eastern quarter, + and about noon one of them was whitening to windward. So "hands by + the top-gallant clew-lines" was the word, and we were all standing + by to shorten sail, when the Commodore came to the wind as sharp and + suddenly as if he had anchored; but on a second look, I saw his + sheets were let fly. The wind, ever since noon, had been blowing in + heavy squalls, with appalling lulls between them. One of these gusts + had been so violent as to bury in the sea the lee-guns in the waist, + although the brig had nothing set but her close-reefed + main-top-sail, and reefed foresail. It was now spending its fury, + and she was beginning to roll heavily, when, with a suddenness + almost incredible to one unacquainted with these latitudes, the veil + of mist that had hung to windward the whole day was rent and drawn + aside, and the red and level rays of the setting sun flashed at + once, through a long arch of glowing clouds, on the black hull and + tall spars of his Britannic Majesty's sloop, _Torch_. And, true + enough, we were not the only spectators of this gloomy splendour; + for, right in the wake of the moonlike sun, now half sunk in the + sea, at the distance of a mile or more, lay a long warlike-looking + craft, apparently a frigate or heavy corvette, rolling heavily and + silently in the trough of the sea, with her masts, yards, and the + scanty sail she had set, in strong relief against the glorious + horizon.' + +Or this-- + + 'The anchorage was one unbroken mirror, except where its glass-like + surface was shivered into sparkling ripples by the gambols of a + skipjack, or the flashing stoop of his enemy the pelican; and the + reflection of the vessel was so clear and steady, that at the + distance of a cable's length you could not distinguish the + water-line, nor tell where the substance ended and shadow began, + until the casual dashing of a bucket overboard for a few moments + broke up the phantom ship; but the wavering fragments soon reunited, + and she again floated double, like the swan of the poet. The heat + was so intense, that the iron stancheons of the awning could not be + grasped with the hand, and where the decks were not screened by it, + the pitch boiled out from the seams. The swell rolled in from the + offing in long shining undulations, like a sea of quicksilver, + whilst every now and then a flying-fish would spark out from the + unruffled bosom of the heaving water, and shoot away like a silver + arrow, until it dropped with a flash into the sea again. There was + not a cloud in the heavens, but a quivering blue haze hung over the + land, through which the white sugar-works and overseers' houses on + the distant estates appeared to twinkle like objects seen through a + thin smoke, whilst each of the tall stems of the cocoa-nut trees on + the beach, when looked at steadfastly, seemed to be turning round + with a small spiral motion, like so many endless screws. There was a + dreamy indistinctness about the outlines of the hills, even in the + immediate vicinity, which increased as they receded, until the Blue + Mountains in the horizon melted into sky. The crew were listlessly + spinning oakum, and mending sails, under the shade of the awning; + the only exceptions to the general languor were John Crow, the + black, and Jacko the monkey. The former (who was an _improvisatore_ + of a rough stamp) sat out on the bowsprit, through choice, beyond + the shade of the canvas, without hat or shirt, like a bronze bust, + busy with his task, whatever that might be, singing at the top of + his pipe, and between whiles confabulating with his hairy ally, as + if he had been a messmate. The monkey was hanging by the tail from + the dolphin-striker, admiring what John Crow called "his own dam + ogly face in the water." + + 'Tail like yours would be good ting for a sailor, Jacko; it would + leave his two hands free aloft--more use, more hornament, too, I'm + sure, den de piece of greasy junk dat hangs from de captain's + taffril.--Now I shall sing to you, how dat Corromantee rascal, my + fader, was sell me on de Gold Coast-- + + '"Two red nightcap, one long knife, + All him get for Quacko, + For gun next day him sell him wife-- + You tink dat good song, Jacko?" + + '"Chocko, chocko," chattered the monkey, as if in answer. + + '"Ah, you tink so--sensible hominal!--What is dat! shark?--Jacko, + come up, sir: don't you see dat big shovel-nosed fis looking at you? + Pull your hand out of the water--Garamighty!" + + 'The negro threw himself on the gammoning of the bowsprit to take + hold of the poor ape, who, mistaking his kind intention, and + ignorant of his danger, shrunk from him, lost his hold, and fell + into the sea. The shark instantly sank to have a run, then dashed at + his prey, raising his snout over him, and shooting his head and + shoulders three or four feet out of the water, with poor Jacko + shrieking in his jaws, whilst his small bones crackled and crunched + under the monster's triple row of teeth.' + +To this talent for presentation, by a most fortunate coincidence, +Scott's experience enabled him to add a command of rich and rare +material: his subject-matter was quite worthy of the powers which he +brought to bear upon it. Indeed, few literary men have been more +favoured by time and place. For, letting alone the fact that the West +Indies were in those days virgin soil to the romance-writer, letting +alone the glorious opportunities afforded by a familiarity with Nature +in the tropics, studied in storm and calm, by land and sea--and +especially to a man of Scott's taste for strong effects, one gifted with +his eye for atmosphere, whose genius itself has something of tropical +grandeur and luxuriance, were these opportunities valuable,--letting +alone, also, the rich and varied social order amid which he moved--its +quaint and original types of planter and seaman, the picturesqueness of +its desperadoes, and the naïveté of its coloured people--Scott's sojourn +in the islands was timed at a particularly stirring epoch in their +history. Warfare, smuggling and piracy, slavery and the suppression of +the slave-trade were being carried on before his eyes; and it is even +suggested that such scenes as the boarding of the _Wave_, the +examination of Job Rumble-tithump, and the trial and execution of the +pirates, may very probably have had their foundation in things actually +witnessed by the writer. Now I suppose that I am not singular, and that +like myself many genuine lovers of romance delight to cherish the belief +that what they are reading, if not actually true, is at least in some +way related to the author's experience. In this respect Scott satisfies +us perfectly. And herein lies his immense advantage over other +competitors in the same field. For in reading, for instance (admirable +as they are), the pirate scenes of the _Master of Ballantrae_, we cannot +but miss this sense,--so that whilst we hear with bated breath of bloody +deeds and hairbreadth 'scapes, we are haunted all the while by an uneasy +feeling that this is all but a most brilliantly executed _fantasia_, or +variation, upon documents. + +Granting, then, that rarely if ever have more brilliant pictures of more +interesting incidents been more lavishly set before a reader than in the +pages of _Tom Cringle's Log_, we are impelled to enquire what are the +corresponding weaknesses which have debarred the author from taking the +highest rank as a writer. The answer is not far to seek; it is a defect +of constructive power. If he possessed much genius, Michael Scott had +but little art. The effect of his fine pictures is not cumulative; each +is alike revealed, as it were, by a powerful flash, and the result is +that they obliterate one another. For it is surely needless to point out +that every work of high artistic achievement is a whole, and that in +that whole, and in relation to that whole, each part has a value +greatly exceeding its value when considered separately. But in Scott's +stories this is not so. Remove any one incident from one of his stories, +and the reader will be the poorer by the loss of an interesting +incident, and by no more. And so, with injury only of the same kind, his +books might be extended or curtailed, whilst their incidents might be +transposed without injury at all. I am aware that to write in this +somewhat heavily academic style of a writer than whom no man of equal +gifts made ever less pretention, may be to incur the imputation of +taking too high a ground, and to draw down criticism upon the critic's +head. I can only reply that the extreme excellence, within their own +limits, of Scott's literary achievements has provoked me to it, and that +had his works shown less surprising merit they should have been treated +in a lighter vein. + +The same neglect of constructive power which strikes us in the conduct +of the tales is apparent in the treatment of the characters. It is the +practice of masters of characterisation to make their characters, so to +speak, _turn round_ before the reader, so that, ere the end of the book +is reached, no aspect of them shall have been left unseen. But with +Scott one aspect is exhibited repeatedly, and thus our knowledge is +circumscribed. That the characters live we feel assured, but with one or +two such exceptions as Aaron and Obed, it is as members of a class that +we recognise them, not as _individuals_, whilst again and again as we +read we are compelled to turn back would we distinguish from his fellows +any particular one among the quaintly-named officers and seamen. + +In female portraiture Scott attempts but little, in which he is +probably well-advised. For though Cringle's sweetheart is certainly a +pleasing sketch enough, in his more ambitious and quasi-Byronic +flights--the delineation of the pirate's leman or the bride of +Adderfang--the author for the moment leaves nature behind him, and +consequently gives us almost the only passages in his books which do not +ring true. These passages may perhaps be held to justify the +condemnation of Captain Marryat, who pronounced him melodramatic. +But--despite the strong nature of the fare which he provides--melodramatic, +except in such passages, he certainly is not. For to describe thrilling +situations, with the eye not fixed upon the situations themselves but +intent on their _effect_, is melodrama in the true sense; and of this +the genial author of _The Pirate and Three Cutters_ himself supplies +some choice examples. + +It strikes a reader as strange that the occasion of Cringle's visit to +Carthagena evokes no allusion to Smollett, for it is with Smollett and +Marryat that we most naturally think of comparing Cringle's creator. +Michael Scott does not rise to the Cervantic heights of humour of the +former; but few, indeed, are the writers who have done this. Nor, of +course, has he Smollett's style; though, on the other side of the +account, with thankfulness we acknowledge that his page is quite free +from Smollett's filth and coarseness. Marryat also possessed more of the +gifts of the novelist than Scott, or at least had greater opportunities +of showing them. But there is one point, and that a most telling one, in +which Scott has immeasurably the advantage of the others--he comes far +_nearer to the reader_ than either of them. Of course his easy and +homely style, his use of the first person, his occasional confidential +digressions, are means employed towards this end, but equally of course +the secret of his success lies in his personality. Personality, or, in +other words, genius it is which gives him his power over the reader--a +power which makes even the refractory and fastidious to follow him, as a +dog follows its master. Constitutionally a reader may have small relish +for farce, and a positive distaste for horse-play; and yet when Scott is +in the mood for either, the reader will become so too. And in a higher +and sweeter kind of humour, his power is equally in proportion to the +demand of the occasion--in support of which I can cite no better +evidence than the delightful scenes in which the sailors of the _Midge_ +seek to resuscitate the apparently drowned baby boy, afterwards +nicknamed Dicky Phantom; and in which their joy is expressed when he +gives signs of life; with Dogvane's mission to the officer in command to +plead on behalf of his mess-mates for the custody of the child (which +shall replace in their affections a parrot blown away in a gale, a +monkey washed overboard, and a cat which has died of cold) and the +subsequent scenes in which, with a comical shamefaced roundaboutness, +one after another, to the admiral himself, puts in his claim for the +care of the babe. Scenes more winningly human than these would, I think, +be far to seek. In equal degree does this beloved writer hold the key to +our manlier enthusiasms. Far distant be the day when amongst +generous-minded boys such books as his shall lose their popularity, for +it is by these that the best lessons of our history are enforced. It has +been said of the playwright Shakespeare that his works are proof that he +had it in him to strike a stout blow in a good cause. The spirit of +Agincourt was not found wanting at Trafalgar, and the same may be said +with truth of the Glasgow merchant, Scott. The voice of Britain's +greatness itself speaks in his books, and as we read them we seem +brought nearer to the spirit of Drake or of Dundonald. + +In conclusion, Scott's stories have here been considered together, for +though the _Log_ is on the whole justly the favourite of the two, in +general characteristics they are almost identical. Quite towards the +close, both books display some slight tendency to 'drag,' but in this +respect the _Cruise_ is the worse transgressor. It is also the more +loosely put together, and this despite the fact that in the relations +subsisting between Lennox and Adderfang, and the mystery which surrounds +young De Walden, the author has obviously been at pains to sustain +interest by something in the nature of a plot. Again, if he does not +repeat himself in the _Cruise_, Scott at least does not steer quite +clear of all danger of doing so; for, in addition to the fact that the +general pattern of the two tales is the same, several incidents of the +latter have counterparts in the former. And yet, on the whole, such fine +books are they both that to criticise either is deservedly to incur the +imputation of being spoiled with good things. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] No. 198 Atholl Place. Article in _Glasgow Herald_, 1st May 1895. + + + + +THOMAS HAMILTON + + +The statement--somewhat disquieting to the professed littérateur--that +almost any man may if he choose write one good book in a life-time, +finds something like confirmation in the case of Thomas Hamilton. Not +primarily a writer, and not gifted by nature with any very remarkable +talent or grace of the pen, he yet contrived to produce a book for which +a few transcripts of military life in peace and war, a few pictures of +travel, perhaps a portrait or two drawn from the life, have sufficed to +preserve, after seventy years, a portion of the favour with which it was +greeted on its first appearance. The materials for a sketch of his +career are scanty, but blanks in the narrative may to some extent be +filled in from a perusal of _Cyril Thornton_. + +Born in the year 1789, he was the younger son of William Hamilton, +Professor of Anatomy and Botany in the University of Glasgow, his elder +brother becoming in time Sir William Hamilton, the celebrated +metaphysician and intellectual luminary of Edinburgh. He was put to +school in the south of England, and about the year 1803 entered the +Glasgow University, where he studied for three winters, giving evidence, +as his brother has borne witness, of ability rather than of application. +His taste for a military life was at first opposed, but having satisfied +his friends by experiment that he was unsuited for a commercial career, +in 1810 he obtained by purchase a commission in the 29th Regiment. He +had hardly joined, when the corps was ordered out to active service in +the Peninsula, where it bore the brunt of the hardly-won battle of +Albuera, in which Hamilton himself was wounded by a musket bullet in the +thigh. During his short military career, he was once more on active +service in the Peninsula, and also served in Nova Scotia and New +Brunswick during the American War, subsequent to which he returned to +Europe, his regiment being sent as part of the army of occupation to +France. Retiring on half-pay about the year 1818, he came to reside in +Edinburgh, and began to turn his attention to literature. He had +received a good classical education, and being well introduced, he was +hailed as a congenial spirit by the Blackwood circle, and becoming +associated with the magazine, threw himself into the spirit of the +enterprise, to which he furnished contributions both in verse and prose. +In the _Noctes Ambrosianæ_ he occasionally figures as 'O'Doherty,' a +name, however, which was also applied to Dr Maginn. He is described in +_Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk_ as possessing a 'noble grand +Spaniard-looking head,' with a very sombre expression of countenance, +and a tall graceful person. The natural freedom of his movements seems, +however, to have been to some extent impeded by his wound. Carlyle, who +knew him later, describes him as a 'pleasant, very courteous, and +intelligently talking man, enduring, in a cheery military humour, his +old Peninsular hurts,' and altogether it is easy to see that he must +have formed an interesting and popular figure in the Edinburgh society +of his day. + +Having married in 1820, he resided for several summers at the +picturesque little dwelling of Chiefswood, near Melrose, where he had an +appreciative neighbour in the person of Sir Walter Scott, and where the +greater part of the _Youth and Manhood of Cyril Thornton_ was written. +This book appeared in 1827, and at once attracted attention. In 1829, +the author followed it up with _Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns, from +1808 to 1814_, and in 1833, after a visit to the New World, by _Men and +Manners in America_. In later life, having lost his first wife and +married again, he settled at Elleray, in the Lake District, where he saw +a good deal of Wordsworth, of whom he had long been an admirer, +frequently, as we are told, accompanying the poet upon long mountain +walks. His death, occasioned by a shock of paralysis, took place at +Pisa, whilst he was travelling with Mrs Hamilton, on the 7th December +1842. He was buried at Florence. + +No doubt the novel of _Cyril Thornton_ has in time past owed much of its +popularity to its varied action and frequently shifting scene, and if we +are to judge it now on literary grounds we have no choice but to +acknowledge that great portion of its interest has perished. Still, +there remain a few admirable passages, and in this particular instance +the lines of cleavage between true and false are marked with peculiar +distinctness. For the book may be described as fragments of +autobiography embedded in a paste of romance. Now imagination was by no +means Hamilton's strong point; his fancy was neither very happy nor very +abundant, and when he essays character-painting on an important +scale--as in the case of old David Spreull, the conventional eccentric +but beneficent uncle of the story, and his faithful servant Girzy, he is +as deficient in anything like true insight as he is in lightness of +touch. But though his fiction is of this heavy quality, he could present +to admiration what he himself had seen and taken part in, and from time +to time he has thought fit to do so, with excellent effect. + +Cyril Thornton is the scion of an old county family, who, at a very +early age, has the misfortune accidentally to kill his elder brother. +His father's affection is in consequence alienated from him, and he +grows up under a cloud. In time he is sent to the University, and the +scene of the story shifts to Glasgow, thus affording opportunity for +some scathing portraiture of the merchant life of that city. At Glasgow +Cyril makes the acquaintance of his uncle, and by the amiability and +independence of his character conquers the affection of the rich old +childless man. He has now arrived at man's estate, and whilst visiting +his aristocratic connection, the Earl of Amersham, at Staunton Court, he +sees, loves, and is beloved by, the beautiful and fascinating Lady +Melicent, the daughter of the house. Their scarcely-avowed attachment is +interrupted by the fatal illness of Cyril's mother, and being summoned +to return home with all speed, Cyril is there informed that, in a spirit +of cruel vindictiveness, his father has disinherited him. His gloom +deepens, and after some further romantic and amatory experience, at +length--alas! it is, indeed, at length--he joins the army. This is what +we have been waiting for, and our patience is now rewarded. At first he +is quartered at Halifax, where, at that time, the Duke of Kent was +Commander-in-Chief, and we are treated to a satirical portrait of His +Royal Highness, followed by a good deal of interesting description of +the military life of those days, interspersed with characteristic +anecdote, and varied by love-intrigue and a duel. Then follow travel and +sea-faring, with eloquent picture of an ascent of the Peak of Teneriffe, +of the Bermuda islands, and Gibraltar. Whilst Cyril is at the last-named +station, the vicissitudes of military life are illustrated by an +outbreak of yellow-fever, and when he is on his way back to England the +transport ship which bears him becomes engaged with a French privateer. +From all this it will be seen that of incident and movement there is no +lack, yet it is not until after the outbreak of the Spanish War of +Independence, when the hero is ordered with his regiment to the +Peninsula, that our expectations are fully satisfied. In such passages +as, for instance, those which describe the storming of the heights of +Roleia, the night spent by Cyril on out-piquet duty, or the capture of +the fort witnessed by the light of fire-balls, we have, not only the +scenes of war, but the poetry of the soldier's life set before us to +admiration. Scarcely less excellent is the account of Cyril's further +service under Wellington, Sir Rowland Hill, and Marshal Beresford, at +the lines of Torres Vedras, the siege of Badajos, and the battle of +Albuera, our interest in which is greatly strengthened by knowledge that +the writer was himself a part of what he describes. Our only regret is +that he has devoted so comparatively little of his book to what he does +so well. For all too soon we have the hero back in London once more, +frightfully disfigured by a wound received in action, and as a +consequence slighted by the dazzling but shallow Lady Melicent, who +before had looked so graciously upon the handsome soldier. And now the +novel begins to drag lamentably. The hero's domestic misfortunes strike +us as superfluous, whilst the madhouse scenes, where the characters +discourse in 'poetic prose,' are in the basest style of melodrama. Nor +do we care enough for Mr Spreull and his Girzy to have much patience +with the languid and long-drawn concluding scenes in which they take +part. Suffice it then to say that, ere we bid adieu to Cyril, he is +restored to his family estate, enriched by the inheritance of his +uncle's fortune, and consoled for the loss of the fickle Melicent by +worth and affection in the person of Laura Willoughby, the friend of his +youth. + +The writer of the obituary of Hamilton in _Blackwood_ is eloquent in +praise of the literary style of the book. But when we find the novelist, +who writes in the first person, declaring that 'the elements of thought +and feeling within him were conglomerated into confused and inextricable +masses,' or describing a housemaid as being 'busied in her matutinal +vocation,' or alluding to the 'supererogatory decoration of shaving,' +or, when he wishes to inform us that there was a doctor in a certain +village, employing the locution that the village 'had the advantage of +including in its population a professor of the healing art,'--then we +dispute the competency of his critic. This inflation of style is the +more curious in that, fortified by his English education, Hamilton, like +Miss Ferrier, is by no means inclined to deal mercifully with the +foibles of his countrymen, as is amply shown by his portrait of Mr +Archibald Shortridge, or his account of the visit of the five Miss +Spreulls, of Balmalloch, and their mother to Bath. But for this we +should naturally have passed over any slips in his own style, preferring +to regard them as the not unamiable lapses of a hand more skilled to +wield the sword than drive the pen. His book on the Peninsular +Campaigns is written in good straightforward English, but in _Men and +Manners in America_ he again falls victim to the temptation never to use +one word where two will do nearly as well. When the characters in _Cyril +Thornton_ converse--be they officers in the army, charming young ladies, +peers of the realm, or (like Miss Mansfield) daughters of respectable +tradesmen--they uniformly make use of finely rounded and elaborately +constructed periods, preferring as a rule the third person as a form of +address--as, for instance, when a lady, addressing the hero, observes, +'I should be surprised to hear that Captain Thornton was of those,' and +so on. This, however, is, of course, no fault of the author's, but +simply a not ungraceful literary convention of the age in which he +wrote. + +Though he professed Whig politics, Hamilton's pose throughout his +writings is one of aristocratic hauteur, and we are consequently the +less surprised to learn that the book in which he embodied his +observations on America gave dire offence in that country, provoking +angry reprisals. It may be that the comments of the gallant captain are +made occasionally in a spirit neither wholly free from insular +prejudice, nor from that particular pedantry which is sometimes +generated by a military training. But it is also manifest that the +existence which he surveyed--in a world, as must be remembered, at that +time really new--was in many respects a sufficiently bare, comfortless, +inelegant, and unrefined one, strangely lacking in the elements of +elevation in public or private life. Hamilton strove to judge it fairly, +and his observations are those of an intelligent and honest critic. +Passing easily, as they do, from grave to gay--now commenting on the +tendencies of democratic government or of the tariff, now comparing the +constitutions of the different States, now describing the prison or +scholastic systems of the country, and now touching upon the beauty and +the dress of the ladies, upon dinner parties, modes of eating, +barbarisms of language, and the like--they may be read with interest and +historically not without profit to this day. + +Of his _Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns_, the author tells us that it +was intended to appeal to a wider public than was likely to be available +for the lengthy histories of Napier and Southey, its object being to +extend a knowledge of the great achievements of the British arms and an +appropriate pride in them. Hamilton had special qualifications for the +task, and he supplied an admirably terse and lucid narrative, but this +was not accomplished without a sacrifice of much of that picturesque and +personal detail which does so much to save history from dryness, and to +make it attractive and memorable to the general reader. So that his end +was but half attained. + + * * * * * + +FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES + +_The following Volumes are in preparation:_-- + +NORMAN MACLEOD. By John Wellwood. +SIR WALTER SCOTT. By Professor Saintsbury. +GEORGE BUCHANAN. By Robert Wallace, M.P. +JEFFREY AND THE EDINBURGH REVIEWERS. By Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid. +ADAM SMITH. By Hector C. Macpherson. +KIRKCALDY OF GRANGE. By Louis Barbé. +MUNGO PARK. By T. Banks Maclachlan. +ROBERT FERGUSSON. By A. B. Grosart. +JAMES THOMSON. By William Bayne. +DAVID HUME. By Professor Calderwood. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE "BLACKWOOD" GROUP*** + + +******* This file should be named 34876-8.txt or 34876-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/8/7/34876 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The "Blackwood" Group</p> +<p> Famous Scots Series</p> +<p>Author: Sir George Douglas</p> +<p>Release Date: January 7, 2011 [eBook #34876]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE "BLACKWOOD" GROUP***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Susan Skinner<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<div class="figleft" style="width: 65px;"> +<img src="images/spine.jpg" width="65" height="600" alt="Spine" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 395px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="395" height="600" alt="Cover" title="" /> + +</div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></span></p> + + + + + + +<h1 style="margin-bottom: 10em;"> +THE 'BLACKWOOD'<br /> +GROUP</h1> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 375px;"> +<img src="images/title.jpg" width="375" height="600" alt="THE 'BLACKWOOD' +GROUP + +BY + +SIR GEORGE +DOUGLAS + +FAMOUS +SCOTS +SERIES + +PUBLISHED BY +OLIPHANT ANDERSON +& FERRIER EDINBURGH +AND LONDON" title="" /></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class='center' style="font-size: x-large;">THE 'BLACK:<br /> +WOOD' GROUP</p> + +<p class='center' style="font-size: large;">BY<br /> +SIR GEORGE<br /> +DOUGLAS</p> + + +<p class='center' style="font-size: large;">FAMOUS<br /> + +·SCOTS·<br /> +·SERIES·</p> +<p> </p> + +<p class='center' style="font-size: large;">PUBLISHED BY<br /> +OLIPHANT ANDERSON<br /> +& FERRIER · EDINBURGH<br /> +AND LONDON</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="FAMOUS_SCOTS_SERIES" id="FAMOUS_SCOTS_SERIES"></a>FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>The following Volumes are now ready</i>:—</p> + +<p> +THOMAS CARLYLE. By <span class="smcap">Hector C. Macpherson</span>.<br /> +ALLAN RAMSAY. By <span class="smcap">Oliphant Smeaton</span>.<br /> +HUGH MILLER. By <span class="smcap">W. Keith Leask</span>.<br /> +JOHN KNOX. By <span class="smcap">A. Taylor Innes</span>.<br /> +ROBERT BURNS. By <span class="smcap">Gabriel Setoun</span>.<br /> +THE BALLADISTS. By <span class="smcap">John Geddie</span>.<br /> +RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor <span class="smcap">Herkless</span>.<br /> +SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By <span class="smcap">Eve Blantyre Simpson</span>.<br /> +THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor <span class="smcap">W. Garden Blaikie</span>.<br /> +JAMES BOSWELL. By <span class="smcap">W. Keith Leask</span>.<br /> +TOBIAS SMOLLETT. By <span class="smcap">Oliphant Smeaton</span>.<br /> +FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. By <span class="smcap">G. W. T. Omond</span>.<br /> +THE BLACKWOOD GROUP. By Sir <span class="smcap">George Douglas</span>.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The designs and ornaments of this volume are by Mr Joseph Brown, and +the printing from the press of Messrs Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 2em;"> +<i>April 1897.</i> +</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class='center'>To<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Major-General Sir</span> WILLIAM CROSSMAN, K.C.M.G.,<br /> +<br /> +IN REMEMBRANCE OF HOURS IN TWO LIBRARIES.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_BLACKWOOD_GROUP" id="THE_BLACKWOOD_GROUP"></a>THE BLACKWOOD GROUP.</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<ul style="list-style-type: none;"><li><a href="#JOHN_WILSON">JOHN WILSON.</a></li> + +<li><a href="#JOHN_GALT">JOHN GALT.</a></li> + +<li><a href="#D_M_MOIR">D. M. MOIR ('DELTA').</a></li> + +<li><a href="#MISS_FERRIER">MISS FERRIER.</a></li> + +<li><a href="#MICHAEL_SCOTT">MICHAEL SCOTT.</a></li> + +<li><a href="#THOMAS_HAMILTON">THOMAS HAMILTON.</a></li></ul> +</div> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Note</i>—The Ettrick Shepherd and John Gibson Lockhart, conspicuous +by their absence from the above list of writers associated with the +early days of the publishing-house of Blackwood, will receive +attention in forthcoming volumes of the series.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">{9}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a></span></p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="JOHN_WILSON" id="JOHN_WILSON"></a>JOHN WILSON</h2> + + +<p>Is it too bold a thing to say that the reputation of 'Christopher +North,' the man, has survived that of his works? Third in the great +dynasty of Scottish literary sovereigns, he ascended the throne upon the +death of Scott, reigned gloriously and held high state in the Northern +Capital—whence in earlier days he had waged direst war—and at his +death passed on the sceptre to Carlyle, from whom in turn it descended +to Stevenson. To us of to-day, he looms on the horizon of the past, the +representative of a vanished race of physical and intellectual +giants,—the historic legend revealing him as before all things a good +man of his inches, a prince of boon-companions and good-fellows, a wit, +a hard hitter, the soul and centre of a brilliant circle, and the author +of the <i>Noctes Ambrosianæ</i>. Many other works he wrote—important in +their own day—but now not unjustly forgotten, or all but forgotten. But +the man himself was greater than his works; he, more than they, is our +enduring possession; his memory it behoves us to preserve.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The story of his life has been told, in terms of affectionate +appreciation, by his daughter, Mrs Gordon. Born at Paisley—in a +neighbourhood where that natural beauty to which he was so susceptible +was still at that time almost unsullied—on the 18th May 1785, he was +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">{10}</a></span> eldest of his parents' sons and their fourth child. His father, a +gauze-manufacturer by trade, was possessed of considerable wealth; +whilst through his mother, whose maiden name was Sym, and who claimed +descent from the great Marquis of Montrose, he had inherited a strain of +'gentle' blood. From the first he was a robust and lively boy, and his +childhood, being passed under the most favourable of conditions, was an +entirely happy one. His taste for field-sport first declared itself at +the early age of three years, when equipped with willow-wand, thread, +and crooked pin, he set off, unattended, on an adventurous angling +expedition. Meantime the parallel mental activity, which was to be +through life his characteristic, was manifested in quaint infantine +pulpit-oratory at home. After receiving the rudiments of instruction at +Paisley, he was placed as a boarder with the minister of the +neighbouring parish of Mearns, with whom he remained until his twelfth +year. Here he was not less happy than at home. Without doors—and one +thinks of him as a boy whose life was spent chiefly in the open air—he +had a wide and beautiful country to range; whilst within, his education +proceeded merrily—he was foremost among his young companions at the +task as well as in the playground—and he was carefully trained in the +paths of wisdom and virtue. In later life his memory reverted fondly to +these days, to which his writings contain various references—as when he +tells of boyish shooting experiences, with an antiquated musket, +traditionally supposed to have been 'out' in both the Fifteen and the +Forty-five, of an adventure in a storm when lost upon the moors, and so +forth. In his twelfth year he lost his father, and soon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">{11}</a></span> afterwards he +was placed at the University of Glasgow, where he continued to attend +classes until the year 1803. Here he resided in the house of the +Professor of Logic, Professor Jardine, to whom and to the Greek +Professor, Young, he in later life gratefully acknowledged his debt. +Meantime his mother with her young family had gone to live in Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>There and at Glasgow, from January to October 1801, young Wilson kept a +diary, which was preserved, and from which his biographer prints some +extracts. These are disappointing; but the document itself is remarkable +for orderliness and precision, exhibiting the writer as the very pattern +of a well-brought-up youth. More interesting, however, as a +manifestation of character is the impulse which, in the year following, +led the seventeen-year-old young man to address a letter of generous +admiration, not, however, untempered with criticism, to the author of +the <i>Lyrical Ballads</i>. Wordsworth replied, and thus was begun an +intercourse which was afterwards destined to ripen into friendship.</p> + +<p>In June 1803, Wilson was transferred from Glasgow to Oxford, where he +was entered as a gentleman-commoner of Magdalen College. He began his +career there with ambitious views, his course of study, as shown by his +commonplace books, being designed to embrace not only the prescribed +curriculum in the Ancient Classics, but studies in Law, History, +Philosophy, and Poetry as well. But, if he read hard—as, with +occasional intermissions, he undoubtedly did—he also entered with zest +into the athletics and other amusements of the place, testing his +prowess in wrestling, leaping, boating, and running, and, at the same +time, indulging in what to a later age may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">{12}</a></span> appear the more questionable +sports of pugilism and cock-fighting. Some traditions of the feats then +performed by him survive. Among these are stories of his triumphant +encounter with a certain redoubtable pugilist who had insulted him; of +his coming out one night from a dinner-party in Grosvenor Square, and +proceeding then and there to walk back to Oxford—accomplishing the +distance of fifty-eight miles in some eight or nine hours; or, of his +clearing the river Cherwell at a flying leap—twenty-three feet in +breadth on the dead level. Yet, these distractions notwithstanding, he +succeeded in passing the examination for his Bachelor's Degree, in a +manner which his tutor characterised as 'glorious,' and in producing +such an impression of scholarship on the minds of the Examiners as to +call forth the rare testimony of a public expression of their thanks. He +also carried off the Newdigate Prize, awarded for English verse. In +commenting on the amiability of his disposition, his biographer observes +that he harboured not an envious thought. But surely to have done so +were a very superfluity of naughtiness; for, gifted as he was, by +fortune as well as nature, whom was it possible for this admirable youth +to envy?</p> + +<p>After taking his degree, he still continued for a time to frequent +Oxford, astonishing the younger members of the common-room of his +college by his extraordinary conversational powers and by occasional +quaint freaks, but at the same time delighting them by his good-humour. +It is told of him at this time that he would sometimes indulge his fancy +by resorting to the coaching-inns at the hour of the arrival of the +mails, presiding at the travellers' supper-table, and hob-nobbing with +all and sundry, whom his wit and pleasantry seldom failed to impress. At +this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">{13}</a></span> era his personal appearance is described as especially striking. +It was that of a man of great muscular strength, but lightly built; +about five feet ten inches in height, with uncommon breadth of chest; +florid, and wearing a profusion of hair, and enormous whiskers—the +latter being in those days very unusual. De Quincey says he was not +handsome, but against such testimony we may surely set off that of +Raeburn's portrait, painted a few years earlier.</p> + +<p>These ought to have been golden days, indeed, but much of their +happiness was marred by an unlucky love-affair. At Glasgow, some years +before, Wilson had made the acquaintance of a young lady of great charm +of person and character, who in the biography figures as 'Margaret,' or +The Orphan Maid. The impression which she produced upon him was profound +and lasting, and at parting he had inscribed to her a small volume of +manuscript poems of his own. From this point the biographer is rather +vague in her account of the progress of the attachment; yet we have +abundant evidence that its course was a most troubled one. For instance, +in August 1803, we find our hero writing to a friend in the following +desperate strain:—'By heavens! I will, perhaps, some day blow my brains +out, and there is an end of the matter.' Later he says: 'The word happy +will never again be joined to the name of John Wilson.' And again he +speaks of summoning two friends to support him and pass with him the +night on which Margaret was to be married to another. This dreaded +marriage did not take place, but it is quite evident that the lover long +continued in a most unsettled state of mind. Thus we hear of his having +swallowed laudanum, lost his powers of study, indulged in 'unbridled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">{14}</a></span> +dissipation'; of sudden aimless journeys, undertaken on the spur of the +moment, and landing him at nightfall at such unlikely places as Coventry +or Nottingham; of solitary rambles in Ireland and in Wales. 'Whilst I +keep moving,' he writes, in October 1805, 'life goes on well enough; but +whenever I pause the fever of the soul begins.' He even entertained an +idea of joining the expedition of Mungo Park to Timbuctoo. No doubt in +all this he believed himself sincere enough at the time, but it is not +necessary for us to take his utterances quite seriously. The blowing out +of brains has been alluded to, and it seems more than probable that a +point of Wertherism entered into his distemper. At any rate, in giving +an order for the works of Rousseau at the time, he is careful to +emphasize his desire to have them complete. In dismissing the episode it +may be mentioned that, though the various obstacles to a union between +himself and Margaret are not detailed, in his case filial obedience +would seem to have been the final deterrent.</p> + +<p>During a tour in the English lake country in 1805, Wilson had fallen in +love with and purchased the property of Elleray, consisting of a +delightful cottage-residence, standing in grounds of its own, and +commanding lovely views of mountain, lawn, and forest scenery, rising +above the waters of Lake Windermere; and it was there that, on leaving +Oxford in 1807, he took up his abode. He was now in the fullest sense +his own master, and at this point it may be worth while briefly to take +note of his attitude towards life.</p> + +<p>The ideal of the sound mind in the sound body has been universally +recognised as a good one; but, whether deliberately or instinctively, +Wilson seems to have aimed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">{15}</a></span> higher still. He aspired to the mind of a +philosopher in the body of an athlete; and the word philosopher must +here be taken in its highest sense—to signify not the thinker only, but +the lover of wisdom for its own sake. A saner or loftier ideal could +scarcely be conceived; and Nature, who too often unites the soaring mind +with the body which does it previous wrong, had in this case given the +means of attaining, or at least approaching it. Thus the Christopher +North of this period remains a possession and a standard of manhood to +his countrymen. He brings home to them the Hellenic ideal, pure and +unvitiated by any taint of Keatsian sensuality, as Goethe had brought it +home to Germany. In the process of naturalization that ideal underwent +some modification; but the fact that the poetry which North wrote at +this time was of perishable quality does not in reality detract from the +service which he rendered to his country.</p> + +<p>For poetical composition seems to have been now the serious business of +his life. As for his diversions, they remained of the same healthy type +as in his Oxford days. The sailing of a fleet of boats on Windermere, +and the rearing of game birds were perhaps his special hobbies; but +wherever manly exercises were to the fore, there was he to be found. The +country in which he was now located being a wrestling country, he became +an enthusiastic patron of that excellent exercise, and effected much for +its encouragement. And at the same time he was free of the society of +Wordsworth, Coleridge, De Quincey, and the other able and gifted men +whose presence made the district at that era a centre of intellectual +light.</p> + +<p>Amid these varied interests, two or three years were passed contentedly +enough; but at the end of that time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">{16}</a></span> we find Wilson writing to a friend +of his need of an anchor in life. 'I do not, I hope, want either +ballast, or cargo, or sail,' he writes, 'but I do want an anchor most +confoundedly, and, without it, shall keep beating about the great sea of +life to very little purpose.' This 'anchor' he was fated to find in the +person of Miss Jane Penny, the daughter of a Liverpool merchant, a +favourite partner of his own at the local dances, and at that time the +'leading belle of the Lake Country,' to whom he was happily married on +the 11th May 1811.</p> + +<p>His marriage had the effect of somewhat delaying the publication of a +volume of poetry which he had previously been preparing for the press, +and it was not until February of the following year that <i>The Isle of +Palms, and Other Poems</i> made its appearance—having been shortly +preceded by an anonymously-published elegy on the death of James +Grahame, author of <i>The Sabbath</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Isle of Palms</i> tells in mellifluous numbers the story of a pair of +lovers, shipwrecked on an island paradise in tropic seas, who espouse +each other in the sight of Nature and Heaven. Of course the idyll +irresistibly recalls Bernardin's masterpiece, and, judging between the +two, it must be acknowledged that in originality and artistic perfection +the Frenchman's prose has greatly the advantage. But it is noticeable +and must be counted to Wilson's credit that, whilst profoundly +influenced by pre-Revolutionary thought, he never, even at this early +period of his life, allows himself to be led away from the paths +prescribed by virtue and religion. His healthy instinct, fortified by +excellent training, sufficed to show him that anarchy in the moral world +is no more a part of nature's scheme than is habitual excess; and thus +the worship of Liberty and the State of Nature,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">{17}</a></span> which afterwards led to +such questionable results in the cases of Byron and of Shelley, left him +entirely unharmed. It is true that rigid formalists have been found to +object to the 'natural marriage' of the lovers in the poem, deploring +the absence of a clergyman on the island. But with these we need not +concern ourselves.</p> + +<p>The success of the poems was but moderate; yet it sufficed to bring the +author into notice in Edinburgh, where he and his wife were spending the +season with his mother and sisters, and whence Sir Walter Scott wrote of +him, in a letter to Joanna Baillie, as 'an excellent, warm-hearted, and +enthusiastic young man,' adding that, 'Something too much, perhaps, of +the latter quality' placed him upon the list of originals.</p> + +<p>Dividing his time between Edinburgh and Elleray, the young poet now +continued to vary his active open-air life by the plotting and +composition of new poems, and in these pursuits, had his affairs +continued prosperous, it is quite possible that the remainder of his +life might have been spent. For it is a truism that any large measure of +happiness is unfavourable to enterprise, and what young Wilson now +really stood in need of was some stimulus to exertion from without. Such +stimulus duly arrived, taking the form of what in a worldly sense is +known as ruin. To speak more circumstantially, in the fourth year after +his marriage, the unencumbered fortune of £50,000 which he had enjoyed +from the time of his father's death, was, through the dishonesty of an +uncle who had acted as steward of the estate, entirely lost to him.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +But, severe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">{18}</a></span> as this blow was, his biographers are agreed in pronouncing +it to have been a blessing in disguise, and the means of bringing out +much that was in the man, which would otherwise in all probability have +been lost to the world.</p> + +<p>It was now, of course, necessary for him to put his shoulder to the +wheel, and, with the exception of Sir Walter Scott, perhaps no man ever +rose more manfully or uncomplainingly to the occasion. But between these +parallel cases there was one great difference; for Scott's misfortunes +fell upon him when he was advanced in years and worn with toil, whilst +Wilson was able to bring the prime of youth and strength to bear upon +his troubles. He now took up his abode altogether in Edinburgh, being +gladly received into the house of his mother,—a lady who to a fine +presence and strong and amiable character added notable house-keeping +talents, which enabled her during several successive years to accomplish +the somewhat difficult and delicate task of making three separate +families comfortable and happy under one roof. In the same year, 1815, +Wilson was called to the Scots Bar. But, though for a year or two to +come he seems to have made a point of staying in Edinburgh whilst the +Courts were sitting, a short experience sufficed to convince him that +his vocation did not lie in that direction. It was some time before he +succeeded in settling down to congenial work, and, indeed, what we hear +most of during the next year or so are pedestrian and fishing excursions +to the Highlands. Whilst on these expeditions great would be the +distances which he compassed on foot, immense the baskets of fish which +he brought home. On one of them, he had his wife as his companion, when +the happy Bohemianism of the young couple—or, as some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">{19}</a></span> would have it, +the poet's eccentricity of conduct—led them into some queer +experiences. Among his adventures we may specify a contest in the four +manly arts of running, leaping, wrestling, and drinking, with a local +champion nicknamed King of the Drovers, in which Wilson came off +victorious.</p> + +<p>In March 1816 appeared his second volume of verse, entitled <i>The City of +the Plague</i>. This poem forms a startling contrast to the <i>Isle of +Palms</i>, for, in place of nature at its softest and sentiment sweet to +the point of cloying, we are now presented with the gloomiest and +ghastliest of studies in the charnel-house style. Several of the scenes +depicting the madness of the London streets at the period of the great +pestilential visitation are by no means without a certain power, which, +however, inclines to degenerate into violence. Two young +sailors—certainly most unlike to all preconceived notions of the seamen +of the age of Blake—help to supply the necessary relief and +'sentiment,' of which there is no lack. But, from beginning to end, +there is little or nothing truly poetical in the tragedy. The movement +of its blank verse is most frequently harsh and jolting, and serves to +confirm one in the opinion that the author was well-inspired when he +abandoned poetry, as he was now to do. Nor do the minor poems which make +up the remainder of the volume show cause for altering this judgment. +Certainly they abound, even to excess, in evidence of the love of +nature; but that alone never yet made a poet.</p> + +<p>The transition which now lay before the author was an abrupt and violent +one. From the world of nature and sentiment in which he had hitherto +dwelt undisturbed, he found himself summoned to pass into the arena of +periodical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">{20}</a></span> literature, and that in an age when not only was it the +misfortune of such literature to be before all things political, but +when political feeling ran to a pitch of which at the present day it is +difficult even to form a conception,—when the mere designations Whig +and Tory, as mutually applied, were regarded less as party distinctions +than as terms of abuse or reproach. And, to add to the contrast which +lay before Wilson, the place in which he was called to take this step +was precisely that in which the war of periodicals was destined to be +waged most keenly. In order properly to understand the circumstances +which led to this warfare, it is necessary to go back some years.</p> + +<p>The horrors of the French Revolution had been followed in Edinburgh by a +strong Tory reaction—a reaction of the excesses of which Henry +Cockburn, in his Memorials, has left a highly-coloured and perhaps not +unprejudiced account. In 1802, as a counterpoise to overwhelming Tory +supremacy, and a rallying-point for those thereto opposed, the +<i>Edinburgh Review</i> had been established. It was supported by a group of +remarkably able young men, whose talents soon raised it to a position of +unexampled influence in the world of letters. That it performed +excellent service in the cause of enlightenment is undeniable; yet it +failed to bear itself with all the moderation proper to success, and in +time showed signs of becoming in its turn a tyranny. Those who were +opposed to it, whilst regarding as dangerous its opinions in politics +and religion, also grew tired (in their own words) of its flippancy and +conceit. Now it happened that about this time a certain new magazine, +recently founded by a very shrewd and enterprising<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">{21}</a></span> Edinburgh publisher, +after languishing for some months under incompetent editorship, had +reached the very point of dissolution. In this periodical the Tory +malcontents saw an instrument ready to their hands. New spirit was +infused into its nerveless frame, and in October 1817 appeared the first +number of Blackwood's remodelled Edinburgh Magazine. And among those who +gave the hot fresh blood of youth to revive its languishing existence, +one of the foremost was John Wilson. It may be mentioned that before +this he had contributed a literary article to the rival organ, with the +presiding genius of which he was on terms of friendship. His new +departure led to a rupture of that friendship, but to hold that his acts +had committed him to the support of the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> would be to +put an altogether strained construction upon them.</p> + +<p>A detailed history of the stormy first years of the new publication, +however piquant and racy it might be made, forms no part of our present +scheme. Suffice it to remind the reader that the 'success of scandal' +which the magazine at once obtained is matter of notoriety; nor can that +success be pronounced undeserved. Indeed the very first number of the +new issue, besides scathing articles on Coleridge and Leigh Hunt, +contained the celebrated 'Translation from an Ancient Chaldee +Manuscript'—afterwards suppressed—consisting of a thinly-veiled attack +upon a rival magazine, and abounding in gross personalities to the +address of leading citizens of Edinburgh. These excesses, though the +cause of much heart-burning at the time, can scarcely be pronounced of +enduring interest; and it is more profitable, as well as more pleasing, +to turn to the other side of the picture. For it must not by any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">{22}</a></span> means +be supposed that the new venture relied solely upon objectionable +personalities for attracting and holding its readers. 'These,' as +Wilson's biographer observes, 'would have excited but a slight and +temporary notice, had the bulk of the articles not displayed a rare +combination of much higher qualities;' and she goes on to say that +whatever subjects were discussed were handled with a masterly vigour and +freshness, and developed with a fulness of knowledge and variety of +talent that could not fail to command respect even from the least +approving critic. Still it is undeniable that for many months to come +the series of onslaughts was kept up almost without intermission, whilst +even persons locally as highly and as justly respected as Chalmers and +Playfair were made to feel the sting of the lash. Consisting as it did +of a recrudescence of the discountenanced literary methods of the age of +Smollett, all this is regrettable enough, and of much of it there can be +little doubt that 'The Leopard'—to give Wilson the name which he bore +in the magazine—was art and part. His exact share in productions which +were not merely anonymous but of which mystification was an essential +feature is impossible to trace; but we are glad at least to have the +assurance of his daughter that, amid all the violence of language and +extravagance of censure which disfigured his early contributions to the +magazine, she has been unable to bring home to his hand 'any instance of +unmanly attack, or one shade of real malignity.' Our knowledge of the +man's character makes us ready enough to believe that he did not mean to +give pain; whilst there is always this excuse—whatever it may be +worth—for Maga's early indiscretions: that they were the work of +inexperienced men, carried away by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">{23}</a></span> exuberance of their spirits, and +genuinely—if indefensibly—ignorant of the laws of literary good +manners, or, as one of themselves has expressed it, of the 'structure +and practice of literature' as it existed at that day in Britain. With +which reflection, an unthankful subject may be dismissed. For ourselves +the real significance of the magazine in its early days consists, not in +stories of challenges sent or damages paid, but in the fact that it +afforded to John Wilson a first opportunity of giving full and free play +to his talents. The characteristic of his genius was not so much +<i>fineness</i> as abundance, and thus we may believe that his gain from the +new stimulus to constant and rapid production more than balanced his +loss from absence of opportunities of polishing his work. Certainly from +the time of his active and regular employment, he began to throw off +those tendencies to affectation and philandering which had characterised +his early efforts in the 'Lake' school, and though he never quite lost +the habit of as the French say 'caressing his phrase,' he became from +henceforth more virile, more himself.</p> + +<p>Standing now to all appearance committed to literature as his vocation, +in the year 1819 he left his mother's hospitable roof, and removed with +his wife and family to a small house of his own, situated in Ann Street, +on the outskirts of the town, where, besides having Watson Gordon, the +portrait-painter, for his immediate neighbour, he enjoyed the society of +Raeburn and Allan among artists, and of Lockhart, Galt, Hogg, and the +Hamiltons among literary men.</p> + +<p>In April of the year following, by the death of Dr Thomas Brown, the +Chair of Moral Philosophy in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">{24}</a></span> University of Edinburgh became vacant. +Wilson thereupon resolved to present himself as a candidate for it, as +did Sir William Hamilton, and though the names of other aspirants are +mentioned, from the first the real contest lay between these two. They +had both been brilliant students at Oxford, but in almost every other +respect their qualifications for the coveted post were about as +different as could be; for since his college days Hamilton had devoted +himself exclusively to the study of philosophy, and had now substantial +results of his labours to exhibit, whilst Wilson—though we are +expressly told that the study in question had always had a powerful +attraction for him—was yet known to the world only as a daring and +brilliant littérateur, and a genial and somewhat Bohemian personality. +There is no need to say with which of the two, in such a competition, +the advantage at first sight seemed to lie. But it is necessary to +explain that the election was fought on political grounds, that Hamilton +was a Whig, and that the electing body was the Town Council of +Edinburgh. It is gratifying to be able to record that the candidates +themselves remained upon friendly terms. But never had party-feeling +been known to run so high as between their respective adherents,—so +that, before the election was over, Wilson had been called on to face +charges of being a 'reveller,' which he probably was, a blasphemer, +which we cannot think him ever to have been, and a bad husband and +father, which he certainly was not. In the end he secured a majority of +twelve out of thirty votes; whilst an attempt to set aside his election, +which was made at a subsequent meeting of the Council, ignominiously +collapsed.</p> + +<p>Keenly alive to the responsibilities of a position which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">{25}</a></span> he cannot long +have looked forward to occupying, the newly-made Professor at once +devoted himself to preparation for the discharge of his duties. Whilst +thus engaged, his application was intense,—as well it might be, for it +was stipulated that he was to deliver some hundred-and-fifty lectures +during the forthcoming Session, and he had but four months in which to +prepare them. Native genius, pluck and perseverance, however, carried +him triumphantly over every obstacle. His first lecture has thus been +described by one who was present on the occasion.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'There was a furious bitterness of feeling against him among the +classes of which probably most of his pupils would consist, and +although I had no prospect of being among them, I went to his first +lecture prepared to join in a cabal, which I understood was formed +to put him down. The lecture-room was crowded to the ceiling. Such a +collection of hard-browed, scowling Scotsmen, muttering over their +knobsticks, I never saw. The Professor entered with a bold step, +amid profound silence. Everyone expected some deprecatory or +propitiatory introduction of himself, and his subject, upon which +the mass was to decide against him, reason or no reason; but he +began in a voice of thunder right into the <i>matter</i> of his lecture, +kept up unflinchingly and unhesitatingly, without a pause, a flow of +rhetoric such as Dugald Stewart or Thomas Brown, his predecessors, +never delivered in the same place. Not a word, not a murmur escaped +his captivated, I ought to say his conquered, audience, and at the +end they gave him a right-down unanimous burst of applause. Those +who came to scoff remained to praise.'</p></div> + +<p>And from henceforth the Professor's enemies were silenced.</p> + +<p>It can scarcely fail to strike the reader that into Wilson's election to +the professorship there had entered not a little of what was casual, or +the result of impulse;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">{26}</a></span> still his lucky star must have ruled at the +moment, for the sequel far more than justified his rashness. As poet he +had been mediocre, and as lawyer 'out of his element,' but there exists +abundant testimony to prove that as lecturer and instructor of youth he +was the right man in the right place. As was the way of his spirited and +generous nature, he threw himself heart and soul into his new work; but +though we are assured that his attainments in that department left +nothing to be desired, it was far less to these than to character and +personality that he owed the success which he undoubtedly won. Certainly +philosophers more profound, and probably men of greater general +attainments have occupied his Chair, but assuredly never one who united +his happy powers of breathing life into the instruction which he +imparted and inspiring his scholars with a keen and quickening +enthusiasm for himself. And that he succeeded so well in this was +perhaps due to the fact that, in addition to his wide and general +humanity, there was about him a certain boyishness, which, when joined +with the dignity and character of manhood, seldom fails in its appeal to +youth.</p> + +<p>From among the multitude of pupils who cherished grateful and happy +recollections of his class, his biographer has presented us with the +testimony of three. The first of these is Hill Burton, the historian of +Scotland, who warmly acknowledges his kindness, and whose future +eminence the Professor would seem to have divined; for, though at all +times accessible to his pupils and conscientious in the discharge of his +duties, he appears to have made a friend of Burton almost at the first +meeting. Another of his students, Mr Alexander Taylor Innes, has left a +picture of North in his lecture-room, from which,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">{27}</a></span> though it belongs by +rights to a later date, I make no apology for quoting here.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'His appearance in his class-room,' says that gentleman, 'it is far +easier to remember than to forget. He strode into it with the +professor's gown hanging loosely on his arms, took a comprehensive +look over the mob of young faces, laid down his watch so as to be +out of the reach of his sledge-hammer fist, glanced at the notes of +his lecture, and then, to the bewilderment of those who had never +heard him before, looked long and earnestly out of the north window +towards the spire of the old Tron Kirk; until, having at last got +his idea, he faced round and uttered it with eye and hand, and voice +and soul and spirit, and bore the class along with him. As he spoke +the bright blue eye looked with a strange gaze into vacancy, +sometimes sparkling with a coming joke, sometimes darkening before a +rush of indignant eloquence; the tremulous upper lip curving with +every wave of thought or hint of passion, and the golden-grey hair +floating on the old man's mighty shoulders—if, indeed, that could +be called age which seemed but the immortality of a more majestic +youth. And occasionally, in the finer frenzy of his more imaginative +passages—as when he spoke of Alexander, clay-cold at Babylon, with +the world lying conquered around his tomb, or of the Highland hills, +that pour the rage of cataracts adown their riven cliffs, or even of +the human mind, with its "primeval granitic truths," the grand old +face flushed with the proud thought, and the eyes grew dim with +tears and the magnificent frame quivered with a universal emotion.'</p></div> + +<p>Yet another pupil, the Reverend Dr William Smith, of North Leith, has +thus recorded his impressions:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Of Professor Wilson as a lecturer on Moral Philosophy, it is not +easy to convey any adequate idea to strangers,—to those who never +saw his grand and noble form excited into bold and passionate action +behind that strange, old-fashioned desk, nor heard his manly and +eloquent voice sounding forth its stirring utterances with all the +strange and fitful cadence of a music quite peculiar to itself. The +many-sidedness of the man, and the unconventional character of his +prelections, combine to make it exceedingly difficult to define the +nature and grounds of his wonderful power as a lecturer. I am +certain that if every student who ever attended his class were to +place on record his impressions of these, the impressions of each +student would be widely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">{28}</a></span> different, and yet they would not, taken +all together, exhaust the subject, or supply a complete +representation either of his matter or his manner.... The roll of +papers on which each lecture was written, which he carried into the +class-room firmly grasped in his hand, and suddenly unrolled and +spread out on the desk before him, commencing to read the same +moment, could not fail to attract the notice of any stranger in his +class-room. It was composed in large measure of portions of old +letters—the addresses and postage-marks on which could be easily +seen as he turned the leaf, yet it was equally evident that the +writing was neat, careful and distinct; and, except in a more than +usually dark and murk day, it was read with perfect ease and +fluency.'</p></div> + +<p>And, in reference to a certain specific lecture, the same gentleman +adds, 'The whole soul of the man seemed infused into his subject, and to +be rushing forth with resistless force in the torrent of his +rapidly-rolling words. As he spoke, his whole frame quivered with +emotion. He evidently saw the scene he described, and such was the +sympathetic force of his strong poetic imagination, that he made us, +whether we would or not, see it too. Now dead silence held the class +captive. In the interval of his words you would have heard a pin fall. +Again, at some point, the applause could not be restrained, and was +vociferous.' The writer concludes by stating that he has heard some of +the greatest orators of the day, naming Lords Derby, Brougham, +Lyndhurst; Peel, O'Connell, Sheil, Follett, Chalmers, Caird, Guthrie, +M'Neile; and has heard them 'in their very best styles make some of +their most celebrated appearances; but for popular eloquence, for +resistless force, for the seeming inspiration that swayed the soul, and +the glowing sympathy that entranced the hearts of his entire audience, +that lecture by Professor Wilson far excelled the best of these I ever +listened to.'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">{29}</a></span></p> + +<p>This, within its proper limits, is the strongest praise. And, on the +other hand, we must guard against the supposition that these +lectures—highly-coloured and emotional as they undoubtedly +were—consisted solely, or even mainly, of oratorical, or conscious or +unconscious dramatic display. We are assured that this was by no means +the case; that the Professor scorned to sacrifice the serviceable to the +ornamental, never for a moment hesitating to grapple with the central +difficulties of his subject, or shirking the irksome duty of 'hammering' +at them during the greater part of a Session.</p> + +<p>Increased financial resources now enabled him to resume occupation of +his beloved Elleray, where a new and larger dwelling-house, suitable to +the accommodation of a family, had by this time been built. There, many +of the intervals of his busy University life were spent in happy +domesticity, and there, in 1825, he was visited by Sir Walter Scott, +whom he fêted with a brilliant regatta on Windermere. It is to these +years of professional duties varied by vacations in the country that his +novels and tales belong. They comprise three volumes, and, as their +characteristics are identical, may be considered side by side. They +consist uniformly of tales of pastoral or humble life, and the author +has recorded that his object in writing them was to speak of the +'elementary feelings of the human soul in isolation, under the light of +a veil of poetry.' The impression which they produce upon a reader of +the present day is that this programme has been but too systematically +adhered to. The stories themselves do not lack interest, and their +motives are at all times human; but they are deliberately localized in +some other world than ours, and if there thence ensues a certain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">{30}</a></span> +æsthetic gain, it is accompanied by a more than proportionate loss in +vraisemblance and in moral force. To speak more plainly, if the world of +Wilson's tales is a better world than ours, it yet remains an artificial +one, his stories develope in accordance with the rules of a preconceived +ideal, and a weakening of their interest is the result. For though many +a writer has seen life in a way of his own, Wilson seems to have +deliberately set himself to see it in a way belonging to somebody else. +In fact, throughout this series of little books, he aspires to appear in +the character of a prose Wordsworth; but he is a Wordsworth who has lost +the noble plainness of his original, and though his actual style is less +marred by floridness and redundancy here than elsewhere, still the vices +of prettiness, self-consciousness, artificiality, and sentiment suffice +to stamp his work as an imitation, decadent from the lofty source of its +inspiration.</p> + +<p>Of the <i>Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life</i>, a volume of short tales +published in 1822, the not impartial author of the biography, writing in +the early sixties, remarks that it has acquired a popularity of the most +enduring kind—a statement which to-day one would hesitate to endorse. +She adds that the stories are 'poems in prose, in which, amid fanciful +scenes and characters, the struggles of humanity are depicted with +pathetic fidelity, and the noblest lessons of virtue and religion are +interwoven, in no imaginary harmony, with the homely realities of +Scottish peasant life.' And subject to the not inconsiderable abatements +noted above, this may no doubt be accepted.</p> + +<p><i>The Foresters</i> (1825) is the history of the family of one Michael +Forester, who is exhibited in turn in his relation as a dutiful son, a +kind self-sacrificing brother, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">{31}</a></span> loving and faithful husband, and a +wise affectionate father; whilst from time to time we are also enabled +to trace his beneficent influence in the affairs of other members of the +small community in which he lives. The tone of the book is peaceful and +soothing; it inculcates cheerfulness and resignation, and holds up for +our edification a picture of that contentment which springs from the +practice of virtue. A group of faultless creatures—for none but the +subordinate characters have any faults—pursue the tenor of their lives +amid fair scenes of nature, and, when sorrow or misfortune falls to +their lot, meet it with an inspiring fortitude. To scoff at such a book +were to supply proof of incompetence in criticism—of which the very +soul consists in sympathy with all that is sincere in spirit and not +inadequate in execution. Yet equally uncritical were it to fail to mark +how far short this story falls of the exquisite spontaneity of such work +as Goldsmith's immortal essay in the same style.</p> + +<p>Possibly, however, of the three volumes, the <i>Trials of Margaret +Lyndsay</i> (1823) is that which most forcibly conveys the lessons common +to all—the teaching of Wordsworth, that is to say, as made plain by a +sympathetic disciple. It is the story of a beautiful and virtuous +maiden, the daughter of a printer who, having become imbued with the +doctrines of Tom Paine, falls into evil courses and is imprisoned on a +charge of sedition. His family—consisting of Margaret, her ailing +mother, aged grandmother, and two sisters, one of whom is mentally +afflicted and the other blind—are in consequence reduced to great +poverty, which, supported by their piety, they endure without complaint. +Removing from their country home to a dark and narrow street in +Edinburgh, they open a small<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">{32}</a></span> school, and for a time with fair success +make head against their troubles. But misfortune follows relentlessly +upon their traces. Lyndsay dies in disgrace, Margaret's sailor +sweetheart perishes by drowning, and one after the other she sees the +members of the little group which surrounds her removed by death. Still +she does not lose heart. Left alone in the world, she is received into +the house of a benevolent young lady, and, there, is happy enough, until +the undesired attentions of the young lady's brother compel her to seek +another home. Journeying alone and on foot, she seeks a refuge with a +distant and estranged relation; by whom she is coldly received, but upon +whose withered heart her gentle influence in time works the most happy +change. And now, at length, it seems that her hardly-won happiness is to +be crowned by marriage to the man of her choice. But what has seemed her +good fortune turns out to be in reality the worst of all her woes; for +the brave but dissolute soldier who has won her heart is discovered to +possess a wife already. Thus from trial to trial do we follow her, until +at last she is left in possession of a very modest share of felicity, +whilst from her story we learn the lesson of the duties of courage and +cheerfulness, the consolations of virtue, and the healing power of +nature.</p> + +<p>But of course it is not to the department of fiction that Wilson's most +conspicuous literary achievements belong. When once he had settled down +into the swing of his professorial duties, his connexion with +Blackwood's Magazine was resumed, and his biographer truly remarks that +probably no periodical was ever more indebted to one individual than was +'Maga' to Christopher North.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">{33}</a></span> And, in passing, it may be stated that +this name, which had at first been assumed by various of the +contributors, was soon exclusively associated with himself. As to the +number, variety, and extent of his contributions, Mrs Gordon has +furnished some curious information. During many years these were never +fewer than on an average two to each number; whilst on more than one +occasion he produced, within the month, almost the entire contents of an +issue. In the year 1830, he contributed in the month of January two +articles; in February four; three in March; one each in April and May; +four in June; three in July; seven (or 116 pages) in August; one in +September; two in October; and one each in November and December—being +thirty articles, or one thousand two hundred columns in the year. +(Against this, however, there must be set off his extremely liberal +quotations from books under review.) The subjects dealt with in the +month of August were the following:—'The Great Moray Floods'; 'The Lay +of the Desert'; 'The Wild Garland, and Sacred Melodies'; 'Wild Fowl +Shooting'; 'Colman's Random Records'; 'Clark on Climate'; 'Noctes, No. +51.' In the year following, by the month of September he had already +contributed twenty articles, five of which were in the August number. +And, finally, in 1833, he wrote no fewer than fifty-four articles, or +upwards of two thousand four hundred closely-printed columns, on +politics, and general literature! Nor, when the extraordinary influence +and popularity enjoyed by Blackwood's Magazine at that period, and the +fact that these were mainly due to Christopher North are borne in mind, +will these labours run any risk of being confounded with those of the +ordinary literary hack. At the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">{34}</a></span> same time it may be necessary to caution +the reader against the oft-repeated error that Wilson was at any time +editor of the Magazine.</p> + +<p>Of his habits of composition at this the most brilliant and prolific +period of his career, his daughter furnishes the following account, from +which it will be seen that his literary procedure was ordered with +complete disregard to comfort. He was now living in a house which he had +built for himself in Gloucester Place, which was to be his home for the +remainder of his life.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The amazing rapidity with which he wrote, caused him too often to +delay his work to the very last moment, so that he almost always +wrote under compulsion, and every second of time was of consequence. +Under such a mode of labour there was no hour left for relaxation. +When regularly in for an article for Blackwood, his whole strength +was put forth, and it may be said he struck into life what he had to +do at a blow. He at these times began to write immediately after +breakfast, that meal being despatched with a swiftness commensurate +with the necessity of the case before him. He then shut himself into +his study, with an express command that no one was to disturb him, +and he never stirred from his writing-table until perhaps the +greater part of a <i>Noctes</i> was written, or some paper of equal +brilliancy and interest completed. The idea of breaking his labour +by taking a constitutional walk never entered his thoughts for a +moment. Whatever he had to write, even though a day or two were to +keep him close at work, he never interrupted his pen, saving to take +his night's rest, and a late dinner served to him in his study. The +hour for that meal was on these occasions nine o'clock; his dinner +then consisted invariably of a boiled fowl, potatoes, and a glass of +water—he allowed himself no wine. After dinner he resumed his pen +till midnight, when he retired to bed, not unfrequently to be +disturbed by an early printer's boy.'</p></div> + +<p>His rapidly turned-out 'copy' would soon cover the table at which he +wrote, after which the floor about his feet would be strewn with pages +of his MS. 'thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa.' Nor did he, even +in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">{35}</a></span> the depth of winter, indulge in a fire in his study, or in any other +illumination than that afforded by a tallow candle set in a kitchen +candlestick.</p> + +<p>In the meantime he had not lost his love of the country and of country +pursuits, and we hear of holidays spent at Innerleithen, in Ettrick +Forest—where he rented Thirlestane—near Langholm, where his son John +was established in a farm, in the Highlands, and in a cruise with an +'Experimental Squadron' of the Navy, during which he was accommodated +with a swinging cot in the cockpit of H.M.S. <i>Vernon</i>. As is the case in +the lives of so many celebrated men, these years, though the most +fruitful, were not the most eventful of his life, and therefore call for +less detailed examination than those which had preceded them. His +character was formed, he was in the full swing of his labours, and the +best key to the history of this period is to be found in the study of +the <i>Noctes</i>, the <i>Recreations</i>, and the other works which it produced.</p> + +<p>His heroic literary activity was continued down to 1840, in which year +he was attacked by a paralytic affection of the right hand, which made +writing irksome to him, so that for the next five years he contributed +but two papers to the magazine. This ailment was the first warning he +received that his wonderful constitution and great physical strength +were subject to the universal law. But already the hand of death had +been busy among his circle. In 1834 he had lost his esteemed friend +Blackwood, in 1835 the Ettrick Shepherd had followed the publisher, +whilst in 1837 he sustained the supreme bereavement by losing his +beloved and devoted wife. His grief on this occasion was profound and +lasting, and a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">{36}</a></span> touching picture of its uncontrollable outbursts in the +presence of his class has been preserved. There, if anything occurred to +renew the memory of his sorrow, he would pause for a moment or two in +his lecture, 'fling himself forward on the desk, bury his face in his +hands, and while his whole frame heaved with visible emotion, would weep +and sob like a very child.' So, in his work and his play, his joy and +his sorrow, the whole man was cast in an heroic mould. And, with that +singular but sincere, though oft misunderstood, fantasticness, which in +imaginative natures demands the outward visible sign, as long as he +lived he continued with scrupulous care the habit of wearing white +cambric weepers on the sleeves of his coat or gown, out of respect for +the memory of his faithful partner.</p> + +<p>The shadows were already falling thick about the lion-like head of the +old Professor, and we have now to acknowledge that between his last +years and the rest of his life there exists a discrepancy as regrettable +as it is unexpected. The highest of animal spirits had been his through +the brilliant promise of youth and the happy activity and domesticity of +maturity, and when we remember his robust constitution and mellow +philosophy, we naturally look forward to see him enjoy a green and +peaceful old age. But such prognostications are apt to be fallacious, +and the fact stands that his old age was a melancholy one. Nor was its +melancholy of that kind, by no means incompatible with a large measure +of serenity, which is directly traceable to evils common to all men +whose years are prolonged; it was a peculiar despondency, profound and +unexplained. Indeed the last pages of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">{37}</a></span> <i>Life</i> are sad reading, and +we pass hastily over them to the end.</p> + +<p>The first symptom of the alteration in his character of which we hear is +his sense of loneliness. There was no occasion for him to be lonely, for +he was rich in affectionate children and grand-children, yet in spite of +these his habits insensibly became solitary, he grew to dislike being +intruded upon, and at last was seldom seen in public. Still for a time +his broad-brimmed hat with its deep crape band, his flowing locks, and +his stately figure buttoned in its black coat, continued to be welcome +sights in the streets of Edinburgh, and still he continued, without +intermission, his labours among his class, until, in the winter of 1850, +an alarming seizure which occurred in his retiring-room at the +University compelled him to absent himself from his duties. In the +following year he finally retired from the Professorship, which he had +held for thirty years, his services being recognized by Government with +a pension of £300 a year.</p> + +<p>He now felt that his usefulness in life was over, and from henceforth +his despondency deepened. We read that 'something of a settled +melancholy rested on his spirit, and for days he would scarcely utter a +word or allow a smile to lighten up his face;' and, again, that 'long +and mournful meditation took possession of him; days of silence revealed +the depth of his suffering, and it was only by fits and starts that +anything like composure visited his heart.' He himself speaks of his +'hopeless misery.' 'Nothing,' he said to his daughter, 'can give you an +idea of how utterly wretched I am; my mind is going, I feel it.' And, +indeed, it seems that a gradual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">{38}</a></span> mental decline had set in. But he was +spared its progress. On the 1st April 1854, at his house in Gloucester +Place, he was attacked by paralysis, and there two days later, mourned +by an almost patriarchal family of descendants, he breathed his last.</p> + +<p>In the details of his daily life, Wilson was accustomed to follow his +own inclinations more than 'tis given to most men to do, his robust +individuality disdaining the minor fashions and conventions of the day, +whilst his native independence, and still more his love of home, made +him completely indifferent to what is known as social success. It is not +in the 'great world,' therefore, that we must seek for the traits which +characterize him. But a man is what he is at home, and within his own +sphere Wilson's sympathies were of the widest and deepest. He was adored +by every member of his large family, whilst his own large-hearted +affection embraced all, down to—or, as perhaps I should say, +remembering his special love for young children, up to the youngest babe +in the household. Such anecdotes, too, as those told by his daughter of +his generous treatment of his defaulting uncle, of his relations with +his superannuated henchman, Billy Balmer, or of his sitting up all night +at the bedside of an old female servant who was dying, 'arranging with +gentle but awkward hand the pillow beneath her head,' or cheering her +with encouraging words,—these speak more for the genuine humanity of +the man than a thousand triumphs gained in an artificial world.</p> + +<p>He also shared with Sir Walter Scott the love of birds and animals of +all kinds, from the dog, Rover—one of many dogs—who, crawling upstairs +in its last moments, died with its paw in its master's hand, to the +sparrow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">{39}</a></span> which inhabited his study for eleven years, and which, boldly +perching on his shoulder, would sometimes carry off a hair from his +shaggy head to build its nest. In these matters animals have an instinct +which rarely misleads them, and that they had good grounds for +recognizing a friend in the Professor is proved by the following +incident. One afternoon Wilson, then far advanced in life, was observed +remonstrating with a carter who was driving an overladen horse through +the streets of Edinburgh—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The carter, exasperated at this interference, took up his whip in a +threatening way, as if with intent to strike the Professor. In an +instant that well-nerved hand twisted it from the coarse fist of the +man, as if it had been a straw, and walking quietly up to the cart +he unfastened its <i>trams</i>, and hurled the whole weight of coals into +the street. The rapidity with which this was done left the driver of +the cart speechless. Meanwhile, poor Rosinante, freed from his +burden, crept slowly away, and the Professor, still clutching the +whip in one hand, and leading the horse in the other, proceeded +through Moray Place to deposit the wretched animal in better keeping +than that of his driver.'</p></div> + +<p>'This little episode,' adds the writer, 'is delightfully characteristic +of his impulsive nature, and the benevolence of his heart.'</p> + +<p>Whilst human nature remains what it is, traits of such broad and genial +humanity as this are never out of date; but when we turn from the writer +to the writings, it is to find the case altered, and ourselves brought +face to face with the devastations of time. In the sense of great and +immediate effect produced by his work, Wilson was unquestionably the +most brilliant, as—excepting the too-fertile Galt—he was the most +prolific, of the group of distinguished authors who are here associated +with the publishing-house of Blackwood; yet in vitality, in enduring +freshness, such a novel as <i>The Inheritance</i>, such a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">{40}</a></span> sea-piece as <i>Tom +Cringle's Log</i>, not to speak of such a character-study as <i>The Provost</i>, +to-day leaves his work far behind. Of course this is in large measure +due to the nature, not to the defects, of that work. North's most +distinctive writings were not creative, and in general it is only +creative work that lives. The critic's reputation is transitory; Time's +revenge deals swiftly, hardly by it; it has none of the +phœnix-property of the creator's. Of all our distinguished critical +reputations of the last hundred years or so, how many now survive? +To-day the critic Johnson is remembered chiefly for blindness, the +critic Jeffrey for overweening self-confidence when he was wrong, the +critic Macaulay for idle rhetoric and for consistent failure to strike +the mark. The appreciator Lamb is almost alone in holding his own. And +there is not one reader in a thousand who has time, or cares, for the +purely historical task of looking closer, of studying these eminent +writers in relation to the age in which they lived, and of estimating +accordingly the services which they performed. Christopher North, in so +far as he was a critic, has not escaped the common doom. Scattered over +the pages of the <i>Noctes</i>, there are no doubt some shrewd and pregnant +observations upon writers and upon literature. But these sparse grains +of salt are not enough to preserve the general fabric from decay; whilst +the more numerous errors of judgment in which his work abounds require +no pointing out. As a reviewer North was not lacking in discrimination, +as may be seen in the historical though generally misconceived essay on +Tennyson; and, granted a really good opportunity—as in the case of that +completion of <i>Christabel</i> which was to Martin Tupper the pastime of +some idle days—no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">{41}</a></span> man knew better how to avail himself of it. The +pages signed by him also afford abundant evidence of the gentleness, +generosity, and enthusiasm of his spirit. But when so much has been +said, what remains to be added? Of stimulus to the reader, of +conspicuous insight into the subject discussed, we find but little.</p> + +<p>Turning to the essays, collected under the title of 'Recreations of +Christopher North,' we sometimes see the author to better advantage, as, +for instance, when he dons his 'Sporting Jacket,' and recounts in +mock-heroic style the Sportsman's Progress. The subject was one which +keenly appealed to him, rousing all the enthusiasm of his perfervid +nature, and some very bright and characteristic pages are the result.</p> + +<p>His hero is fishing, and has hooked a fish.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'But the salmon has grown sulky, and must be made to spring to the +plunging stone. There, suddenly, instinct with new passion, she +shoots out of the foam like a bar of silver bullion; and, relapsing +into the flood, is in another moment at the very head of the +waterfall! Give her the butt—give her the butt—or she is gone for +ever with the thunder into ten fathom deep!—Now comes the trial of +your tackle—and when was Phin ever known to fail at the edge of +cliff or cataract? Her snout is southwards—right up the middle of +the main current of the hill-born river, as if she would seek its +very source where she was spawned! She still swims swift, and +strong, and deep—and the line goes steady, boys, steady—stiff and +steady as a Tory in the roar of Opposition. There is yet an hour's +play in her dorsal fin—danger in the flap of her tail—and yet may +her silver shoulder shatter the gut against a rock. Why, the river +was yesterday in spate, and she is fresh run from the sea. All the +lesser waterfalls are now level with the flood, and she meets with +no impediment or obstruction—the coast is clear—no tree-roots +here—no floating branches—for during the night they have all been +swept down to the salt loch. <i>In medio tutissimus ibis</i>—ay, now you +feel she begins to fail—the butt tells now every time you deliver +your right. What! another mad leap! yet another sullen plunge! She +seems absolutely to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">{42}</a></span> discovered, or rather to be an +impersonation of, the Perpetual Motion. Stand back out of the way, +you son of a sea-cook!—you in the tattered blue breeches, with the +tail of your shirt hanging out. Who the devil sent you all here, ye +vagabonds?—Ha! Watty Ritchie, my man, is that you? God bless your +honest laughing phiz! What, Watty, would you think of a Fish like +that about Peebles? Tam Grieve never gruppit sae heavy a ane since +first he belanged to the Council.—Curse that collie! Ay! well done, +Watty! Stone him to Stobbo. Confound these stirks—if that white +one, with caving horns, kicking heels, and straight-up tail, come +bellowing by between us and the river, then "Madam! all is lost, +except honour!" If we lose this Fish at six o'clock, then suicide at +seven. Our will is made—ten thousand to the Foundling—ditto to the +Thames Tunnel——ha—ha—my Beauty! Methinks we could fain and fond +kiss thy silver side, languidly lying afloat on the foam as if all +further resistance now were vain, and gracefully thou wert +surrendering thyself to death! No faith in female—she trusts to the +last trial of her tail—sweetly workest thou, O Reel of Reels! and +on thy smooth axle spinning sleep'st, even, as Milton describes her, +like our own worthy planet. Scrope—Bainbridge—Maule—princes among +Anglers—oh! that you were here! Where the devil is Sir Humphrey? At +his retort? By mysterious sympathy—far off at his own Trows, the +Kerss feels that we are killing the noblest Fish whose back ever +rippled the surface of deep or shallow in the Tweed. Tom Purdy +stands like a seer, entranced in glorious vision, beside turreted +Abbotsford. Shade of Sandy Govan! Alas! alas! Poor Sandy—why on thy +pale face that melancholy smile!—Peter! The Gaff! The Gaff! Into +the eddy she sails, sick and slow, and almost with a +swirl—whitening as she nears the sand—there she has it—struck +right into the shoulder, fairer than that of Juno, Diana, Minerva, +or Venus—and lies at last in all her glorious length and breadth of +beaming beauty, fit prey for giant or demigod angling before the +Flood!'</p></div> + +<p>Nor are his pictures of Coursing and of Fox-Hunting less good. But anon +his overladen style crops out again, as in this passage, where he has +just discharged his gun into the midst of a flock of wild-duck afloat +upon a loch:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Now is the time for the snow-white, here and there ebon-spotted +Fro—who with burning eyes has lain couched like a spaniel, his +quick<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">{43}</a></span> breath ever and anon trembling on a passionate whine, to +bounce up, as if discharged by a catapulta, and first with immense +and enormous high-and-far leaps, and then, fleet as any greyhound, +with a breast-brushing brattle down the brae, to dash, all-fours, +like a flying squirrel fearlessly from his tree, many yards into the +bay with one splashing and momentarily disappearing spang, and then, +head and shoulders and broad line of back and rudder tail, all +elevated above or level with the wavy water-line, to mouth first +that murdered mawsey of a mallard, lying as still as if she had been +dead for years, with her round, fat, brown bosom towards +heaven—then that old Drake, in a somewhat similar posture, but in +more gorgeous apparel, his belly being of a pale grey, and his back +delicately pencilled and crossed with numberless waved dusky +lines—precious prize to one skilled like us in the angling +art—next—nobly done, glorious Fro—that cream-colour-crowned +widgeon, with bright rufus chestnut breast, separated from the neck +by loveliest waved ash-brown and white lines, while our mind's eye +feasteth on the indescribable and changeable green beauty-spot of +his wings—and now, if we mistake not, a Golden Eye, best described +by his name—finally, that exquisite little duck the Teal; yes, +poetical in its delicately pencilled spots as an Indian shell, and +when kept to an hour, roasted to a minute, gravied in its own wild +richness, with some few other means and appliances to boot, carved +finely—most finely—by razor-like knife, in a hand skilful to +dissect and cunning to divide—tasted by a tongue and palate both +healthily pure as the dewy petal of a morning rose—swallowed by a +gullet felt gradually to be extending itself in its intense +delight—and received into a stomach yawning with greed and +gratitude,—Oh! surely the thrice-blessed of all web-footed birds; +the apex of Apician luxury; and able, were anything on the face of +this feeble earth able, to detain a soul, on the very brink of fate, +a short quarter of an hour from an inferior Elysium!'</p></div> + +<p>In point of style could anything well be much worse? Even the far-famed +<i>Noctes Ambrosianæ</i>, by much the most celebrated of Wilson's writings, +though they may still be dipped into with pleasure, will scarcely stand +critical examination nowadays. Of course, from their very nature, they +have come to labour under the disadvantage of being largely concerned +with topics and persons of long since exhausted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">{44}</a></span> interest. And, again, +their convivial setting, which pleased in its own day, is now probably +by many looked upon askance, and that, it must be confessed, not without +some show of excuse. If this were all, it would be well. As we have +seen, Wilson wrote his dialogues hastily and presumably wrote them for +the moment, so that to judge them as permanent contributions to +literature is to judge them by a standard contemplated not by the +author, but by his injudicious critics. Amongst these, Professor +Ferrier, in his introductory critique to the authoritative edition of +the <i>Noctes</i>, published forty years ago, most confidently claims that +they possess solid and lasting qualities, and in the front rank of these +qualities he places humour and dramatic power. Now to us, except in +outward form, the <i>Noctes</i> appear almost anything rather than dramatic; +they are even less dramatic than the conversation-pieces of Thomas Love +Peacock. It is true that of the two principal talkers one speaks Scotch +and the other English; but in every other respect they might exchange +almost any of their longest and most important speeches without the +smallest loss to characterisation. The same authority (I use the word in +a purely empirical sense) enthusiastically lauds the creation of The +Shepherd; and upon him it is true that, by dint of insistence on two or +three superficial mannerisms, a certain shadowy individuality has been +conferred. But surely it is needless to point out that a label is not a +personality, and that this sort of thing is something quite apart from +dramatic creation. The critic then goes on to say that 'in wisdom the +Shepherd equals the Socrates of Plato; in humour he surpasses the +Falstaff of Shakespeare.' The last part of the sentence strikes us as +even more surprising than the first, for had our opinion of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">{45}</a></span> +imaginary revellers at Ambrose's been asked we should have had to +confess that, though they possess high spirits in abundance and a +certain sense of the ludicrous, of humour in the true sense—of the +humour, I won't say of a Sterne, but of a Michael Scott—all are alike +entirely destitute. And one may even add that with persons of equally +high spirits such is almost always the case. Well then, it may be asked, +if they lack both humour and dramatic power, in what qualities, pray, do +these world-famed dialogues excel? The answer is, of course, that in +brilliant intellectual and rhetorical display the <i>Noctes</i> are supreme. +Yet here, also, there is often about them something too much of +deliberate and self-conscious fine-writing. And yet, even to-day, when +tastes have changed and fashions altered, the exuberance of their +eloquence is hard to withstand, and in reading them we sometimes almost +believe that we are touched when in reality we are merely dazzled. This +dazzling quality is not one of the highest in literature: with the +single possible exception of Victor Hugo, the greatest writers have +always been without it. But it pervades, floods, overwhelms the +<i>Noctes</i>. It is a somewhat barren, and unendearing quality at best; yet, +after all, it is an undoubted manifestation of intellectual power; and +whatever it may be worth, let us give Wilson full credit for having +excelled in it.</p> + +<p>One last word. The literary workman has no more unpleasing task to +perform than that of so-called destructive criticism; but if Wilson +himself, as apart from his writings, be indeed, as we believe him to be, +an immortal figure, by releasing him from the burden of ill-judged +praise which like a mill-stone hangs about his neck, and by setting him +in his true light, we shall have done<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">{46}</a></span> him no disservice. On the poetic +imagination, then, he looms as one heroically proportioned; whilst more +practical thinkers will cherish his memory as that of a most brilliant +contributor to the periodical literature of his day, a great inspirer of +youth, and a standard and pattern to his countrymen of physical and +intellectual manhood.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">{47}</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="JOHN_GALT" id="JOHN_GALT"></a>JOHN GALT</h2> + + +<p>Through life the subject of this sketch was unfortunate; nor has +posthumous justice redressed the balance in his favour. His +fellow-countrymen and fellow-craftsmen, Scott and Smollett—with whom, +if below them, he is not unworthy to be mentioned—have long since been +accorded high rank among the great novelists of English literature: Galt +remains in obscurity. And yet it is easy to understand how his qualities +have failed of recognition. For though his character was in the ordinary +sense of the word exemplary, his genius extraordinary, yet in either +there was something lacking. Indeed the study of his life and works +reveals almost as much to be blamed as to be praised.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>John Galt was born at Irvine, in Ayrshire, on the 2nd May, 1779, in that +humbler station of society, which—in so far as it dispenses with +screens and concealments, and so brings a child the sooner face to face +with life as it is—may be considered favourable to genius. In childhood +he was of infirm constitution and somewhat effeminate +disposition—defects which were, however, in due course amply rectified. +At this time his passion for flowers and for music gave evidence of a +sensibility which, if one is loth to condemn it as unwholesome, is at +least of doubtful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">{48}</a></span> augury for happiness in a workaday world. To these +affections he joined the love of ballads and story-books—in the midst +of which he would often pass the day in lounging upon his bed. Nor did +oral tradition fail him; for, frequenting the society of the indigent +old women of the locality, from their lips he would drink in to his +heart's content that lore of a departing age which he afterwards turned +to such good account in his works. To his own mother, whom nature had +gifted with remarkable mental powers, and in particular with a strong +sense of humour and a faculty of original expression, his debt was +admitted to be great. Not unnaturally Mrs Galt at first strenuously +opposed her son's bookish propensities, though it is recorded that she +lived to regret having done so. The father, who by profession was master +of a West Indiaman, though, in his son's words, 'one of the best as he +was one of the handsomest of men,' does not appear in mind and force of +character to have risen above mediocrity.</p> + +<p>The most striking incident in the childhood of the future novelist is +his association with the 'Buchanites,' a religious sect who took their +name from a demented female, Mrs Buchan. It happened that this person +had been much impressed by the preaching of Mr White, the Relief +Minister of Irvine, and had followed him from Glasgow to that place, +where some weak-headed members of the congregation mistook her ravings +for inspiration, and made her warmly welcome. White himself participated +in their delusion, and when authoritatively required to dismiss his +adherent, chose rather to resign his church. From this time meetings +would be held in a tent, generally in the night time, and there Mrs +Buchan would hold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">{49}</a></span> forth, announcing herself to be the woman spoken of +in the twelfth chapter of the Revelations, and Mr White as the man-child +whom she had brought forth. The proceedings attracted public attention, +rioting followed, and it was found advisable to expel the evangelists +from the town. Some forty or fifty disciples accompanied their exodus, +who sang as they went, and declared themselves <i>en route</i> for the New +Jerusalem, and in the company of the crack-brained enthusiasts went the +infant Galt, his imagination captivated by the strangeness of their +doings. He had not proceeded far, however, ere that sensible woman, his +mother, pounced upon him and bore him off home. Nevertheless the wild +psalmody of the occasion abode in his memory, and when in later life, in +his fine novel of <i>Ringan Gilhaize</i>, he came to describe the +Covenanters, the recollection stood him in good stead. It is also +recorded of him that, after reading Pope's Iliad, he was so deeply +impressed by the book as to kneel then and there, and humbly and +fervently pray that it might be vouchsafed to him to accomplish +something equally great. It must not be thought, however, that in him +imagination predominated to the exclusion of everything else. On the +contrary, to the love of what was beautiful or strange, he united a +pronounced mechanical and engineering turn, which led him, among other +undertakings, to construct an Æolian harp, and to devise schemes for +improving the water-supply of Greenock, the town to which his family had +in the meantime removed. Thus was first manifested that diversity of +faculty which enabled him in later life with equal ease to pourtray men +and manners and to found cities and subdue wastes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">{50}</a></span></p> + +<p>Meantime his education, which had been begun at home and continued at +the grammar-school of Irvine, was carried on at Greenock, where it was +supplemented with advantage by independent reading in a well-chosen +public library. In Greenock, also, where he spent some fifteen years, he +was fortunate in having as associates a group of young men whom the +spirit of intellectual emulation characterised, and of whom more than +one was destined to attain distinction. Among these were Eckford, who is +referred to as the future architect and builder of the United States' +Navy, and Spence, afterwards the author of a treatise on Logarithmic +Transcendents. But undoubtedly young Galt's most congenial companion was +one James Park, a youth of elegant and scholarly tastes, who shared in +his passion for the <i>belles-lettres</i>, and criticised in a friendly +spirit the attempts which he was now beginning to make as a poet. Would +that this young man's influence had been exerted to greater effect, for +he seems to have been just the sort of mentor of whom Galt stood in +need, and whose discipline throughout life he missed! 'He seemed,' says +the <i>Autobiography</i>, 'to consider excellence in literature as of a more +sacred nature than ever I did, who looked upon it but as a means of +influence.' A means of influence! One would gladly believe this but the +querulous insincere utterance of a disappointed man. Unhappily evidence +is but too abundant that Galt was consistently lacking in the respect +due to his high calling. Among his earliest poetical efforts was a +tragedy on the life of Mary Queen of Scots, and in course of time he +began to contribute to the local newspaper and to the <i>Scots Magazine</i>. +With Park and other young men he also joined in essay and debating +societies, a recreation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">{51}</a></span> which they varied by walking-tours to +Edinburgh, Loch Lomond, the Border Counties, and elsewhere. Before this +time he had been placed in the Custom House at Greenock, to acquire some +training as a clerk, whence in due course he was transferred to work in +a mercantile office. It was the period of the resumption of the war with +France, and he took a leading part in the movement for forming local +companies of volunteer riflemen.</p> + +<p>This period of his adolescence strikes one as having been unusually +prolonged. It came to a sudden and violent end. It appears that about +this time a set of purse-proud upstarts, who stood much in need of +schooling in more ways than one, had made their appearance in Glasgow. +In relation to some matter of business, one of these had addressed an +insolent letter to the firm with which Galt was connected. It was +delivered into his hands. On discovering its contents his indignation +was boundless, and he proceeded to action with all the impetuosity of a +Hotspur. Missing the writer in Glasgow, he straightway tracked him to +his quarters in Edinburgh, and having bolted the door of the room in +which he sat, forced from him a written apology. So much was +satisfactory; but the turmoil excited in the young man's brain did not +subside immediately. He did not return to his employment, but, after +spending some time in an indeterminate sort of fashion, set off for +London 'to look about him.' In the <i>Autobiography</i>, written when he was +old and an invalid, all this is detailed in a loose and cursory manner. +There is no reference to emotion or the inner life, and the style is +that of one who, having written many books, is grown very tired of +writing. To<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">{52}</a></span> the reader this is the reverse of stimulating; yet whatever +may be stated and whatever kept back, we may feel sure that, in so +emotional and imaginative a man, an intense inner life must have +existed, and one in all probability not of the smoothest. At the time of +leaving home, however, the writer acknowledges to having felt +exceedingly depressed. Then follows a description of sensations +experienced, whilst horses were being changed, on the road between +Greenock and Glasgow. His father accompanied him on his journey.</p> + +<p>'I walked back on the fields,' says the young man, 'alone, with no +buoyant heart. The view towards Argyleshire, from the brow of the hill, +is perhaps one of the most picturesque in the world. I have since seen +some of the finest scenes, but none superior. At the time it seemed as +if some pensive influence rested on the mountains, and silently allured +me back; and this feeling was superstitiously augmented by my happening +in the same moment to turn round and behold the eastern sky, which lay +in the direction of my journey, sullenly overcast. On returning to the +inn, the horses had been some time in harness, and my father was a +little impatient at my absence, but conjecturing what was passing in my +mind, said little; nor did we speak much to each other till the waiter +of the inn opened the door for us to alight at Glasgow. In truth I was +not blind to the perils which awaited me, but my obstinacy was too +indulgently considered.' The above reads like a passage from <i>The Omen</i>. +In it we see the true Galt, or at least one side of him—brooding, +fantastic, the devotee of mysticism, discerning, at this momentous point +in his career, the finger of fate where another would have seen but an +ordinary process of nature!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">{53}</a></span></p> + +<p>As to the time he now spent in London, beyond an incidental admission +that it was one of the least satisfactory periods of his career, Galt +does not take us into his confidence. One guesses that had he consulted +his own feelings only, he would have enjoyed the luxury of writing +Confessions. But, after all, he was a Scotchman, though an unusual +variety of the class, and Scotchmen do not indulge in luxuries of that +kind. His Autobiography, when it came to be written, was in the main a +piece of book-making; certainly it has nothing of the confessional +character, and, indeed, what of self-revelation he at this time supplies +must be sought in his letters to Park.</p> + +<p>He had brought with him to the metropolis a goodly number of +introductions, which procured him much civility but nothing more. Whilst +waiting, however, to see what was to be done for him in the shape of +practical assistance, he employed himself in preparing for the press a +poem which had been inspired by his studies in antiquarianism, and +written some time earlier. The title of this production was <i>The Battle +of Largs</i>, and its theme the invasion of Scotland by Haco, King of +Norway, in the year 1263,—a subject which had already prompted the +Titanic suggestions of Lady Wardlaw's <i>Hardyknute</i>. The poem, as it +survives in extracts, is turgid, crude, and immature, exhibiting the +exact reverse of what is desirable in poetry—to wit, a great +expenditure of means to produce a very small result. For 'tis in vain we +are assured that desperate deeds are doing if we find it possible to +remain completely unmoved. A strain of somewhat similar kind was +afterwards taken up by Motherwell, and by Tom Stoddart in the unbridled +fantasy of his only half-serious 'Necromaunt,' called <i>The Death-Wake</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">{54}</a></span> +To do Galt justice, he quickly realised that he had mounted the wrong +Pegasus, and almost immediately suppressed his poem. He acted wisely, +and here once for all it may be admitted that, in the specialised sense +of the term, he was no poet. Fancy, imagination, dramatic power, and +many another fine attribute of the poet he of course possessed in high +degree, but, whether because lacking the 'accomplishment of verse,' or +for some other reason, he failed to give expression to these gifts in +poetry. Metre seems to have impeded rather than assisted him, and he is +most poetic when writing in prose—a conclusion suggested by the poem +now under consideration, and borne out by his <i>Star of Destiny</i>, his +posthumous <i>Demon of Destiny</i>, and his poetic plays. From his own frank +avowal that, when drawing up a list of his works for publication, an +epic<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> was overlooked, we judge that not much of the labour of the file +was expended upon his verse.</p> + +<p>He waited for some months in London, whiling away the time, as he +pretends, by dabbling in astrology, alchemy, and other studies which +served to feed his love of the occult, and then at last, in despair, +decided to shift for himself. This led to his entering into partnership +with a young Scotchman named M<sup>c</sup>Lachlan, in a business which, for +reasons unknown, is mentioned only under the vague name of a 'commercial +enterprise.' Whatever may have been its nature, for Galt this +undertaking started badly, and after a period of better success, at the +end of three years ended in bankruptcy. The precise steps by which this +final consummation was reached are carefully detailed by Galt, yet to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">{55}</a></span> +minds unversed in commercial procedure they remain very far from clear. +In general terms, however, we gather that the failure was due to the +dishonesty of a debtor, occurring in conjunction with a succession of +financial misfortunes.</p> + +<p>Having failed in commerce, Galt's next thought was of the Law. He +entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, and whilst waiting to be formally +called to the Bar, went abroad in the hope of improving his health, +which was not good at the time. He tells us that by this time he had +realised that, without friends, there is no such thing as 'getting on' +in life possible. These he was conscious of lacking, and when he now +turned his back on England it was, in his own words, half desiring that +no event might occur to make him ever wish to return. He betook himself +in the first instance to Gibraltar, where, in the well-known Garrison +Library, he had his first glimpse of a young man whose feelings, had +they been revealed, might have been found to tally strangely with his +own. Lord Byron, at that time known only as the author of a mordant +satire, was starting upon the tour which was so soon to make him famous, +and as Galt had him and Hobhouse for fellow-travellers to Malta and +Sicily, he got to know them fairly well. It is noticeable that his first +impressions of the Pilgrim betray prejudice; and that long afterwards, +when he was called on to be his biographer, he complains that Moore's +portrait reveals only the sunny side of his lordship's character, and is +'too radiant and conciliatory.'</p> + +<p>After visiting Malta and Sicily, Galt proceeded to Athens. His active +mind, abhorring idleness, was soon at work again. It may be remembered +that this was the period of Buonaparte's endeavour to enforce his +nefarious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">{56}</a></span> Berlin and Milan Decrees, which had been designed with the +object of annihilating British commerce. Our traveller now conceived the +idea that they might be evaded by introducing British goods into the +Continent through Turkey. And here it may be noted that his biographers +have united in representing this scheme as the object of his going +abroad, whereas he himself distinctly, though incidentally, states that +he left England for the benefit of his health,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and that his scheme +first occurred to him when at Tripolizza.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> This fact, immaterial in +itself, is of importance as affording evidence that his circumstances at +the time were fairly easy; for his travels must have been costly, yet +they do not appear to have brought him in any return until after his +written account of them had been published, when he was recouped for the +whole, or a part, of his outlay.</p> + +<p>In pursuance of the newly-devised scheme, it was now his object to find +a locality where a depôt of goods might be established. For this +purpose, after visiting various out of the way places, he selected +Mykoni, an island of the Archipelago, which possessed an excellent +harbour, where he acquired a large building, suited for a storehouse, +which had originally been erected by Orloff at a time when the Empress +Catherine the Second had designs on these islands. Hence, in the summer +of 1810, he returned to Malta, to make known and to develope his scheme, +and whilst awaiting the result of communications with England, he filled +up the time with further travels, visiting Constantinople and Widdin. +Turkey was now in arms against Russia, and in the course of his present +journey, which was performed in wintry weather, he saw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">{57}</a></span> something of the +hardships as well as of the pomp of war. Without presuming to question +that he kept business in view—as possibly also did George Borrow in his +rambles in Spain—we note the fact that in his own account of his +travels the details of his specific labours are kept well in the +background, if not indeed out of sight. At the worst his journeys, which +led him through some singularly wild and little known parts of the +globe, by bringing him acquainted with many picturesque and unusual +characters, must have been rich in suggestions of adventure and romance; +and, indeed, there is evidence that some of his experience of primitive +and martial life acquired at this time was afterwards turned to account +in painting similar life at home for his historical novels. His +expectations of patronage for his project were, however, disappointed, +and he resolved to return without delay to England, in the hope of there +finding support for it. In the meantime literature had not been entirely +neglected. Keeping his eyes well about him, he had amassed the notes on +which were subsequently based his <i>Voyages</i>, and <i>Letters from the +Levant</i>; whilst a translation from Goldoni, executed in a single wet day +at Missolonghi, and published in the 'New British Theatre' as <i>The Word +of Honour</i>, together with the tragedy of <i>Maddalen</i>, composed whilst +undergoing quarantine at Messina, belong also to this time.</p> + +<p>Back in London, he had the mortification of finding his commercial +scheme—as to the presumptive value of which one would wish to have +specialist opinion—regarded coldly by the Foreign Office, whilst at the +same time he seems to have satisfied himself of the inutility of +proceeding further in his legal career. But, whatever may have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">{58}</a></span> been his +defects, want of resourcefulness was certainly not among them. An +outburst of literary industry followed, and the year 1812 saw the +publication of his Voyages and Travels, his Life of Wolsey, and his +Tragedies. But in justice to one who has sins enough of slipshod +composition to answer for, it must be stated that most of the Life of +Wolsey—one of the most carefully composed of his books—had been +written at an earlier date.</p> + +<p>Of his <i>Voyages and Travels in the years 1809, 1810, and 1811, +containing statistical, commercial, and miscellaneous observations on +Gibraltar, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Cerigo and Turkey</i>, a competent +critic remarks that, 'while containing some interesting matter, they are +disfigured by grave faults of style and by rash judgments.' The public +received them favourably, but a contemptuous notice in the <i>Quarterly +Review</i> was warmly resented by the author.</p> + +<p>It was whilst standing in the quadrangle of Christchurch College, when +on a visit to Oxford, that Galt had conceived the idea of his <i>Life of +Wolsey</i>. He had worked hard at the book before he went abroad, and he +claimed that it embodied new views, and the results of much original +research. Notwithstanding this, the <i>Quarterly Review</i> assailed him +again, and this time so libellously as to lead him to think of a +criminal prosecution. He, however, dropped the idea, with the result +that when his Tragedies saw the light, the persecution—now as in the +case of the Travels conducted by Croker in person—was renewed with +additional pungency. In the general form of his <i>Maddalen, Agamemnon, +Lady Macbeth, Antonia, and Clytemnestra</i>, the author followed Alfieri, +whose works he had studied abroad and admired enthusiastically, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">{59}</a></span> +with reservations. The plays are of a tentative character, and certainly +do not deserve Scott's condemnation as the 'worst ever seen.' <i>Lady +Macbeth</i>, which the author thought the 'best or the worst' of the +series, though not lacking in imaginative touches, is without +progression or story, and besides provoking irresistible comparisons, +fails by ending just where it began. And whilst on the subject of Galt's +drama, we may mention <i>The Witness</i>, the most important of several plays +contributed by him to the 'New British Theatre,' a publication +undertaken by Colbourn at his instigation. Here the dramatist had a +powerfully dramatic if also a somewhat inconsequent story to work +upon—a subject, in fact, after his own heart. Unfortunately the +execution of the piece is hasty, and by no means equal to its +conception. It was performed for some nights in Edinburgh as <i>The +Appeal</i>, when Scott wrote an Epilogue for it, said to be the only piece +of humorous verse existing from his pen. Galt himself rehandled the +subject in narrative form, under the title of <i>The Unguarded Hour</i>.</p> + +<p>He now embarked on a journalistic enterprise, assuming for a time the +editorship of the <i>Political Review</i>. But the work did not suit him. +After about a month he began to tire of it, and it was soon abandoned. +He also contributed lives of Hawke, Byron, and Rodney, to an edition of +Campbell's <i>Lives of the Admirals</i>; whilst, in 1813, his <i>Letters from +the Levant</i> made their appearance. These contain 'views of the state of +society, manners, opinions, and commerce, in Greece and several of the +principal islands of the Archipelago,' and had actually been written as +letters at the places from which they are dated, being subsequently but +little altered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">{60}</a></span></p> + +<p>Perhaps we have already seen enough of the subject of this sketch to +convince us that any lengthy perseverance in one course of conduct must +not be expected of him, and, sure enough, the next thing we hear of him +is that he is bound for Gibraltar, on another commercial enterprise. +Before setting out, he had taken occasion to revisit the scenes of his +early years, going in turn to every place which he remembered having +frequented, even to the churchyard, amid whose tombstones, like his own +Andrew Wylie, he had haunted as a boy. Taking stock of himself and his +surroundings, he tells us that he was sensible of change everywhere, but +nowhere more than in his own hopes. 'I saw that a blight had settled on +them, and that my career must in future be circumscribed and sober.' +When it is remembered that he was now touching upon what is called the +prime of life, his tone of disillusion is pathetic.</p> + +<p>He had gone to Gibraltar as the emissary of Kirkman Finlay—a Glasgow +merchant, who afterwards bore a spirited part in the Greek War of +Independence—with a view to ascertain the feasibility of smuggling +British goods into Spain. But the victories of the Duke of Wellington in +the Peninsula were unfavourable to his mission, and much against his +will he found himself compelled to return to England, having +accomplished nothing, to seek surgical treatment for a painful malady +from which he was now suffering. Whilst in London he was married, his +wife being the daughter of a Dr Tilloch, editor of the <i>Philosophical +Magazine</i>, to which Galt was an occasional contributor. His marriage was +a very happy one, and on the principle, perhaps, that the happiest +countries have no history, his married life is not referred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">{61}</a></span> to in the +biographies. In 1814, at the time of the Restoration in France, we find +him visiting Holland and that country, with a view to promote yet +another 'abortive scheme.'</p> + +<p>It had now become imperative that he should exert himself, and having, +as one may say, nothing better to do on his return from the Continent, +he resumed the labours of the pen. His first known work of fiction was +the result. It was entitled <i>The Majolo</i>, founded upon a Sicilian +superstition, and published anonymously in 1816. It was a favourite with +its author, and has been described as a 'strange flighty production, +enjoyed only by a few peculiar minds.' With it may be mentioned <i>The +Earthquake</i>, a three-volume novel written in 1820, and founded on the +Messina earthquake of 1783. The latter, though an extravagant and +ill-constructed story, is said to describe Sicilian habits and +sentiments with accuracy. <i>The Majolo</i> was followed in the same year by +the earlier instalment of a <i>Life of Benjamin West</i>, compiled from +materials supplied by the painter himself—a work which was completed +four years later, after his death. Then the eternal commercial scheme +cropped up again. This time it emanated from Glasgow, leading Galt to +move with his family to Finnart, near Greenock, where he spent a period +afterwards characterised as the most unsatisfactory in his whole life. +As usual the scheme in which he was interested failed, and he returned +to London, having accepted employment from the Union Canal Company, in +order to assist the passing through Parliament of a bill promoted by +that body. This being accomplished, he returned to the drudgery of the +desk, and, first and last, turned out a portentous body of hack-work, +the various<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">{62}</a></span> items of which need not be catalogued. Fortunately for +himself, if not always for his reader, he had the strength and +<i>insouciance</i> under labour of what he physically was, a giant. Among the +tasks performed at this time were the fascinating, if fabulous, Pictures +from English, Scottish, and Irish History; <i>The Wandering Jew</i>, +described as a 'conglomerate of history, biography, travel, and +descriptive geography,' and a collection of 'All the Voyages round the +World'—the last issued under the pen-name of Samuel Prior.</p> + +<p>This record of futile commercial enterprise, varied by uninspiring +literary work, constitutes dull reading; fortunately a happier period is +now reached. In 1820, Mr Blackwood accepted <i>The Ayrshire Legatees</i> for +his magazine, and this book proved to be Galt's first real literary +success. Perhaps it is also the first deliberate attempt in our +literature to delineate, for their own sake, contemporary Scottish +manners and character. It will be seen that the mechanism of the story, +though of the simplest, is well contrived for supplying to these the +necessary relief. Dr Pringle, the minister of a secluded rural parish in +Ayrshire, having to his surprise been appointed residuary legatee of a +wealthy Indian cousin deceased, betakes himself to London to attend to +his affairs in person. He is accompanied by his wife and family—the +latter consisting of a son just called to the Scottish bar, and a +daughter. The Scottish characters are thus detached against an English +background, and the letters in which they describe their experiences in +the metropolis to their several correspondents at home make up the +staple of the book. The characters of this little group—of the simple, +but truly pious and kind-hearted minister, with his sturdy +presbyterianism and quaint<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">{63}</a></span> traditional phraseology of the pulpit; of +that notable managing woman his spouse, like whom there was not another +within the jurisdiction of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr; and of the +really able and acute young advocate, with his Scottish magniloquence, +and his pose as a man of the world even whilst betraying his +inexperience—all these are well conceived and well drawn, their +unconscious self-revelation being cleverly and naturally managed. The +high-flown and romantic young lady, who so soon adapts herself to her +new circumstances, though a pleasing enough portrait, is less +distinctively Scottish than the rest. Fragments of narrative +interpolated among the letters serve to introduce us to the audience +before whom these are read out, and at the same time to present a second +series of slighter, though not less racy, character-sketches. The hint +of the book, with its unanswered correspondence, is obviously drawn from +<i>Humphrey Clinker</i>, and, as in that masterpiece, real persons and +events—such as the funeral of George the Third and the trial of Queen +Caroline, Braham the singer and Sir Francis Burdett—supply much of the +epistolary subject-matter. As in Smollett's novel, too, the same +subjects are at times discussed in turn by the different writers—a plan +which, though it serves the purpose of contrasting character, is not +entirely free from objection.</p> + +<p><i>The Ayrshire Legatees</i> was followed in the next year by the yet more +original <i>Annals of the Parish</i>. The history of the growth of this book +is identical with that of <i>Waverley</i>—it had been begun years before, +laid aside, and then resumed and completed—only that Galt has told us +that his reason for discontinuing it was that he had been assured that a +Scotch novel had no chance of success—an assurance which the case of +<i>Waverley</i> has proved untrue. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">{64}</a></span> <i>Annals</i> stands in somewhat the same +relation to Scott's novel as does a Dutch to an Italian masterpiece, a +tale of Crabbe's to an Elizabethan tragedy. It is given out as an +account of the ministry of Micah Balwhidder, parish priest of Dalmailing +(Dreghorn), written by himself. Mr Balwhidder had happened to be +inducted on the very day on which King George the Third came to the +throne; and, irrespective of its merit as a work of fiction, his +narrative possesses real historical value as a record of the progress of +a rural parish during the half-century succeeding that event. Indeed, +with some omissions, the book might almost be printed as an appendix to +the old Statistical Account of the parishes of Scotland, drawn up by the +ministers. When rumours of great events—such as the American War of +Independence or the French Revolution—reach the secluded hamlet, their +sound is softened and their influence subdued. But the records of such +local matters as floods and bad seasons, improvement of land, making of +roads and planting of hedges, development of mineral resources, and so +on, are also in their degree the stuff of which history is made, and as +here set down they are worthy the attention of an Arthur Young. Then we +are incidentally informed of the fluctuations of prices, of the rise of +new industries, and the change of fashions—information which to the +ordinary novel-reader would appear dry, but for the human and personal +interest by which it is pervaded. For the history of the parishioners is +interwoven with that of the parish, and over the whole is cast the charm +of the kindly Doric and the simple and guileless personality of the +minister. In theory an uncompromising stickler for orthodoxy of +doctrine, and a terror to evil-doers in the abstract, Mr Balwhidder's +instinct is wiser than his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">{65}</a></span> creed, and where the two are at variance the +stronger insensibly gains the day. The tone of his fragmentary narrative +is of itself proof sufficient of his fatherly interest in his villagers. +And among those villagers, or at least within the narrow bounds of his +parish, he can exhibit a sufficiently motley and picturesque variety in +character and the experience of life. First of all we have Lord +Eaglesham, the kind landlord, genial gentleman and free liver; Mr +Cayenne, the irascible business-man, whose bark is worse than his bite, +and Lady Macadam, the flighty and high-handed Great Lady of the old +school. Then there is Mrs Malcolm, the pattern widow left with a large +young family, her son Charles, the frank sailor, and her handsome +daughter Kate; old Nanse Banks, the school-mistress, and her more +advanced successor, Miss Sabrina Hookey; Colin Mavis, the youthful poet; +the labourer who deserts his slatternly wife and family in order to +enlist; the 'naturals,' Jenny Gaffaw and her fantastic ill-fated +daughter; pious Mizy Mirkland, and many more. And if these figures be +not drawn life-size and set direct in the reader's eye, it is for the +sake of artistic keeping: the book is deliberately pitched in a lower +key than the ordinary novel, and its persons are shown to us, as it +were, afar off. But, none the less, every history is life-like, every +character consistent within itself—living as with the life of those +real people who flourished before our time, and of whom we have all of +us heard in fireside stories as children. In this respect the author's +aim is perfectly realised, and his work is a perfect work of art.</p> + +<p>As is the <i>Annals</i> to ministerial and parochial life, so is <i>The +Provost</i> (published in the following year) to the life of magistrates +and municipalities. Yet a greater contrast to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">{66}</a></span> the ingenuous pastor of +Dalmailing than that presented by the long-headed Provost of the Royal +Burgh of Gudetown it would be almost impossible to conceive. Either of +the two, in fact, presents a happy illustration of the respective shares +of personality and environment in the formation of character: each is in +part God's work, in part the world's. But it is in the magistrate that +the world has the larger share. Provost Pawkie, who is Galt's +masterpiece in the delineation of character, is worldly wisdom +incarnate. Entering public life at a period when jobbery and corruption +are rife, he simply takes the world as he finds it, and turns it to the +best account he can. Only, as nature has endowed him with a sharper wit +than his brother bailies and councillors, he is enabled to tread the +paths of policy to much better advantage than they, whilst in the midst +of very questionable transactions retaining the appearance of clean +hands. A fortunate geniality of temper, which is partly the cause and +partly the result of his prosperity, keeps him even at the worst from +entirely forfeiting our regard; while, strange as it may seem, the +warmth and rightness of his feeling in public or private matters where +his own interest is not concerned prove that his heart remains +unperverted by the element in which he works. As time goes on, the +public life around him becomes purer, and he himself keeps pace with the +times. Is this because he has seen the error of his ways, and like all +people who are good in the main grows better as he grows older; or is it +merely the result of policy trimming his sails to catch the popular +breeze? Perhaps the balance of the doubt is in his favour; yet assuredly +he is far too clear-sighted to persevere in methods which have become +publicly discredited. Galt's artistic instinct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">{67}</a></span> was too true to allow +him to make perfectly clear to us all the workings of so subtle a mind; +but the worthy cloth-mercer himself stands before us to the life, +shrewd, portly, and consequential, with the redeeming twinkle of a dry +Scotch humour in his eye and a racy Scotticism on his lip.</p> + +<p>As in the <i>Annals of the Parish</i>, so in <i>The Provost</i> a chronicle of +external progress forms the background to the narrator's experiences, +and in the latter case this chronicle deals with improvements in the +burgh, sanitary enactments, paving and lighting, repairing the Tolbooth +steeple, and so forth. These affairs, though in their own way typical +also, are of narrower interest than the changes in a countryside, but +their inferiority in this respect is more than made up for by such +admirable passages of interpolated narrative as, for instance, those +which describe the execution of Jean Gaisling for child-murder, the +Windy Yule with its disasters on the sea and heart-break on land, the +duel, and the visit of the press-gang, or, in humorous vein, the fracas +with the strolling players in the change-house, and the incident of the +supposed French spy.</p> + +<p>Few writers have possessed a greater native gift of story-telling than +Galt, and few, it must alas! be added have used their gift more +carelessly. In the very slightest of his numberless tales, traces of +this gift are apt to appear, and perhaps in none of his writings is it +seen to greater advantage than in the incidental reminiscences of <i>The +Provost</i>. But, in fact, this little book possesses the merit, so rare +among our author's writings, of perfection as an artistic whole. In +reviewing Galt we are too apt to find ourselves driven to the naïve +conclusion of the man in the anecdote, 'that the work would have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">{68}</a></span> +better if the craftsman had taken more pains.' But in this case he +either <i>did</i> take more trouble than usual, or else, which is more +likely, his inspiration was better sustained.</p> + +<p>The period now under consideration may be defined as that of Galt's +masterpieces; yet even now a slight decline in his workmanship begins to +be manifest. In the same year with <i>The Provost</i>, he published <i>The +Steamboat</i>, and <i>Sir Andrew Wylie</i>, thus already betraying a tendency to +over-write. <i>The Steamboat</i> consists mainly of an account of the +experiences of one Thomas Duffle, burgess of the Saltmarket, at the +Coronation of George the Fourth—which is described in detail—the said +experiences being couched in the racy autobiographical style already +familiar to readers of <i>The Provost</i>, and relieved by a series of short +stories supposed to be related by Duffle's fellow-travellers. In many of +these stories—and notably in those told by the Sailor Boy and the +Soldier's Mother, in <i>Deucalion of Kentucky</i> and <i>The Dumbie's +Son</i>—Galt's powers are seen to advantage. Unfortunately their effect is +marred by the singularly ill-conceived and irritating device on the part +of the author of 'leaving off at the most interesting point.' In a +single instance this trick might have been tolerated, but the reader +loses patience when he finds it repeated again and again. This, however, +is but a single example out of many which might be cited from Galt's +writings of his propensity to ill-timed joking, and his seeming +inability to take his own work seriously.</p> + +<p>It has been asserted that, of all Galt's novels, <i>Sir Andrew Wylie</i> was +the most popular south of the Tweed. If this was so, its popularity was +due far less to intrinsic desert than to the accident that a great part +of the action<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">{69}</a></span> of the story takes place in England, whilst the principal +actors—among whom is included a portrait of Lord Blessington—instead +of belonging to the Scottish lower or middle classes, are members of the +English aristocracy. A success based upon such grounds as these has of +course no real value, and besides being of tedious length, the novel in +question falls in other ways far short of the author's best +achievements. Andrew Wylie is intended as the type of the canny young +Scot who goes up to London and makes his fortune. We see him first as a +queer 'auld-farrant' urchin, and then as an eident thrifty youth. He +fully means to get on, he has the sharpest of eyes to see on which side +his bread is buttered, and, above all, he has none of the ordinary +failings of youth, and sows no wild oats. In fact he is rich in all +those serviceable qualities of which perhaps the perfect exemplar in +real life is no Scot but the Yankee Benjamin Franklin, and he has a +quaint vein of native humour thrown in. And yet, notwithstanding so many +qualities and so few infirmities, he is no prig, but, like Franklin, +compels not only our respect, but our liking. So far the author has done +well. But when he goes on to describe 'Wheelie's' rise in the world, we +feel that the means of his advancement are altogether too phenomenal. +With such a friend as the Earl to help him, what young man might not +have risen? But this is only a single instance of his luck. Throughout +his career, the hero meets with the consistent and amazing good-fortune +of a prince in a fairy-tale, making conquests at first sight not only of +lackadaisical Riversdales and scatter-brain Dashingwells, but of the +King and of Pitt himself. And so, as the story progresses, its +improbability increases, until in the scenes between Andrew and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">{70}</a></span> +dowager, and Andrew and the baronet, it becomes flatly and absolutely +incredible. In this particular—I mean in the entire disproportion +between the effect produced by the hero upon the reader and that which +he is supposed to exercise on the other characters in the book—the +story shares the fundamental defect of another Scottish novel, the work +of a much more pains-taking hand—<i>The Little Minister</i>.</p> + +<p>Galt's next publication of importance was <i>The Entail</i>—a novel of which +the theme is 'gear,' a Scotsman's pertinacity in gathering it, and his +tenacity in holding it when gathered—a matchless subject for the +illustration of national character. And in this case the mere desire of +acquisition is elevated and to some extent humanised by being associated +with another characteristic passion of the Scot—to wit, the pride of +family. The story turns upon the disinheriting, for estate reasons, by +Claud Walkinshaw, Laird of Grippy, of his eldest son, and on the events +which spring therefrom. Walkinshaw, who is the representative of an old +but ruined family, has been brought up in penury, but at an early age +has set before himself as his aim in life the reconquest of the family +estates. Towards this object every step he takes is directed; in its +interest every secondary consideration is sacrificed. His youth has been +spent in haggling as a pedlar, and when, having by his own exertions +established himself in trade, he decides to marry, he goes, of course, +'where money is.' His firstborn, Charles, is his favourite son; but even +paternal affection must give way before the ruling passion. Watty, the +second son (a masterly sketch) has been a 'natural' from his birth. But +he is heir to the estate of his maternal grandfather, and it is only +through a transaction depending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">{71}</a></span> on the possession of this property that +a Walkinshaw can be reinstated in possession of the undiminished +Walkinshaw estates. To these circumstances Charles is without hesitation +sacrificed, and his father's dream seems at last to be realised. But, +though he has gained his point, the old man finds himself further than +ever from contentment. The stars in their courses seem to fight against +him, the consequences of his unjust act recoil upon him, and he is even +driven to believe himself an object of heavenly vengeance. Thus—in his +character as a father visited by retributive justice through his +children—Claud Walkinshaw may be considered the Père Goriot of Scottish +fiction. And so far the book is fine; but unfortunately, from this +point—about midway—the level of excellence is not sustained. In the +midst of his woes, Claud is carried off by a shock of paralysis; but the +evil he has done lives after him, thus supplying material for the +remainder of the novel. But the calculating business-man, the youngest +of the three brothers, who now succeeds to the role of principal +character, is colourless in comparison with his father. The writing, +too, though relieved by the delightful sallies of the 'Leddy +Grippy'—one of the very best of Scotchwomen in fiction—becomes diffuse +to such a point that we wax impatient for the expiation of the old man's +misdeeds by his disinterested grandson. Both Scott and Byron are said to +have read this book three times, but the modern reader will probably +rest content with a single perusal.</p> + +<p>Its shortcomings notwithstanding, <i>The Entail</i> was favourably received, +and by this time the author is said to have been so elated by success as +to boast that his literary resources were far greater than those of +Scott, or any other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">{72}</a></span> contemporary.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Whether in deliberate rivalry or +not, certain it is that, by turning his attention to the historical +romance, he now entered the field which the Wizard had made particularly +his own. In the meantime he had taken up his abode at Esk Grove, near +Musselburgh, where, in possible emulation of Abbotsford, he is said to +have contemplated building a 'veritable fortress,' exactly in the +fashion of the oldest times of rude warfare.</p> + +<p>The results of his bold literary enterprise were seen in <i>Ringan +Gilhaize</i>, <i>The Spaewife</i>, and <i>Rothelan</i>—the first two published in +1823, the third in the following year. In an article from the pen of Mr +Francis Espinasse, in the Dictionary of National Biography, these books +are disposed of as 'three forgotten novels'; but the description lacks +discrimination. Forgotten, for aught I know to the contrary, they may +be; but at least one of the three deserved a happier fate. <i>Ringan +Gilhaize</i> is, in fact, a very fine historical romance, and one, it may +be said in passing, which would well repay resuscitation at the hands of +some enterprising publisher. A happy instinct had directed Galt in his +selection of a period which is certainly the most important, as it is +one of the two most romantically interesting, in Scottish history. For +though the War of Independence be the darling theme of Scottish +patriotism, what I may call the War of Religious Liberty enjoys the +two-fold advantage of a wider sympathy and a deeper intellectual +significance. Galt has skilfully conducted us through the entire period +of this struggle, for his story, opening during the regency of Marie of +Lorraine, concludes with the battle of Killiecrankie, whilst of +intermediate historical events which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">{73}</a></span> bear upon the main issue, the +greater number receive some notice in passing. Of course the danger of +such a proceeding is lest fiction become subordinate to fact, thus +making the main interest of the book an historical rather than an +imaginative one. But this danger Galt has cleverly avoided. His method +is to bring bygone times home to us through the imagination—as, for +instance, in the scene of the gathering of devout persons in Gilhaize's +house, or the open air preaching near Lasswade—whilst at the same time +quickening our interest in historical occurrences—such as the battle of +Drumclog, or the march of the Covenanting forces to Edinburgh—by +causing his imaginary characters to participate in them. This, I +conceive to be the true philosophy of the historical romance. And into +the spirit of the particular movement with which he deals, it must be +acknowledged that Galt has penetrated further than Scott. For the true +aim of the writer of a novel treating of these times in Scotland was +obviously to disregard such a non-essential as sporadic insincerity, to +penetrate the outer crust of dourness and intolerance, and whilst +maintaining the balance of perfect fairness, to compel the reader to +sympathise with the best of the Covenanters, not only in their bitter +resentment of cruel wrongs, but in their most earnestly cherished and +loftiest ideals. And this, which Scott did not care to do, Galt has +accomplished, in virtue of which achievement his book is entitled to +rank as the epic of the Scottish religious wars.</p> + +<p>In attempting to embrace within the compass of a single novel the one +hundred and thirty years or so of his period, the author of <i>Ringan +Gilhaize</i> was certainly assaying a very hazardous experiment. For one +thing, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">{74}</a></span> course it was necessary that he should change his hero more +than once, and the risk by so doing of dispersing and losing the +reader's interest was immense. But whilst by taking the family instead +of the individual as his unit, he has preserved artistic consistency, +from this danger he has escaped unscathed. For from the time of the +mission of Michael Gilhaize to St Andrews, and his adventures with the +wanton Madam Kilspinnie, to that of the death of Claverhouse by the hand +of the half-deranged or 'illuminated' Ringan, the interest of the story +never flags. It abounds in fascinating passages of adventure—such as +the journey of the elder Gilhaize to Eglinton, or the wanderings of +Ringan and Mr Witherspoon after the fight at Rullion Green; whilst, +having already referred to an advantage possessed by Galt over Scott, I +may here add that there are passages in this book evincing a literary +style, an intensity, and a delicacy with which Sir Walter could not +compete. Such is the passage describing Gilhaize's reflections whilst +waiting, in the grey of morning, at the gate of Lord James Stuart's +house; the passage which follows, describing the spreading of the news +that John Knox has arrived in Edinburgh, and that which describes the +dalliance of the Queen of Scots with the Reformer on Loch Leven shore. +That Scott was a far greater writer, as he was a far happier man than +his contemporary, no reviewer in his senses would venture to deny. But +that Galt possessed qualities which Scott did not possess, though less +freely acknowledged, is not less true. When the number and extent of his +works is considered, it must be owned that the occasions upon which Galt +puts forth his full powers, or allows us to praise him without reserve, +are sadly few. All the more reason, therefore, that when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">{75}</a></span> he does give +us such an opportunity, we should avail ourselves of it with courage and +without stint! It now only remains to add that the book is written in +clear and terse old Scots, to which a dash of the peculiar phraseology +of the Reformed Church adds a touch of quaintness.</p> + +<p>'Surely something must have come over Galt!' is one's involuntary +exclamation on reading his next book, for a greater falling off from +<i>Ringan Gilhaize</i> than <i>The Spaewife</i> can scarcely be imagined. Here +even the writing is slipshod; but, alas! these ups and downs are but too +characteristic of the author. Like the former work, in the cabals and +factions of the rival claimants—or, more properly, aspirants—to the +Crown of Scotland during the reign of James the First, <i>The Spaewife</i> +has a promising and powerful theme. But of the treatment of this theme +it may be said that it can boast scarcely one redeeming feature. The +conduct of the tale is involved and obscure, and abounds in incidents +and dialogues which, while tedious and perplexing in themselves, serve +neither to illustrate character nor to advance action. Indeed, the +reader is heavily taxed to remember the motives and the relations with +one another of the different persons presented. Nor is the book +appreciably stronger in the department of character-drawing. Upon the +poet-king, the romantic ill-fated lover of Joanna Beaufort, one would +suppose that a novelist might delight to lavish his best art. Instead of +this, the King and Queen of the story are mere blanks. Catherine Douglas +is no better, and such originality in character-sketching as the book +can show—and that is not much—is to be found in the portraits of +Glenfruin, the deep though simple-seeming Highland chieftain, and of the +timorous and vacillating Earl of Athol.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">{76}</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Rothelan</i>, a tale of the times of Edward the Third—the historical +portions of which are drawn from an interesting work on that period +written by Joshua Barnes, an antiquary of the seventeenth century—is +unfortunately more nearly on the level of <i>The Spaewife</i> than on that of +<i>Ringan Gilhaize</i>. The book is not wanting in spirited scenes, but the +welding of history and romance is but imperfectly accomplished, +notwithstanding an abuse of breaks and gaps, abrupt transitions and +passages irrelevant to the main narrative. Then again, between the +machinations of the conscience-haunted Amias and his inscrutable +henchman Ralph, and the counter-machinations of the wily Adonijah, the +intricacies of the tale are so much too subtle as to end in puzzling the +reader himself. In a passage which may perhaps have been intended as a +sly hit at Scott, the author expressly disclaims any attempt to +reanimate the 'scenes of chivalry, and the pride, pomp, and panoply of +war,' or to restore the archaic language, or the 'fashions of the +draperies, or the ornaments and architecture in the background.' His +concern, he tells us, is not with such subordinate matters as these, but +directly with the human heart itself. For a poet or novelist the +position is a perfectly tenable one, and it is not to this but to the +fact that he lets us see that he does not take his work seriously, that +the author's failure is due. For into his lighter scenes an element of +burlesque, which had already peeped out in his last book, again obtrudes +itself; and burlesque, though a capital thing in its way, is here +entirely out of place. Neither could it under any circumstances be +supposed by a writer of historical fiction that the illusion which it is +his business to produce would be assisted by discussion of such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">{77}</a></span> topics +current at the time of writing as Sir Walter Scott's <i>Redgauntlet</i>, or +the question of the three-volume novel.</p> + +<p>As under favourable conditions there is perhaps no form of labour more +delightful than literary work, so there can be none more sickening when +it is half-hearted or against the grain. Galt had now produced two +novels in succession in which it was but too apparent that his heart was +not, and he may well have felt weary of the work. Or their languor may +have been due to the fact that his interest had been drawn off in +another direction. At any rate, after a long and—if we judge it by its +best productions—an extremely brilliant spell at his desk, he now +practically abandoned it for some years to come. Well had it been, not +only for his best interests, but for his material happiness, had he +remained where he was!</p> + +<p>The immediate occasion of this change in his life was as follows:—It +happened that some of the principal inhabitants of Canada, whose +property had sustained damage in the American War of 1814, had recently +become urgent in their claims for compensation from the mother country. +As the result of 'proceedings' on which the <i>Autobiography</i> throws no +light, Galt was commissioned to act as agent in this country for the +injured parties, which commission he accepted, undaunted by the worry +and demands upon his time which it must necessarily entail, and set +zealously to work to get the claims allowed by the Treasury. He gained +his point subject to conditions, it being agreed by Government that the +demands of the claimants should be satisfied from the proceeds of the +sale of certain Crown lands in Canada known as the 'reserves.' To find +purchasers for this land now became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">{78}</a></span> Galt's object, and mainly through +his instrumentality the 'Canada Company' was formed. But in the +meantime, the inhabitants of Upper Canada, among whom party spirit ran +unusually high, having prejudiced their case with Government, it was +determined that the money realised by selling the reserves should be +devoted to other purposes. Thus Galt found himself defeated in his +object, and in this juncture he was persuaded to join the Canada Company +as a member. He was then appointed a Commissioner to determine the value +of the land to be purchased by the Company, and having crossed the +Atlantic, he proceeded to York, the capital of Upper Canada, where the +Commission prosecuted its enquiries. His health at the time was bad, but +his task was congenial. From boyhood he had nourished a hankering after +colonisation, and if we abate a few comparatively trifling dissensions, +his experiences at this time seem on the whole to have been agreeable. +In due course the Commissioners signed their report and returned to +England, only to receive the news that their labours had been +unexpectedly complicated by action taken by the Canadian clergy in +relation to the 'clergy reserves.' After some difficulty this matter +also was at length adjusted, and the Company having obtained its +Charter, Galt was deputed to return to Canada to superintend the +founding of the new colony. Whilst the affairs above-mentioned had been +under discussion, he had, however, found time to produce <i>The Omen</i> and +<i>The Last of the Lairds</i>, two small but admirable works in contrasted +styles.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the sustained excellence of the former suffices to constitute it +his masterpiece in the purely tragic vein. It is likewise in all +probability his most characteristic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">{79}</a></span> work, its unique and special claim +to attention consisting in the tense and lurid imaginative atmosphere +which the author has created and made to pervade his tale. Availing +himself of the autobiographical convention, and assuming a fantastic +dramatic guise, he gives the rein to his fancy and roams at large in a +world that is dominated by those presentiments, bodings, and subtle +hidden relations of things, which had always exercised so powerful a +fascination over his mind. And yet—what is of vital importance in the +effect which he obtains—these portents are never allowed to lead us +away from the firm earth, or from actual life. From the very first the +reader is brought under the potent spell of the author's imagination, +and so perfect is the art that ever as the dark tale unfolds the +author's grip gains in strength. There are passages of fervid and gloomy +eloquence in the writing which recall nothing in literature so much as +Chateaubriand's masterpiece, and it is notable that, whilst in other +respects the two stories are entirely distinct, the mysterious and +repellent point on which they turn is one. <i>René</i> was almost pure +autobiography, and it is plain to those who have studied Galt's more +intimate utterances that into <i>The Omen</i> he threw much of what was moody +and fantastic in his own mind and personality.</p> + +<p><i>The Last of the Lairds</i> is a pleasant comedy of old Scotch manners, +rich in the masterly painting of old Scotch character. The plot turns on +the making up by busybodies of a match between a withered spinster and +an elderly, partly imbecile, and ruined landlord—the threatened +ugliness of the theme being averted by a gaiety rare in Galt's work, and +also—as in the case of some of Hogarth's pictures—by sheer skill and +power displayed in the characterisation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">{80}</a></span> The contrasted meddlers, the +bride and her sister, the Nabob, and the Laird's Jock are all of them +capital; whilst the Laird himself, though failing to attain the breadth +and dignity proper to a type, is at least a good and by no means +ungenial portrait. The change wrought in him by marriage, if surprising, +is not incredible, and serves to pave the way for the welcome happy +ending. This book, which was left incomplete by Galt when he returned to +America, received some finishing touches from his friend Moir, though +the hand of the latter cannot be said to be traceable in its pages.</p> + +<p>Late in the year 1826, the author returned to Canada, having already, by +his own account, some grounds for believing that he was regarded with +hostility. Whether these suspicions were purely morbid or not it is +impossible to say, but a general consideration of his fitness for the +work to which he had chosen to devote his life may not be out of place. +There is every reason to believe that he was afterwards harshly and +unjustly used; yet judging solely from what he himself has told of +himself, one must allow that he was not precisely the sort of man to +select for the discharge of important public business. That his ability +was extraordinary, and his power of work immense, has been amply +established; none the less does it remain true that in certain qualities +not less essential to business he was positively defective. Morbidly +sensitive, he lacked the wisdom to control his feelings under a sense of +injury, and was too much inclined to form conclusions, and to act, upon +impulse. In addition to this, imagination or fancy—of which, in a world +constituted as ours is, the mere suspicion will often suffice to +prejudice a man in his dealings with his fellow-men—was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">{81}</a></span> far too active +a power in his brain. But, to leave such considerations as are grounded +upon character and revert to substantial facts, what was the assumption +from Galt's previous history as a man of business? That history reveals +a goodly number of schemes and of attempts, scarce one of which but had +proved abortive or a failure. Surely, if he was in truth a competent +business man, ill-luck must have pursued him with uncommon pertinacity; +and even allowing this to have been the case, he will still stand +condemned as a wretched judge of the chances of success inherent in any +given business concern. The years at which we have now arrived were the +most momentous in his life as a man; but in a sketch of his literary +career, such as the present, their place is subordinate.</p> + +<p>Haunted by presentiments of evil even at the time of leaving home, Galt +had scarcely reached Canada when his troubles began. In fact his +differences with Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Lieutenant-Governor of the +province, date from the morning after his arrival. Of this disagreement +it is sufficient to say that Galt was not the aggressor, though very +likely his previous conduct had been less wary than behoved for one in +his delicate position. Certainly, with all due sympathy for a +much-suffering man of genius, it cannot be asserted that his temperament +was one calculated to smooth away difficulties, or, where self-love was +concerned, to carry him pleasantly out of a misunderstanding. The +Governor, besides suspecting him of unfriendliness to the Government, +was jealous of a supposed inclination to interfere in public matters +outside his sphere; and though these suspicions were alike groundless, +it unfortunately happened that a communication<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">{82}</a></span> which Galt had addressed +to the editor of an opposition journal afforded a specific ground of +complaint. Here, at once, were all the materials for a very pretty +quarrel.</p> + +<p>A visit to Quebec, however, brought more agreeable experiences, social +and adventurous. Thence Galt proceeded to York, to commence the duties +of his mission. He was now practically in sole charge of the business of +the Company, but he seems to have felt quite equal to his +responsibilities, and when winter was over he decided to begin +operations by founding a city in the Company's territory. Determined to +clothe the occasion with as much impressiveness as possible, and having +selected St George's Day as an auspicious date, he accordingly travelled +to the appointed site—the last nine miles of the journey lying within +the primeval forest. Here is his account of the proceedings:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'It was consistent with my plan to invest our ceremony with a little +mystery, the better to make it be remembered. So intimating that the +main body of the men were not to come, we walked to the brow of the +neighbouring rising ground, and Mr Prior having shown the site +selected for the town, a large maple tree was chosen; on which, +taking an axe from one of the woodmen, I struck the first stroke. To +me at least the moment was impressive,—and the silence of the +woods, that echoed to the sound, was as the sigh of the solemn +genius of the wilderness departing for ever. The doctor followed me, +then, if I recollect correctly, Mr Prior, and the woodmen finished +the work. The tree fell with a crash of accumulating thunder, as if +ancient Nature were alarmed at the entrance of social man into her +innocent solitudes with his sorrows, his follies, and his crimes. I +do not suppose that the sublimity of the occasion was unfelt by the +others, for I noticed that after the tree fell, there was a funereal +pause, as when the coffin is lowered into the grave; it was, +however, of short duration, for the doctor pulled a flask of whisky +from his bosom, and we drank prosperity to the City of Guelph.'</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">{83}</a></span></p> + +<p>The name was chosen in compliment to the Royal Family. To matter-of-fact +minds the characteristic tone of this passage may appear dangerously +poetical, so perhaps it is well to add that the site of the new city had +been most judiciously chosen. Occupying a tongue of land projecting into +a river, almost in the centre of the district which separates the lakes +of Ontario, Simcoe, Huron, and Erie, the infant township enjoyed +extraordinary facilities for communication. It became prosperous, and +within the space of forty-five years its population had reached the +total of 50,000.</p> + +<p>Galt now threw himself with great zeal and energy into his work, which +was on a grand scale and of a stimulating character, and, besides the +founding of cities, included the felling of forests, exploration, and +the naming of places unnamed. To a voyage undertaken for the purpose of +finding a harbour on Lake Huron, was due the origin of the now +flourishing city of Goderich. Of course the romance of this sort of +life, together with the sense it gave him of playing an important part +in the spread of civilisation, were agreeable and flattering to Galt; +but in other respects his position was not without drawbacks. Those +symptoms of troubles to come which had so early presented themselves to +him had by no means disappeared; whilst, as he assures us, secret +enemies were also at work against him. There were not wanting signs of +friction between the Government and the Directors of the Company, the +stock of the latter fell to a discount, and the Directors thereupon +taxed their Commissioner with extravagance in the carrying out of his +plans. He began to find himself subjected to petty annoyances, and at +this time an incident in which he had humanely, but perhaps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">{84}</a></span> +injudiciously, befriended some helpless emigrants served further to +embroil matters.</p> + +<p>In this juncture, he received a private warning to expect a reprimand +from his Directors. No doubt there were faults on both sides, but +conscious that he had done his best, and smarting under the injustice of +being assumed unheard to be in fault, he placed his resignation in the +hands of a friend. The friend, however, decided not to present it, and +Galt therefore continued his labours as before, evincing an astonishing +fertility in projects and ideas, of which we may suppose a fair +proportion to have been applicable enough to his circumstances. +Unfortunately causes of annoyance continued to flow in upon him, and it +was evident that a climax was not far off.</p> + +<p>The spectacle now afforded by the <i>Autobiography</i> is a melancholy one. +It is that of a gifted and generous-minded, though unduly irritable, +man-of-letters entangled in toils of red-tape, and in the meantime +exposed to the darts of his enemies. In such a contest—though in some +respects Galt was a giant pitted against pigmies—it was a foregone +conclusion that he must come off second-best. Matters were precipitated +by the Directors appointing an accountant to assist him in his duties. +The conduct of this person supplied grounds for a belief that he was +authorised to exercise surveillance over the Superintendent, and such a +position being intolerable, Galt resolved to return to England. Indeed +he found himself driven to the conclusion that it was intended to break +up the Company, and that his own removal from office would be a step +towards that end. Unfortunately he was destined to undergo treatment +even less agreeable than that which he anticipated. Circumstances +having<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">{85}</a></span> compelled him to defer his return to England, he paid a final +visit to Goderich, and had arrived at New York on his homeward journey +when he was informed that he had been superseded. As he had been on the +point of retiring from the service, his material position remained +practically unaffected. But his resignation, if indeed it were +irrevocably determined on, had certainly not been publicly announced, +and to a man of his temperament it must have been gall and wormwood to +have forcibly taken from him even though 'twere but that which he was +ready to resign. No wonder that he felt himself to have been treated +with the vilest ingratitude. 'The Canada Company,' he writes, 'had +originated in my suggestions, it was established by my endeavours, +organised in disregard of many obstacles by my perseverance, and, though +extensive and complicated in its scheme, a system was formed by me upon +which it could be with ease conducted. Yet without the commission of any +fault, for I dare every charge of that kind, I was destined to reap from +it only troubles and mortifications, and something which I feel as an +attempt to disgrace me.'<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The writer of the article, before referred to, in the Dictionary of +National Biography has spoken of the <i>Autobiography</i> as 'remarkable for +self-complacency.' It is, therefore, only fair to state that the value +which Galt puts upon his own services as a colonial organiser is not +unsupported by testimony from without. The report of a local expert, +incorporated in Galt's narrative, testifies not only to the intrinsic +excellence of his system, but to the success attending it; whilst an +address of gratitude and good wishes presented by the settlers in the +new city bears<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">{86}</a></span> witness to the personal estimation in which they held +him. Indeed one of the main causes of his failure seems to have been +that he took too high a view of his own mission, aspiring to aim at the +good of humanity, where his associates and principals were content to +contemplate gain: a Quixote set to perform the work of a Board composed +of Sancho Panzas. Even at this date, had he been informed at once that +his dismissal must be regarded as final, he would have been spared some +suffering. But his agony—the term is scarcely an exaggeration—was +prolonged by suspense and by unavailing struggles. And finally, as if +anything were yet wanting to complete the irony of his position, he +lived to see the Company which he had himself founded, and in the +service of which three of the best years of his life had been spent, +develop into a flourishing concern, yielding abundant profits in which +he had no share.</p> + +<p>Misfortunes come not singly, and the fall of the lion is the opportunity +of meaner creatures. The determining of his connection with the Canada +Company had hit Galt severely in his pecuniary circumstances. He now +found himself unable to meet the claims which were made upon him, and at +the suit of a certain Dr Valpy of Reading, one of the oldest of his +English acquaintances, to whom he owed the paltry sum of £80 for the +education of his sons, he was presently arrested. Conscious as he was of +unimpeachable probity of intention, and marking, as in his Utopian way +he did, a distinction between law and justice, he felt this last +indignity keenly. He, however, made no sign, but endured with +imperturbable stoicism a long period of confinement. None the +less—partly by the physical restraint to which he was so little +accustomed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">{87}</a></span> partly, as he himself with only too much show of +probability suggests, by distress of mind—his constitution was +irreparably injured. He was now entirely dependent on his pen, and +though his literary activity continued as great as before, the literary +fruits which he put forth had lost the fineness of their old savour. Of +this he seems to have been aware, for he has put on record the fact that +his later novels were written to please the public, not himself, and +that he would not wish to be estimated by them. For our purpose, +therefore, a hasty glance at them may suffice.</p> + +<p>In 1830 he published <i>Lawrie Todd</i>, a tale of life in the backwoods, +which, with <i>Bogle Corbet, or The Emigrants</i>, (1831), was founded upon +fact, and designed by the author to serve the double purpose of amusing +the general reader and conveying reliable information to those +practically interested in the American colonies. <i>Southennan</i>, a tale of +the days of Mary Queen of Scots, also published in 1830, was inspired by +the tradition associated with a romantic old mansion-house, which had +impressed Galt's fancy in youth. In the same year he also produced his +<i>Life of Byron</i>, of which—so keen was public interest in the subject at +the time—three editions were exhausted in as many months. The author's +view of the noble poet's character has been already indicated; his work +has, however, been pronounced 'valueless.' About this time he also acted +as editor of <i>The Courier</i>, a Tory newspaper; but, finding the work +uncongenial, after a few months abandoned it. In 1831, by way of a +change of employment, at the suggestion of Lockhart, who was always a +good friend to him, he put together his amusing <i>Lives of the Players</i>. +In the same year he took up his abode at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">{88}</a></span> Brompton—a suburb in those +days not yet absolutely devoid of the charms of the country—where for +some three or four years to come he occupied Old Barnes Cottage, a +somewhat dilapidated building, but one which possessed the invaluable +appendage of a large and pleasant garden.</p> + +<p>It was at this time that Carlyle met him at a dinner-party at the house +of Fraser, the publisher, and wrote a description of him. But before +quoting this sketch, we may give that of Moir, penned some eight years +earlier. At that time, according to the Doctor's testimony, Galt was 'in +the full vigour of health,' a man of herculean frame, over six feet in +height and inclining to corpulency, with jet-black hair as yet +ungrizzled, nose almost straight, small but piercing eyes, and finely +rounded chin. When Carlyle saw him, trouble had already told upon him. +'Galt looks old,' he writes,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> 'is deafish, has the air of a sedate +Greenock burgher; mouth indicating sly humour and self-satisfaction; the +eyes, old and without lashes, gave me a sort of wae interest for him.... +Said little, but that little peaceable, clear and <i>gutmüthig</i>. Wish to +see him again.' This account he supplemented a month later as follows: +'A broad gawsie Greenock man, old-growing, lovable with pity.'</p> + +<p>The need for pity soon increased. It has been stated that Galt's health +had suffered from his confinement, it was about this time further +affected by the first of a long series of shocks, which are described as +of a nature 'analogous to paralysis.' This sufficed to destroy such +hopes of active employment as remained to him—and he had been, as +usual, hard at work weaving schemes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">{89}</a></span> with all his former ingenuity—and +in process of time reduced him to a wreck. Still he clung to his pen, +adding to the already lengthy list of his works the novel of <i>Stanley +Buxton, or The Schoolfellows</i>, as well as two political satires entitled +<i>The Member</i> and <i>The Radical</i>. Mrs Thomson, authoress of 'Recollections +of Literary Characters,' an old friend, who visited him when he was +growing ever more and more disabled, has left a touching account of his +helplessness. Galt received her without rising from his seat, gave her +his left hand, and pointing to his right, said, 'with a little +quickness, "Perhaps you have heard of my attack? It has fallen upon my +limbs; my head is clear."' Alas! though clear, his mental powers were by +no means what they had been. But, if on some former occasions he had +shown himself too much a prey to moral sensibility, where physical +suffering was concerned his behaviour was that of a stoic. Whilst the +progress of the disease deprived him of the use of one limb after +another, he continued, uncomplaining, to make the most of such powers as +yet remained. Indeed, during the three or four years immediately +following his first seizure, his annual literary output in the +departments of editing, book-making, and story-writing, seems if +anything larger than usual. But among all these undertakings, it is +sufficient here to name the novels of <i>Eben Erskine, or The Traveller</i>, +and <i>The Stolen Child</i>, with the three volumes of tales collected under +the title of <i>Stories of the Study</i>, and the <i>Autobiography</i> and +<i>Literary Life and Miscellanies</i>. The lax composition of the latter +works is probably a symptom of mental decay in the author. The book last +named was dedicated by permission to William the Fourth, who in +acknowledgment of the compliment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">{90}</a></span> sent Galt £200, which money, together +with £50 obtained for him from the Literary Fund, may be said to +represent the sum of official, or quasi-official, recognition which he +received. For his claims against Government for 'brokerage,' or +commission, on the sale of lands to the Canada Company were refused, +whilst a pension said to have been promised him by the Company was never +paid. The last years of his life were spent in dependence, but it is +pleasing to note that the <i>Autobiography</i> closes with an expression of +satisfaction over the payment of secured debts. He had in the meantime +been removed to the house of a sister at Greenock, where he died on the +11th April 1839, not having yet completed his sixtieth year.</p> + +<p>In summing up Galt's position, it may be said that he remains the most +unequal of all writers possessing equal claims to distinction—the man +who <i>could</i> produce <i>The Provost</i> and <i>Ringan Gilhaize</i> and who <i>did</i> +produce <i>The Spaewife</i> and <i>The Literary Life</i>. For it is not enough to +say, as has been said, that in him there were two men, the man of +letters and the man of affairs: there were two literary men in him, the +creative artist and the book-maker. And the fact that, of these two, the +latter had things too much his own way was due to Galt's defective +appreciation of his high calling. 'My literary propensities,' he writes, +'were suspended during my residence in Upper Canada, not from +resolution, but because I had more interesting pastime. I did then think +myself qualified to do something more useful than "stringing blethers +into rhyme," or writing clishmaclavers in a closet.' And again: 'At no +time, as I frankly confess, have I been a great admirer of mere literary +character; to tell the truth, I have sometimes felt a little shamefaced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">{91}</a></span> +in thinking myself so much an author, in consequence of the estimation +in which I view the profession of book-making in general. A mere +literary man—an author by profession—stands low in my opinion.' The +petulance and perversity of the first statement, and the sheer vulgarity +of the second, may be palliated by the fact that the author was in low +spirits and bad health when he made them. It remains none the less true +that these opinions ruled his practice. But they carried their +punishment with them. For who will doubt that Galt would have been a +happier man had he been truer to his vocation, had he resisted the +temptation to fly off at a tangent in pursuit of every commercial +will-o'-the-wisp that might chance to catch his eye, and devoted his +great powers with something more of steadiness and of seriousness to +doing his best at what he was best qualified to do?</p> + +<p>He expected that fuller appreciation would come to him after death, and +perhaps this expectation, so fallacious in ninety-nine cases out of +every hundred, was in his case not without plausible grounds. For, from +a literary point of view, Galt, like De Stendhal, was in advance of his +time. Employing the word in its specialised sense, he was more 'modern' +than the greatest among his contemporaries. For example, as has been +already indicated, when most himself he had more of what we are pleased +to consider the characteristically modern qualities of sensitiveness and +imaginative intensity than had Scott. In illustration of this, perhaps +we cannot do better than cite the already quoted <i>Omen</i>, with its sombre +and lurid effects, the sense of bated breath, suspense, impending +tragedy, which pervades its every page. Nothing of all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">{92}</a></span> this, as I need +hardly say, was in Scott's line; even in the finest and most imaginative +of his shorter pieces, in <i>My Aunt Margaret's Mirror</i>, the tension is +eased by characteristic diffuseness of manner. And Galt's superior—some +will call it morbid—sensitiveness extended also to his style: his use +of words, when he is at his best, is much more interesting than Scott's. +It might possibly even be argued that his Scotch, if perhaps less +abundant, is more remarkable for nice appropriateness of word and phrase +than Sir Walter's. [And, by the way, the failure of Galt's reputation to +cross the Tweed may, perhaps, be partly explained by the fact that, +whereas in Scott's novels the dialogue alone is Scotch, in some of +Galt's best books the entire narrative is interspersed with dialect +words. One can fancy, for instance, the puzzled condition of a southern +reader who is informed by the author himself that 'Mrs Malcolm herself +was this winter brought to death's door by a terrible host that came on +her in the kirk,' or that a certain clock 'was a mortification to the +parish from the Lady Breadland.'] But, to continue our argument, besides +the above, Galt has more of the modern pictorial quality than Scott: +there is more in his descriptive work which is addressed directly to the +eye. Once more, he repeatedly gratifies a modern taste by choosing for +his theme what is fantastic, or occult, or what lies off the beaten +track. In stating all this, we would, of course, guard against being +understood to imply that all these characteristics are points of +advantage possessed by Galt over Scott. On the contrary, some of them +may even be symptoms of an age of literary decadence; what we do +maintain is that, in virtue of these characteristics, his chance of +appealing to a late nineteenth-century audience<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">{93}</a></span> is improved. As a final +word under this heading, Galt may be called the forerunner of the +Realistic movement in Scottish fiction. <i>The Provost</i> and <i>The Annals</i> +might almost belong to the age of Tourguenieff and Mr Henry James, and +in this respect his works have been more studied than they have been +praised, their influence has been greater than their reputation. +Generally, and in conclusion, Galt may be credited with having done to +some extent for Glasgow and the West of Scotland what Scott triumphantly +accomplished for the Borders and the Highlands, and for the trading and +professional classes of his country what Scott did for its gentry and +peasantry.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">{94}</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="D_M_MOIR" id="D_M_MOIR"></a>D. M. MOIR<br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 75%;">'DELTA'</span></h2> + + +<p>'After all, how precarious a thing is literary fame! Things to which I +have bent the whole force of my mind, and which are worth +remembering—if any things that I have done are at all worth +remembering—have attracted but a very doubtful share of applause from +critics; whilst things dashed off like <i>Mansie Wauch</i>, as mere sportive +freaks, and which for years and years I have hesitated to acknowledge, +have been out of sight my most popular productions.' Thus wrote Moir, +under date of April 12th, 1845—six years before his life's labours +closed—to his friend and biographer, Thomas Aird, author of <i>The +Devil's Dream</i>. And in this instance posterity has taken its cue from +contemporary popularity; for it is upon the homely and genial <i>Mansie +Wauch</i>, and on that alone, that the once considerable literary +reputation of 'the amiable Delta' rests to-day.</p> + +<p>David Macbeth Moir, born on the 5th January 1798, was the son of Robert +Moir and Elizabeth Macbeth, whom Aird describes simply as 'respectable +citizens.' His birthplace was Musselburgh, and to Musselburgh he +remained faithful through life. Indeed, though lives of +men-of-letters—from Shakespeare to Thomas Hardy—afford plenty of +instances of local attachment, there can be few instances I should +suppose of lives more closely associated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">{95}</a></span> with a single place. In +Musselburgh Moir's life was spent; Musselburgh he served faithfully, +both in his profession and as a public servant; and in the neighbourhood +of Musselburgh he placed the scene of his most popular work. Gratifying +is it, therefore, to know that Musselburgh has recognised him as her +poet—a minor writer certainly, yet exclusively her own.</p> + +<p>Having received his schooling in his native town, at the age of thirteen +young Moir was bound apprentice to a physician in practice there. His +apprenticeship lasted four years, during the latter part of which, as +also during the year following, he studied medicine in the Edinburgh +University. In 1816 he obtained his surgeon's diploma. In the following +year he lost his father, and being then eighteen, became the partner of +a Dr Brown of Musselburgh, whose practice kept him so occupied that for +more than ten years to come he is said not to have spent a single night +out of the town.</p> + +<p>Meantime, having a facile pen (too facile it has proved!) he had begun +to compose as far back as 1812, about which year he sent two essays to a +Haddington publication entitled <i>The Cheap Magazine</i>. In 1816 he +contributed to the <i>Scots Magazine</i>, and, further, commemorated the +exploit of Lord Exmouth by publishing anonymously <i>The Bombardment of +Algiers, and Other Poems</i>. Despite pressure of work, he did not give up +literature on entering the medical profession, but in time became a +contributor to Constable's and Blackwood's Magazine—to the latter of +which, over the signature 'Δ,' he came regularly to furnish not +only <i>jeux d'esprit</i> but essays and serious verse as well, his +contributions in all amounting to the large total of nearly four +hundred. In this manner he became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">{96}</a></span> acquainted with John Wilson, for +whose showy poetry he entertained an admiration which was doubtless less +uncommon then than it would be now. Other periodicals to which he +contributed were <i>Fraser's Magazine</i> and the <i>Edinburgh Literary +Gazette</i>. Between medicine and literature, his life now went on busily +but uneventfully. In the end of 1824 or the commencement of the next +year, he published, under his pseudonym, a volume of verse to which he +gave the title of the <i>Legend of Genevieve</i>, which he dedicated to the +veteran author of the <i>Man of Feeling</i>. The titular poem is a +sentimental story written in the manner of Byron's Tales, the remaining +pieces being on miscellaneous subjects. About the same time the first +instalments of <i>Mansie Wauch</i> made their appearance in <i>Blackwood's +Magazine</i>, the completed story, with additions, being published as a +book in 1828. Moir was a man of an intensely domestic disposition, and +having become affianced in this year, in the following summer he took to +himself a wife in the person of Miss Catherine Bell of Leith, whom he +espoused in the Church of Carham in Northumberland, celebrating the +occasion by a series of Sonnets on the Scenery of the Tweed. By this +lady he eventually became the father of eleven children. His literary +reputation was now established, and in 1829 Mr Blackwood made him an +offer of the editorship of the <i>Quarterly Journal of Agriculture</i>, +which, however, he declined. In remaining constant to the medical +profession, he has been credited with purely philanthropic motives; but, +without bating a jot of my respect for the man, the following (his own) +explanation of the case seems to me the more reasonable one. 'In early +youth,' says he, in a letter to David Vedder, the sailor poet of Orkney, +'I had many aspiring feelings to dedicate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">{97}</a></span> my life to literature, and to +literature alone; but I thank God—seeing what I have seen in Galt, in +Hogg, in Hood, and other friends—that I had resolution to resolve on a +profession, and to make poetry my crutch and not my staff. I have, in +consequence, lost the name which, probably, with due exertion, I might +have acquired; but I have gained many domestic blessings which more than +counter-balance it, and I can yet turn to my pen, in my short intervals +of occasional relaxation, with as much zest as in my days of romantic +adolescence.' This is the utterance of a sensible man who, having his +way to make in the world, decides on the expediency of a certain course +and adheres to it. Possibly Moir's estimate of his own powers was a +juster one than that of many of his friends; at any-rate it is +satisfactory to learn that, 'in spite of the common distrust of the +literary character,' he succeeded in making his way as a doctor even in +that place where proverbially a prophet is apt to lack honour. Mr +Blackwood and others of his friends also urged him to leave Musselburgh +and to set up in practice in Edinburgh, offering to use their interest +in obtaining patients for him. But these offers he likewise declined. +His next publication (1831) consisted of <i>Outlines of the Ancient +History of Medicine</i>, and was intended as the first instalment of a +complete history of the subject, although increased pressure of +professional duties, occasioned first by the events of the next year and +then by the retirement of his partner in the year following, prevented +his further execution of the design.</p> + +<p>The period at which we have now arrived is one of those which have been +rendered terribly memorable by a visitation of cholera, and in the +commencement of 1832 the town of Musselburgh was attacked with special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">{98}</a></span> +severity by the epidemic. So great was the terror prevailing throughout +the country that many physicians are said to have fled from their posts, +but now, as also during a later outbreak, was the time when Moir's +character shone out with peculiar lustre. Rising to the height of the +emergency, he was to be found night and day at his post, endeavouring +both to lessen the sufferings of the sick by his medical skill, and to +comfort the dying with the consolations of religion. His humane +exertions on behalf of the poor were, in particular, remarkable. This is +a period regarding which one would gladly supply further facts, for it +is, no doubt, the most interesting in Moir's life, and it is +consequently with regret that we find it passed over in a few lines in +the accredited biography. When that was written, circumstantial details +of his faithful labours might still have been collected, and these would +have brought the man nearer to us than anything else could do. But Aird +has given us nothing but generalities. During the outbreak, Moir held +the post of Secretary to the Board of Health of Musselburgh, and it was +as an answer to numberless enquiries addressed to him in this capacity +that he now wrote and published a pamphlet, entitled 'Practical +Observations on Malignant Cholera,' which, says Aird, flew like +wild-fire through the country, and which he shortly supplemented by +'Proofs of the Contagion of Malignant Cholera.'</p> + +<p>No doubt by way of recruiting after his labours, he this year attended +the Meeting of the British Association, which was held at Oxford, and +afterwards visited London, mainly in order to see Galt, with whom he had +become friendly some years before, and who was now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">{99}</a></span> living in broken +health at Brompton. On this occasion he had an interview with Coleridge +at Highgate. The sage, who received him in bed, and treated him to 'two +hours of divine monologue,' talked at first of his own early life, +incidentally reciting part of his early-written Monody on the Death of +Chatterton, and so far all went well. But Moir, who had a constitutional +dislike of mysticism, and who ought to have known better, had the +rashness to put a few questions to the poet, 'relative to his peculiar +speculations in philosophy,' and from that moment, needless to say, he +found himself involved in the intricacies of a labyrinth.</p> + +<p>As that of a medical man in the full swing of a large practice, Moir's +life now affords but little material to the biographer. In a letter to +Robert Macnish, his dearly-loved friend and brother in medicine and the +muses, he has himself described his daily existence. 'Our business,' +says he, 'has ramified itself so much in all directions of the +compass—save the north, where we are bounded by the sea—that on an +average I have sixteen or eighteen miles' daily riding; nor can this be +commenced before three or four hours of pedestrian exercise has been +hurried through. I seldom get from horseback till five o'clock; and by +half-past six I must be out to the evening rounds, which never terminate +till after nine. Add to this the medical casualties occurring between +sunset and sunrise, and you will see how much can be reasonably set down +to the score of my leisure.' Still, such leisure as he had, he +perseveringly devoted to literature. When driving upon his rounds, he +would read in his carriage; but his chief time for study was after the +house was shut up for the night, when all was quiet around him, and when +he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">{100}</a></span> could, with some degree of comfort, sit down in his library to read +and write. 'Even then, however, from the uncertainty of his profession, +he was never altogether sure of his own time. Often did he remark that, +whether it was the contrariety of human nature, or his own peculiar +sensitiveness to interruption at such a time, he was most liable to be +broken in upon when he was most deeply engaged in writing.' Under such +circumstances we cannot wonder that his literary work lacks finish. The +wonder is rather that he did not give up literature altogether; but we +read that he loved it too well to do this, and that he never seemed so +happy as when his mind was employed upon it. As a doctor of literary +men, he exercised a beneficial influence. Shortly before the death of Mr +Blackwood, that gentleman lay ill in Ainslie Place; whilst Galt, who was +also in bad health, was living in lodgings close by. Relations between +the two had been strained, and illness prevented their meeting. But it +is pleasing to read that their mutual respect and esteem were now +renewed, and that Moir, who was in attendance on both, carried kind +messages between them.</p> + +<p>A most affectionate parent, Moir had sustained a succession of cruel +bereavements by losing three of his children, who died in early +childhood, within the space of about eighteen months, in the years 1838 +and 1839. To relieve his feelings on these occasions, he wrote a series +of elegies, which, after being circulated among his friends, were +published, with a few other poems, in 1843, under the title of <i>Domestic +Verses</i>. It is as an elegiac poet—if as a poet at all—that the author +is now remembered, and one of these elegies—called by the +self-conferred name of one of the babes, 'Casa Wappy'—has enjoyed +great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">{101}</a></span> popularity and is still included in anthologies, though in my own +opinion a less meritorious composition than the the second of the three +poems on the same subject, entitled 'Casa's Dirge':—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Now winter with its snow departs,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The green leaves clothe the tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But summer smiles not on the hearts<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That bleed and break for thee:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The young May weaves her flowery crown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her boughs in beauty wave;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They only shake their blossoms down<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon thy silent grave.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His elegiac muse is sweet and fluent, and breathes the consolations of +Christianity. But, like Motherwell, he is apt to be over-lachrymose and +to insist upon his grief, which is fatal to pathos. His touch, too, is +uncertain. For instance, in one Sonnet we have this fine line,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The bliss that feeds upon the heart destroys,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>in near juxta-position with the ridiculous figure,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Joy's icicles melt down before Time's sun.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here as elsewhere, too, he freely repeats himself. Aird has named <i>The +Deserted Churchyard</i> as Moir's highest imaginative piece. But Aird is no +critic, and description was not Moir's forte. He multiplies +touches—each perhaps good in its way—multiplies them, indeed, to +excess; but to combine and compose them into a whole is beyond him. And +the same defect—the mark either of an inferior talent, or of an +untutored one—is noticeable in his critical portraits. Of his poetry +generally, then, it must be confessed that it belongs to that class +which, finding acceptance to-day, is without significance for the +morrow. But, in justice, it must be remembered that in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">{102}</a></span> its own day it +not only pleased the general reader, but also drew warm praises from +such judges as Tennyson, Jeffrey, Wordsworth, and Lockhart. Moir's time, +as we have seen, was not at his disposal, but besides—or perhaps +because of this—he was an impatient composer. He chose—if such things +be determined by choice—to write much rather than to write well. As a +whole his poetry is inferior in style to that of his less prolific +contemporary, Thomas Pringle. And certainly, if poetry is intended to +endure, it must be moulded in some less pliant material than that which +Moir employed.</p> + +<p>Not much now remains to tell. In the year after the publication of his +<i>Domestic Verses</i>, Moir contracted a serious illness by sitting all +night in damp clothes by the bedside of a patient, and in 1846 his +general health suffered further from the effects of a carriage accident, +which also permanently lamed him. In 1848 he made an excursion, lasting +two and a half days, and meditated during seven previous years, to the +Lake District with Mrs Moir; and in the following year he visited the +Highlands, with Christopher North, who was 'in great force,' Henry +Glassford Bell, and one or two others. In spring of 1851, he delivered a +course of six lectures at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, his +subject being the Poetical Literature of the Past Half Century. On +appearing on the platform, he had a very warm reception, and his +lectures, proving popular, were soon afterwards published; nor have they +quite lost their interest yet. Of course at the present day no one would +be likely to turn to them for an estimate of the genius, say, of Byron +or of Shelley, or for a summing up of the poetical achievement of +Wordsworth, Coleridge, or Keats. It is in the nature of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">{103}</a></span> things that +truth in criticism, as in evidence, is arrived at by a slow process, and +abler pens have dealt with these great writers since Moir's day. But +should anyone wish to know the estimation in which they were held at the +date in question, he will generally find a good indication of it here. +And in so doing, as was inevitable, he will come across some curiosities +of criticism—as, for instance, where the lecturer, speaking of Byron +and Wilson together, as the two rising poetic lights of the year 1812, +adds that 'it is difficult even yet to say which of the two was most +distinguished for general scope of mind, for imaginative and +intellectual power.' Also, should any student desire a +sketch—descriptive rather than critical—of such half-forgotten +literary figures as 'Monk' Lewis and his followers, or of the 'artistic +artificial school' of Hayley, the 'Swan of Lichfield,' and the Della +Cruscans, or seek for appreciative observations on the author of <i>The +Farmer's Boy</i>, on Kirke White, or on Samuel Rogers, here he will find +them. Besides these lectures and the works already mentioned, Moir's +literary undertakings include an edition of the works of Mrs Hemans, an +Account of the Antiquities of the Parish of Inveresk, written for the +Statistical Account of Scotland (1845), and a few occasional monographs.</p> + +<p>On the 22nd of June of this year, in dismounting from his horse at the +door of a patient's house, Moir sustained further injuries to his +already partially disabled leg. Failing to rally from the effects of +this accident, and hoping to derive benefit from rest and change, about +a week later he set out upon a short excursion. Mrs Moir accompanied +him, and they had reached Ayr, and had visited the cottage where Burns +first saw the light, when the Doctor became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">{104}</a></span> seriously ill. Declining +medical assistance, however, he struggled on to Dumfries, where he +became so much worse as to be forced to take to his bed. It was soon +evident that death was at hand. On hearing of his illness, several of +his friends had hastened to his side, and surrounded by these and by +members of his family, faithfully attended by his wife, and fortified by +a firm religious faith, he passed away on the morning of Sunday, the 6th +July. The inhabitants of the town in which he had laboured so +indefatigably decreed him a public funeral, paying every mark of respect +in their power to his memory, and shortly afterwards his statue, +executed by a sculptor named Ritchie, who had been a pupil of +Thorwaldsen, was erected in a commanding situation on the banks of the +river Esk. Besides his professional labours, he had been a Member of the +Council of his native town and of its Kirk Session, had attended the +General Assembly as a Representative Elder, and had acted as Secretary +to a local Reform Committee appointed on the eve of the passing of the +great Bill. In fine, his life had been essentially that of the good +citizen—an honourable part for which we have so high a respect that we +should be glad to see it oftener adorned with literary distinction.</p> + +<p>In person Moir was tall, well-formed and erect, of sanguine complexion +and with hair tending to the 'sandy' hue, his keen sense of humour, +during friendly intercourse, being particularly manifest in his +countenance. In private life, he was amiable and exemplary, and much +beloved by many friends, including several distinguished writers—'a +man,' says the writer of his obituary in <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i>, 'who, +we verily believe, never had an enemy, and never harboured an angry or +vindictive thought against a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">{105}</a></span> human being.' Nor did this proceed from +any lack of determination or force of character, of which he had plenty.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Did not one recognise the relation subsisting between humour and pathos, +it would be a surprise to find the melancholy Moir—the mourner of a +score of dirges—figuring as author of a succession of broadly and +farcically comic episodes; for such, in the main, is the <i>Life of Mansie +Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith</i>. The book was conceived in avowed imitation +of Galt; and, in general outline, the autobiographical tailor, with his +unconscious self-revelation, is obviously suggested by the Provosts and +Micah Balwhidders of that writer. For in literature Galt is as much the +originator of the 'pawky' Scotsman of the commercial or professional +class as was the creator of Dinmont and Headrigg of the Scotsman living +on the soil and racy of it. But if Delta borrowed the first idea of the +story from his friend, the means by which he develops it owe little or +nothing to that source. There, indeed, the sprightly little volume +reminds us of a very different class of literature. In their frank +appeal to those who are easily amused (happily a numerous body), and in +the pleasant clownishness of their fooling, a large proportion of the +scenes recall forcibly the ancient folk-tales, 'drolls' and chap-books, +or the more modern collections of local stories founded upon the same, +and the peculiar style of humour associated with such time-honoured +popular favourites as Lothian Tom and George Buchanan, the King's +Jester. Incidents, for instance, like that of James Batter, the weaver, +concealed in the closet during the visit of the Minister, and of his +inopportune fall through the bottomless chair and imprisonment there, or +of the big<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">{106}</a></span> suit of clothes being sent home to the little man, and the +little suit to the big man, belong to the primeval stock-in-trade of the +rustic humourist; whilst as for the episode of Deacon Paunch and the +cat—probably there are few parishes in the country boasting the +possession of a phenomenally heavy man where some 'variant' of this +story is not current at the present day. The epigram—if I may so call +it—of the book is also conceived after the popular model; as, for +instance, when the aggrieved collier-woman, taunting Cursecowl on the +prominence of one of his features, declares that he has 'run fast when +the noses were dealing'; when it is observed, in reference to the +various grades of society and their interdependence, that 'we all hang +at one another's tails like a rope of ingans'; or when the writer speaks +of an 'evendown pour of rain, washing the very cats off the house-tops,' +or remarks of hopes not quite likely to be fulfilled that 'many a +rottener ship has come to land.' Some of these phrases may perhaps be +proverbial, but at any rate into just such verbal moulds flows, or used +to flow, the expression of the livelier fancy of the people. The Scotch, +too, in which the book is written is singularly rich and racy.</p> + +<p>It may possibly be asked whether stories such as those referred to above +have much to gain from literary elaboration, brevity in this peculiar +form of wit appearing perhaps even more than usually desirable. The +answer is that the result has justified the experiment. For one thing, +<i>Mansie Wauch</i>—which preceded the <i>Pickwick Papers</i> by some years—is +one of the earliest classic specimens of broad humour which is entirely +free from coarseness; and, secondly, in this instance, most of the +farcical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">{107}</a></span> episodes—such as the mock duel, the Volunteering scene, the +scenes in the watch-house or with the dumb spaewife, and the playhouse +scene, where Mansie so artlessly mistakes feigning for reality—are made +in a way to serve the purpose of illustrating character. In the case +last named—even allowing for the tailor's native simplicity, for the +fact that this is his first play, and for the 'three jugs' of which he +has partaken in the company of Glen, the farmer—a pretty strong call is +made on humorous convention, or on the credulity of the reader. But, +after all, in this style of writing, who would 'consider curiously'? No! +give the humourist his head is the rule, concede him a trifle of +exaggeration, and let him make you laugh if he can. This book was never +meant for closets and the midnight oil, but to be read aloud over the +fire on winter's eves in the family circle.</p> + +<p>Of course strokes of humorous portraiture somewhat subtler than the +above are by no means wanting, as is shown for instance, in the same +scene, in the fuddled tailor's preoccupation with the clothes worn by +the actors—the good coat 'with double gilt buttons and fashionable +lapells,' or 'the very well-made pair of buckskins, a thought the worse +of the wear, to be sure, but which if they had been cleaned, would have +looked almost as good as new.' But throughout the book little Mansie is +equally 'particular,' especially in regard to clothes,—he has the +loquacity of one occupied in a sedentary manual toil, and the abounding +detail in description of minute occurrences which characterises dwellers +in small towns. The scene of the stampede from the barn, following his +reply to the players, is quite in the best manner of the humourists and +caricaturists of that day,—when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">{108}</a></span> uncouth persons tumbling one over the +other in their haste, coat-tails torn off, bull-dogs fastening teeth in +human calves, and wigs flying to the winds, seem to have constituted a +never-failing resource for 'bringing down the house.' Pity that, like +Mercutio, we are become grave men since then! However by far the best +scene of this sort—a classic of its kind—is that which paints the +inroad of the gigantic butcher, infuriated at the misfit of his new +killing-coat, into the tailor's shop, and the subsequent tussle between +him on the one hand and Tommy Bodkin, the three 'prentices, Mansie, and +James Batter on the other. Everywhere George Cruikshank, the illustrator +of the book, is neck and neck with the author, hitting off the very +spirit of his fun, and indeed sometimes adding a point to it; but in his +delineations of this scene and of that with the spaewife he surpasses +himself.</p> + +<p>Of course the book would not be Moir's if it entirely lacked poetic and +pathetic relief, which is supplied in the contents of the papers found +in the Welshman's coat-pocket; in the episode of Mungo Glen, the +apprentice from the Lammermoors, who dies of home-sickness and of a +country boy's hatred of the town, and in the story of the <i>Maid of +Damascus</i>.</p> + +<p>Of the character of Mansie—the keystone, so to speak, of the book—it +cannot be said that it stands out with the firmness and clearness of +Galt's best work in the kind, still less of one of Miss Ferrier's +inimitable creations. Yet, if somewhat faintly limned, the little +tailor—so eager, so busy, and so thrifty, such a queer mixture of +guilelessness, shrewdness, and superstition, 'a douce elder of Maister +Wiggie's kirk,' and abounding in Scriptural<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">{109}</a></span> allusion accordingly, +cautious, yet apt to be 'overtaken' as well as overreached, but with his +heart exactly in the right place—is a figure who in the long run wins +and holds a place in our sympathy. In the course of his professional +avocations, Moir may have had occasion to observe that tailors generally +are a nervous race of men, and from the commencement of the narrative we +are shown that Mansie is full of groundless fears and +anxieties—terrified to discharge his musket when on parade as a +Volunteer, and frightened out of his wits in the Kirk Session house by +night. And yet in the hour of need, when house and home are in danger on +the night of the fire, we see him brave as a lion and brimful of +resource—saving 'the precious life of a woman of eighty that had been +four long years bed-ridden,' and by well-directed efforts with his +bucket accomplishing more than the local fire-engine had done. Such a +contrast as this—at once effective and true to human nature—or as that +where Mansie, finding the escaped French prisoner concealed in his +coal-hole, is divided between wrath against the enemy of his country and +sympathy for a fellow-creature in distress, put the finishing touches to +a genial figure, which in our Scottish national literature has a little +niche of its own.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">{110}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MISS_FERRIER" id="MISS_FERRIER"></a>MISS FERRIER</h2> + + +<p>Susan Edmonstone Ferrier, the great mistress of the novel of manners in +Scotland, was born in Edinburgh on the 7th September 1782, and was the +youngest of her parents' ten children. Her father, James Ferrier, was a +younger son of John Ferrier, laird of Kirklands, in Renfrewshire, and +her mother—whose maiden name was Helen Coutts—was the daughter of a +farmer near Montrose. James Ferrier was by profession a Writer to the +Signet, having been admitted a member of the Society in the year 1770. +He had been trained to his vocation in the office of a distant relative, +who had the management of the Argyll estates, and to this gentleman's +business he ultimately succeeded. He was thus on terms of intimacy with +the Duke of Argyll, through whose instrumentality he was appointed a +Principal Clerk of Session. In this office he had Sir Walter Scott as a +colleague, and he was also so fortunate as to enjoy the friendship of +Henry Mackenzie, author of the admirable <i>Man of Feeling</i>, of Dr Blair, +and last, not least, of Burns. Thus, from her earliest years onward, his +young daughter must have been accustomed to see and to hear of the +literary lights of the Scotland of that day.</p> + +<p>After their marriage, Mr and Mrs Ferrier occupied a flat in Lady Stair's +Close in the Old Town. Their large family was made up of six sons and +four daughters. When Susan was fifteen she lost her mother, and soon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">{111}</a></span> +afterwards she was taken by her father to visit at Inverary Castle, the +seat of his patron the Duke. Here a new world was opened to the plainly +brought up Edinburgh girl. Here for the first time she saw fashion and +the 'high life,' and here—either on this or some subsequent +occasion—she formed several acquaintances which were destined to +influence her career. Under John, fifth Duke of Argyll, society at the +Castle had at that period a somewhat literary and artistic tone. Among +its visitors was the accomplished Lady Charlotte Campbell—afterwards +Lady Charlotte Bury—a name which, if unknown to the present generation, +was once of some repute in the world of letters. Lady Charlotte was the +Duke's younger daughter, and had inherited much of the beauty of her +mother, the celebrated Elizabeth Gunning. She was just seven years older +than Susan Ferrier, was distinguished by a passion for the +<i>belles-lettres</i>, and was accustomed to do the honours of Scotland to +the literary celebrities of the time. During the year of Miss Ferrier's +first visit to the Castle, she published anonymously a first literary +venture, which bore the conventional title of 'Poems upon Several +Occasions,' by 'A Lady.'</p> + +<p>It may readily be guessed that this fascinating and high-born +personage—distinguished as she was by the honours and the romance of +authorship—produced her due impression on the imagination of the young +visitor. Susan's literary instincts must certainly have been quickened +by the intimacy—for a friendship which lasted till death sprung up +between herself and Lady Charlotte. But, if she was a gainer in one +direction from the acquaintance, I am inclined to believe that she was a +loser in another. Years after, when she herself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">{112}</a></span> became an authoress, +her earliest work was disfigured by direct and unsparing portraiture of +living persons among her acquaintance. Now no doubt this kind of writing +may be productive of extreme mirth to persons qualified to read between +the lines, and it must be acknowledged that Miss Ferrier's talent has +made the mirth outlast its immediate occasion. Still, judged as art, +this kind of thing is neither great nor gracious, and to her credit be +it said that the authoress of <i>Marriage</i> lived to see that this was so, +and to amend her style accordingly. It may be noted, however, that the +works attributed to her friend Lady Charlotte include conspicuous +instances of a similar error in taste. Amid the vicissitudes of many +years, her ladyship lived to produce a number of works of fiction, of +the contents of which such titles as <i>Flirtation</i>, <i>The Journal of the +Heart</i>, <i>A Marriage in High Life</i>, may afford some indication. But the +single work with which in the present day her name is associated—and if +she never acknowledged the authorship, it must be remembered that she +resisted all provocations to deny it—is the notorious Diary in which a +lady-in-waiting of Caroline of Brunswick has chronicled the follies and +indiscretions of that unhappy princess, and the unpleasantnesses of +daily life in her Court. Bearing this in mind, one can scarcely regard +the brilliant Lady Charlotte as the best of friends for a young woman, +her inferior in years and station, though greatly her superior in +talent.</p> + +<p>Among other visitors met by Susan at Inverary, two may be particularised +as having afterwards contributed by their oddities to enliven the pages +of her first book. These were the eccentric Mrs Seymour Damer, the +amateur sculptor and friend of Horace Walpole, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">{113}</a></span> Lady Ferrers, widow +of the peer who was hanged for the murder of his steward. With a Miss +Clavering, a grand-daughter of the Duke, who was a child of eight at the +time of her first visit to the Castle, she struck up an eager +friendship. An animated correspondence was started between them, some of +the letters in which have been preserved. These are for the most part +undated, but have reference to a work of fiction which the young ladies +proposed to undertake in partnership, and it is thus that the germ of +<i>Marriage</i> is first brought to light.</p> + +<p>'I do not recollect,' says Miss Ferrier, writing in high spirits; 'I do +not recollect ever to have seen the sudden transition of a high-bred +English beauty, who thinks she can sacrifice all for love, to an +uncomfortable solitary highland dwelling among tall red-haired sisters +and grim-faced aunts. Don't you think this would make a good opening of +the piece? Suppose each of us try our hands on it.' And, later on, after +submitting a portion of her work, she writes again:—'I am boiling to +hear from you, but I've taken a remorse of conscience about Lady +Maclaughlan and her friends: if I was ever to be detected, or even +suspected, I would have nothing for it but to drown myself. I mean, +therefore, to let her alone till I hear from you, as I think we might +compound some other kind of character for her that might do as well and +not be so dangerous. As to the misses, if ever it was to be published +they must be altered or I must fly my native land.'</p> + +<p>In this passage, even after allowing for girlish facetiousness of +expression, Susan Ferrier appears in the character of an accomplished +'quiz,' sailing dangerously close to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">{114}</a></span> wind. Of course her +correspondent is delighted with the specimen of work submitted to her, +and will not hear of anything being altered. What school-girl would? She +essays to allay her friend's fear of discovery, and offers to take the +responsibility of the personalities upon herself. In a subsequent +letter, dated December 1810, she describes reading the manuscript to +Lady Charlotte during a drive. Her ladyship laughed as she had never +been seen to laugh before, and pronounced the fragment 'without the +least exception the cleverest thing that ever was written'—a verdict +which after more detailed examination she endorsed in writing, declaring +it to be '<i>capital</i>, with a dash under it.' Not otherwise do the +thoughtless and light-hearted egg each other on to mischief.</p> + +<p>But Miss Ferrier was by this time eight-and-twenty years of age. Her +native strong good sense asserted itself, and for a long time she +resolutely declined to publish her work. (I ought ere this to have +explained that the intended collaboration with Miss Clavering had fallen +through, the sole passage contributed by the younger lady being the +brief and not particularly interesting <i>History of Mrs Douglas</i>). In +course of time, however, the merits of the book became known to persons +having more authority to judge them than Lady Charlotte Bury or her +niece. Mr Blackwood, the publisher, read the manuscript, and strongly +urged the authoress to prepare it for publication; whilst no less a +personage than Sir Walter Scott, in the conclusion to his <i>Tales of My +Landlord</i>—then seemingly in proof—referred flatteringly to a 'very +lively work entitled <i>Marriage</i>,' and singled out its author for mention +among writers of fiction capable of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">{115}</a></span> gathering in the rich harvest +afforded by Scottish character. At length, in 1818—after undergoing +several changes in the interval—the book was given to the world. It was +published anonymously, and the authoress, speaking at a later date, +professes to have believed that her name 'never would be guessed at, or +the work heard of beyond a very limited sphere.' But from such obscurity +the gallery of portraits which it contained must alone have sufficed to +save it. For, in addition to the two ladies already mentioned—whose +oddities appear to have contributed jointly to the inimitable figure of +Lady Maclaughlan—the three spinster aunts were drawn from certain +Misses Edmonstone, whilst Mrs Fox represented Mary, Lady Clerk, a +well-known Edinburgh character of the time. It must not, however, be +supposed that the vogue of the book depended upon adventitious +circumstances alone; for <i>Marriage</i> soon became popular far beyond the +limits of any local set. In London it was attributed to the pen of Sir +Walter Scott, and it is even stated to have been very successful in a +French translation.</p> + +<p>Its success at home can surprise no one, for never before had the +idiosyncrasies of Scottish society been so vigorously pourtrayed. As has +already been seen, the means adopted for showing them off are +ingeniously contrived. At the commencement of the story we are +introduced to the beautiful but shallow and artificial Juliana, the Earl +of Courtland's only daughter—a young lady who has been trained solely +with a view to social success and the formation of a brilliant alliance, +the more solid parts of education having in her case been systematically +neglected. She is betrothed to the elderly Duke of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">{116}</a></span> L——, but at the +last moment throws him over and elopes to Scotland. The companion of her +flight is Douglas, a handsome young officer in the army, the child of +Scotch parents, but brought up in England by a wealthy adoptive father. +The honeymoon is scarce over when the young people find themselves, not +only partially disabused of their illusions, but in actual pecuniary +straits. Juliana's elopement has hopelessly alienated the Earl; whilst +Douglas, absent from his regiment without leave, is superseded in the +<i>Gazette</i>. In these circumstances the only course open to them is to +take up their quarters with the bridegroom's father, at his castle of +Glenfern in the Highlands. Their proposal to do so is most cordially +received, and now the irony of circumstance begins to declare itself. +Lady Juliana has repeatedly protested that with the man of her choice +she could be happy in a desert. But then her idea of a desert, as she +avows when 'tis too late, is a beautiful place full of roses and +myrtles, which, though very retired, would not be absolutely out of the +world; where one could occasionally see one's friends and give +<i>déjeuners</i> and <i>fêtes champêtres</i>. A very different kind of place is +Glenfern Castle. After a long journey in a drizzling rain through dreary +scenery, their destination is reached, and Juliana makes her <i>entrée</i>, +attended by her footman and lady's-maid, surrounded by her lap-dogs, +squirrel, and mackaw, and encumbered by all the paraphernalia of an +artificial elegance. Never was there a meeting between more opposed +extremes.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'At the entrance of the strangers, a flock of females rushed forward +to meet them. Douglas good-humouredly submitted to be hugged by +three long-chinned spinsters whom he recognised as his aunts, and +warmly saluted five awkward purple girls he guessed to be his +sisters:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">{117}</a></span> while Lady Juliana stood the image of despair, and, +scarcely conscious, admitted in silence the civilities of her new +relations.'</p></div> + +<p>The three elderly spinsters are the Laird's sisters—Miss Jacky, who is +esteemed the most sensible woman as well as the greatest orator in the +parish, Miss Grizzy the platitudinous, and Miss Nicky, who is not +wanting in sense either; and these representatives of a bygone social +order are the most celebrated characters in the book.</p> + +<p>Appalled by the sight of the surroundings amid which her life is to be +spent, and distressed by the insolence of a pampered lady's-maid who +instantly throws up her place, Juliana presently succumbs to hysterics.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'Douglas now attempted to account for the behaviour of his noble +spouse by ascribing it to the fatigue she had lately undergone, +joined to distress of mind at her father's unrelenting severity +towards her.</p> + +<p>'"O the amiable creature!" interrupted the unsuspecting spinsters, +almost stifling her with their caresses as they spoke. "Welcome, a +thousand times welcome, to Glenfern Castle!" said Miss Jacky. +"Nothing shall be wanting, dearest Lady Juliana, to compensate for a +parent's rigour, and make you happy and comfortable. Consider this +as your future home. My sisters and myself will be as mothers to +you: and see these charming young creatures," dragging forward two +tall frightened girls, with sandy hair and great purple arms; "thank +Providence for having blest you with such sisters!"</p> + +<p>'"Don't speak too much, Jacky, to our dear niece at present," said +Miss Grizzy; "I think one of Lady Maclaughlan's composing draughts +would be the best thing for her—there can be no doubt about that."</p> + +<p>'"Composing draughts at this time of day!" cried Miss Nicky; "I +should think a little good broth a much wiser thing. There are some +excellent family broth making below, and I'll desire Tibby to bring +a few."</p> + +<p>'"Will you take a little soup, love?" asked Douglas. His lady +assented; and Miss Nicky vanished, but quickly re-entered, followed +by Tibby, carrying a huge bowl of coarse Scotch broth, swimming with +leeks, greens, and grease. Lady Juliana attempted to taste it, but +her delicate palate revolted at the homely fare; and she gave up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">{118}</a></span> +the attempt, in spite of Miss Nicky's earnest entreaties to take a +few more of these excellent family broth.</p> + +<p>'"I should think," said Henry, as he vainly attempted to stir it +round, "that a little wine would be more to the purpose than this +stuff."</p> + +<p>'The aunts looked at each other; and, withdrawing to a corner, a +whispering consultation took place, in which "Lady Maclaughlan's +opinion, birch, balm, currant, heating, cooling, running risks," &c. +&c. transpired. At length the question was carried; and some +tolerable sherry, and a piece of very substantial <i>short-bread</i>, +were produced.</p> + +<p>'It was now voted by Miss Jacky, and carried <i>nem. con.</i>, that her +ladyship ought to take a little repose till the hour of dinner.'</p></div> + +<p>So bad begins, but worse remains behind; for these are but the +occurrences of a few hours, whilst the visit is to be of long duration. +However enough has been said to indicate the lines along which the story +now develops. The feather-pate Juliana is not of those to whom Time +brings wisdom, and a further acquaintance with her surroundings only +serves to bring to light fresh disgusts. The gaunt apparitions of the +first evening grow no less tiresome as she knows them better, no less +hopelessly remote from every habit, tradition or association of her +life. But her poison is the reader's meat. In the course of the next few +pages we are introduced to Miss Grizzy's friend, Lady Maclaughlan, a +distinguished amateur of medicine and an object of awed admiration to +the sisters. As this lady steps upon the scene—fearfully and +wonderfully attired, and bearing in her hand her gold-headed cane—with +her deep-toned voice, her mercilessly blunt remarks, and her +uncompromising 'humph!'—her ineffectually recalcitrant little husband +borne behind her much as if he were a parcel—she is certainly one of +the most memorable figures in all fiction. And among the most laughable +scenes in all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">{119}</a></span> fiction must certainly be counted those in which in high +dudgeon she cuts short her visit to Glenfern Castle, and—still better, +and indeed unsurpassable—in which the ill-starred spinsters, mistaking +the day, arrive to visit her when they are not expected.</p> + +<p>Nor must it for a moment be supposed that such creations as this and the +Aunts are mere masterpieces of the caricaturist. In Miss Ferrier's best +characters it may almost be said to be a rule that caricature enters +only into the details, and is never allowed to interfere with the main +outline. An accusation far more justly to be brought against the +authoress of this book is that of hard-heartedness, or a defect of +sympathy and even of toleration for her own creations. Susan Ferrier was +an uncompromisingly candid woman, as her interesting account of the +visits paid by her to Sir Walter Scott are enough to show. That her +heart was a kind one we know; but when she took pen in hand it was not +her way to extenuate anything. Neither was she given to view persons or +occurrences through any softening light of imagination or feeling. 'What +a cruel thing is a farce to those engaged in it!' wrote another Scottish +author. But she, having devised a farcically cruel situation, squares +her shoulders and regards its development with a ruthlessness more +proper perhaps to science than to art. Not a touch of compunction has +she for her heroine—who, intolerably selfish and heartless as she is, +is yet but a child and the victim of the harshest circumstance; not a +touch of pity for the pathos and repression of such lives as those of +the Aunts. In a word, tolerance is not her strong point. And, admirable +as it is, her art yet suffers by the limitation of her sympathies. For +one pines for the hundred little humanising touches by virtue of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">{120}</a></span> which +the same characters—living though they be—might have lived with a +fuller and more gracious life. It is stated that Miss Ferrier's +favourite author was La Bruyère, and in such studies as those of Lady +Placid and Mrs Wiseacre he is obviously the model followed. And, though +her best creations surpass those of her master as a living character +will always surpass an abstract type, yet in this, her earliest effort, +she still retains a good deal too much of the frigid intellectual method +of the Frenchman.</p> + +<p>What will, perhaps, more generally be considered a legitimate ground for +the unpleasant task of fault-finding is, however, the extremely +inartistic construction of the book. As we approach the middle, we are +surprised to find the interest shifted to an almost entirely new set of +characters, who belong to a new generation. Thus at a time when Lady +Juliana cannot be much more than eighteen years of age, she ceases to be +prominent in the story, and after the briefest interval we are called on +to follow the fortunes of her twin daughters, who are now nearing that +age. The bridegroom, Douglas, and two of the Aunts disappear altogether +from the book; and this is the more to be regretted because there are +few readers but will infinitely prefer the racy humours of the elder +generation to the insipid long-drawn-out love-affairs of the contrasted +sisters, even when these are more or less successfully enlivened by the +sallies of the shrewd Lady Emily, by the caricature figure of Dr Redgill +the <i>gourmand</i>, and by the absurdities of the literary <i>précieuses</i> of +Bath.</p> + +<p>The success of <i>Marriage</i>, justified by its painting of Scottish manners +and by the figures of Lady Maclaughlan and the spinster aunts, had the +right effect upon the sterling Scottish character of the authoress. It +led her to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">{121}</a></span> try how much better still she could do. Six years elapsed +before the appearance of her next book, which was published in +1824—like its predecessor, anonymously. Indeed secrecy as to her +literary undertakings appears to have been one of the novelist's +strongest desires; and, writing much of <i>The Inheritance</i> at Morningside +House, near Edinburgh—where her father spent the summers—she complains +of the smallness of the house as making concealment very difficult.</p> + +<p>In the endeavour to improve upon her first achievement, Miss Ferrier was +triumphantly successful. 'The new book,' wrote one of Mr Blackwood's +correspondents at the time of its publication, 'is a hundred miles above +<i>Marriage</i>.' Nor does this assertion overshoot the mark; for if the one +is at most a bit of brilliant promise, the other is a superb +performance. Foremost among its advantages must be counted, in place of +the slip-slop of <i>Marriage</i>, an interesting and admirably-compacted +plot, and a vigorous literary style—the latter marked indeed, yet not +marred, by a mannerism of literary quotation. What was shapeless and +redundant in <i>Marriage</i> is here moulded and restrained by exigencies of +the story, with the result that characters well-defined, and skilfully +contrasted and relieved, confront the reader standing boldly and firmly +on their feet.</p> + +<p>Several features of <i>The Inheritance</i> seem to have been suggested by the +celebrated Douglas Cause. The Honourable Thomas St Clair, youngest son +of the Earl of Rossville, has forfeited the countenance of his family by +marrying out of his own rank in life. He settles with his wife in +France, and here in the course of years a succession of deaths places +him in the position of heir-presumptive to the earldom. He announces at +head-quarters<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">{122}</a></span> the important tidings that Mrs St Clair is expecting to +be confined, and having done so, with the Earl's concurrence he and his +wife prepare to return to Scotland. But the confinement takes place, +prematurely, on the journey. A female child is born, after which event +the projected return is indefinitely postponed. So much by way of proem. +The opening of the story shows us Mrs St Clair, now a widow, and her +daughter, Gertrude, a beautiful and blooming maiden, taking up their +abode with the elderly and unmarried Lord Rossville, who recognises the +young lady as heiress to his title and estates. Under his roof, +attention is drawn to a likeness existing between Gertrude and the +portrait of one Lizzie Lundie, a low-born beauty of a bygone day, who +had sat as model for a painting in the Castle. This resemblance is +noticed by more than one person, and on more than one occasion, and +reference to it is generally accompanied by marks of agitation in Mrs St +Clair. Meantime the youthful heiress has won the admiration of two young +men, cousins of her own, who frequent the Castle—the handsome and +elegant Colonel Delmour, a man of fashion and of the world, and the less +showy but far deeper-natured Edward Lyndsay. A singular meeting now +takes place between Mrs St Clair and a stranger named Lewiston, and soon +afterwards it becomes apparent that the latter exercises a great, though +unexplained, power over the lady. The stranger's identity is presently +revealed as that of the husband—long supposed to be dead—of a nurse of +Gertrude's, to whom she had been tenderly attached. At a nocturnal +meeting with Lewiston, at which Mrs St Clair has by entreaty, and by +throwing out vague threats, compelled her daughter to be present, +Lyndsay arrives upon the scene in time to save<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">{123}</a></span> Gertrude from +molestation, and thus earns her gratitude. However Delmour now declares +his passion, which Gertrude returns—with the result that an +understanding is come to between them. But the Earl has other intentions +regarding the disposal of the hand of his heir, which for family and +political reasons he designs to confer upon the Colonel's elder brother, +a colourless man-of-affairs. By asserting her independence in this +matter, Gertrude provokes Lord Rossville's displeasure; but the +unforeseen effect of his lordship's purblind and blundering intervention +is merely to bring to light the fact that Lyndsay also is in love with +his beautiful cousin. The Earl, who has power to dispose of his +possessions as he pleases, is meditating to disinherit Gertrude on +account of her disobedience, when his sudden death leaves her free to +follow her own wishes. In the meantime, Delmour's conduct has supplied +ground for doubting the purity of his motives; whilst Lyndsay, who has +again come to her rescue in a trying interview with Lewiston, has shown +himself throughout a staunch friend to her best interests. But Gertrude +is now Countess of Rossville in her own right; her lover returns to her +side, and she is herself too noble-minded to question his +disinterestedness. Under his influence she launches out into a variety +of extravagant schemes, and going to London, where she becomes the +admired of all admirers, devotes herself wholly to the pleasures of +society, which for a time have rather an injurious effect upon her +character. Lyndsay makes an appeal to her better self, but amid the +excitement of her surroundings his remonstrance passes unheeded. Jaded +by the excesses of fashionable life, at the end of the season she +returns to Rossville,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">{124}</a></span> where the intrusive Lewiston, who has been +thought drowned, now again appears upon the scene, and provoked by her +disdainful treatment divulges the secret that she is the daughter, not +of Mrs St Clair, but of her nurse, and that consequently she has no +title to her present position. Overwhelmed by this intelligence, which +Mrs St Clair's confession confirms, Gertrude loses no time in informing +her lover of the true state of matters, and in so doing reveals the +miserable shallowness of his nature. Delmour's love for the beautiful +and high-spirited girl is genuine; but nameless and without fortune as +she now is, he hesitates to fulfil his engagement towards her. Her love +for him has been of such a different nature that she is well-nigh +broken-hearted by the discovery. But the faithful Lyndsay stands her +friend in need, and the book closes with her reinstatement, long +afterwards, as his wife, in the brilliant position which she has already +wrongly, though innocently, occupied.</p> + +<p>The plot of <i>The Inheritance</i>, of which the above is a sketch, is a +model of its kind, whilst from first to last the conduct of the +narrative is perfect. Indeed the <i>form</i> of the story could not be +improved—a rare merit even in a masterpiece of British fiction; and +though the book is a long one, it contains not a superfluous page. Among +the numerous authors quoted in the course of it are Shakespeare and the +Greek dramatists, and perhaps, without stretching probability too far, +we may assume that the authoress had studied the latter as well as the +former. In any case <i>The Inheritance</i> in its own degree unites principal +characteristics of the Greek and the Shakespearian drama, for the web of +circumstance inexorably woven about the innocent and unconscious heroine +is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">{125}</a></span> entirely in the manner of the first, whilst the indifferent, +life-like alternation of tragic and ludicrous incident in the narrative +is of a piece with Shakespeare's irony. No finer example of the latter +could be cited than the impressive scene in which Lord Rossville, +looking blankly from his window one snowy afternoon, is amazed to see a +hearse approaching the Castle. Out of the vehicle, when it has reached +the door, steps his lordship's pet aversion and the reader's +delight—the undaunted and ubiquitous Miss Pratt. The voluble lady has a +long story to tell of the circumstances which have compelled her to +resort to this unconventional mode of conveyance, whilst the pompous +Earl is scandalised at the general impropriety of the proceedings, and +especially at thought of the hearse of Mr McVitae, the Radical +distiller, putting up for the night at the Castle. However there is no +help for it; nor as it turns out is the visit so ill-timed as had +seemed, for the next morning Lord Rossville is discovered dead upon his +bed.</p> + +<p>But if the book is remarkable for its admirable story, certainly not +less remarkable is it for the extraordinary wealth of character which it +portrays. Probably few 'novels of plot' are so rich in character, few +'novels of character' so strong in plot. It may be that some carping +critic of the ungentle sex will be found to object to Lyndsay and to +Delmour, the contrasted lovers of the heroine, as to 'a woman's men'—to +urge that their demeanour is too consistently emotional, too +demonstrative, to be founded upon any very solid base of character or of +disposition. But supposing (which I am far from granting) that there +were some truth in this, here at any rate all ground even for +hypercriticism must end. And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">{126}</a></span> where in fiction is there a heroine more +charming and more lovable than Gertrude St Clair—gentle yet +high-spirited as she is, natural, and the soul of truth? Her pretended +mother—ambitious and worldly-minded, violent, embittered by the slights +and mortifications of her youth and bent vindictively upon +retaliation—rises to the dignity of tragedy. Then we have the +inimitable rattle and busybody, Miss Pratt, at home everywhere except in +her own house, and incessantly referring to the sayings and doings of an +invisible 'Anthony Whyte'—a very masterpiece of humorous delineation; +and old Adam Ramsay, the cross-grained, misanthropic, Indian uncle, who +yet compels our sympathy by his sentimental attachment to the home of +his boyhood, and his constancy to the memory of his ill-starred love. +Miss Bell Black, afterwards Mrs Major Waddell, is delightful in her +perfect inanity and fatuity; and though her creator may not yet have +learned to suffer fools gladly, she certainly has by this time mastered +the art of portraying 'as though she loved' them. The Earl of Rossville, +puffed up by a sense of his own importance, long-winded, sesquepedalian +and null; Miss Lilly, the poetess, her Cockney lover and her brothers; +gentle Anne Black; Miss Becky Duguid, the accommodating poor relation; +Mrs Fairbairn, the materfamilias; and the peasant-woman whose misguided +foresight leads her to prepare betimes her ailing husband's +dead-clothes,—all of them are admirable, and all bear evidence of being +freshly observed from the life. But the writer has learnt the lesson of +substituting poetic for local truth; and if any portraits appear in this +gallery—and it is stated that Adam Ramsay to some extent represents the +authoress's father—they are such as can no longer rightly give offence +to anyone.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">{127}</a></span> Miss Ferrier had reached middle life when she wrote <i>The +Inheritance</i>, and perhaps the laughter which it provokes is less +boisterous than that aroused by the first essays of her youth. But for a +scene of high comedy—to select one from many—the first conversation of +Miss Pratt and Uncle Adam would certainly be difficult to surpass. +Finally, we have abundant evidence that in all that she wrote our +authoress was actuated by a genuine desire for the moral and religious +welfare of her reader; but in comparison to that of <i>Marriage</i>, her +<i>tone</i> in this book is as is the influence of a well-guided life to a +sententious homily delivered from a pulpit. In one word, there is no +single point in her art in which she has not risen from what is crude +and tentative to what is finished and masterly.</p> + +<p>As it well deserved to be, <i>The Inheritance</i> was a great success, and +amongst those from whom it elicited warm commendation the names of +Jeffrey and Sir Walter Scott may be particularised. Some of the chief +comic actors of the day wished to have it produced upon the stage, with +which object the manager of Covent Garden Theatre applied to Mrs Gore, +the novelist, for a dramatic version of the story. But that lady's +intentions were anticipated by one Fitzball, a purveyor of transpontine +wares in the kind, to whose unfitness for his task the complete failure +of the play, when it came to be produced, may probably be ascribed. For +in its strong, well-developed plot, and diversified characterisation, +the story possesses in a high degree the chief requisites of a +successful stage-play. <i>The Inheritance</i> has also the distinction of +having furnished to Tennyson the outline of his beautiful ballad of +<i>Lady Clare</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">{128}</a></span></p> + +<p>Miss Ferrier was a very careful craftswoman—a fact to which much of her +success has been attributed—and it was not until 1831 that her next +book, <i>Destiny</i>, appeared. Much of it was written at Stirling Castle, +while she was on a visit to the wife of the Governor of the garrison. +The new novel was dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, to whom the authoress +had good reason to feel obliged, for it was largely in consequence of +his skilful bargaining that she had received for it the large sum of +£1700 from Cadell. The prices paid to her by Blackwood for her two +previous books had been £150 and £1000 respectively.</p> + +<p>As <i>The Inheritance</i> represents the meridian of the writer's powers, so +<i>Destiny</i> represents their decline—not because there are not some as +good things, or very nearly as good things, in the latter as in the +former, but because the whole is very much less good. The construction +of <i>Destiny</i> is loose and inartificial, and almost from the outset the +want of a strong frame-work which shall hold the contents together and +keep them in place makes itself felt. Properly speaking, there are two +stories in the story,—namely, that which centres in the disposal of the +Inch Orran property and the adventures of Ronald Malcolm, and that which +concerns itself with the development of the relations between Edith and +her recalcitrant lover. In itself of course this would be no defect, but +instead of being interwoven, or subordinated one to the other, the two +stories are allowed to run parallel and distinct until near the end of +the book. Thus their interest is dissipated—an effect which diffuseness +of treatment materially increases. Idle pages and straggling incidents +abound, and in fact the sense of form which was so conspicuous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">{129}</a></span> in <i>The +Inheritance</i> is in <i>Destiny</i> conspicuous only by absence.</p> + +<p>If we judge it as an essay in character-painting, rather than as a +story, no doubt the novel comes off better. Again, as in <i>The +Inheritance</i>, we have a gallery of masterly portraits—though this time +the collection is smaller, and the paintings less highly-finished; and +again we feel that these portraits are drawn, not from some conventional +limbo of the novelist's, but from observation of life itself, backed up +by true imagination. Among the group, the Reverend Duncan M'Dow bears +off the palm from all competitors. This insufferable person, +imperturbable in his own conceit—with his horse-laugh over his own +jocularity, his grossness of manners, his greed for 'augmentation,' and +his wounded self-love mingling with overweening vanity at the end of the +book—is a piece of life itself, and the description of his +luncheon-party is as good as anything accomplished by the authoress. The +incarnation of fashionable selfishness and frivolity in the person of +Lady Elizabeth Malcolm runs him close; but she is probably a less +entirely original creation than the Minister—not that she is in any +sense a copy, but that the same sort of model has been oftener studied. +If we seek for something pleasanter to contemplate, the simple +warm-hearted Molly Macauley, the dreamer of dreams, and the devoted +adherent of the Chief who snubs her, is an endearing figure. The Chief +himself, who loves good eating, and does not disdain to truckle to his +rich childless kinsman, is a conspicuous example of materialisation and +degeneracy, though the dotage of his 'debilitated mind and despotic +temper' becomes almost as tiresome to the reader as it became to Edith +and Sir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">{130}</a></span> Reginald. The key to the character of Benbowie, Glenroy's echo, +is not quite apparent, and we should have liked to be assured (as we +believe) that it was mere ineptitude, and not meanness, which caused him +to disappear so hastily on an important occasion when money was +required, and to return bringing it with him when it could no longer be +of use. The vignettes of Inch Orran, the 'particular man,' and his wife, +also stand out in the memory, as does that of the odious Madame Latour. +And from this it will be seen that, with one or two exceptions, the more +disagreeable personages of the book remain the most in evidence, for the +Conways and the family of Captain Malcolm fade into insignificance +beside those whose names are enumerated above. And, though the crux is +an old one, where the high purpose of the writer is so much insisted on, +perhaps it may not be unfair to enquire how far exactly she can be held +to succeed in her aims, when even the regenerate reader is ill at ease +in the company of her good characters and enjoys himself among her awful +examples. The artificiality of some of its dialogues and the triteness +of some of its reflections are further symptoms of the enervation which +has begun to invade the book.</p> + +<p>Miss Ferrier's history is the history of her books, and to these remarks +upon her final literary production little need be added. Her mother +being dead, and her three sisters married, it fell to her lot to keep +house for her father, to whom she was devotedly attached, and with him +she continued to reside until his death in January 1829. Her life, which +was divided between Morningside House and Edinburgh, and varied by +occasional visits to her sisters, is described as a very quiet one, and +if we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">{131}</a></span> may accept the Adam Ramsay of <i>The Inheritance</i> as at all a close +portrait of Mr Ferrier, it must have had its grim side too. She had long +suffered from her eyes, and in 1830 she paid her final visit to London, +in order to consult an oculist. From his treatment, however, she seems +to have derived little benefit; her eyesight failed, and it became +necessary for her to spend much of her time in a darkened room; and +though she still continued occasionally to receive a few friends at tea +in the evening, her life from henceforth was a very retired one. She +died in Edinburgh, on the 5th November 1854, at the house of her +brother, Mr Walter Ferrier, and was interred in St Cuthbert's +Churchyard.</p> + +<p>Her dislike of publicity characterized her to the last. It was not until +1851, when a new edition of her works was published, that she consented +to allow her name to appear upon the title-page, whilst her +unwillingness to be made the subject of a biography led her to destroy +all letters which might have been used for such a purpose, and in +particular a correspondence with one of her sisters, which contained +much biographical matter. The records of her life are consequently few, +but the following testimony of an intimate friend is interesting:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The wonderful vivacity she maintained in the midst of darkness and +pain for so many years, the humour, wit, and honesty of her +character, as well as the Christian submission with which she bore +her great privation and general discomfort, when not suffering acute +pain, made everyone who knew her desirous to alleviate the +tediousness of her days; and I used to read a great deal to her at +one time, and I never left her darkened chamber without feeling that +I had gained something better than the book we might be reading, +from her quick perception of its faults and its beauties, and her +unmerciful remarks on all that was mean or unworthy in conduct or +expression.'</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">{132}</a></span></p> + +<p>Still more interesting is the sentence in Scott's diary which describes +her as 'A gifted personage, having, besides her great talents, +conversation the least <i>exigeante</i> of any author-female, at least, whom +I have ever seen among the long list I have encountered; simple, full of +humour, and exceedingly ready at repartee, and all this without the +least affectation of the blue-stocking.' Of her considerate kindness to +the author of <i>Waverley</i>, then in failing health, on the occasion of her +last visit to Abbotsford, Lockhart gives this pleasing description:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'To assist in amusing him in the hours which he spent out of his +study, and especially that he might make these hours more frequent, +his daughter had invited his friend the authoress of <i>Marriage</i> to +come out to Abbotsford; and her coming was serviceable. For she knew +and loved him well, and she had seen enough of affliction akin to +his to be well skilled in dealing with it. She could not be an hour +in his company without observing what filled his children with more +sorrow than all the rest of the case. He would begin a story as +gaily as ever, and go on, in spite of the hesitation in his speech, +to tell it with highly picturesque effect; but before he reached the +point, it would seem as if some internal spring had given way. He +paused and gazed around him with the blank anxiety of look that a +blind man has when he has dropped his staff. Unthinking friends +sometimes gave him the catchword abruptly. I noticed the delicacy of +Miss Ferrier on such occasions. Her sight was bad, and she took care +not to use her glasses when he was speaking, and she affected also +to be troubled with deafness, and would say, "Well, I am getting as +dull as a post, I have not heard a word since you said so and so," +being sure to mention a circumstance behind that at which he had +really halted. He then took up the thread with his habitual smile of +courtesy, as if forgetting his case entirely in the consideration of +the lady's infirmity.'</p></div> + +<p>In conclusion, if Miss Ferrier's work lacks the sweetness and delicacy +of Miss Austin's, it has at its best a strength to which her English +sister's makes no pretension. The portraits of the former are <i>bitten +in</i> with a powerful acid unknown in the chemistry of the latter.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">{133}</a></span> But if +she was sometimes <i>downright</i> to the verge of cruelty, Miss Ferrier's +view of life was a sound one. She strikes unsparingly at the rawness and +self-sufficiency which are characteristic defects of such large numbers +of our countrymen; yet she remains without rival as a painter of +Scottish society, and one at least of her novels deserves to rank with +the masterpieces of British fiction.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">{134}</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MICHAEL_SCOTT" id="MICHAEL_SCOTT"></a>MICHAEL SCOTT</h2> + + +<p>There used to be a tradition at Cambridge to the effect that an +undergraduate, being called on in examination to give some account of +John the Baptist, returned the answer, 'Little or nothing is known of +this extraordinary man,'—a reply which probably did not go far enough +to satisfy the examiner. Scarcely more satisfying, however, must be the +response of the biographer who is called on to gratify natural curiosity +regarding the author of <i>Tom Cringle's Log</i>—scarcely more satisfying, +though with apparently so much less of excuse. For it is only a little +over sixty years since the death of Michael Scott. Neither was his a +case of posthumous reputation, or of rehabilitation after long neglect, +which might have accounted for the obscuring of biographical detail—his +work, though it has lost nothing of popularity, or certainly of +readableness in the interim, having been received with acclamation on +its first appearance. And yet, after diligent and eager enquiry, the +present writer finds himself forced to acknowledge that all but a meagre +outline of the facts of Scott's life is lost. This is the more +remarkable in that he was obviously no bookworm or literary recluse, and +that all who know his writings will feel instinctively that one so +characterised by humour and the love of good company—to say nothing of +practical joking—should have strewn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">{135}</a></span> anecdote thick behind him wherever +he went. But if this was so, his traces have been most effectually +expunged. The sort of find which now rewards, or mocks, his would-be +biographer is, for example, such a tradition as that which records that +he was fond of whisky punch—a solitary survival in the mind of one who +remembers him in Glasgow, but a trait which, considering the times and +the society in which Scott lived, can scarcely be held as individual. +This, however, is not the worst. The writer has reason to believe that +the glorious sea masterpiece with which Scott's name is chiefly +associated was written, or at least partly written, in a house now +belonging to himself—namely, the secluded cottage of Birseslees, +situated on the banks of Ale, in Roxburghshire. Such, at least, is the +tradition which he received from his father, one constitutionally averse +to random statement, who had himself occupied the cottage within ten +years of Scott's decease, and who, as an enthusiastic yachtsman, +familiar with the West Indies, had special reasons for being interested +in his writings. Such testimony—as Mr Mowbray Morris, Scott's +biographer, remarks—is at least as good as that on which rest most of +the statements regarding his life, and no apology is made for adducing +it here. Yet, in despite of this testimony, a careful search, recently +conducted among the oldest inhabitants of the neighbourhood, has failed +to bring to light any but the vaguest and most uncertain references to +the author of the <i>Log</i>. Under these conditions, what is left for a +biographer to do? He has no choice but to content himself with a +recapitulation of the few facts already current. One person, indeed, +there is in whose power it almost certainly lies, by enlightening our +ignorance, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">{136}</a></span> gratify our by no means unkindly curiosity; but it is +generally understood that, for reasons which we have no right to +challenge, and which at least in no wise concern the fair fame of the +author, that person's lips are sealed. It therefore now only remains to +consider whether the darkness which surrounds Scott's life is the result +of intention or of accident, and in support of the former conclusion it +may be stated that, among men-of-letters of the time, taking their cue +from the author of <i>Waverley</i>, and the practice of Maga, there existed +an undoubted taste for mystification; whilst that the younger Scott +shared in it is proved by the facts that his true name was never known +to his publisher otherwise than by hearsay, and that in his own family +circle and that of his immediate acquaintances the identity of Tom +Cringle was unknown. One suggestion is that these measures were taken +from a prudential point of view, in the interest of his business as a +merchant, which might possibly have suffered had it been known to +receive but divided attention. But as he avoided publicity in +authorship, he may also have chosen to do so in other things. Otherwise, +if internal evidence counts for anything, we should certainly suppose +him to have been the least self-conscious of men, and one of the last in +the world to trouble his head—unless he did it as a joke—as to what +might be known, or not known, about himself.</p> + +<p>Under existing circumstances, to write the life of Scott is to reproduce +the narrative of Mr Mowbray Morris. Born at Cowlairs, near Glasgow, on +the 30th October 1789, he was his father's fifth and youngest son. To +that father, Allan Scott by name, the estate of Cowlairs had come from +an elder brother, Robert, described as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">{137}</a></span> Glasgow merchant of good +family, who had purchased it in 1778,—at which time the house stood in +the country, though its site has long since been swallowed up by the +encroachments of the town. Young Scott was sent first to the Grammar +School, as the High School of Glasgow was then called, and afterwards to +the University, where he matriculated when just twelve years of age. +Aird states that he was at school with John Wilson. At the University he +remained four years, during the latter part of which he had as his +inseparable companion the future author of <i>Cyril Thornton</i>, a +fellow-student of tastes akin to his own, who has furnished in that +novel a picture of the college life of the time. At the University Scott +does not appear to have gained distinction. Perhaps, like many another +author in embryo, he preferred miscellaneous reading to the college +course; at any rate, the few literary allusions scattered over the pages +of his books are generally apt and appreciative. However his taste seems +to have been for active life, spiced if possible by adventure, and +accordingly, in 1806, we find him leaving Scotland for the West Indies.</p> + +<p>At this point Mr Morris, our authority, makes a digression in order to +describe the magnitude and antiquity of the Clyde shipping-trade, and +the effect exercised upon it by the revolt of our American colonies, +which, by diverting it from Virginia to the West Indies, had changed its +staple from tobacco to sugar. It happened that a family friend of the +Scotts, Bogle by name—a Glasgow merchant and the descendant of Glasgow +merchants—had at that time a nephew resident in Jamaica, where he was +occupied as an estate-agent, and on his own account as a trader. To the +care of this gentleman young Scott is now supposed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">{138}</a></span> to have been +consigned, that he might be taught an estate-agent's duties. The agent's +name was George William Hamilton, and one feels sure that no admirer of +the <i>Log</i> will hear with indifference that in him Scott found the +original of the most individual of his many droll planter portraits—the +portrait of Aaron Bang.</p> + +<p>After profiting for three or four years by the instructions of Hamilton, +who combined with his humorous propensities a very decided talent for +business, in the year 1810 Scott entered a mercantile house at Kingston, +in the employment of which he continued for seven years more. 'These +years,' says Mr Morris, 'were the making of the <i>Log</i>. His business, +coupled with Hamilton's friendship, not only brought him into contact +with every phase of society in Jamaica, but sent him on frequent voyages +among the islands and to the Spanish Main; and certainly few travellers +can have carried a more curious pair of eyes with them than Michael +Scott, or entered more heartily into the spirit of the passing hour.' In +1817 he returned to Scotland, and in the year following married +Margaret, daughter of the Mr Bogle previously referred to, and +consequently first cousin to Hamilton. He was soon back in Jamaica, +however, and it was presumably at this time that he occupied the +house—situated high up among the Blue Mountains, in midst of some of +the finest scenery in the world—which is still shown to visitors as +his. He remained in Jamaica till 1822, when he finally returned to his +native land to start business on his own account. This he seems to have +combined with a share in other mercantile concerns, being at the time of +his death a partner in a commission-house in Glasgow, as well as in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">{139}</a></span> a +Scottish commercial house in Maracaybo, on the Spanish Main.</p> + +<p>It was in 1829 that he first appeared as an author, in which year—again +to quote Mr Morris—'the <i>Log</i> began to make its appearance in +Blackwood's Magazine as a disconnected series of sketches, published +intermittently as the author supplied them, or as the editor found it +convenient to print them. The first five, for instance, appeared in +September and November, 1829, and in June, July and October, 1830, under +the titles of "A Scene off Bermuda," "The Cruise of H.M.S. <i>Torch</i>," +"Heat and Thirst—a Scene in Jamaica," "Davy Jones and the Yankee +Privateer," and the "Quenching of the <i>Torch</i>"; and these five papers +now constitute the third chapter.' But shrewd Mr Blackwood, who greatly +admired the sketches, persuaded the author to give them some sort of +connecting link, 'which, without binding him to the strict rules of +narrative composition, would add a strain of personal and continuous +interest in the movement of the story. The young midshipman accordingly +began to cut a more conspicuous figure; and in July, 1832, the title of +"Tom Cringle's Log" was prefixed to what is now the eighth, but was then +called the eleventh chapter. Henceforward the <i>Log</i> proceeded regularly +each month, with but one intermission, to its conclusion in August, +1833'; and a few months later, after some final touches, it made its +appearance as a book. Its success was immediate. It was hailed with +applause in particular by Coleridge, Christopher North, and Albany +Fonblanque—the first-named of whom pronounced it 'most excellent.' +Lockhart in the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, in an article on 'Monk' Lewis's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">{140}</a></span> +West Indian travels, also speaks of it as the most brilliant series of +magazine papers of the time; whilst the <i>Scottish Literary Gazette</i> for +November 1833 concludes a glowing notice by adjuring the writer, +whatever he may undertake next, to remember that he is the author of +<i>Tom Cringle's Log</i>.</p> + +<p>Its successor, <i>The Cruise of the Midge</i>, made a more regular progress, +from its commencement in March 1834, to its conclusion in June of the +following year, though it also required some final overhauling before +its appearance as a volume. These two books constitute the literary +output of their author, and the completion of the <i>Cruise of the Midge</i> +brings us within a short distance of his death, which occurred at his +house in Glasgow<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> on the 7th November 1835, when he had just completed +his forty-sixth year. A large family survived to mourn his loss. He is +buried in the Necropolis, where an unpretending monument marks his +resting-place and that of his wife and several of their children. In the +inscription which it bears, no allusion whatever is made to his literary +achievements. I have been told that in private life Scott was a quiet +easy-going man, of modest and retiring disposition, and also, on the +authority of an old lady who remembers his death, that great was the +surprise in Glasgow when it became known that he had been the author of +thrilling tales of adventure by sea and land. It is said, by the way, +that certain of Cringle's adventures were drawn from the experiences of +a Captain Hobson, father of the Arctic explorer of that name, who when a +lieutenant, about the year 1821, was engaged in putting down piracy in +the West Indies. The character<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">{141}</a></span> of Paul Gelid can likewise be traced to +an original.</p> + +<p>Here ends what is to be known about Scott's life, and if it is with +regret that we accept this fact as inevitable, there is at least a +certain consolation to be derived from reflecting that, in this prying +age, at least one gallant literary figure stands secure from the +mishandling of meddlers. But—the author himself having evaded the +biographer—it is scarcely less remarkable that the popularity of his +works seems to have won them no adequate eulogy. For, so far as I know, +we may search in vain among critical essays for an appreciation of these +masterpieces. Possibly their character as books of adventure relegated +to the boys' shelf may be in part accountable for this; whilst doubtless +the frequent roughness and homeliness of their style—whether casual, or +introduced for the purpose of fitting the speech to the speaker—may +have scared off many such pedants and wiseacres as have yet to learn +that mere <i>correctness</i> is one of the very humblest of literary +qualities, or at least that genius—so it <i>be</i> genius—is like King +Sigismund, above the grammar-books. At an age when most boys are still +puzzling over syntax and orthography, Mr Thomas Cringle and Lieutenant +Benjamin Brail had already brought stout hearts and ready hands to bear +upon the work of men, and it is quite true that in the records of their +experiences not only do we find foreigners talking their own languages +very imperfectly, but also the authors themselves from time to time +making use of faulty constructions and of novel spelling. Now had their +business been mainly an affair of words and phrases, this had been +serious indeed; but as, instead, it happens to be one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">{142}</a></span> thoughts, +feelings, sensations, and the art of communicating them, the case is +very different. And we may add that had any man composed ten times as +loosely as Cringle sometimes chose to do, whilst still retaining +Cringle's power to make us see and feel with him, that man had still +remained a most remarkable writer. However already more than enough has +been said on the subject of these few and very trifling errors, which in +fact interfere not at all with a style which is usually clear, nervous +and straightforward.</p> + +<p>As has been already indicated, Scott's principal literary gift lay in +his power of presentation—his power, that is, of putting simply, +sufficingly, and without redundancy, a scene or person before the +reader, so that he shall see the one and hear the other speak. From the +days of Homer to those of the world-wide success of the youngest of our +distinguished novelists, this gift has been recognised as quintessential +in the story-teller. In the two broad classes of temperaments, it is +wont to assume two separate forms, which differ from one another—in +class-room terms—as the objective from the subjective. Of the latter of +these—by virtue of which a reader is compelled so completely to +identify himself with scenes depicted that he not only seems to witness +them, but actually for the time being to participate and play the +leading part in them—the works of Currer Bell, and perhaps especially +<i>Villette</i>, the most highly-finished of her novels, afford notable +examples. The converse side of the gift is displayed by the virile and +active temperament of Michael Scott; and, of this particular quality, +many a writer of far higher reputation has possessed greatly less than +he. In illustration of this, the example of his greater namesake may be +quoted, for with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">{143}</a></span> all his many other excellences, Sir Walter's pictorial +or mimetic effects are seldom, or never, perfectly 'clean'—direct, and +free from surplusage or alloy. Michael Scott's, on the other hand, are +about as direct as it is possible to be. Illustrations might be quoted +at will, for if there is one thing more surprising than the gift itself, +it is the lavish use made of it by its possessor on page after page of +his writings. The following characteristic scene may serve as an +example, and it must be borne in mind that all Scott's fine scenes are +incidental: he never, so to speak, makes a point of them.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'It was eleven o'clock in the forenoon, a fine clear breezy day, +fresh and pleasant, sometimes cloudy overhead, but always breaking +away again, with a bit of a sneezer, and a small shower. As the sun +rose there were indications of squalls in the north-eastern quarter, +and about noon one of them was whitening to windward. So "hands by +the top-gallant clew-lines" was the word, and we were all standing +by to shorten sail, when the Commodore came to the wind as sharp and +suddenly as if he had anchored; but on a second look, I saw his +sheets were let fly. The wind, ever since noon, had been blowing in +heavy squalls, with appalling lulls between them. One of these gusts +had been so violent as to bury in the sea the lee-guns in the waist, +although the brig had nothing set but her close-reefed +main-top-sail, and reefed foresail. It was now spending its fury, +and she was beginning to roll heavily, when, with a suddenness +almost incredible to one unacquainted with these latitudes, the veil +of mist that had hung to windward the whole day was rent and drawn +aside, and the red and level rays of the setting sun flashed at +once, through a long arch of glowing clouds, on the black hull and +tall spars of his Britannic Majesty's sloop, <i>Torch</i>. And, true +enough, we were not the only spectators of this gloomy splendour; +for, right in the wake of the moonlike sun, now half sunk in the +sea, at the distance of a mile or more, lay a long warlike-looking +craft, apparently a frigate or heavy corvette, rolling heavily and +silently in the trough of the sea, with her masts, yards, and the +scanty sail she had set, in strong relief against the glorious +horizon.'</p></div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">{144}</a></span></p> + +<p>Or this—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>'The anchorage was one unbroken mirror, except where its glass-like +surface was shivered into sparkling ripples by the gambols of a +skipjack, or the flashing stoop of his enemy the pelican; and the +reflection of the vessel was so clear and steady, that at the +distance of a cable's length you could not distinguish the +water-line, nor tell where the substance ended and shadow began, +until the casual dashing of a bucket overboard for a few moments +broke up the phantom ship; but the wavering fragments soon reunited, +and she again floated double, like the swan of the poet. The heat +was so intense, that the iron stancheons of the awning could not be +grasped with the hand, and where the decks were not screened by it, +the pitch boiled out from the seams. The swell rolled in from the +offing in long shining undulations, like a sea of quicksilver, +whilst every now and then a flying-fish would spark out from the +unruffled bosom of the heaving water, and shoot away like a silver +arrow, until it dropped with a flash into the sea again. There was +not a cloud in the heavens, but a quivering blue haze hung over the +land, through which the white sugar-works and overseers' houses on +the distant estates appeared to twinkle like objects seen through a +thin smoke, whilst each of the tall stems of the cocoa-nut trees on +the beach, when looked at steadfastly, seemed to be turning round +with a small spiral motion, like so many endless screws. There was a +dreamy indistinctness about the outlines of the hills, even in the +immediate vicinity, which increased as they receded, until the Blue +Mountains in the horizon melted into sky. The crew were listlessly +spinning oakum, and mending sails, under the shade of the awning; +the only exceptions to the general languor were John Crow, the +black, and Jacko the monkey. The former (who was an <i>improvisatore</i> +of a rough stamp) sat out on the bowsprit, through choice, beyond +the shade of the canvas, without hat or shirt, like a bronze bust, +busy with his task, whatever that might be, singing at the top of +his pipe, and between whiles confabulating with his hairy ally, as +if he had been a messmate. The monkey was hanging by the tail from +the dolphin-striker, admiring what John Crow called "his own dam +ogly face in the water."</p> + +<p>'Tail like yours would be good ting for a sailor, Jacko; it would +leave his two hands free aloft—more use, more hornament, too, I'm +sure, den de piece of greasy junk dat hangs from de captain's +taffril.—Now I shall sing to you, how dat Corromantee rascal, my +fader, was sell me on de Gold Coast<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">{145}</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'"Two red nightcap, one long knife,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All him get for Quacko,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For gun next day him sell him wife—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">You tink dat good song, Jacko?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>'"Chocko, chocko," chattered the monkey, as if in answer.</p> + +<p>'"Ah, you tink so—sensible hominal!—What is dat! shark?—Jacko, +come up, sir: don't you see dat big shovel-nosed fis looking at you? +Pull your hand out of the water—Garamighty!"</p> + +<p>'The negro threw himself on the gammoning of the bowsprit to take +hold of the poor ape, who, mistaking his kind intention, and +ignorant of his danger, shrunk from him, lost his hold, and fell +into the sea. The shark instantly sank to have a run, then dashed at +his prey, raising his snout over him, and shooting his head and +shoulders three or four feet out of the water, with poor Jacko +shrieking in his jaws, whilst his small bones crackled and crunched +under the monster's triple row of teeth.'</p></div> + +<p>To this talent for presentation, by a most fortunate coincidence, +Scott's experience enabled him to add a command of rich and rare +material: his subject-matter was quite worthy of the powers which he +brought to bear upon it. Indeed, few literary men have been more +favoured by time and place. For, letting alone the fact that the West +Indies were in those days virgin soil to the romance-writer, letting +alone the glorious opportunities afforded by a familiarity with Nature +in the tropics, studied in storm and calm, by land and sea—and +especially to a man of Scott's taste for strong effects, one gifted with +his eye for atmosphere, whose genius itself has something of tropical +grandeur and luxuriance, were these opportunities valuable,—letting +alone, also, the rich and varied social order amid which he moved—its +quaint and original types of planter and seaman, the picturesqueness of +its desperadoes, and the naïveté of its coloured people—Scott's sojourn +in the islands was timed at a particularly stirring epoch in their +history.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">{146}</a></span> Warfare, smuggling and piracy, slavery and the suppression of +the slave-trade were being carried on before his eyes; and it is even +suggested that such scenes as the boarding of the <i>Wave</i>, the +examination of Job Rumble-tithump, and the trial and execution of the +pirates, may very probably have had their foundation in things actually +witnessed by the writer. Now I suppose that I am not singular, and that +like myself many genuine lovers of romance delight to cherish the belief +that what they are reading, if not actually true, is at least in some +way related to the author's experience. In this respect Scott satisfies +us perfectly. And herein lies his immense advantage over other +competitors in the same field. For in reading, for instance (admirable +as they are), the pirate scenes of the <i>Master of Ballantrae</i>, we cannot +but miss this sense,—so that whilst we hear with bated breath of bloody +deeds and hairbreadth 'scapes, we are haunted all the while by an uneasy +feeling that this is all but a most brilliantly executed <i>fantasia</i>, or +variation, upon documents.</p> + +<p>Granting, then, that rarely if ever have more brilliant pictures of more +interesting incidents been more lavishly set before a reader than in the +pages of <i>Tom Cringle's Log</i>, we are impelled to enquire what are the +corresponding weaknesses which have debarred the author from taking the +highest rank as a writer. The answer is not far to seek; it is a defect +of constructive power. If he possessed much genius, Michael Scott had +but little art. The effect of his fine pictures is not cumulative; each +is alike revealed, as it were, by a powerful flash, and the result is +that they obliterate one another. For it is surely needless to point out +that every work of high artistic achievement is a whole, and that in +that whole, and in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">{147}</a></span> relation to that whole, each part has a value +greatly exceeding its value when considered separately. But in Scott's +stories this is not so. Remove any one incident from one of his stories, +and the reader will be the poorer by the loss of an interesting +incident, and by no more. And so, with injury only of the same kind, his +books might be extended or curtailed, whilst their incidents might be +transposed without injury at all. I am aware that to write in this +somewhat heavily academic style of a writer than whom no man of equal +gifts made ever less pretention, may be to incur the imputation of +taking too high a ground, and to draw down criticism upon the critic's +head. I can only reply that the extreme excellence, within their own +limits, of Scott's literary achievements has provoked me to it, and that +had his works shown less surprising merit they should have been treated +in a lighter vein.</p> + +<p>The same neglect of constructive power which strikes us in the conduct +of the tales is apparent in the treatment of the characters. It is the +practice of masters of characterisation to make their characters, so to +speak, <i>turn round</i> before the reader, so that, ere the end of the book +is reached, no aspect of them shall have been left unseen. But with +Scott one aspect is exhibited repeatedly, and thus our knowledge is +circumscribed. That the characters live we feel assured, but with one or +two such exceptions as Aaron and Obed, it is as members of a class that +we recognise them, not as <i>individuals</i>, whilst again and again as we +read we are compelled to turn back would we distinguish from his fellows +any particular one among the quaintly-named officers and seamen.</p> + +<p>In female portraiture Scott attempts but little, in which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">{148}</a></span> he is +probably well-advised. For though Cringle's sweetheart is certainly a +pleasing sketch enough, in his more ambitious and quasi-Byronic +flights—the delineation of the pirate's leman or the bride of +Adderfang—the author for the moment leaves nature behind him, and +consequently gives us almost the only passages in his books which do not +ring true. These passages may perhaps be held to justify the +condemnation of Captain Marryat, who pronounced him melodramatic. +But—despite the strong nature of the fare which he +provides—melodramatic, except in such passages, he certainly is not. +For to describe thrilling situations, with the eye not fixed upon the +situations themselves but intent on their <i>effect</i>, is melodrama in the +true sense; and of this the genial author of <i>The Pirate and Three +Cutters</i> himself supplies some choice examples.</p> + +<p>It strikes a reader as strange that the occasion of Cringle's visit to +Carthagena evokes no allusion to Smollett, for it is with Smollett and +Marryat that we most naturally think of comparing Cringle's creator. +Michael Scott does not rise to the Cervantic heights of humour of the +former; but few, indeed, are the writers who have done this. Nor, of +course, has he Smollett's style; though, on the other side of the +account, with thankfulness we acknowledge that his page is quite free +from Smollett's filth and coarseness. Marryat also possessed more of the +gifts of the novelist than Scott, or at least had greater opportunities +of showing them. But there is one point, and that a most telling one, in +which Scott has immeasurably the advantage of the others—he comes far +<i>nearer to the reader</i> than either of them. Of course his easy and +homely style, his use of the first person, his occasional<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">{149}</a></span> confidential +digressions, are means employed towards this end, but equally of course +the secret of his success lies in his personality. Personality, or, in +other words, genius it is which gives him his power over the reader—a +power which makes even the refractory and fastidious to follow him, as a +dog follows its master. Constitutionally a reader may have small relish +for farce, and a positive distaste for horse-play; and yet when Scott is +in the mood for either, the reader will become so too. And in a higher +and sweeter kind of humour, his power is equally in proportion to the +demand of the occasion—in support of which I can cite no better +evidence than the delightful scenes in which the sailors of the <i>Midge</i> +seek to resuscitate the apparently drowned baby boy, afterwards +nicknamed Dicky Phantom; and in which their joy is expressed when he +gives signs of life; with Dogvane's mission to the officer in command to +plead on behalf of his mess-mates for the custody of the child (which +shall replace in their affections a parrot blown away in a gale, a +monkey washed overboard, and a cat which has died of cold) and the +subsequent scenes in which, with a comical shamefaced roundaboutness, +one after another, to the admiral himself, puts in his claim for the +care of the babe. Scenes more winningly human than these would, I think, +be far to seek. In equal degree does this beloved writer hold the key to +our manlier enthusiasms. Far distant be the day when amongst +generous-minded boys such books as his shall lose their popularity, for +it is by these that the best lessons of our history are enforced. It has +been said of the playwright Shakespeare that his works are proof that he +had it in him to strike a stout blow in a good cause. The spirit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">{150}</a></span> of +Agincourt was not found wanting at Trafalgar, and the same may be said +with truth of the Glasgow merchant, Scott. The voice of Britain's +greatness itself speaks in his books, and as we read them we seem +brought nearer to the spirit of Drake or of Dundonald.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, Scott's stories have here been considered together, for +though the <i>Log</i> is on the whole justly the favourite of the two, in +general characteristics they are almost identical. Quite towards the +close, both books display some slight tendency to 'drag,' but in this +respect the <i>Cruise</i> is the worse transgressor. It is also the more +loosely put together, and this despite the fact that in the relations +subsisting between Lennox and Adderfang, and the mystery which surrounds +young De Walden, the author has obviously been at pains to sustain +interest by something in the nature of a plot. Again, if he does not +repeat himself in the <i>Cruise</i>, Scott at least does not steer quite +clear of all danger of doing so; for, in addition to the fact that the +general pattern of the two tales is the same, several incidents of the +latter have counterparts in the former. And yet, on the whole, such fine +books are they both that to criticise either is deservedly to incur the +imputation of being spoiled with good things.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">{151}</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THOMAS_HAMILTON" id="THOMAS_HAMILTON"></a>THOMAS HAMILTON</h2> + + +<p>The statement—somewhat disquieting to the professed littérateur—that +almost any man may if he choose write one good book in a life-time, +finds something like confirmation in the case of Thomas Hamilton. Not +primarily a writer, and not gifted by nature with any very remarkable +talent or grace of the pen, he yet contrived to produce a book for which +a few transcripts of military life in peace and war, a few pictures of +travel, perhaps a portrait or two drawn from the life, have sufficed to +preserve, after seventy years, a portion of the favour with which it was +greeted on its first appearance. The materials for a sketch of his +career are scanty, but blanks in the narrative may to some extent be +filled in from a perusal of <i>Cyril Thornton</i>.</p> + +<p>Born in the year 1789, he was the younger son of William Hamilton, +Professor of Anatomy and Botany in the University of Glasgow, his elder +brother becoming in time Sir William Hamilton, the celebrated +metaphysician and intellectual luminary of Edinburgh. He was put to +school in the south of England, and about the year 1803 entered the +Glasgow University, where he studied for three winters, giving evidence, +as his brother has borne witness, of ability rather than of application. +His taste for a military life was at first opposed, but having satisfied +his friends by experiment that he was unsuited for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">{152}</a></span> commercial career, +in 1810 he obtained by purchase a commission in the 29th Regiment. He +had hardly joined, when the corps was ordered out to active service in +the Peninsula, where it bore the brunt of the hardly-won battle of +Albuera, in which Hamilton himself was wounded by a musket bullet in the +thigh. During his short military career, he was once more on active +service in the Peninsula, and also served in Nova Scotia and New +Brunswick during the American War, subsequent to which he returned to +Europe, his regiment being sent as part of the army of occupation to +France. Retiring on half-pay about the year 1818, he came to reside in +Edinburgh, and began to turn his attention to literature. He had +received a good classical education, and being well introduced, he was +hailed as a congenial spirit by the Blackwood circle, and becoming +associated with the magazine, threw himself into the spirit of the +enterprise, to which he furnished contributions both in verse and prose. +In the <i>Noctes Ambrosianæ</i> he occasionally figures as 'O'Doherty,' a +name, however, which was also applied to Dr Maginn. He is described in +<i>Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk</i> as possessing a 'noble grand +Spaniard-looking head,' with a very sombre expression of countenance, +and a tall graceful person. The natural freedom of his movements seems, +however, to have been to some extent impeded by his wound. Carlyle, who +knew him later, describes him as a 'pleasant, very courteous, and +intelligently talking man, enduring, in a cheery military humour, his +old Peninsular hurts,' and altogether it is easy to see that he must +have formed an interesting and popular figure in the Edinburgh society +of his day.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">{153}</a></span></p> + +<p>Having married in 1820, he resided for several summers at the +picturesque little dwelling of Chiefswood, near Melrose, where he had an +appreciative neighbour in the person of Sir Walter Scott, and where the +greater part of the <i>Youth and Manhood of Cyril Thornton</i> was written. +This book appeared in 1827, and at once attracted attention. In 1829, +the author followed it up with <i>Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns, from +1808 to 1814</i>, and in 1833, after a visit to the New World, by <i>Men and +Manners in America</i>. In later life, having lost his first wife and +married again, he settled at Elleray, in the Lake District, where he saw +a good deal of Wordsworth, of whom he had long been an admirer, +frequently, as we are told, accompanying the poet upon long mountain +walks. His death, occasioned by a shock of paralysis, took place at +Pisa, whilst he was travelling with Mrs Hamilton, on the 7th December +1842. He was buried at Florence.</p> + +<p>No doubt the novel of <i>Cyril Thornton</i> has in time past owed much of its +popularity to its varied action and frequently shifting scene, and if we +are to judge it now on literary grounds we have no choice but to +acknowledge that great portion of its interest has perished. Still, +there remain a few admirable passages, and in this particular instance +the lines of cleavage between true and false are marked with peculiar +distinctness. For the book may be described as fragments of +autobiography embedded in a paste of romance. Now imagination was by no +means Hamilton's strong point; his fancy was neither very happy nor very +abundant, and when he essays character-painting on an important +scale—as in the case of old David Spreull, the conventional eccentric<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">{154}</a></span> +but beneficent uncle of the story, and his faithful servant Girzy, he is +as deficient in anything like true insight as he is in lightness of +touch. But though his fiction is of this heavy quality, he could present +to admiration what he himself had seen and taken part in, and from time +to time he has thought fit to do so, with excellent effect.</p> + +<p>Cyril Thornton is the scion of an old county family, who, at a very +early age, has the misfortune accidentally to kill his elder brother. +His father's affection is in consequence alienated from him, and he +grows up under a cloud. In time he is sent to the University, and the +scene of the story shifts to Glasgow, thus affording opportunity for +some scathing portraiture of the merchant life of that city. At Glasgow +Cyril makes the acquaintance of his uncle, and by the amiability and +independence of his character conquers the affection of the rich old +childless man. He has now arrived at man's estate, and whilst visiting +his aristocratic connection, the Earl of Amersham, at Staunton Court, he +sees, loves, and is beloved by, the beautiful and fascinating Lady +Melicent, the daughter of the house. Their scarcely-avowed attachment is +interrupted by the fatal illness of Cyril's mother, and being summoned +to return home with all speed, Cyril is there informed that, in a spirit +of cruel vindictiveness, his father has disinherited him. His gloom +deepens, and after some further romantic and amatory experience, at +length—alas! it is, indeed, at length—he joins the army. This is what +we have been waiting for, and our patience is now rewarded. At first he +is quartered at Halifax, where, at that time, the Duke of Kent was +Commander-in-Chief, and we are treated to a satirical portrait of His +Royal Highness, followed by a good deal of interesting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">{155}</a></span> description of +the military life of those days, interspersed with characteristic +anecdote, and varied by love-intrigue and a duel. Then follow travel and +sea-faring, with eloquent picture of an ascent of the Peak of Teneriffe, +of the Bermuda islands, and Gibraltar. Whilst Cyril is at the last-named +station, the vicissitudes of military life are illustrated by an +outbreak of yellow-fever, and when he is on his way back to England the +transport ship which bears him becomes engaged with a French privateer. +From all this it will be seen that of incident and movement there is no +lack, yet it is not until after the outbreak of the Spanish War of +Independence, when the hero is ordered with his regiment to the +Peninsula, that our expectations are fully satisfied. In such passages +as, for instance, those which describe the storming of the heights of +Roleia, the night spent by Cyril on out-piquet duty, or the capture of +the fort witnessed by the light of fire-balls, we have, not only the +scenes of war, but the poetry of the soldier's life set before us to +admiration. Scarcely less excellent is the account of Cyril's further +service under Wellington, Sir Rowland Hill, and Marshal Beresford, at +the lines of Torres Vedras, the siege of Badajos, and the battle of +Albuera, our interest in which is greatly strengthened by knowledge that +the writer was himself a part of what he describes. Our only regret is +that he has devoted so comparatively little of his book to what he does +so well. For all too soon we have the hero back in London once more, +frightfully disfigured by a wound received in action, and as a +consequence slighted by the dazzling but shallow Lady Melicent, who +before had looked so graciously upon the handsome soldier. And now the +novel begins to drag lamentably. The hero's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">{156}</a></span> domestic misfortunes strike +us as superfluous, whilst the madhouse scenes, where the characters +discourse in 'poetic prose,' are in the basest style of melodrama. Nor +do we care enough for Mr Spreull and his Girzy to have much patience +with the languid and long-drawn concluding scenes in which they take +part. Suffice it then to say that, ere we bid adieu to Cyril, he is +restored to his family estate, enriched by the inheritance of his +uncle's fortune, and consoled for the loss of the fickle Melicent by +worth and affection in the person of Laura Willoughby, the friend of his +youth.</p> + +<p>The writer of the obituary of Hamilton in <i>Blackwood</i> is eloquent in +praise of the literary style of the book. But when we find the novelist, +who writes in the first person, declaring that 'the elements of thought +and feeling within him were conglomerated into confused and inextricable +masses,' or describing a housemaid as being 'busied in her matutinal +vocation,' or alluding to the 'supererogatory decoration of shaving,' +or, when he wishes to inform us that there was a doctor in a certain +village, employing the locution that the village 'had the advantage of +including in its population a professor of the healing art,'—then we +dispute the competency of his critic. This inflation of style is the +more curious in that, fortified by his English education, Hamilton, like +Miss Ferrier, is by no means inclined to deal mercifully with the +foibles of his countrymen, as is amply shown by his portrait of Mr +Archibald Shortridge, or his account of the visit of the five Miss +Spreulls, of Balmalloch, and their mother to Bath. But for this we +should naturally have passed over any slips in his own style, preferring +to regard them as the not unamiable lapses of a hand more skilled to +wield the sword<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">{157}</a></span> than drive the pen. His book on the Peninsular +Campaigns is written in good straightforward English, but in <i>Men and +Manners in America</i> he again falls victim to the temptation never to use +one word where two will do nearly as well. When the characters in <i>Cyril +Thornton</i> converse—be they officers in the army, charming young ladies, +peers of the realm, or (like Miss Mansfield) daughters of respectable +tradesmen—they uniformly make use of finely rounded and elaborately +constructed periods, preferring as a rule the third person as a form of +address—as, for instance, when a lady, addressing the hero, observes, +'I should be surprised to hear that Captain Thornton was of those,' and +so on. This, however, is, of course, no fault of the author's, but +simply a not ungraceful literary convention of the age in which he +wrote.</p> + +<p>Though he professed Whig politics, Hamilton's pose throughout his +writings is one of aristocratic hauteur, and we are consequently the +less surprised to learn that the book in which he embodied his +observations on America gave dire offence in that country, provoking +angry reprisals. It may be that the comments of the gallant captain are +made occasionally in a spirit neither wholly free from insular +prejudice, nor from that particular pedantry which is sometimes +generated by a military training. But it is also manifest that the +existence which he surveyed—in a world, as must be remembered, at that +time really new—was in many respects a sufficiently bare, comfortless, +inelegant, and unrefined one, strangely lacking in the elements of +elevation in public or private life. Hamilton strove to judge it fairly, +and his observations are those of an intelligent and honest critic. +Passing easily, as they do, from grave to gay—now commenting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">{158}</a></span> on the +tendencies of democratic government or of the tariff, now comparing the +constitutions of the different States, now describing the prison or +scholastic systems of the country, and now touching upon the beauty and +the dress of the ladies, upon dinner parties, modes of eating, +barbarisms of language, and the like—they may be read with interest and +historically not without profit to this day.</p> + +<p>Of his <i>Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns</i>, the author tells us that it +was intended to appeal to a wider public than was likely to be available +for the lengthy histories of Napier and Southey, its object being to +extend a knowledge of the great achievements of the British arms and an +appropriate pride in them. Hamilton had special qualifications for the +task, and he supplied an admirably terse and lucid narrative, but this +was not accomplished without a sacrifice of much of that picturesque and +personal detail which does so much to save history from dryness, and to +make it attractive and memorable to the general reader. So that his end +was but half attained.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">{159}</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>The following Volumes are in preparation</i>:—</p> + +<p>NORMAN MACLEOD. By <span class="smcap">John Wellwood</span>.</p> + +<p>SIR WALTER SCOTT. By <span class="smcap">Professor Saintsbury</span>.</p> + +<p>GEORGE BUCHANAN. By <span class="smcap">Robert Wallace</span>, M.P.</p> + +<p>JEFFREY AND THE EDINBURGH REVIEWERS. By Sir <span class="smcap">Hugh Gilzean Reid</span>.</p> + +<p>ADAM SMITH. By <span class="smcap">Hector C. Macpherson</span>.</p> + +<p>KIRKCALDY OF GRANGE. By <span class="smcap">Louis Barbé</span>.</p> + +<p>MUNGO PARK. By <span class="smcap">T. Banks Maclachlan</span>.</p> + +<p>ROBERT FERGUSSON. By <span class="smcap">A. B. Grosart</span>.</p> + +<p>JAMES THOMSON. By <span class="smcap">William Bayne</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">{160}</a></span></p><p>DAVID HUME. By <span class="smcap">Professor Calderwood</span>.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> It is distinctly stated in the <i>Life</i>, vol. 1, p. 180, that +the loss of fortune was complete; but a subsequent statement is somewhat +at variance with this.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Letter quoted by Mrs Gordon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>The Crusade.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Literary Life</i>, p. 79.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Autobiography</i>, vol. i., p. 147.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> R. P. Gillies, <i>Memoirs of a Literary Veteran</i>, vol. iii., +p. 59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Autobiography</i>, vol. ii., p. 157.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> 'Journal,' under date January 21st, 1832.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> No. 198 Atholl Place. Article in <i>Glasgow Herald</i>, 1st May +1895.</p></div> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE "BLACKWOOD" GROUP***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 34876-h.txt or 34876-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/8/7/34876">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/8/7/34876</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The "Blackwood" Group + Famous Scots Series + + +Author: Sir George Douglas + + + +Release Date: January 7, 2011 [eBook #34876] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE "BLACKWOOD" GROUP*** + + +E-text prepared by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THE 'BLACKWOOD' GROUP + +by + +SIR GEORGE DOUGLAS + +Famous.Scots.Series + + + + + + + +Published by Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier . Edinburgh and London + + + * * * * * + +FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES + + +_The following Volumes are now ready:_-- + +THOMAS CARLYLE. By Hector C. Macpherson. +ALLAN RAMSAY. By Oliphant Smeaton. +HUGH MILLER. By W. Keith Leask. +JOHN KNOX. By A. Taylor Innes. +ROBERT BURNS. By Gabriel Setoun. +THE BALLADISTS. By John Geddie. +RICHARD CAMERON. By Professor Herkless. +SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON. By Eve Blantyre Simpson. +THOMAS CHALMERS. By Professor W. Garden Blaikie. +JAMES BOSWELL. By W. Keith Leask. +TOBIAS SMOLLETT. By Oliphant Smeaton. +FLETCHER OF SALTOUN. By G. W. T. Omond. +THE BLACKWOOD GROUP. By Sir George Douglas. + + * * * * * + +The designs and ornaments of this volume are by Mr Joseph Brown, and +the printing from the press of Messrs Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh. + +_April 1897._ + + * * * * * + +To + +Major-General Sir WILLIAM CROSSMAN, K.C.M.G., + +IN REMEMBRANCE OF HOURS IN TWO LIBRARIES. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE BLACKWOOD GROUP. + + +JOHN WILSON. + +JOHN GALT. + +D. M. MOIR ('DELTA'). + +MISS FERRIER. + +MICHAEL SCOTT. + +THOMAS HAMILTON. + +_Note_--The Ettrick Shepherd and John Gibson Lockhart, conspicuous by +their absence from the above list of writers associated with the early +days of the publishing-house of Blackwood, will receive attention in +forthcoming volumes of the series. + + + + +JOHN WILSON + + +Is it too bold a thing to say that the reputation of 'Christopher +North,' the man, has survived that of his works? Third in the great +dynasty of Scottish literary sovereigns, he ascended the throne upon the +death of Scott, reigned gloriously and held high state in the Northern +Capital--whence in earlier days he had waged direst war--and at his +death passed on the sceptre to Carlyle, from whom in turn it descended +to Stevenson. To us of to-day, he looms on the horizon of the past, the +representative of a vanished race of physical and intellectual +giants,--the historic legend revealing him as before all things a good +man of his inches, a prince of boon-companions and good-fellows, a wit, +a hard hitter, the soul and centre of a brilliant circle, and the author +of the _Noctes Ambrosianae_. Many other works he wrote--important in +their own day--but now not unjustly forgotten, or all but forgotten. But +the man himself was greater than his works; he, more than they, is our +enduring possession; his memory it behoves us to preserve. + + * * * * * + +The story of his life has been told, in terms of affectionate +appreciation, by his daughter, Mrs Gordon. Born at Paisley--in a +neighbourhood where that natural beauty to which he was so susceptible +was still at that time almost unsullied--on the 18th May 1785, he was +the eldest of his parents' sons and their fourth child. His father, a +gauze-manufacturer by trade, was possessed of considerable wealth; +whilst through his mother, whose maiden name was Sym, and who claimed +descent from the great Marquis of Montrose, he had inherited a strain of +'gentle' blood. From the first he was a robust and lively boy, and his +childhood, being passed under the most favourable of conditions, was an +entirely happy one. His taste for field-sport first declared itself at +the early age of three years, when equipped with willow-wand, thread, +and crooked pin, he set off, unattended, on an adventurous angling +expedition. Meantime the parallel mental activity, which was to be +through life his characteristic, was manifested in quaint infantine +pulpit-oratory at home. After receiving the rudiments of instruction at +Paisley, he was placed as a boarder with the minister of the +neighbouring parish of Mearns, with whom he remained until his twelfth +year. Here he was not less happy than at home. Without doors--and one +thinks of him as a boy whose life was spent chiefly in the open air--he +had a wide and beautiful country to range; whilst within, his education +proceeded merrily--he was foremost among his young companions at the +task as well as in the playground--and he was carefully trained in the +paths of wisdom and virtue. In later life his memory reverted fondly to +these days, to which his writings contain various references--as when he +tells of boyish shooting experiences, with an antiquated musket, +traditionally supposed to have been 'out' in both the Fifteen and the +Forty-five, of an adventure in a storm when lost upon the moors, and so +forth. In his twelfth year he lost his father, and soon afterwards he +was placed at the University of Glasgow, where he continued to attend +classes until the year 1803. Here he resided in the house of the +Professor of Logic, Professor Jardine, to whom and to the Greek +Professor, Young, he in later life gratefully acknowledged his debt. +Meantime his mother with her young family had gone to live in Edinburgh. + +There and at Glasgow, from January to October 1801, young Wilson kept a +diary, which was preserved, and from which his biographer prints some +extracts. These are disappointing; but the document itself is remarkable +for orderliness and precision, exhibiting the writer as the very pattern +of a well-brought-up youth. More interesting, however, as a +manifestation of character is the impulse which, in the year following, +led the seventeen-year-old young man to address a letter of generous +admiration, not, however, untempered with criticism, to the author of +the _Lyrical Ballads_. Wordsworth replied, and thus was begun an +intercourse which was afterwards destined to ripen into friendship. + +In June 1803, Wilson was transferred from Glasgow to Oxford, where he +was entered as a gentleman-commoner of Magdalen College. He began his +career there with ambitious views, his course of study, as shown by his +commonplace books, being designed to embrace not only the prescribed +curriculum in the Ancient Classics, but studies in Law, History, +Philosophy, and Poetry as well. But, if he read hard--as, with +occasional intermissions, he undoubtedly did--he also entered with zest +into the athletics and other amusements of the place, testing his +prowess in wrestling, leaping, boating, and running, and, at the same +time, indulging in what to a later age may appear the more questionable +sports of pugilism and cock-fighting. Some traditions of the feats then +performed by him survive. Among these are stories of his triumphant +encounter with a certain redoubtable pugilist who had insulted him; of +his coming out one night from a dinner-party in Grosvenor Square, and +proceeding then and there to walk back to Oxford--accomplishing the +distance of fifty-eight miles in some eight or nine hours; or, of his +clearing the river Cherwell at a flying leap--twenty-three feet in +breadth on the dead level. Yet, these distractions notwithstanding, he +succeeded in passing the examination for his Bachelor's Degree, in a +manner which his tutor characterised as 'glorious,' and in producing +such an impression of scholarship on the minds of the Examiners as to +call forth the rare testimony of a public expression of their thanks. He +also carried off the Newdigate Prize, awarded for English verse. In +commenting on the amiability of his disposition, his biographer observes +that he harboured not an envious thought. But surely to have done so +were a very superfluity of naughtiness; for, gifted as he was, by +fortune as well as nature, whom was it possible for this admirable youth +to envy? + +After taking his degree, he still continued for a time to frequent +Oxford, astonishing the younger members of the common-room of his +college by his extraordinary conversational powers and by occasional +quaint freaks, but at the same time delighting them by his good-humour. +It is told of him at this time that he would sometimes indulge his fancy +by resorting to the coaching-inns at the hour of the arrival of the +mails, presiding at the travellers' supper-table, and hob-nobbing with +all and sundry, whom his wit and pleasantry seldom failed to impress. At +this era his personal appearance is described as especially striking. +It was that of a man of great muscular strength, but lightly built; +about five feet ten inches in height, with uncommon breadth of chest; +florid, and wearing a profusion of hair, and enormous whiskers--the +latter being in those days very unusual. De Quincey says he was not +handsome, but against such testimony we may surely set off that of +Raeburn's portrait, painted a few years earlier. + +These ought to have been golden days, indeed, but much of their +happiness was marred by an unlucky love-affair. At Glasgow, some years +before, Wilson had made the acquaintance of a young lady of great charm +of person and character, who in the biography figures as 'Margaret,' or +The Orphan Maid. The impression which she produced upon him was profound +and lasting, and at parting he had inscribed to her a small volume of +manuscript poems of his own. From this point the biographer is rather +vague in her account of the progress of the attachment; yet we have +abundant evidence that its course was a most troubled one. For instance, +in August 1803, we find our hero writing to a friend in the following +desperate strain:--'By heavens! I will, perhaps, some day blow my brains +out, and there is an end of the matter.' Later he says: 'The word happy +will never again be joined to the name of John Wilson.' And again he +speaks of summoning two friends to support him and pass with him the +night on which Margaret was to be married to another. This dreaded +marriage did not take place, but it is quite evident that the lover long +continued in a most unsettled state of mind. Thus we hear of his having +swallowed laudanum, lost his powers of study, indulged in 'unbridled +dissipation'; of sudden aimless journeys, undertaken on the spur of the +moment, and landing him at nightfall at such unlikely places as Coventry +or Nottingham; of solitary rambles in Ireland and in Wales. 'Whilst I +keep moving,' he writes, in October 1805, 'life goes on well enough; but +whenever I pause the fever of the soul begins.' He even entertained an +idea of joining the expedition of Mungo Park to Timbuctoo. No doubt in +all this he believed himself sincere enough at the time, but it is not +necessary for us to take his utterances quite seriously. The blowing out +of brains has been alluded to, and it seems more than probable that a +point of Wertherism entered into his distemper. At any rate, in giving +an order for the works of Rousseau at the time, he is careful to +emphasize his desire to have them complete. In dismissing the episode it +may be mentioned that, though the various obstacles to a union between +himself and Margaret are not detailed, in his case filial obedience +would seem to have been the final deterrent. + +During a tour in the English lake country in 1805, Wilson had fallen in +love with and purchased the property of Elleray, consisting of a +delightful cottage-residence, standing in grounds of its own, and +commanding lovely views of mountain, lawn, and forest scenery, rising +above the waters of Lake Windermere; and it was there that, on leaving +Oxford in 1807, he took up his abode. He was now in the fullest sense +his own master, and at this point it may be worth while briefly to take +note of his attitude towards life. + +The ideal of the sound mind in the sound body has been universally +recognised as a good one; but, whether deliberately or instinctively, +Wilson seems to have aimed higher still. He aspired to the mind of a +philosopher in the body of an athlete; and the word philosopher must +here be taken in its highest sense--to signify not the thinker only, but +the lover of wisdom for its own sake. A saner or loftier ideal could +scarcely be conceived; and Nature, who too often unites the soaring mind +with the body which does it previous wrong, had in this case given the +means of attaining, or at least approaching it. Thus the Christopher +North of this period remains a possession and a standard of manhood to +his countrymen. He brings home to them the Hellenic ideal, pure and +unvitiated by any taint of Keatsian sensuality, as Goethe had brought it +home to Germany. In the process of naturalization that ideal underwent +some modification; but the fact that the poetry which North wrote at +this time was of perishable quality does not in reality detract from the +service which he rendered to his country. + +For poetical composition seems to have been now the serious business of +his life. As for his diversions, they remained of the same healthy type +as in his Oxford days. The sailing of a fleet of boats on Windermere, +and the rearing of game birds were perhaps his special hobbies; but +wherever manly exercises were to the fore, there was he to be found. The +country in which he was now located being a wrestling country, he became +an enthusiastic patron of that excellent exercise, and effected much for +its encouragement. And at the same time he was free of the society of +Wordsworth, Coleridge, De Quincey, and the other able and gifted men +whose presence made the district at that era a centre of intellectual +light. + +Amid these varied interests, two or three years were passed contentedly +enough; but at the end of that time we find Wilson writing to a friend +of his need of an anchor in life. 'I do not, I hope, want either +ballast, or cargo, or sail,' he writes, 'but I do want an anchor most +confoundedly, and, without it, shall keep beating about the great sea of +life to very little purpose.' This 'anchor' he was fated to find in the +person of Miss Jane Penny, the daughter of a Liverpool merchant, a +favourite partner of his own at the local dances, and at that time the +'leading belle of the Lake Country,' to whom he was happily married on +the 11th May 1811. + +His marriage had the effect of somewhat delaying the publication of a +volume of poetry which he had previously been preparing for the press, +and it was not until February of the following year that _The Isle of +Palms, and Other Poems_ made its appearance--having been shortly +preceded by an anonymously-published elegy on the death of James +Grahame, author of _The Sabbath_. + +_The Isle of Palms_ tells in mellifluous numbers the story of a pair of +lovers, shipwrecked on an island paradise in tropic seas, who espouse +each other in the sight of Nature and Heaven. Of course the idyll +irresistibly recalls Bernardin's masterpiece, and, judging between the +two, it must be acknowledged that in originality and artistic perfection +the Frenchman's prose has greatly the advantage. But it is noticeable +and must be counted to Wilson's credit that, whilst profoundly +influenced by pre-Revolutionary thought, he never, even at this early +period of his life, allows himself to be led away from the paths +prescribed by virtue and religion. His healthy instinct, fortified by +excellent training, sufficed to show him that anarchy in the moral world +is no more a part of nature's scheme than is habitual excess; and thus +the worship of Liberty and the State of Nature, which afterwards led to +such questionable results in the cases of Byron and of Shelley, left him +entirely unharmed. It is true that rigid formalists have been found to +object to the 'natural marriage' of the lovers in the poem, deploring +the absence of a clergyman on the island. But with these we need not +concern ourselves. + +The success of the poems was but moderate; yet it sufficed to bring the +author into notice in Edinburgh, where he and his wife were spending the +season with his mother and sisters, and whence Sir Walter Scott wrote of +him, in a letter to Joanna Baillie, as 'an excellent, warm-hearted, and +enthusiastic young man,' adding that, 'Something too much, perhaps, of +the latter quality' placed him upon the list of originals. + +Dividing his time between Edinburgh and Elleray, the young poet now +continued to vary his active open-air life by the plotting and +composition of new poems, and in these pursuits, had his affairs +continued prosperous, it is quite possible that the remainder of his +life might have been spent. For it is a truism that any large measure of +happiness is unfavourable to enterprise, and what young Wilson now +really stood in need of was some stimulus to exertion from without. Such +stimulus duly arrived, taking the form of what in a worldly sense is +known as ruin. To speak more circumstantially, in the fourth year after +his marriage, the unencumbered fortune of L50,000 which he had enjoyed +from the time of his father's death, was, through the dishonesty of an +uncle who had acted as steward of the estate, entirely lost to him.[1] +But, severe as this blow was, his biographers are agreed in pronouncing +it to have been a blessing in disguise, and the means of bringing out +much that was in the man, which would otherwise in all probability have +been lost to the world. + +It was now, of course, necessary for him to put his shoulder to the +wheel, and, with the exception of Sir Walter Scott, perhaps no man ever +rose more manfully or uncomplainingly to the occasion. But between these +parallel cases there was one great difference; for Scott's misfortunes +fell upon him when he was advanced in years and worn with toil, whilst +Wilson was able to bring the prime of youth and strength to bear upon +his troubles. He now took up his abode altogether in Edinburgh, being +gladly received into the house of his mother,--a lady who to a fine +presence and strong and amiable character added notable house-keeping +talents, which enabled her during several successive years to accomplish +the somewhat difficult and delicate task of making three separate +families comfortable and happy under one roof. In the same year, 1815, +Wilson was called to the Scots Bar. But, though for a year or two to +come he seems to have made a point of staying in Edinburgh whilst the +Courts were sitting, a short experience sufficed to convince him that +his vocation did not lie in that direction. It was some time before he +succeeded in settling down to congenial work, and, indeed, what we hear +most of during the next year or so are pedestrian and fishing excursions +to the Highlands. Whilst on these expeditions great would be the +distances which he compassed on foot, immense the baskets of fish which +he brought home. On one of them, he had his wife as his companion, when +the happy Bohemianism of the young couple--or, as some would have it, +the poet's eccentricity of conduct--led them into some queer +experiences. Among his adventures we may specify a contest in the four +manly arts of running, leaping, wrestling, and drinking, with a local +champion nicknamed King of the Drovers, in which Wilson came off +victorious. + +In March 1816 appeared his second volume of verse, entitled _The City of +the Plague_. This poem forms a startling contrast to the _Isle of +Palms_, for, in place of nature at its softest and sentiment sweet to +the point of cloying, we are now presented with the gloomiest and +ghastliest of studies in the charnel-house style. Several of the scenes +depicting the madness of the London streets at the period of the great +pestilential visitation are by no means without a certain power, which, +however, inclines to degenerate into violence. Two young +sailors--certainly most unlike to all preconceived notions of the seamen +of the age of Blake--help to supply the necessary relief and +'sentiment,' of which there is no lack. But, from beginning to end, +there is little or nothing truly poetical in the tragedy. The movement +of its blank verse is most frequently harsh and jolting, and serves to +confirm one in the opinion that the author was well-inspired when he +abandoned poetry, as he was now to do. Nor do the minor poems which make +up the remainder of the volume show cause for altering this judgment. +Certainly they abound, even to excess, in evidence of the love of +nature; but that alone never yet made a poet. + +The transition which now lay before the author was an abrupt and violent +one. From the world of nature and sentiment in which he had hitherto +dwelt undisturbed, he found himself summoned to pass into the arena of +periodical literature, and that in an age when not only was it the +misfortune of such literature to be before all things political, but +when political feeling ran to a pitch of which at the present day it is +difficult even to form a conception,--when the mere designations Whig +and Tory, as mutually applied, were regarded less as party distinctions +than as terms of abuse or reproach. And, to add to the contrast which +lay before Wilson, the place in which he was called to take this step +was precisely that in which the war of periodicals was destined to be +waged most keenly. In order properly to understand the circumstances +which led to this warfare, it is necessary to go back some years. + +The horrors of the French Revolution had been followed in Edinburgh by a +strong Tory reaction--a reaction of the excesses of which Henry +Cockburn, in his Memorials, has left a highly-coloured and perhaps not +unprejudiced account. In 1802, as a counterpoise to overwhelming Tory +supremacy, and a rallying-point for those thereto opposed, the +_Edinburgh Review_ had been established. It was supported by a group of +remarkably able young men, whose talents soon raised it to a position of +unexampled influence in the world of letters. That it performed +excellent service in the cause of enlightenment is undeniable; yet it +failed to bear itself with all the moderation proper to success, and in +time showed signs of becoming in its turn a tyranny. Those who were +opposed to it, whilst regarding as dangerous its opinions in politics +and religion, also grew tired (in their own words) of its flippancy and +conceit. Now it happened that about this time a certain new magazine, +recently founded by a very shrewd and enterprising Edinburgh publisher, +after languishing for some months under incompetent editorship, had +reached the very point of dissolution. In this periodical the Tory +malcontents saw an instrument ready to their hands. New spirit was +infused into its nerveless frame, and in October 1817 appeared the first +number of Blackwood's remodelled Edinburgh Magazine. And among those who +gave the hot fresh blood of youth to revive its languishing existence, +one of the foremost was John Wilson. It may be mentioned that before +this he had contributed a literary article to the rival organ, with the +presiding genius of which he was on terms of friendship. His new +departure led to a rupture of that friendship, but to hold that his acts +had committed him to the support of the _Edinburgh Review_ would be to +put an altogether strained construction upon them. + +A detailed history of the stormy first years of the new publication, +however piquant and racy it might be made, forms no part of our present +scheme. Suffice it to remind the reader that the 'success of scandal' +which the magazine at once obtained is matter of notoriety; nor can that +success be pronounced undeserved. Indeed the very first number of the +new issue, besides scathing articles on Coleridge and Leigh Hunt, +contained the celebrated 'Translation from an Ancient Chaldee +Manuscript'--afterwards suppressed--consisting of a thinly-veiled attack +upon a rival magazine, and abounding in gross personalities to the +address of leading citizens of Edinburgh. These excesses, though the +cause of much heart-burning at the time, can scarcely be pronounced of +enduring interest; and it is more profitable, as well as more pleasing, +to turn to the other side of the picture. For it must not by any means +be supposed that the new venture relied solely upon objectionable +personalities for attracting and holding its readers. 'These,' as +Wilson's biographer observes, 'would have excited but a slight and +temporary notice, had the bulk of the articles not displayed a rare +combination of much higher qualities;' and she goes on to say that +whatever subjects were discussed were handled with a masterly vigour and +freshness, and developed with a fulness of knowledge and variety of +talent that could not fail to command respect even from the least +approving critic. Still it is undeniable that for many months to come +the series of onslaughts was kept up almost without intermission, whilst +even persons locally as highly and as justly respected as Chalmers and +Playfair were made to feel the sting of the lash. Consisting as it did +of a recrudescence of the discountenanced literary methods of the age of +Smollett, all this is regrettable enough, and of much of it there can be +little doubt that 'The Leopard'--to give Wilson the name which he bore +in the magazine--was art and part. His exact share in productions which +were not merely anonymous but of which mystification was an essential +feature is impossible to trace; but we are glad at least to have the +assurance of his daughter that, amid all the violence of language and +extravagance of censure which disfigured his early contributions to the +magazine, she has been unable to bring home to his hand 'any instance of +unmanly attack, or one shade of real malignity.' Our knowledge of the +man's character makes us ready enough to believe that he did not mean to +give pain; whilst there is always this excuse--whatever it may be +worth--for Maga's early indiscretions: that they were the work of +inexperienced men, carried away by the exuberance of their spirits, and +genuinely--if indefensibly--ignorant of the laws of literary good +manners, or, as one of themselves has expressed it, of the 'structure +and practice of literature' as it existed at that day in Britain. With +which reflection, an unthankful subject may be dismissed. For ourselves +the real significance of the magazine in its early days consists, not in +stories of challenges sent or damages paid, but in the fact that it +afforded to John Wilson a first opportunity of giving full and free play +to his talents. The characteristic of his genius was not so much +_fineness_ as abundance, and thus we may believe that his gain from the +new stimulus to constant and rapid production more than balanced his +loss from absence of opportunities of polishing his work. Certainly from +the time of his active and regular employment, he began to throw off +those tendencies to affectation and philandering which had characterised +his early efforts in the 'Lake' school, and though he never quite lost +the habit of as the French say 'caressing his phrase,' he became from +henceforth more virile, more himself. + +Standing now to all appearance committed to literature as his vocation, +in the year 1819 he left his mother's hospitable roof, and removed with +his wife and family to a small house of his own, situated in Ann Street, +on the outskirts of the town, where, besides having Watson Gordon, the +portrait-painter, for his immediate neighbour, he enjoyed the society of +Raeburn and Allan among artists, and of Lockhart, Galt, Hogg, and the +Hamiltons among literary men. + +In April of the year following, by the death of Dr Thomas Brown, the +Chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh became vacant. +Wilson thereupon resolved to present himself as a candidate for it, as +did Sir William Hamilton, and though the names of other aspirants are +mentioned, from the first the real contest lay between these two. They +had both been brilliant students at Oxford, but in almost every other +respect their qualifications for the coveted post were about as +different as could be; for since his college days Hamilton had devoted +himself exclusively to the study of philosophy, and had now substantial +results of his labours to exhibit, whilst Wilson--though we are +expressly told that the study in question had always had a powerful +attraction for him--was yet known to the world only as a daring and +brilliant litterateur, and a genial and somewhat Bohemian personality. +There is no need to say with which of the two, in such a competition, +the advantage at first sight seemed to lie. But it is necessary to +explain that the election was fought on political grounds, that Hamilton +was a Whig, and that the electing body was the Town Council of +Edinburgh. It is gratifying to be able to record that the candidates +themselves remained upon friendly terms. But never had party-feeling +been known to run so high as between their respective adherents,--so +that, before the election was over, Wilson had been called on to face +charges of being a 'reveller,' which he probably was, a blasphemer, +which we cannot think him ever to have been, and a bad husband and +father, which he certainly was not. In the end he secured a majority of +twelve out of thirty votes; whilst an attempt to set aside his election, +which was made at a subsequent meeting of the Council, ignominiously +collapsed. + +Keenly alive to the responsibilities of a position which he cannot long +have looked forward to occupying, the newly-made Professor at once +devoted himself to preparation for the discharge of his duties. Whilst +thus engaged, his application was intense,--as well it might be, for it +was stipulated that he was to deliver some hundred-and-fifty lectures +during the forthcoming Session, and he had but four months in which to +prepare them. Native genius, pluck and perseverance, however, carried +him triumphantly over every obstacle. His first lecture has thus been +described by one who was present on the occasion.[2] + + 'There was a furious bitterness of feeling against him among the + classes of which probably most of his pupils would consist, and + although I had no prospect of being among them, I went to his first + lecture prepared to join in a cabal, which I understood was formed + to put him down. The lecture-room was crowded to the ceiling. Such a + collection of hard-browed, scowling Scotsmen, muttering over their + knobsticks, I never saw. The Professor entered with a bold step, + amid profound silence. Everyone expected some deprecatory or + propitiatory introduction of himself, and his subject, upon which + the mass was to decide against him, reason or no reason; but he + began in a voice of thunder right into the _matter_ of his lecture, + kept up unflinchingly and unhesitatingly, without a pause, a flow of + rhetoric such as Dugald Stewart or Thomas Brown, his predecessors, + never delivered in the same place. Not a word, not a murmur escaped + his captivated, I ought to say his conquered, audience, and at the + end they gave him a right-down unanimous burst of applause. Those + who came to scoff remained to praise.' + +And from henceforth the Professor's enemies were silenced. + +It can scarcely fail to strike the reader that into Wilson's election to +the professorship there had entered not a little of what was casual, or +the result of impulse; still his lucky star must have ruled at the +moment, for the sequel far more than justified his rashness. As poet he +had been mediocre, and as lawyer 'out of his element,' but there exists +abundant testimony to prove that as lecturer and instructor of youth he +was the right man in the right place. As was the way of his spirited and +generous nature, he threw himself heart and soul into his new work; but +though we are assured that his attainments in that department left +nothing to be desired, it was far less to these than to character and +personality that he owed the success which he undoubtedly won. Certainly +philosophers more profound, and probably men of greater general +attainments have occupied his Chair, but assuredly never one who united +his happy powers of breathing life into the instruction which he +imparted and inspiring his scholars with a keen and quickening +enthusiasm for himself. And that he succeeded so well in this was +perhaps due to the fact that, in addition to his wide and general +humanity, there was about him a certain boyishness, which, when joined +with the dignity and character of manhood, seldom fails in its appeal to +youth. + +From among the multitude of pupils who cherished grateful and happy +recollections of his class, his biographer has presented us with the +testimony of three. The first of these is Hill Burton, the historian of +Scotland, who warmly acknowledges his kindness, and whose future +eminence the Professor would seem to have divined; for, though at all +times accessible to his pupils and conscientious in the discharge of his +duties, he appears to have made a friend of Burton almost at the first +meeting. Another of his students, Mr Alexander Taylor Innes, has left a +picture of North in his lecture-room, from which, though it belongs by +rights to a later date, I make no apology for quoting here. + + 'His appearance in his class-room,' says that gentleman, 'it is far + easier to remember than to forget. He strode into it with the + professor's gown hanging loosely on his arms, took a comprehensive + look over the mob of young faces, laid down his watch so as to be + out of the reach of his sledge-hammer fist, glanced at the notes of + his lecture, and then, to the bewilderment of those who had never + heard him before, looked long and earnestly out of the north window + towards the spire of the old Tron Kirk; until, having at last got + his idea, he faced round and uttered it with eye and hand, and voice + and soul and spirit, and bore the class along with him. As he spoke + the bright blue eye looked with a strange gaze into vacancy, + sometimes sparkling with a coming joke, sometimes darkening before a + rush of indignant eloquence; the tremulous upper lip curving with + every wave of thought or hint of passion, and the golden-grey hair + floating on the old man's mighty shoulders--if, indeed, that could + be called age which seemed but the immortality of a more majestic + youth. And occasionally, in the finer frenzy of his more imaginative + passages--as when he spoke of Alexander, clay-cold at Babylon, with + the world lying conquered around his tomb, or of the Highland hills, + that pour the rage of cataracts adown their riven cliffs, or even of + the human mind, with its "primeval granitic truths," the grand old + face flushed with the proud thought, and the eyes grew dim with + tears and the magnificent frame quivered with a universal emotion.' + +Yet another pupil, the Reverend Dr William Smith, of North Leith, has +thus recorded his impressions:-- + + 'Of Professor Wilson as a lecturer on Moral Philosophy, it is not + easy to convey any adequate idea to strangers,--to those who never + saw his grand and noble form excited into bold and passionate action + behind that strange, old-fashioned desk, nor heard his manly and + eloquent voice sounding forth its stirring utterances with all the + strange and fitful cadence of a music quite peculiar to itself. The + many-sidedness of the man, and the unconventional character of his + prelections, combine to make it exceedingly difficult to define the + nature and grounds of his wonderful power as a lecturer. I am + certain that if every student who ever attended his class were to + place on record his impressions of these, the impressions of each + student would be widely different, and yet they would not, taken + all together, exhaust the subject, or supply a complete + representation either of his matter or his manner.... The roll of + papers on which each lecture was written, which he carried into the + class-room firmly grasped in his hand, and suddenly unrolled and + spread out on the desk before him, commencing to read the same + moment, could not fail to attract the notice of any stranger in his + class-room. It was composed in large measure of portions of old + letters--the addresses and postage-marks on which could be easily + seen as he turned the leaf, yet it was equally evident that the + writing was neat, careful and distinct; and, except in a more than + usually dark and murk day, it was read with perfect ease and + fluency.' + +And, in reference to a certain specific lecture, the same gentleman +adds, 'The whole soul of the man seemed infused into his subject, and to +be rushing forth with resistless force in the torrent of his +rapidly-rolling words. As he spoke, his whole frame quivered with +emotion. He evidently saw the scene he described, and such was the +sympathetic force of his strong poetic imagination, that he made us, +whether we would or not, see it too. Now dead silence held the class +captive. In the interval of his words you would have heard a pin fall. +Again, at some point, the applause could not be restrained, and was +vociferous.' The writer concludes by stating that he has heard some of +the greatest orators of the day, naming Lords Derby, Brougham, +Lyndhurst; Peel, O'Connell, Sheil, Follett, Chalmers, Caird, Guthrie, +M'Neile; and has heard them 'in their very best styles make some of +their most celebrated appearances; but for popular eloquence, for +resistless force, for the seeming inspiration that swayed the soul, and +the glowing sympathy that entranced the hearts of his entire audience, +that lecture by Professor Wilson far excelled the best of these I ever +listened to.' + +This, within its proper limits, is the strongest praise. And, on the +other hand, we must guard against the supposition that these +lectures--highly-coloured and emotional as they undoubtedly +were--consisted solely, or even mainly, of oratorical, or conscious or +unconscious dramatic display. We are assured that this was by no means +the case; that the Professor scorned to sacrifice the serviceable to the +ornamental, never for a moment hesitating to grapple with the central +difficulties of his subject, or shirking the irksome duty of 'hammering' +at them during the greater part of a Session. + +Increased financial resources now enabled him to resume occupation of +his beloved Elleray, where a new and larger dwelling-house, suitable to +the accommodation of a family, had by this time been built. There, many +of the intervals of his busy University life were spent in happy +domesticity, and there, in 1825, he was visited by Sir Walter Scott, +whom he feted with a brilliant regatta on Windermere. It is to these +years of professional duties varied by vacations in the country that his +novels and tales belong. They comprise three volumes, and, as their +characteristics are identical, may be considered side by side. They +consist uniformly of tales of pastoral or humble life, and the author +has recorded that his object in writing them was to speak of the +'elementary feelings of the human soul in isolation, under the light of +a veil of poetry.' The impression which they produce upon a reader of +the present day is that this programme has been but too systematically +adhered to. The stories themselves do not lack interest, and their +motives are at all times human; but they are deliberately localized in +some other world than ours, and if there thence ensues a certain +aesthetic gain, it is accompanied by a more than proportionate loss in +vraisemblance and in moral force. To speak more plainly, if the world of +Wilson's tales is a better world than ours, it yet remains an artificial +one, his stories develope in accordance with the rules of a preconceived +ideal, and a weakening of their interest is the result. For though many +a writer has seen life in a way of his own, Wilson seems to have +deliberately set himself to see it in a way belonging to somebody else. +In fact, throughout this series of little books, he aspires to appear in +the character of a prose Wordsworth; but he is a Wordsworth who has lost +the noble plainness of his original, and though his actual style is less +marred by floridness and redundancy here than elsewhere, still the vices +of prettiness, self-consciousness, artificiality, and sentiment suffice +to stamp his work as an imitation, decadent from the lofty source of its +inspiration. + +Of the _Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life_, a volume of short tales +published in 1822, the not impartial author of the biography, writing in +the early sixties, remarks that it has acquired a popularity of the most +enduring kind--a statement which to-day one would hesitate to endorse. +She adds that the stories are 'poems in prose, in which, amid fanciful +scenes and characters, the struggles of humanity are depicted with +pathetic fidelity, and the noblest lessons of virtue and religion are +interwoven, in no imaginary harmony, with the homely realities of +Scottish peasant life.' And subject to the not inconsiderable abatements +noted above, this may no doubt be accepted. + +_The Foresters_ (1825) is the history of the family of one Michael +Forester, who is exhibited in turn in his relation as a dutiful son, a +kind self-sacrificing brother, a loving and faithful husband, and a +wise affectionate father; whilst from time to time we are also enabled +to trace his beneficent influence in the affairs of other members of the +small community in which he lives. The tone of the book is peaceful and +soothing; it inculcates cheerfulness and resignation, and holds up for +our edification a picture of that contentment which springs from the +practice of virtue. A group of faultless creatures--for none but the +subordinate characters have any faults--pursue the tenor of their lives +amid fair scenes of nature, and, when sorrow or misfortune falls to +their lot, meet it with an inspiring fortitude. To scoff at such a book +were to supply proof of incompetence in criticism--of which the very +soul consists in sympathy with all that is sincere in spirit and not +inadequate in execution. Yet equally uncritical were it to fail to mark +how far short this story falls of the exquisite spontaneity of such work +as Goldsmith's immortal essay in the same style. + +Possibly, however, of the three volumes, the _Trials of Margaret +Lyndsay_ (1823) is that which most forcibly conveys the lessons common +to all--the teaching of Wordsworth, that is to say, as made plain by a +sympathetic disciple. It is the story of a beautiful and virtuous +maiden, the daughter of a printer who, having become imbued with the +doctrines of Tom Paine, falls into evil courses and is imprisoned on a +charge of sedition. His family--consisting of Margaret, her ailing +mother, aged grandmother, and two sisters, one of whom is mentally +afflicted and the other blind--are in consequence reduced to great +poverty, which, supported by their piety, they endure without complaint. +Removing from their country home to a dark and narrow street in +Edinburgh, they open a small school, and for a time with fair success +make head against their troubles. But misfortune follows relentlessly +upon their traces. Lyndsay dies in disgrace, Margaret's sailor +sweetheart perishes by drowning, and one after the other she sees the +members of the little group which surrounds her removed by death. Still +she does not lose heart. Left alone in the world, she is received into +the house of a benevolent young lady, and, there, is happy enough, until +the undesired attentions of the young lady's brother compel her to seek +another home. Journeying alone and on foot, she seeks a refuge with a +distant and estranged relation; by whom she is coldly received, but upon +whose withered heart her gentle influence in time works the most happy +change. And now, at length, it seems that her hardly-won happiness is to +be crowned by marriage to the man of her choice. But what has seemed her +good fortune turns out to be in reality the worst of all her woes; for +the brave but dissolute soldier who has won her heart is discovered to +possess a wife already. Thus from trial to trial do we follow her, until +at last she is left in possession of a very modest share of felicity, +whilst from her story we learn the lesson of the duties of courage and +cheerfulness, the consolations of virtue, and the healing power of +nature. + +But of course it is not to the department of fiction that Wilson's most +conspicuous literary achievements belong. When once he had settled down +into the swing of his professorial duties, his connexion with +Blackwood's Magazine was resumed, and his biographer truly remarks that +probably no periodical was ever more indebted to one individual than was +'Maga' to Christopher North. And, in passing, it may be stated that +this name, which had at first been assumed by various of the +contributors, was soon exclusively associated with himself. As to the +number, variety, and extent of his contributions, Mrs Gordon has +furnished some curious information. During many years these were never +fewer than on an average two to each number; whilst on more than one +occasion he produced, within the month, almost the entire contents of an +issue. In the year 1830, he contributed in the month of January two +articles; in February four; three in March; one each in April and May; +four in June; three in July; seven (or 116 pages) in August; one in +September; two in October; and one each in November and December--being +thirty articles, or one thousand two hundred columns in the year. +(Against this, however, there must be set off his extremely liberal +quotations from books under review.) The subjects dealt with in the +month of August were the following:--'The Great Moray Floods'; 'The Lay +of the Desert'; 'The Wild Garland, and Sacred Melodies'; 'Wild Fowl +Shooting'; 'Colman's Random Records'; 'Clark on Climate'; 'Noctes, No. +51.' In the year following, by the month of September he had already +contributed twenty articles, five of which were in the August number. +And, finally, in 1833, he wrote no fewer than fifty-four articles, or +upwards of two thousand four hundred closely-printed columns, on +politics, and general literature! Nor, when the extraordinary influence +and popularity enjoyed by Blackwood's Magazine at that period, and the +fact that these were mainly due to Christopher North are borne in mind, +will these labours run any risk of being confounded with those of the +ordinary literary hack. At the same time it may be necessary to caution +the reader against the oft-repeated error that Wilson was at any time +editor of the Magazine. + +Of his habits of composition at this the most brilliant and prolific +period of his career, his daughter furnishes the following account, from +which it will be seen that his literary procedure was ordered with +complete disregard to comfort. He was now living in a house which he had +built for himself in Gloucester Place, which was to be his home for the +remainder of his life. + + 'The amazing rapidity with which he wrote, caused him too often to + delay his work to the very last moment, so that he almost always + wrote under compulsion, and every second of time was of consequence. + Under such a mode of labour there was no hour left for relaxation. + When regularly in for an article for Blackwood, his whole strength + was put forth, and it may be said he struck into life what he had to + do at a blow. He at these times began to write immediately after + breakfast, that meal being despatched with a swiftness commensurate + with the necessity of the case before him. He then shut himself into + his study, with an express command that no one was to disturb him, + and he never stirred from his writing-table until perhaps the + greater part of a _Noctes_ was written, or some paper of equal + brilliancy and interest completed. The idea of breaking his labour + by taking a constitutional walk never entered his thoughts for a + moment. Whatever he had to write, even though a day or two were to + keep him close at work, he never interrupted his pen, saving to take + his night's rest, and a late dinner served to him in his study. The + hour for that meal was on these occasions nine o'clock; his dinner + then consisted invariably of a boiled fowl, potatoes, and a glass of + water--he allowed himself no wine. After dinner he resumed his pen + till midnight, when he retired to bed, not unfrequently to be + disturbed by an early printer's boy.' + +His rapidly turned-out 'copy' would soon cover the table at which he +wrote, after which the floor about his feet would be strewn with pages +of his MS. 'thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa.' Nor did he, even +in the depth of winter, indulge in a fire in his study, or in any other +illumination than that afforded by a tallow candle set in a kitchen +candlestick. + +In the meantime he had not lost his love of the country and of country +pursuits, and we hear of holidays spent at Innerleithen, in Ettrick +Forest--where he rented Thirlestane--near Langholm, where his son John +was established in a farm, in the Highlands, and in a cruise with an +'Experimental Squadron' of the Navy, during which he was accommodated +with a swinging cot in the cockpit of H.M.S. _Vernon_. As is the case in +the lives of so many celebrated men, these years, though the most +fruitful, were not the most eventful of his life, and therefore call for +less detailed examination than those which had preceded them. His +character was formed, he was in the full swing of his labours, and the +best key to the history of this period is to be found in the study of +the _Noctes_, the _Recreations_, and the other works which it produced. + +His heroic literary activity was continued down to 1840, in which year +he was attacked by a paralytic affection of the right hand, which made +writing irksome to him, so that for the next five years he contributed +but two papers to the magazine. This ailment was the first warning he +received that his wonderful constitution and great physical strength +were subject to the universal law. But already the hand of death had +been busy among his circle. In 1834 he had lost his esteemed friend +Blackwood, in 1835 the Ettrick Shepherd had followed the publisher, +whilst in 1837 he sustained the supreme bereavement by losing his +beloved and devoted wife. His grief on this occasion was profound and +lasting, and a touching picture of its uncontrollable outbursts in the +presence of his class has been preserved. There, if anything occurred to +renew the memory of his sorrow, he would pause for a moment or two in +his lecture, 'fling himself forward on the desk, bury his face in his +hands, and while his whole frame heaved with visible emotion, would weep +and sob like a very child.' So, in his work and his play, his joy and +his sorrow, the whole man was cast in an heroic mould. And, with that +singular but sincere, though oft misunderstood, fantasticness, which in +imaginative natures demands the outward visible sign, as long as he +lived he continued with scrupulous care the habit of wearing white +cambric weepers on the sleeves of his coat or gown, out of respect for +the memory of his faithful partner. + +The shadows were already falling thick about the lion-like head of the +old Professor, and we have now to acknowledge that between his last +years and the rest of his life there exists a discrepancy as regrettable +as it is unexpected. The highest of animal spirits had been his through +the brilliant promise of youth and the happy activity and domesticity of +maturity, and when we remember his robust constitution and mellow +philosophy, we naturally look forward to see him enjoy a green and +peaceful old age. But such prognostications are apt to be fallacious, +and the fact stands that his old age was a melancholy one. Nor was its +melancholy of that kind, by no means incompatible with a large measure +of serenity, which is directly traceable to evils common to all men +whose years are prolonged; it was a peculiar despondency, profound and +unexplained. Indeed the last pages of the _Life_ are sad reading, and +we pass hastily over them to the end. + +The first symptom of the alteration in his character of which we hear is +his sense of loneliness. There was no occasion for him to be lonely, for +he was rich in affectionate children and grand-children, yet in spite of +these his habits insensibly became solitary, he grew to dislike being +intruded upon, and at last was seldom seen in public. Still for a time +his broad-brimmed hat with its deep crape band, his flowing locks, and +his stately figure buttoned in its black coat, continued to be welcome +sights in the streets of Edinburgh, and still he continued, without +intermission, his labours among his class, until, in the winter of 1850, +an alarming seizure which occurred in his retiring-room at the +University compelled him to absent himself from his duties. In the +following year he finally retired from the Professorship, which he had +held for thirty years, his services being recognized by Government with +a pension of L300 a year. + +He now felt that his usefulness in life was over, and from henceforth +his despondency deepened. We read that 'something of a settled +melancholy rested on his spirit, and for days he would scarcely utter a +word or allow a smile to lighten up his face;' and, again, that 'long +and mournful meditation took possession of him; days of silence revealed +the depth of his suffering, and it was only by fits and starts that +anything like composure visited his heart.' He himself speaks of his +'hopeless misery.' 'Nothing,' he said to his daughter, 'can give you an +idea of how utterly wretched I am; my mind is going, I feel it.' And, +indeed, it seems that a gradual mental decline had set in. But he was +spared its progress. On the 1st April 1854, at his house in Gloucester +Place, he was attacked by paralysis, and there two days later, mourned +by an almost patriarchal family of descendants, he breathed his last. + +In the details of his daily life, Wilson was accustomed to follow his +own inclinations more than 'tis given to most men to do, his robust +individuality disdaining the minor fashions and conventions of the day, +whilst his native independence, and still more his love of home, made +him completely indifferent to what is known as social success. It is not +in the 'great world,' therefore, that we must seek for the traits which +characterize him. But a man is what he is at home, and within his own +sphere Wilson's sympathies were of the widest and deepest. He was adored +by every member of his large family, whilst his own large-hearted +affection embraced all, down to--or, as perhaps I should say, +remembering his special love for young children, up to the youngest babe +in the household. Such anecdotes, too, as those told by his daughter of +his generous treatment of his defaulting uncle, of his relations with +his superannuated henchman, Billy Balmer, or of his sitting up all night +at the bedside of an old female servant who was dying, 'arranging with +gentle but awkward hand the pillow beneath her head,' or cheering her +with encouraging words,--these speak more for the genuine humanity of +the man than a thousand triumphs gained in an artificial world. + +He also shared with Sir Walter Scott the love of birds and animals of +all kinds, from the dog, Rover--one of many dogs--who, crawling upstairs +in its last moments, died with its paw in its master's hand, to the +sparrow which inhabited his study for eleven years, and which, boldly +perching on his shoulder, would sometimes carry off a hair from his +shaggy head to build its nest. In these matters animals have an instinct +which rarely misleads them, and that they had good grounds for +recognizing a friend in the Professor is proved by the following +incident. One afternoon Wilson, then far advanced in life, was observed +remonstrating with a carter who was driving an overladen horse through +the streets of Edinburgh-- + + 'The carter, exasperated at this interference, took up his whip in a + threatening way, as if with intent to strike the Professor. In an + instant that well-nerved hand twisted it from the coarse fist of the + man, as if it had been a straw, and walking quietly up to the cart + he unfastened its _trams_, and hurled the whole weight of coals into + the street. The rapidity with which this was done left the driver of + the cart speechless. Meanwhile, poor Rosinante, freed from his + burden, crept slowly away, and the Professor, still clutching the + whip in one hand, and leading the horse in the other, proceeded + through Moray Place to deposit the wretched animal in better keeping + than that of his driver.' + +'This little episode,' adds the writer, 'is delightfully characteristic +of his impulsive nature, and the benevolence of his heart.' + +Whilst human nature remains what it is, traits of such broad and genial +humanity as this are never out of date; but when we turn from the writer +to the writings, it is to find the case altered, and ourselves brought +face to face with the devastations of time. In the sense of great and +immediate effect produced by his work, Wilson was unquestionably the +most brilliant, as--excepting the too-fertile Galt--he was the most +prolific, of the group of distinguished authors who are here associated +with the publishing-house of Blackwood; yet in vitality, in enduring +freshness, such a novel as _The Inheritance_, such a sea-piece as _Tom +Cringle's Log_, not to speak of such a character-study as _The Provost_, +to-day leaves his work far behind. Of course this is in large measure +due to the nature, not to the defects, of that work. North's most +distinctive writings were not creative, and in general it is only +creative work that lives. The critic's reputation is transitory; Time's +revenge deals swiftly, hardly by it; it has none of the +phoenix-property of the creator's. Of all our distinguished critical +reputations of the last hundred years or so, how many now survive? +To-day the critic Johnson is remembered chiefly for blindness, the +critic Jeffrey for overweening self-confidence when he was wrong, the +critic Macaulay for idle rhetoric and for consistent failure to strike +the mark. The appreciator Lamb is almost alone in holding his own. And +there is not one reader in a thousand who has time, or cares, for the +purely historical task of looking closer, of studying these eminent +writers in relation to the age in which they lived, and of estimating +accordingly the services which they performed. Christopher North, in so +far as he was a critic, has not escaped the common doom. Scattered over +the pages of the _Noctes_, there are no doubt some shrewd and pregnant +observations upon writers and upon literature. But these sparse grains +of salt are not enough to preserve the general fabric from decay; whilst +the more numerous errors of judgment in which his work abounds require +no pointing out. As a reviewer North was not lacking in discrimination, +as may be seen in the historical though generally misconceived essay on +Tennyson; and, granted a really good opportunity--as in the case of that +completion of _Christabel_ which was to Martin Tupper the pastime of +some idle days--no man knew better how to avail himself of it. The +pages signed by him also afford abundant evidence of the gentleness, +generosity, and enthusiasm of his spirit. But when so much has been +said, what remains to be added? Of stimulus to the reader, of +conspicuous insight into the subject discussed, we find but little. + +Turning to the essays, collected under the title of 'Recreations of +Christopher North,' we sometimes see the author to better advantage, as, +for instance, when he dons his 'Sporting Jacket,' and recounts in +mock-heroic style the Sportsman's Progress. The subject was one which +keenly appealed to him, rousing all the enthusiasm of his perfervid +nature, and some very bright and characteristic pages are the result. + +His hero is fishing, and has hooked a fish. + + 'But the salmon has grown sulky, and must be made to spring to the + plunging stone. There, suddenly, instinct with new passion, she + shoots out of the foam like a bar of silver bullion; and, relapsing + into the flood, is in another moment at the very head of the + waterfall! Give her the butt--give her the butt--or she is gone for + ever with the thunder into ten fathom deep!--Now comes the trial of + your tackle--and when was Phin ever known to fail at the edge of + cliff or cataract? Her snout is southwards--right up the middle of + the main current of the hill-born river, as if she would seek its + very source where she was spawned! She still swims swift, and + strong, and deep--and the line goes steady, boys, steady--stiff and + steady as a Tory in the roar of Opposition. There is yet an hour's + play in her dorsal fin--danger in the flap of her tail--and yet may + her silver shoulder shatter the gut against a rock. Why, the river + was yesterday in spate, and she is fresh run from the sea. All the + lesser waterfalls are now level with the flood, and she meets with + no impediment or obstruction--the coast is clear--no tree-roots + here--no floating branches--for during the night they have all been + swept down to the salt loch. _In medio tutissimus ibis_--ay, now you + feel she begins to fail--the butt tells now every time you deliver + your right. What! another mad leap! yet another sullen plunge! She + seems absolutely to have discovered, or rather to be an + impersonation of, the Perpetual Motion. Stand back out of the way, + you son of a sea-cook!--you in the tattered blue breeches, with the + tail of your shirt hanging out. Who the devil sent you all here, ye + vagabonds?--Ha! Watty Ritchie, my man, is that you? God bless your + honest laughing phiz! What, Watty, would you think of a Fish like + that about Peebles? Tam Grieve never gruppit sae heavy a ane since + first he belanged to the Council.--Curse that collie! Ay! well done, + Watty! Stone him to Stobbo. Confound these stirks--if that white + one, with caving horns, kicking heels, and straight-up tail, come + bellowing by between us and the river, then "Madam! all is lost, + except honour!" If we lose this Fish at six o'clock, then suicide at + seven. Our will is made--ten thousand to the Foundling--ditto to the + Thames Tunnel----ha--ha--my Beauty! Methinks we could fain and fond + kiss thy silver side, languidly lying afloat on the foam as if all + further resistance now were vain, and gracefully thou wert + surrendering thyself to death! No faith in female--she trusts to the + last trial of her tail--sweetly workest thou, O Reel of Reels! and + on thy smooth axle spinning sleep'st, even, as Milton describes her, + like our own worthy planet. Scrope--Bainbridge--Maule--princes among + Anglers--oh! that you were here! Where the devil is Sir Humphrey? At + his retort? By mysterious sympathy--far off at his own Trows, the + Kerss feels that we are killing the noblest Fish whose back ever + rippled the surface of deep or shallow in the Tweed. Tom Purdy + stands like a seer, entranced in glorious vision, beside turreted + Abbotsford. Shade of Sandy Govan! Alas! alas! Poor Sandy--why on thy + pale face that melancholy smile!--Peter! The Gaff! The Gaff! Into + the eddy she sails, sick and slow, and almost with a + swirl--whitening as she nears the sand--there she has it--struck + right into the shoulder, fairer than that of Juno, Diana, Minerva, + or Venus--and lies at last in all her glorious length and breadth of + beaming beauty, fit prey for giant or demigod angling before the + Flood!' + +Nor are his pictures of Coursing and of Fox-Hunting less good. But anon +his overladen style crops out again, as in this passage, where he has +just discharged his gun into the midst of a flock of wild-duck afloat +upon a loch:-- + + 'Now is the time for the snow-white, here and there ebon-spotted + Fro--who with burning eyes has lain couched like a spaniel, his + quick breath ever and anon trembling on a passionate whine, to + bounce up, as if discharged by a catapulta, and first with immense + and enormous high-and-far leaps, and then, fleet as any greyhound, + with a breast-brushing brattle down the brae, to dash, all-fours, + like a flying squirrel fearlessly from his tree, many yards into the + bay with one splashing and momentarily disappearing spang, and then, + head and shoulders and broad line of back and rudder tail, all + elevated above or level with the wavy water-line, to mouth first + that murdered mawsey of a mallard, lying as still as if she had been + dead for years, with her round, fat, brown bosom towards + heaven--then that old Drake, in a somewhat similar posture, but in + more gorgeous apparel, his belly being of a pale grey, and his back + delicately pencilled and crossed with numberless waved dusky + lines--precious prize to one skilled like us in the angling + art--next--nobly done, glorious Fro--that cream-colour-crowned + widgeon, with bright rufus chestnut breast, separated from the neck + by loveliest waved ash-brown and white lines, while our mind's eye + feasteth on the indescribable and changeable green beauty-spot of + his wings--and now, if we mistake not, a Golden Eye, best described + by his name--finally, that exquisite little duck the Teal; yes, + poetical in its delicately pencilled spots as an Indian shell, and + when kept to an hour, roasted to a minute, gravied in its own wild + richness, with some few other means and appliances to boot, carved + finely--most finely--by razor-like knife, in a hand skilful to + dissect and cunning to divide--tasted by a tongue and palate both + healthily pure as the dewy petal of a morning rose--swallowed by a + gullet felt gradually to be extending itself in its intense + delight--and received into a stomach yawning with greed and + gratitude,--Oh! surely the thrice-blessed of all web-footed birds; + the apex of Apician luxury; and able, were anything on the face of + this feeble earth able, to detain a soul, on the very brink of fate, + a short quarter of an hour from an inferior Elysium!' + +In point of style could anything well be much worse? Even the far-famed +_Noctes Ambrosianae_, by much the most celebrated of Wilson's writings, +though they may still be dipped into with pleasure, will scarcely stand +critical examination nowadays. Of course, from their very nature, they +have come to labour under the disadvantage of being largely concerned +with topics and persons of long since exhausted interest. And, again, +their convivial setting, which pleased in its own day, is now probably +by many looked upon askance, and that, it must be confessed, not without +some show of excuse. If this were all, it would be well. As we have +seen, Wilson wrote his dialogues hastily and presumably wrote them for +the moment, so that to judge them as permanent contributions to +literature is to judge them by a standard contemplated not by the +author, but by his injudicious critics. Amongst these, Professor +Ferrier, in his introductory critique to the authoritative edition of +the _Noctes_, published forty years ago, most confidently claims that +they possess solid and lasting qualities, and in the front rank of these +qualities he places humour and dramatic power. Now to us, except in +outward form, the _Noctes_ appear almost anything rather than dramatic; +they are even less dramatic than the conversation-pieces of Thomas Love +Peacock. It is true that of the two principal talkers one speaks Scotch +and the other English; but in every other respect they might exchange +almost any of their longest and most important speeches without the +smallest loss to characterisation. The same authority (I use the word in +a purely empirical sense) enthusiastically lauds the creation of The +Shepherd; and upon him it is true that, by dint of insistence on two or +three superficial mannerisms, a certain shadowy individuality has been +conferred. But surely it is needless to point out that a label is not a +personality, and that this sort of thing is something quite apart from +dramatic creation. The critic then goes on to say that 'in wisdom the +Shepherd equals the Socrates of Plato; in humour he surpasses the +Falstaff of Shakespeare.' The last part of the sentence strikes us as +even more surprising than the first, for had our opinion of the +imaginary revellers at Ambrose's been asked we should have had to +confess that, though they possess high spirits in abundance and a +certain sense of the ludicrous, of humour in the true sense--of the +humour, I won't say of a Sterne, but of a Michael Scott--all are alike +entirely destitute. And one may even add that with persons of equally +high spirits such is almost always the case. Well then, it may be asked, +if they lack both humour and dramatic power, in what qualities, pray, do +these world-famed dialogues excel? The answer is, of course, that in +brilliant intellectual and rhetorical display the _Noctes_ are supreme. +Yet here, also, there is often about them something too much of +deliberate and self-conscious fine-writing. And yet, even to-day, when +tastes have changed and fashions altered, the exuberance of their +eloquence is hard to withstand, and in reading them we sometimes almost +believe that we are touched when in reality we are merely dazzled. This +dazzling quality is not one of the highest in literature: with the +single possible exception of Victor Hugo, the greatest writers have +always been without it. But it pervades, floods, overwhelms the +_Noctes_. It is a somewhat barren, and unendearing quality at best; yet, +after all, it is an undoubted manifestation of intellectual power; and +whatever it may be worth, let us give Wilson full credit for having +excelled in it. + +One last word. The literary workman has no more unpleasing task to +perform than that of so-called destructive criticism; but if Wilson +himself, as apart from his writings, be indeed, as we believe him to be, +an immortal figure, by releasing him from the burden of ill-judged +praise which like a mill-stone hangs about his neck, and by setting him +in his true light, we shall have done him no disservice. On the poetic +imagination, then, he looms as one heroically proportioned; whilst more +practical thinkers will cherish his memory as that of a most brilliant +contributor to the periodical literature of his day, a great inspirer of +youth, and a standard and pattern to his countrymen of physical and +intellectual manhood. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] It is distinctly stated in the _Life_, vol. 1, p. 180, that the loss +of fortune was complete; but a subsequent statement is somewhat at +variance with this. + +[2] Letter quoted by Mrs Gordon. + + + + +JOHN GALT + + +Through life the subject of this sketch was unfortunate; nor has +posthumous justice redressed the balance in his favour. His +fellow-countrymen and fellow-craftsmen, Scott and Smollett--with whom, +if below them, he is not unworthy to be mentioned--have long since been +accorded high rank among the great novelists of English literature: Galt +remains in obscurity. And yet it is easy to understand how his qualities +have failed of recognition. For though his character was in the ordinary +sense of the word exemplary, his genius extraordinary, yet in either +there was something lacking. Indeed the study of his life and works +reveals almost as much to be blamed as to be praised. + + * * * * * + +John Galt was born at Irvine, in Ayrshire, on the 2nd May, 1779, in that +humbler station of society, which--in so far as it dispenses with +screens and concealments, and so brings a child the sooner face to face +with life as it is--may be considered favourable to genius. In childhood +he was of infirm constitution and somewhat effeminate disposition--defects +which were, however, in due course amply rectified. At this time his +passion for flowers and for music gave evidence of a sensibility which, +if one is loth to condemn it as unwholesome, is at least of doubtful +augury for happiness in a workaday world. To these affections he joined +the love of ballads and story-books--in the midst of which he would +often pass the day in lounging upon his bed. Nor did oral tradition fail +him; for, frequenting the society of the indigent old women of the +locality, from their lips he would drink in to his heart's content that +lore of a departing age which he afterwards turned to such good account +in his works. To his own mother, whom nature had gifted with remarkable +mental powers, and in particular with a strong sense of humour and a +faculty of original expression, his debt was admitted to be great. Not +unnaturally Mrs Galt at first strenuously opposed her son's bookish +propensities, though it is recorded that she lived to regret having done +so. The father, who by profession was master of a West Indiaman, though, +in his son's words, 'one of the best as he was one of the handsomest of +men,' does not appear in mind and force of character to have risen above +mediocrity. + +The most striking incident in the childhood of the future novelist is +his association with the 'Buchanites,' a religious sect who took their +name from a demented female, Mrs Buchan. It happened that this person +had been much impressed by the preaching of Mr White, the Relief +Minister of Irvine, and had followed him from Glasgow to that place, +where some weak-headed members of the congregation mistook her ravings +for inspiration, and made her warmly welcome. White himself participated +in their delusion, and when authoritatively required to dismiss his +adherent, chose rather to resign his church. From this time meetings +would be held in a tent, generally in the night time, and there Mrs +Buchan would hold forth, announcing herself to be the woman spoken of +in the twelfth chapter of the Revelations, and Mr White as the man-child +whom she had brought forth. The proceedings attracted public attention, +rioting followed, and it was found advisable to expel the evangelists +from the town. Some forty or fifty disciples accompanied their exodus, +who sang as they went, and declared themselves _en route_ for the New +Jerusalem, and in the company of the crack-brained enthusiasts went the +infant Galt, his imagination captivated by the strangeness of their +doings. He had not proceeded far, however, ere that sensible woman, his +mother, pounced upon him and bore him off home. Nevertheless the wild +psalmody of the occasion abode in his memory, and when in later life, in +his fine novel of _Ringan Gilhaize_, he came to describe the +Covenanters, the recollection stood him in good stead. It is also +recorded of him that, after reading Pope's Iliad, he was so deeply +impressed by the book as to kneel then and there, and humbly and +fervently pray that it might be vouchsafed to him to accomplish +something equally great. It must not be thought, however, that in him +imagination predominated to the exclusion of everything else. On the +contrary, to the love of what was beautiful or strange, he united a +pronounced mechanical and engineering turn, which led him, among other +undertakings, to construct an Aeolian harp, and to devise schemes for +improving the water-supply of Greenock, the town to which his family had +in the meantime removed. Thus was first manifested that diversity of +faculty which enabled him in later life with equal ease to pourtray men +and manners and to found cities and subdue wastes. + +Meantime his education, which had been begun at home and continued at +the grammar-school of Irvine, was carried on at Greenock, where it was +supplemented with advantage by independent reading in a well-chosen +public library. In Greenock, also, where he spent some fifteen years, he +was fortunate in having as associates a group of young men whom the +spirit of intellectual emulation characterised, and of whom more than +one was destined to attain distinction. Among these were Eckford, who is +referred to as the future architect and builder of the United States' +Navy, and Spence, afterwards the author of a treatise on Logarithmic +Transcendents. But undoubtedly young Galt's most congenial companion was +one James Park, a youth of elegant and scholarly tastes, who shared in +his passion for the _belles-lettres_, and criticised in a friendly +spirit the attempts which he was now beginning to make as a poet. Would +that this young man's influence had been exerted to greater effect, for +he seems to have been just the sort of mentor of whom Galt stood in +need, and whose discipline throughout life he missed! 'He seemed,' says +the _Autobiography_, 'to consider excellence in literature as of a more +sacred nature than ever I did, who looked upon it but as a means of +influence.' A means of influence! One would gladly believe this but the +querulous insincere utterance of a disappointed man. Unhappily evidence +is but too abundant that Galt was consistently lacking in the respect +due to his high calling. Among his earliest poetical efforts was a +tragedy on the life of Mary Queen of Scots, and in course of time he +began to contribute to the local newspaper and to the _Scots Magazine_. +With Park and other young men he also joined in essay and debating +societies, a recreation which they varied by walking-tours to +Edinburgh, Loch Lomond, the Border Counties, and elsewhere. Before this +time he had been placed in the Custom House at Greenock, to acquire some +training as a clerk, whence in due course he was transferred to work in +a mercantile office. It was the period of the resumption of the war with +France, and he took a leading part in the movement for forming local +companies of volunteer riflemen. + +This period of his adolescence strikes one as having been unusually +prolonged. It came to a sudden and violent end. It appears that about +this time a set of purse-proud upstarts, who stood much in need of +schooling in more ways than one, had made their appearance in Glasgow. +In relation to some matter of business, one of these had addressed an +insolent letter to the firm with which Galt was connected. It was +delivered into his hands. On discovering its contents his indignation +was boundless, and he proceeded to action with all the impetuosity of a +Hotspur. Missing the writer in Glasgow, he straightway tracked him to +his quarters in Edinburgh, and having bolted the door of the room in +which he sat, forced from him a written apology. So much was +satisfactory; but the turmoil excited in the young man's brain did not +subside immediately. He did not return to his employment, but, after +spending some time in an indeterminate sort of fashion, set off for +London 'to look about him.' In the _Autobiography_, written when he was +old and an invalid, all this is detailed in a loose and cursory manner. +There is no reference to emotion or the inner life, and the style is +that of one who, having written many books, is grown very tired of +writing. To the reader this is the reverse of stimulating; yet whatever +may be stated and whatever kept back, we may feel sure that, in so +emotional and imaginative a man, an intense inner life must have +existed, and one in all probability not of the smoothest. At the time of +leaving home, however, the writer acknowledges to having felt +exceedingly depressed. Then follows a description of sensations +experienced, whilst horses were being changed, on the road between +Greenock and Glasgow. His father accompanied him on his journey. + +'I walked back on the fields,' says the young man, 'alone, with no +buoyant heart. The view towards Argyleshire, from the brow of the hill, +is perhaps one of the most picturesque in the world. I have since seen +some of the finest scenes, but none superior. At the time it seemed as +if some pensive influence rested on the mountains, and silently allured +me back; and this feeling was superstitiously augmented by my happening +in the same moment to turn round and behold the eastern sky, which lay +in the direction of my journey, sullenly overcast. On returning to the +inn, the horses had been some time in harness, and my father was a +little impatient at my absence, but conjecturing what was passing in my +mind, said little; nor did we speak much to each other till the waiter +of the inn opened the door for us to alight at Glasgow. In truth I was +not blind to the perils which awaited me, but my obstinacy was too +indulgently considered.' The above reads like a passage from _The Omen_. +In it we see the true Galt, or at least one side of him--brooding, +fantastic, the devotee of mysticism, discerning, at this momentous point +in his career, the finger of fate where another would have seen but an +ordinary process of nature! + +As to the time he now spent in London, beyond an incidental admission +that it was one of the least satisfactory periods of his career, Galt +does not take us into his confidence. One guesses that had he consulted +his own feelings only, he would have enjoyed the luxury of writing +Confessions. But, after all, he was a Scotchman, though an unusual +variety of the class, and Scotchmen do not indulge in luxuries of that +kind. His Autobiography, when it came to be written, was in the main a +piece of book-making; certainly it has nothing of the confessional +character, and, indeed, what of self-revelation he at this time supplies +must be sought in his letters to Park. + +He had brought with him to the metropolis a goodly number of +introductions, which procured him much civility but nothing more. Whilst +waiting, however, to see what was to be done for him in the shape of +practical assistance, he employed himself in preparing for the press a +poem which had been inspired by his studies in antiquarianism, and +written some time earlier. The title of this production was _The Battle +of Largs_, and its theme the invasion of Scotland by Haco, King of +Norway, in the year 1263,--a subject which had already prompted the +Titanic suggestions of Lady Wardlaw's _Hardyknute_. The poem, as it +survives in extracts, is turgid, crude, and immature, exhibiting the +exact reverse of what is desirable in poetry--to wit, a great +expenditure of means to produce a very small result. For 'tis in vain we +are assured that desperate deeds are doing if we find it possible to +remain completely unmoved. A strain of somewhat similar kind was +afterwards taken up by Motherwell, and by Tom Stoddart in the unbridled +fantasy of his only half-serious 'Necromaunt,' called _The Death-Wake_. +To do Galt justice, he quickly realised that he had mounted the wrong +Pegasus, and almost immediately suppressed his poem. He acted wisely, +and here once for all it may be admitted that, in the specialised sense +of the term, he was no poet. Fancy, imagination, dramatic power, and +many another fine attribute of the poet he of course possessed in high +degree, but, whether because lacking the 'accomplishment of verse,' or +for some other reason, he failed to give expression to these gifts in +poetry. Metre seems to have impeded rather than assisted him, and he is +most poetic when writing in prose--a conclusion suggested by the poem +now under consideration, and borne out by his _Star of Destiny_, his +posthumous _Demon of Destiny_, and his poetic plays. From his own frank +avowal that, when drawing up a list of his works for publication, an +epic[3] was overlooked, we judge that not much of the labour of the file +was expended upon his verse. + +He waited for some months in London, whiling away the time, as he +pretends, by dabbling in astrology, alchemy, and other studies which +served to feed his love of the occult, and then at last, in despair, +decided to shift for himself. This led to his entering into partnership +with a young Scotchman named McLachlan, in a business which, for +reasons unknown, is mentioned only under the vague name of a 'commercial +enterprise.' Whatever may have been its nature, for Galt this +undertaking started badly, and after a period of better success, at the +end of three years ended in bankruptcy. The precise steps by which this +final consummation was reached are carefully detailed by Galt, yet to +minds unversed in commercial procedure they remain very far from clear. +In general terms, however, we gather that the failure was due to the +dishonesty of a debtor, occurring in conjunction with a succession of +financial misfortunes. + +Having failed in commerce, Galt's next thought was of the Law. He +entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, and whilst waiting to be formally +called to the Bar, went abroad in the hope of improving his health, +which was not good at the time. He tells us that by this time he had +realised that, without friends, there is no such thing as 'getting on' +in life possible. These he was conscious of lacking, and when he now +turned his back on England it was, in his own words, half desiring that +no event might occur to make him ever wish to return. He betook himself +in the first instance to Gibraltar, where, in the well-known Garrison +Library, he had his first glimpse of a young man whose feelings, had +they been revealed, might have been found to tally strangely with his +own. Lord Byron, at that time known only as the author of a mordant +satire, was starting upon the tour which was so soon to make him famous, +and as Galt had him and Hobhouse for fellow-travellers to Malta and +Sicily, he got to know them fairly well. It is noticeable that his first +impressions of the Pilgrim betray prejudice; and that long afterwards, +when he was called on to be his biographer, he complains that Moore's +portrait reveals only the sunny side of his lordship's character, and is +'too radiant and conciliatory.' + +After visiting Malta and Sicily, Galt proceeded to Athens. His active +mind, abhorring idleness, was soon at work again. It may be remembered +that this was the period of Buonaparte's endeavour to enforce his +nefarious Berlin and Milan Decrees, which had been designed with the +object of annihilating British commerce. Our traveller now conceived the +idea that they might be evaded by introducing British goods into the +Continent through Turkey. And here it may be noted that his biographers +have united in representing this scheme as the object of his going +abroad, whereas he himself distinctly, though incidentally, states that +he left England for the benefit of his health,[4] and that his scheme +first occurred to him when at Tripolizza.[5] This fact, immaterial in +itself, is of importance as affording evidence that his circumstances at +the time were fairly easy; for his travels must have been costly, yet +they do not appear to have brought him in any return until after his +written account of them had been published, when he was recouped for the +whole, or a part, of his outlay. + +In pursuance of the newly-devised scheme, it was now his object to find +a locality where a depot of goods might be established. For this +purpose, after visiting various out of the way places, he selected +Mykoni, an island of the Archipelago, which possessed an excellent +harbour, where he acquired a large building, suited for a storehouse, +which had originally been erected by Orloff at a time when the Empress +Catherine the Second had designs on these islands. Hence, in the summer +of 1810, he returned to Malta, to make known and to develope his scheme, +and whilst awaiting the result of communications with England, he filled +up the time with further travels, visiting Constantinople and Widdin. +Turkey was now in arms against Russia, and in the course of his present +journey, which was performed in wintry weather, he saw something of the +hardships as well as of the pomp of war. Without presuming to question +that he kept business in view--as possibly also did George Borrow in his +rambles in Spain--we note the fact that in his own account of his +travels the details of his specific labours are kept well in the +background, if not indeed out of sight. At the worst his journeys, which +led him through some singularly wild and little known parts of the +globe, by bringing him acquainted with many picturesque and unusual +characters, must have been rich in suggestions of adventure and romance; +and, indeed, there is evidence that some of his experience of primitive +and martial life acquired at this time was afterwards turned to account +in painting similar life at home for his historical novels. His +expectations of patronage for his project were, however, disappointed, +and he resolved to return without delay to England, in the hope of there +finding support for it. In the meantime literature had not been entirely +neglected. Keeping his eyes well about him, he had amassed the notes on +which were subsequently based his _Voyages_, and _Letters from the +Levant_; whilst a translation from Goldoni, executed in a single wet day +at Missolonghi, and published in the 'New British Theatre' as _The Word +of Honour_, together with the tragedy of _Maddalen_, composed whilst +undergoing quarantine at Messina, belong also to this time. + +Back in London, he had the mortification of finding his commercial +scheme--as to the presumptive value of which one would wish to have +specialist opinion--regarded coldly by the Foreign Office, whilst at the +same time he seems to have satisfied himself of the inutility of +proceeding further in his legal career. But, whatever may have been his +defects, want of resourcefulness was certainly not among them. An +outburst of literary industry followed, and the year 1812 saw the +publication of his Voyages and Travels, his Life of Wolsey, and his +Tragedies. But in justice to one who has sins enough of slipshod +composition to answer for, it must be stated that most of the Life of +Wolsey--one of the most carefully composed of his books--had been +written at an earlier date. + +Of his _Voyages and Travels in the years 1809, 1810, and 1811, +containing statistical, commercial, and miscellaneous observations on +Gibraltar, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Cerigo and Turkey_, a competent +critic remarks that, 'while containing some interesting matter, they are +disfigured by grave faults of style and by rash judgments.' The public +received them favourably, but a contemptuous notice in the _Quarterly +Review_ was warmly resented by the author. + +It was whilst standing in the quadrangle of Christchurch College, when +on a visit to Oxford, that Galt had conceived the idea of his _Life of +Wolsey_. He had worked hard at the book before he went abroad, and he +claimed that it embodied new views, and the results of much original +research. Notwithstanding this, the _Quarterly Review_ assailed him +again, and this time so libellously as to lead him to think of a +criminal prosecution. He, however, dropped the idea, with the result +that when his Tragedies saw the light, the persecution--now as in the +case of the Travels conducted by Croker in person--was renewed with +additional pungency. In the general form of his _Maddalen, Agamemnon, +Lady Macbeth, Antonia, and Clytemnestra_, the author followed Alfieri, +whose works he had studied abroad and admired enthusiastically, though +with reservations. The plays are of a tentative character, and certainly +do not deserve Scott's condemnation as the 'worst ever seen.' _Lady +Macbeth_, which the author thought the 'best or the worst' of the +series, though not lacking in imaginative touches, is without +progression or story, and besides provoking irresistible comparisons, +fails by ending just where it began. And whilst on the subject of Galt's +drama, we may mention _The Witness_, the most important of several plays +contributed by him to the 'New British Theatre,' a publication +undertaken by Colbourn at his instigation. Here the dramatist had a +powerfully dramatic if also a somewhat inconsequent story to work +upon--a subject, in fact, after his own heart. Unfortunately the +execution of the piece is hasty, and by no means equal to its +conception. It was performed for some nights in Edinburgh as _The +Appeal_, when Scott wrote an Epilogue for it, said to be the only piece +of humorous verse existing from his pen. Galt himself rehandled the +subject in narrative form, under the title of _The Unguarded Hour_. + +He now embarked on a journalistic enterprise, assuming for a time the +editorship of the _Political Review_. But the work did not suit him. +After about a month he began to tire of it, and it was soon abandoned. +He also contributed lives of Hawke, Byron, and Rodney, to an edition of +Campbell's _Lives of the Admirals_; whilst, in 1813, his _Letters from +the Levant_ made their appearance. These contain 'views of the state of +society, manners, opinions, and commerce, in Greece and several of the +principal islands of the Archipelago,' and had actually been written as +letters at the places from which they are dated, being subsequently but +little altered. + +Perhaps we have already seen enough of the subject of this sketch to +convince us that any lengthy perseverance in one course of conduct must +not be expected of him, and, sure enough, the next thing we hear of him +is that he is bound for Gibraltar, on another commercial enterprise. +Before setting out, he had taken occasion to revisit the scenes of his +early years, going in turn to every place which he remembered having +frequented, even to the churchyard, amid whose tombstones, like his own +Andrew Wylie, he had haunted as a boy. Taking stock of himself and his +surroundings, he tells us that he was sensible of change everywhere, but +nowhere more than in his own hopes. 'I saw that a blight had settled on +them, and that my career must in future be circumscribed and sober.' +When it is remembered that he was now touching upon what is called the +prime of life, his tone of disillusion is pathetic. + +He had gone to Gibraltar as the emissary of Kirkman Finlay--a Glasgow +merchant, who afterwards bore a spirited part in the Greek War of +Independence--with a view to ascertain the feasibility of smuggling +British goods into Spain. But the victories of the Duke of Wellington in +the Peninsula were unfavourable to his mission, and much against his +will he found himself compelled to return to England, having +accomplished nothing, to seek surgical treatment for a painful malady +from which he was now suffering. Whilst in London he was married, his +wife being the daughter of a Dr Tilloch, editor of the _Philosophical +Magazine_, to which Galt was an occasional contributor. His marriage was +a very happy one, and on the principle, perhaps, that the happiest +countries have no history, his married life is not referred to in the +biographies. In 1814, at the time of the Restoration in France, we find +him visiting Holland and that country, with a view to promote yet +another 'abortive scheme.' + +It had now become imperative that he should exert himself, and having, +as one may say, nothing better to do on his return from the Continent, +he resumed the labours of the pen. His first known work of fiction was +the result. It was entitled _The Majolo_, founded upon a Sicilian +superstition, and published anonymously in 1816. It was a favourite with +its author, and has been described as a 'strange flighty production, +enjoyed only by a few peculiar minds.' With it may be mentioned _The +Earthquake_, a three-volume novel written in 1820, and founded on the +Messina earthquake of 1783. The latter, though an extravagant and +ill-constructed story, is said to describe Sicilian habits and +sentiments with accuracy. _The Majolo_ was followed in the same year by +the earlier instalment of a _Life of Benjamin West_, compiled from +materials supplied by the painter himself--a work which was completed +four years later, after his death. Then the eternal commercial scheme +cropped up again. This time it emanated from Glasgow, leading Galt to +move with his family to Finnart, near Greenock, where he spent a period +afterwards characterised as the most unsatisfactory in his whole life. +As usual the scheme in which he was interested failed, and he returned +to London, having accepted employment from the Union Canal Company, in +order to assist the passing through Parliament of a bill promoted by +that body. This being accomplished, he returned to the drudgery of the +desk, and, first and last, turned out a portentous body of hack-work, +the various items of which need not be catalogued. Fortunately for +himself, if not always for his reader, he had the strength and +_insouciance_ under labour of what he physically was, a giant. Among the +tasks performed at this time were the fascinating, if fabulous, Pictures +from English, Scottish, and Irish History; _The Wandering Jew_, +described as a 'conglomerate of history, biography, travel, and +descriptive geography,' and a collection of 'All the Voyages round the +World'--the last issued under the pen-name of Samuel Prior. + +This record of futile commercial enterprise, varied by uninspiring +literary work, constitutes dull reading; fortunately a happier period is +now reached. In 1820, Mr Blackwood accepted _The Ayrshire Legatees_ for +his magazine, and this book proved to be Galt's first real literary +success. Perhaps it is also the first deliberate attempt in our +literature to delineate, for their own sake, contemporary Scottish +manners and character. It will be seen that the mechanism of the story, +though of the simplest, is well contrived for supplying to these the +necessary relief. Dr Pringle, the minister of a secluded rural parish in +Ayrshire, having to his surprise been appointed residuary legatee of a +wealthy Indian cousin deceased, betakes himself to London to attend to +his affairs in person. He is accompanied by his wife and family--the +latter consisting of a son just called to the Scottish bar, and a +daughter. The Scottish characters are thus detached against an English +background, and the letters in which they describe their experiences in +the metropolis to their several correspondents at home make up the +staple of the book. The characters of this little group--of the simple, +but truly pious and kind-hearted minister, with his sturdy +presbyterianism and quaint traditional phraseology of the pulpit; of +that notable managing woman his spouse, like whom there was not another +within the jurisdiction of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr; and of the +really able and acute young advocate, with his Scottish magniloquence, +and his pose as a man of the world even whilst betraying his +inexperience--all these are well conceived and well drawn, their +unconscious self-revelation being cleverly and naturally managed. The +high-flown and romantic young lady, who so soon adapts herself to her +new circumstances, though a pleasing enough portrait, is less +distinctively Scottish than the rest. Fragments of narrative +interpolated among the letters serve to introduce us to the audience +before whom these are read out, and at the same time to present a second +series of slighter, though not less racy, character-sketches. The hint +of the book, with its unanswered correspondence, is obviously drawn from +_Humphrey Clinker_, and, as in that masterpiece, real persons and +events--such as the funeral of George the Third and the trial of Queen +Caroline, Braham the singer and Sir Francis Burdett--supply much of the +epistolary subject-matter. As in Smollett's novel, too, the same +subjects are at times discussed in turn by the different writers--a plan +which, though it serves the purpose of contrasting character, is not +entirely free from objection. + +_The Ayrshire Legatees_ was followed in the next year by the yet more +original _Annals of the Parish_. The history of the growth of this book +is identical with that of _Waverley_--it had been begun years before, +laid aside, and then resumed and completed--only that Galt has told us +that his reason for discontinuing it was that he had been assured that a +Scotch novel had no chance of success--an assurance which the case of +_Waverley_ has proved untrue. The _Annals_ stands in somewhat the same +relation to Scott's novel as does a Dutch to an Italian masterpiece, a +tale of Crabbe's to an Elizabethan tragedy. It is given out as an +account of the ministry of Micah Balwhidder, parish priest of Dalmailing +(Dreghorn), written by himself. Mr Balwhidder had happened to be +inducted on the very day on which King George the Third came to the +throne; and, irrespective of its merit as a work of fiction, his +narrative possesses real historical value as a record of the progress of +a rural parish during the half-century succeeding that event. Indeed, +with some omissions, the book might almost be printed as an appendix to +the old Statistical Account of the parishes of Scotland, drawn up by the +ministers. When rumours of great events--such as the American War of +Independence or the French Revolution--reach the secluded hamlet, their +sound is softened and their influence subdued. But the records of such +local matters as floods and bad seasons, improvement of land, making of +roads and planting of hedges, development of mineral resources, and so +on, are also in their degree the stuff of which history is made, and as +here set down they are worthy the attention of an Arthur Young. Then we +are incidentally informed of the fluctuations of prices, of the rise of +new industries, and the change of fashions--information which to the +ordinary novel-reader would appear dry, but for the human and personal +interest by which it is pervaded. For the history of the parishioners is +interwoven with that of the parish, and over the whole is cast the charm +of the kindly Doric and the simple and guileless personality of the +minister. In theory an uncompromising stickler for orthodoxy of +doctrine, and a terror to evil-doers in the abstract, Mr Balwhidder's +instinct is wiser than his creed, and where the two are at variance the +stronger insensibly gains the day. The tone of his fragmentary narrative +is of itself proof sufficient of his fatherly interest in his villagers. +And among those villagers, or at least within the narrow bounds of his +parish, he can exhibit a sufficiently motley and picturesque variety in +character and the experience of life. First of all we have Lord +Eaglesham, the kind landlord, genial gentleman and free liver; Mr +Cayenne, the irascible business-man, whose bark is worse than his bite, +and Lady Macadam, the flighty and high-handed Great Lady of the old +school. Then there is Mrs Malcolm, the pattern widow left with a large +young family, her son Charles, the frank sailor, and her handsome +daughter Kate; old Nanse Banks, the school-mistress, and her more +advanced successor, Miss Sabrina Hookey; Colin Mavis, the youthful poet; +the labourer who deserts his slatternly wife and family in order to +enlist; the 'naturals,' Jenny Gaffaw and her fantastic ill-fated +daughter; pious Mizy Mirkland, and many more. And if these figures be +not drawn life-size and set direct in the reader's eye, it is for the +sake of artistic keeping: the book is deliberately pitched in a lower +key than the ordinary novel, and its persons are shown to us, as it +were, afar off. But, none the less, every history is life-like, every +character consistent within itself--living as with the life of those +real people who flourished before our time, and of whom we have all of +us heard in fireside stories as children. In this respect the author's +aim is perfectly realised, and his work is a perfect work of art. + +As is the _Annals_ to ministerial and parochial life, so is _The +Provost_ (published in the following year) to the life of magistrates +and municipalities. Yet a greater contrast to the ingenuous pastor of +Dalmailing than that presented by the long-headed Provost of the Royal +Burgh of Gudetown it would be almost impossible to conceive. Either of +the two, in fact, presents a happy illustration of the respective shares +of personality and environment in the formation of character: each is in +part God's work, in part the world's. But it is in the magistrate that +the world has the larger share. Provost Pawkie, who is Galt's +masterpiece in the delineation of character, is worldly wisdom +incarnate. Entering public life at a period when jobbery and corruption +are rife, he simply takes the world as he finds it, and turns it to the +best account he can. Only, as nature has endowed him with a sharper wit +than his brother bailies and councillors, he is enabled to tread the +paths of policy to much better advantage than they, whilst in the midst +of very questionable transactions retaining the appearance of clean +hands. A fortunate geniality of temper, which is partly the cause and +partly the result of his prosperity, keeps him even at the worst from +entirely forfeiting our regard; while, strange as it may seem, the +warmth and rightness of his feeling in public or private matters where +his own interest is not concerned prove that his heart remains +unperverted by the element in which he works. As time goes on, the +public life around him becomes purer, and he himself keeps pace with the +times. Is this because he has seen the error of his ways, and like all +people who are good in the main grows better as he grows older; or is it +merely the result of policy trimming his sails to catch the popular +breeze? Perhaps the balance of the doubt is in his favour; yet assuredly +he is far too clear-sighted to persevere in methods which have become +publicly discredited. Galt's artistic instinct was too true to allow +him to make perfectly clear to us all the workings of so subtle a mind; +but the worthy cloth-mercer himself stands before us to the life, +shrewd, portly, and consequential, with the redeeming twinkle of a dry +Scotch humour in his eye and a racy Scotticism on his lip. + +As in the _Annals of the Parish_, so in _The Provost_ a chronicle of +external progress forms the background to the narrator's experiences, +and in the latter case this chronicle deals with improvements in the +burgh, sanitary enactments, paving and lighting, repairing the Tolbooth +steeple, and so forth. These affairs, though in their own way typical +also, are of narrower interest than the changes in a countryside, but +their inferiority in this respect is more than made up for by such +admirable passages of interpolated narrative as, for instance, those +which describe the execution of Jean Gaisling for child-murder, the +Windy Yule with its disasters on the sea and heart-break on land, the +duel, and the visit of the press-gang, or, in humorous vein, the fracas +with the strolling players in the change-house, and the incident of the +supposed French spy. + +Few writers have possessed a greater native gift of story-telling than +Galt, and few, it must alas! be added have used their gift more +carelessly. In the very slightest of his numberless tales, traces of +this gift are apt to appear, and perhaps in none of his writings is it +seen to greater advantage than in the incidental reminiscences of _The +Provost_. But, in fact, this little book possesses the merit, so rare +among our author's writings, of perfection as an artistic whole. In +reviewing Galt we are too apt to find ourselves driven to the naive +conclusion of the man in the anecdote, 'that the work would have been +better if the craftsman had taken more pains.' But in this case he +either _did_ take more trouble than usual, or else, which is more +likely, his inspiration was better sustained. + +The period now under consideration may be defined as that of Galt's +masterpieces; yet even now a slight decline in his workmanship begins to +be manifest. In the same year with _The Provost_, he published _The +Steamboat_, and _Sir Andrew Wylie_, thus already betraying a tendency to +over-write. _The Steamboat_ consists mainly of an account of the +experiences of one Thomas Duffle, burgess of the Saltmarket, at the +Coronation of George the Fourth--which is described in detail--the said +experiences being couched in the racy autobiographical style already +familiar to readers of _The Provost_, and relieved by a series of short +stories supposed to be related by Duffle's fellow-travellers. In many of +these stories--and notably in those told by the Sailor Boy and the +Soldier's Mother, in _Deucalion of Kentucky_ and _The Dumbie's +Son_--Galt's powers are seen to advantage. Unfortunately their effect is +marred by the singularly ill-conceived and irritating device on the part +of the author of 'leaving off at the most interesting point.' In a +single instance this trick might have been tolerated, but the reader +loses patience when he finds it repeated again and again. This, however, +is but a single example out of many which might be cited from Galt's +writings of his propensity to ill-timed joking, and his seeming +inability to take his own work seriously. + +It has been asserted that, of all Galt's novels, _Sir Andrew Wylie_ was +the most popular south of the Tweed. If this was so, its popularity was +due far less to intrinsic desert than to the accident that a great part +of the action of the story takes place in England, whilst the principal +actors--among whom is included a portrait of Lord Blessington--instead +of belonging to the Scottish lower or middle classes, are members of the +English aristocracy. A success based upon such grounds as these has of +course no real value, and besides being of tedious length, the novel in +question falls in other ways far short of the author's best +achievements. Andrew Wylie is intended as the type of the canny young +Scot who goes up to London and makes his fortune. We see him first as a +queer 'auld-farrant' urchin, and then as an eident thrifty youth. He +fully means to get on, he has the sharpest of eyes to see on which side +his bread is buttered, and, above all, he has none of the ordinary +failings of youth, and sows no wild oats. In fact he is rich in all +those serviceable qualities of which perhaps the perfect exemplar in +real life is no Scot but the Yankee Benjamin Franklin, and he has a +quaint vein of native humour thrown in. And yet, notwithstanding so many +qualities and so few infirmities, he is no prig, but, like Franklin, +compels not only our respect, but our liking. So far the author has done +well. But when he goes on to describe 'Wheelie's' rise in the world, we +feel that the means of his advancement are altogether too phenomenal. +With such a friend as the Earl to help him, what young man might not +have risen? But this is only a single instance of his luck. Throughout +his career, the hero meets with the consistent and amazing good-fortune +of a prince in a fairy-tale, making conquests at first sight not only of +lackadaisical Riversdales and scatter-brain Dashingwells, but of the +King and of Pitt himself. And so, as the story progresses, its +improbability increases, until in the scenes between Andrew and the +dowager, and Andrew and the baronet, it becomes flatly and absolutely +incredible. In this particular--I mean in the entire disproportion +between the effect produced by the hero upon the reader and that which +he is supposed to exercise on the other characters in the book--the +story shares the fundamental defect of another Scottish novel, the work +of a much more pains-taking hand--_The Little Minister_. + +Galt's next publication of importance was _The Entail_--a novel of which +the theme is 'gear,' a Scotsman's pertinacity in gathering it, and his +tenacity in holding it when gathered--a matchless subject for the +illustration of national character. And in this case the mere desire of +acquisition is elevated and to some extent humanised by being associated +with another characteristic passion of the Scot--to wit, the pride of +family. The story turns upon the disinheriting, for estate reasons, by +Claud Walkinshaw, Laird of Grippy, of his eldest son, and on the events +which spring therefrom. Walkinshaw, who is the representative of an old +but ruined family, has been brought up in penury, but at an early age +has set before himself as his aim in life the reconquest of the family +estates. Towards this object every step he takes is directed; in its +interest every secondary consideration is sacrificed. His youth has been +spent in haggling as a pedlar, and when, having by his own exertions +established himself in trade, he decides to marry, he goes, of course, +'where money is.' His firstborn, Charles, is his favourite son; but even +paternal affection must give way before the ruling passion. Watty, the +second son (a masterly sketch) has been a 'natural' from his birth. But +he is heir to the estate of his maternal grandfather, and it is only +through a transaction depending on the possession of this property that +a Walkinshaw can be reinstated in possession of the undiminished +Walkinshaw estates. To these circumstances Charles is without hesitation +sacrificed, and his father's dream seems at last to be realised. But, +though he has gained his point, the old man finds himself further than +ever from contentment. The stars in their courses seem to fight against +him, the consequences of his unjust act recoil upon him, and he is even +driven to believe himself an object of heavenly vengeance. Thus--in his +character as a father visited by retributive justice through his +children--Claud Walkinshaw may be considered the Pere Goriot of Scottish +fiction. And so far the book is fine; but unfortunately, from this +point--about midway--the level of excellence is not sustained. In the +midst of his woes, Claud is carried off by a shock of paralysis; but the +evil he has done lives after him, thus supplying material for the +remainder of the novel. But the calculating business-man, the youngest +of the three brothers, who now succeeds to the role of principal +character, is colourless in comparison with his father. The writing, +too, though relieved by the delightful sallies of the 'Leddy +Grippy'--one of the very best of Scotchwomen in fiction--becomes diffuse +to such a point that we wax impatient for the expiation of the old man's +misdeeds by his disinterested grandson. Both Scott and Byron are said to +have read this book three times, but the modern reader will probably +rest content with a single perusal. + +Its shortcomings notwithstanding, _The Entail_ was favourably received, +and by this time the author is said to have been so elated by success as +to boast that his literary resources were far greater than those of +Scott, or any other contemporary.[6] Whether in deliberate rivalry or +not, certain it is that, by turning his attention to the historical +romance, he now entered the field which the Wizard had made particularly +his own. In the meantime he had taken up his abode at Esk Grove, near +Musselburgh, where, in possible emulation of Abbotsford, he is said to +have contemplated building a 'veritable fortress,' exactly in the +fashion of the oldest times of rude warfare. + +The results of his bold literary enterprise were seen in _Ringan +Gilhaize_, _The Spaewife_, and _Rothelan_--the first two published in +1823, the third in the following year. In an article from the pen of Mr +Francis Espinasse, in the Dictionary of National Biography, these books +are disposed of as 'three forgotten novels'; but the description lacks +discrimination. Forgotten, for aught I know to the contrary, they may +be; but at least one of the three deserved a happier fate. _Ringan +Gilhaize_ is, in fact, a very fine historical romance, and one, it may +be said in passing, which would well repay resuscitation at the hands of +some enterprising publisher. A happy instinct had directed Galt in his +selection of a period which is certainly the most important, as it is +one of the two most romantically interesting, in Scottish history. For +though the War of Independence be the darling theme of Scottish +patriotism, what I may call the War of Religious Liberty enjoys the +two-fold advantage of a wider sympathy and a deeper intellectual +significance. Galt has skilfully conducted us through the entire period +of this struggle, for his story, opening during the regency of Marie of +Lorraine, concludes with the battle of Killiecrankie, whilst of +intermediate historical events which bear upon the main issue, the +greater number receive some notice in passing. Of course the danger of +such a proceeding is lest fiction become subordinate to fact, thus +making the main interest of the book an historical rather than an +imaginative one. But this danger Galt has cleverly avoided. His method +is to bring bygone times home to us through the imagination--as, for +instance, in the scene of the gathering of devout persons in Gilhaize's +house, or the open air preaching near Lasswade--whilst at the same time +quickening our interest in historical occurrences--such as the battle of +Drumclog, or the march of the Covenanting forces to Edinburgh--by +causing his imaginary characters to participate in them. This, I +conceive to be the true philosophy of the historical romance. And into +the spirit of the particular movement with which he deals, it must be +acknowledged that Galt has penetrated further than Scott. For the true +aim of the writer of a novel treating of these times in Scotland was +obviously to disregard such a non-essential as sporadic insincerity, to +penetrate the outer crust of dourness and intolerance, and whilst +maintaining the balance of perfect fairness, to compel the reader to +sympathise with the best of the Covenanters, not only in their bitter +resentment of cruel wrongs, but in their most earnestly cherished and +loftiest ideals. And this, which Scott did not care to do, Galt has +accomplished, in virtue of which achievement his book is entitled to +rank as the epic of the Scottish religious wars. + +In attempting to embrace within the compass of a single novel the one +hundred and thirty years or so of his period, the author of _Ringan +Gilhaize_ was certainly assaying a very hazardous experiment. For one +thing, of course it was necessary that he should change his hero more +than once, and the risk by so doing of dispersing and losing the +reader's interest was immense. But whilst by taking the family instead +of the individual as his unit, he has preserved artistic consistency, +from this danger he has escaped unscathed. For from the time of the +mission of Michael Gilhaize to St Andrews, and his adventures with the +wanton Madam Kilspinnie, to that of the death of Claverhouse by the hand +of the half-deranged or 'illuminated' Ringan, the interest of the story +never flags. It abounds in fascinating passages of adventure--such as +the journey of the elder Gilhaize to Eglinton, or the wanderings of +Ringan and Mr Witherspoon after the fight at Rullion Green; whilst, +having already referred to an advantage possessed by Galt over Scott, I +may here add that there are passages in this book evincing a literary +style, an intensity, and a delicacy with which Sir Walter could not +compete. Such is the passage describing Gilhaize's reflections whilst +waiting, in the grey of morning, at the gate of Lord James Stuart's +house; the passage which follows, describing the spreading of the news +that John Knox has arrived in Edinburgh, and that which describes the +dalliance of the Queen of Scots with the Reformer on Loch Leven shore. +That Scott was a far greater writer, as he was a far happier man than +his contemporary, no reviewer in his senses would venture to deny. But +that Galt possessed qualities which Scott did not possess, though less +freely acknowledged, is not less true. When the number and extent of his +works is considered, it must be owned that the occasions upon which Galt +puts forth his full powers, or allows us to praise him without reserve, +are sadly few. All the more reason, therefore, that when he does give +us such an opportunity, we should avail ourselves of it with courage and +without stint! It now only remains to add that the book is written in +clear and terse old Scots, to which a dash of the peculiar phraseology +of the Reformed Church adds a touch of quaintness. + +'Surely something must have come over Galt!' is one's involuntary +exclamation on reading his next book, for a greater falling off from +_Ringan Gilhaize_ than _The Spaewife_ can scarcely be imagined. Here +even the writing is slipshod; but, alas! these ups and downs are but too +characteristic of the author. Like the former work, in the cabals and +factions of the rival claimants--or, more properly, aspirants--to the +Crown of Scotland during the reign of James the First, _The Spaewife_ +has a promising and powerful theme. But of the treatment of this theme +it may be said that it can boast scarcely one redeeming feature. The +conduct of the tale is involved and obscure, and abounds in incidents +and dialogues which, while tedious and perplexing in themselves, serve +neither to illustrate character nor to advance action. Indeed, the +reader is heavily taxed to remember the motives and the relations with +one another of the different persons presented. Nor is the book +appreciably stronger in the department of character-drawing. Upon the +poet-king, the romantic ill-fated lover of Joanna Beaufort, one would +suppose that a novelist might delight to lavish his best art. Instead of +this, the King and Queen of the story are mere blanks. Catherine Douglas +is no better, and such originality in character-sketching as the book +can show--and that is not much--is to be found in the portraits of +Glenfruin, the deep though simple-seeming Highland chieftain, and of the +timorous and vacillating Earl of Athol. + +_Rothelan_, a tale of the times of Edward the Third--the historical +portions of which are drawn from an interesting work on that period +written by Joshua Barnes, an antiquary of the seventeenth century--is +unfortunately more nearly on the level of _The Spaewife_ than on that of +_Ringan Gilhaize_. The book is not wanting in spirited scenes, but the +welding of history and romance is but imperfectly accomplished, +notwithstanding an abuse of breaks and gaps, abrupt transitions and +passages irrelevant to the main narrative. Then again, between the +machinations of the conscience-haunted Amias and his inscrutable +henchman Ralph, and the counter-machinations of the wily Adonijah, the +intricacies of the tale are so much too subtle as to end in puzzling the +reader himself. In a passage which may perhaps have been intended as a +sly hit at Scott, the author expressly disclaims any attempt to +reanimate the 'scenes of chivalry, and the pride, pomp, and panoply of +war,' or to restore the archaic language, or the 'fashions of the +draperies, or the ornaments and architecture in the background.' His +concern, he tells us, is not with such subordinate matters as these, but +directly with the human heart itself. For a poet or novelist the +position is a perfectly tenable one, and it is not to this but to the +fact that he lets us see that he does not take his work seriously, that +the author's failure is due. For into his lighter scenes an element of +burlesque, which had already peeped out in his last book, again obtrudes +itself; and burlesque, though a capital thing in its way, is here +entirely out of place. Neither could it under any circumstances be +supposed by a writer of historical fiction that the illusion which it is +his business to produce would be assisted by discussion of such topics +current at the time of writing as Sir Walter Scott's _Redgauntlet_, or +the question of the three-volume novel. + +As under favourable conditions there is perhaps no form of labour more +delightful than literary work, so there can be none more sickening when +it is half-hearted or against the grain. Galt had now produced two +novels in succession in which it was but too apparent that his heart was +not, and he may well have felt weary of the work. Or their languor may +have been due to the fact that his interest had been drawn off in +another direction. At any rate, after a long and--if we judge it by its +best productions--an extremely brilliant spell at his desk, he now +practically abandoned it for some years to come. Well had it been, not +only for his best interests, but for his material happiness, had he +remained where he was! + +The immediate occasion of this change in his life was as follows:--It +happened that some of the principal inhabitants of Canada, whose +property had sustained damage in the American War of 1814, had recently +become urgent in their claims for compensation from the mother country. +As the result of 'proceedings' on which the _Autobiography_ throws no +light, Galt was commissioned to act as agent in this country for the +injured parties, which commission he accepted, undaunted by the worry +and demands upon his time which it must necessarily entail, and set +zealously to work to get the claims allowed by the Treasury. He gained +his point subject to conditions, it being agreed by Government that the +demands of the claimants should be satisfied from the proceeds of the +sale of certain Crown lands in Canada known as the 'reserves.' To find +purchasers for this land now became Galt's object, and mainly through +his instrumentality the 'Canada Company' was formed. But in the +meantime, the inhabitants of Upper Canada, among whom party spirit ran +unusually high, having prejudiced their case with Government, it was +determined that the money realised by selling the reserves should be +devoted to other purposes. Thus Galt found himself defeated in his +object, and in this juncture he was persuaded to join the Canada Company +as a member. He was then appointed a Commissioner to determine the value +of the land to be purchased by the Company, and having crossed the +Atlantic, he proceeded to York, the capital of Upper Canada, where the +Commission prosecuted its enquiries. His health at the time was bad, but +his task was congenial. From boyhood he had nourished a hankering after +colonisation, and if we abate a few comparatively trifling dissensions, +his experiences at this time seem on the whole to have been agreeable. +In due course the Commissioners signed their report and returned to +England, only to receive the news that their labours had been +unexpectedly complicated by action taken by the Canadian clergy in +relation to the 'clergy reserves.' After some difficulty this matter +also was at length adjusted, and the Company having obtained its +Charter, Galt was deputed to return to Canada to superintend the +founding of the new colony. Whilst the affairs above-mentioned had been +under discussion, he had, however, found time to produce _The Omen_ and +_The Last of the Lairds_, two small but admirable works in contrasted +styles. + +Indeed, the sustained excellence of the former suffices to constitute it +his masterpiece in the purely tragic vein. It is likewise in all +probability his most characteristic work, its unique and special claim +to attention consisting in the tense and lurid imaginative atmosphere +which the author has created and made to pervade his tale. Availing +himself of the autobiographical convention, and assuming a fantastic +dramatic guise, he gives the rein to his fancy and roams at large in a +world that is dominated by those presentiments, bodings, and subtle +hidden relations of things, which had always exercised so powerful a +fascination over his mind. And yet--what is of vital importance in the +effect which he obtains--these portents are never allowed to lead us +away from the firm earth, or from actual life. From the very first the +reader is brought under the potent spell of the author's imagination, +and so perfect is the art that ever as the dark tale unfolds the +author's grip gains in strength. There are passages of fervid and gloomy +eloquence in the writing which recall nothing in literature so much as +Chateaubriand's masterpiece, and it is notable that, whilst in other +respects the two stories are entirely distinct, the mysterious and +repellent point on which they turn is one. _Rene_ was almost pure +autobiography, and it is plain to those who have studied Galt's more +intimate utterances that into _The Omen_ he threw much of what was moody +and fantastic in his own mind and personality. + +_The Last of the Lairds_ is a pleasant comedy of old Scotch manners, +rich in the masterly painting of old Scotch character. The plot turns on +the making up by busybodies of a match between a withered spinster and +an elderly, partly imbecile, and ruined landlord--the threatened +ugliness of the theme being averted by a gaiety rare in Galt's work, and +also--as in the case of some of Hogarth's pictures--by sheer skill and +power displayed in the characterisation. The contrasted meddlers, the +bride and her sister, the Nabob, and the Laird's Jock are all of them +capital; whilst the Laird himself, though failing to attain the breadth +and dignity proper to a type, is at least a good and by no means +ungenial portrait. The change wrought in him by marriage, if surprising, +is not incredible, and serves to pave the way for the welcome happy +ending. This book, which was left incomplete by Galt when he returned to +America, received some finishing touches from his friend Moir, though +the hand of the latter cannot be said to be traceable in its pages. + +Late in the year 1826, the author returned to Canada, having already, by +his own account, some grounds for believing that he was regarded with +hostility. Whether these suspicions were purely morbid or not it is +impossible to say, but a general consideration of his fitness for the +work to which he had chosen to devote his life may not be out of place. +There is every reason to believe that he was afterwards harshly and +unjustly used; yet judging solely from what he himself has told of +himself, one must allow that he was not precisely the sort of man to +select for the discharge of important public business. That his ability +was extraordinary, and his power of work immense, has been amply +established; none the less does it remain true that in certain qualities +not less essential to business he was positively defective. Morbidly +sensitive, he lacked the wisdom to control his feelings under a sense of +injury, and was too much inclined to form conclusions, and to act, upon +impulse. In addition to this, imagination or fancy--of which, in a world +constituted as ours is, the mere suspicion will often suffice to +prejudice a man in his dealings with his fellow-men--was far too active +a power in his brain. But, to leave such considerations as are grounded +upon character and revert to substantial facts, what was the assumption +from Galt's previous history as a man of business? That history reveals +a goodly number of schemes and of attempts, scarce one of which but had +proved abortive or a failure. Surely, if he was in truth a competent +business man, ill-luck must have pursued him with uncommon pertinacity; +and even allowing this to have been the case, he will still stand +condemned as a wretched judge of the chances of success inherent in any +given business concern. The years at which we have now arrived were the +most momentous in his life as a man; but in a sketch of his literary +career, such as the present, their place is subordinate. + +Haunted by presentiments of evil even at the time of leaving home, Galt +had scarcely reached Canada when his troubles began. In fact his +differences with Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Lieutenant-Governor of the +province, date from the morning after his arrival. Of this disagreement +it is sufficient to say that Galt was not the aggressor, though very +likely his previous conduct had been less wary than behoved for one in +his delicate position. Certainly, with all due sympathy for a +much-suffering man of genius, it cannot be asserted that his temperament +was one calculated to smooth away difficulties, or, where self-love was +concerned, to carry him pleasantly out of a misunderstanding. The +Governor, besides suspecting him of unfriendliness to the Government, +was jealous of a supposed inclination to interfere in public matters +outside his sphere; and though these suspicions were alike groundless, +it unfortunately happened that a communication which Galt had addressed +to the editor of an opposition journal afforded a specific ground of +complaint. Here, at once, were all the materials for a very pretty +quarrel. + +A visit to Quebec, however, brought more agreeable experiences, social +and adventurous. Thence Galt proceeded to York, to commence the duties +of his mission. He was now practically in sole charge of the business of +the Company, but he seems to have felt quite equal to his +responsibilities, and when winter was over he decided to begin +operations by founding a city in the Company's territory. Determined to +clothe the occasion with as much impressiveness as possible, and having +selected St George's Day as an auspicious date, he accordingly travelled +to the appointed site--the last nine miles of the journey lying within +the primeval forest. Here is his account of the proceedings:-- + + 'It was consistent with my plan to invest our ceremony with a little + mystery, the better to make it be remembered. So intimating that the + main body of the men were not to come, we walked to the brow of the + neighbouring rising ground, and Mr Prior having shown the site + selected for the town, a large maple tree was chosen; on which, + taking an axe from one of the woodmen, I struck the first stroke. To + me at least the moment was impressive,--and the silence of the + woods, that echoed to the sound, was as the sigh of the solemn + genius of the wilderness departing for ever. The doctor followed me, + then, if I recollect correctly, Mr Prior, and the woodmen finished + the work. The tree fell with a crash of accumulating thunder, as if + ancient Nature were alarmed at the entrance of social man into her + innocent solitudes with his sorrows, his follies, and his crimes. I + do not suppose that the sublimity of the occasion was unfelt by the + others, for I noticed that after the tree fell, there was a funereal + pause, as when the coffin is lowered into the grave; it was, + however, of short duration, for the doctor pulled a flask of whisky + from his bosom, and we drank prosperity to the City of Guelph.' + +The name was chosen in compliment to the Royal Family. To matter-of-fact +minds the characteristic tone of this passage may appear dangerously +poetical, so perhaps it is well to add that the site of the new city had +been most judiciously chosen. Occupying a tongue of land projecting into +a river, almost in the centre of the district which separates the lakes +of Ontario, Simcoe, Huron, and Erie, the infant township enjoyed +extraordinary facilities for communication. It became prosperous, and +within the space of forty-five years its population had reached the +total of 50,000. + +Galt now threw himself with great zeal and energy into his work, which +was on a grand scale and of a stimulating character, and, besides the +founding of cities, included the felling of forests, exploration, and +the naming of places unnamed. To a voyage undertaken for the purpose of +finding a harbour on Lake Huron, was due the origin of the now +flourishing city of Goderich. Of course the romance of this sort of +life, together with the sense it gave him of playing an important part +in the spread of civilisation, were agreeable and flattering to Galt; +but in other respects his position was not without drawbacks. Those +symptoms of troubles to come which had so early presented themselves to +him had by no means disappeared; whilst, as he assures us, secret +enemies were also at work against him. There were not wanting signs of +friction between the Government and the Directors of the Company, the +stock of the latter fell to a discount, and the Directors thereupon +taxed their Commissioner with extravagance in the carrying out of his +plans. He began to find himself subjected to petty annoyances, and at +this time an incident in which he had humanely, but perhaps +injudiciously, befriended some helpless emigrants served further to +embroil matters. + +In this juncture, he received a private warning to expect a reprimand +from his Directors. No doubt there were faults on both sides, but +conscious that he had done his best, and smarting under the injustice of +being assumed unheard to be in fault, he placed his resignation in the +hands of a friend. The friend, however, decided not to present it, and +Galt therefore continued his labours as before, evincing an astonishing +fertility in projects and ideas, of which we may suppose a fair +proportion to have been applicable enough to his circumstances. +Unfortunately causes of annoyance continued to flow in upon him, and it +was evident that a climax was not far off. + +The spectacle now afforded by the _Autobiography_ is a melancholy one. +It is that of a gifted and generous-minded, though unduly irritable, +man-of-letters entangled in toils of red-tape, and in the meantime +exposed to the darts of his enemies. In such a contest--though in some +respects Galt was a giant pitted against pigmies--it was a foregone +conclusion that he must come off second-best. Matters were precipitated +by the Directors appointing an accountant to assist him in his duties. +The conduct of this person supplied grounds for a belief that he was +authorised to exercise surveillance over the Superintendent, and such a +position being intolerable, Galt resolved to return to England. Indeed +he found himself driven to the conclusion that it was intended to break +up the Company, and that his own removal from office would be a step +towards that end. Unfortunately he was destined to undergo treatment +even less agreeable than that which he anticipated. Circumstances +having compelled him to defer his return to England, he paid a final +visit to Goderich, and had arrived at New York on his homeward journey +when he was informed that he had been superseded. As he had been on the +point of retiring from the service, his material position remained +practically unaffected. But his resignation, if indeed it were +irrevocably determined on, had certainly not been publicly announced, +and to a man of his temperament it must have been gall and wormwood to +have forcibly taken from him even though 'twere but that which he was +ready to resign. No wonder that he felt himself to have been treated +with the vilest ingratitude. 'The Canada Company,' he writes, 'had +originated in my suggestions, it was established by my endeavours, +organised in disregard of many obstacles by my perseverance, and, though +extensive and complicated in its scheme, a system was formed by me upon +which it could be with ease conducted. Yet without the commission of any +fault, for I dare every charge of that kind, I was destined to reap from +it only troubles and mortifications, and something which I feel as an +attempt to disgrace me.'[7] + +The writer of the article, before referred to, in the Dictionary of +National Biography has spoken of the _Autobiography_ as 'remarkable for +self-complacency.' It is, therefore, only fair to state that the value +which Galt puts upon his own services as a colonial organiser is not +unsupported by testimony from without. The report of a local expert, +incorporated in Galt's narrative, testifies not only to the intrinsic +excellence of his system, but to the success attending it; whilst an +address of gratitude and good wishes presented by the settlers in the +new city bears witness to the personal estimation in which they held +him. Indeed one of the main causes of his failure seems to have been +that he took too high a view of his own mission, aspiring to aim at the +good of humanity, where his associates and principals were content to +contemplate gain: a Quixote set to perform the work of a Board composed +of Sancho Panzas. Even at this date, had he been informed at once that +his dismissal must be regarded as final, he would have been spared some +suffering. But his agony--the term is scarcely an exaggeration--was +prolonged by suspense and by unavailing struggles. And finally, as if +anything were yet wanting to complete the irony of his position, he +lived to see the Company which he had himself founded, and in the +service of which three of the best years of his life had been spent, +develop into a flourishing concern, yielding abundant profits in which +he had no share. + +Misfortunes come not singly, and the fall of the lion is the opportunity +of meaner creatures. The determining of his connection with the Canada +Company had hit Galt severely in his pecuniary circumstances. He now +found himself unable to meet the claims which were made upon him, and at +the suit of a certain Dr Valpy of Reading, one of the oldest of his +English acquaintances, to whom he owed the paltry sum of L80 for the +education of his sons, he was presently arrested. Conscious as he was of +unimpeachable probity of intention, and marking, as in his Utopian way +he did, a distinction between law and justice, he felt this last +indignity keenly. He, however, made no sign, but endured with +imperturbable stoicism a long period of confinement. None the +less--partly by the physical restraint to which he was so little +accustomed, partly, as he himself with only too much show of +probability suggests, by distress of mind--his constitution was +irreparably injured. He was now entirely dependent on his pen, and +though his literary activity continued as great as before, the literary +fruits which he put forth had lost the fineness of their old savour. Of +this he seems to have been aware, for he has put on record the fact that +his later novels were written to please the public, not himself, and +that he would not wish to be estimated by them. For our purpose, +therefore, a hasty glance at them may suffice. + +In 1830 he published _Lawrie Todd_, a tale of life in the backwoods, +which, with _Bogle Corbet, or The Emigrants_, (1831), was founded upon +fact, and designed by the author to serve the double purpose of amusing +the general reader and conveying reliable information to those +practically interested in the American colonies. _Southennan_, a tale of +the days of Mary Queen of Scots, also published in 1830, was inspired by +the tradition associated with a romantic old mansion-house, which had +impressed Galt's fancy in youth. In the same year he also produced his +_Life of Byron_, of which--so keen was public interest in the subject at +the time--three editions were exhausted in as many months. The author's +view of the noble poet's character has been already indicated; his work +has, however, been pronounced 'valueless.' About this time he also acted +as editor of _The Courier_, a Tory newspaper; but, finding the work +uncongenial, after a few months abandoned it. In 1831, by way of a +change of employment, at the suggestion of Lockhart, who was always a +good friend to him, he put together his amusing _Lives of the Players_. +In the same year he took up his abode at Brompton--a suburb in those +days not yet absolutely devoid of the charms of the country--where for +some three or four years to come he occupied Old Barnes Cottage, a +somewhat dilapidated building, but one which possessed the invaluable +appendage of a large and pleasant garden. + +It was at this time that Carlyle met him at a dinner-party at the house +of Fraser, the publisher, and wrote a description of him. But before +quoting this sketch, we may give that of Moir, penned some eight years +earlier. At that time, according to the Doctor's testimony, Galt was 'in +the full vigour of health,' a man of herculean frame, over six feet in +height and inclining to corpulency, with jet-black hair as yet +ungrizzled, nose almost straight, small but piercing eyes, and finely +rounded chin. When Carlyle saw him, trouble had already told upon him. +'Galt looks old,' he writes,[8] 'is deafish, has the air of a sedate +Greenock burgher; mouth indicating sly humour and self-satisfaction; the +eyes, old and without lashes, gave me a sort of wae interest for him.... +Said little, but that little peaceable, clear and _gutmuethig_. Wish to +see him again.' This account he supplemented a month later as follows: +'A broad gawsie Greenock man, old-growing, lovable with pity.' + +The need for pity soon increased. It has been stated that Galt's health +had suffered from his confinement, it was about this time further +affected by the first of a long series of shocks, which are described as +of a nature 'analogous to paralysis.' This sufficed to destroy such +hopes of active employment as remained to him--and he had been, as +usual, hard at work weaving schemes with all his former ingenuity--and +in process of time reduced him to a wreck. Still he clung to his pen, +adding to the already lengthy list of his works the novel of _Stanley +Buxton, or The Schoolfellows_, as well as two political satires entitled +_The Member_ and _The Radical_. Mrs Thomson, authoress of 'Recollections +of Literary Characters,' an old friend, who visited him when he was +growing ever more and more disabled, has left a touching account of his +helplessness. Galt received her without rising from his seat, gave her +his left hand, and pointing to his right, said, 'with a little +quickness, "Perhaps you have heard of my attack? It has fallen upon my +limbs; my head is clear."' Alas! though clear, his mental powers were by +no means what they had been. But, if on some former occasions he had +shown himself too much a prey to moral sensibility, where physical +suffering was concerned his behaviour was that of a stoic. Whilst the +progress of the disease deprived him of the use of one limb after +another, he continued, uncomplaining, to make the most of such powers as +yet remained. Indeed, during the three or four years immediately +following his first seizure, his annual literary output in the +departments of editing, book-making, and story-writing, seems if +anything larger than usual. But among all these undertakings, it is +sufficient here to name the novels of _Eben Erskine, or The Traveller_, +and _The Stolen Child_, with the three volumes of tales collected under +the title of _Stories of the Study_, and the _Autobiography_ and +_Literary Life and Miscellanies_. The lax composition of the latter +works is probably a symptom of mental decay in the author. The book last +named was dedicated by permission to William the Fourth, who in +acknowledgment of the compliment sent Galt L200, which money, together +with L50 obtained for him from the Literary Fund, may be said to +represent the sum of official, or quasi-official, recognition which he +received. For his claims against Government for 'brokerage,' or +commission, on the sale of lands to the Canada Company were refused, +whilst a pension said to have been promised him by the Company was never +paid. The last years of his life were spent in dependence, but it is +pleasing to note that the _Autobiography_ closes with an expression of +satisfaction over the payment of secured debts. He had in the meantime +been removed to the house of a sister at Greenock, where he died on the +11th April 1839, not having yet completed his sixtieth year. + +In summing up Galt's position, it may be said that he remains the most +unequal of all writers possessing equal claims to distinction--the man +who _could_ produce _The Provost_ and _Ringan Gilhaize_ and who _did_ +produce _The Spaewife_ and _The Literary Life_. For it is not enough to +say, as has been said, that in him there were two men, the man of +letters and the man of affairs: there were two literary men in him, the +creative artist and the book-maker. And the fact that, of these two, the +latter had things too much his own way was due to Galt's defective +appreciation of his high calling. 'My literary propensities,' he writes, +'were suspended during my residence in Upper Canada, not from +resolution, but because I had more interesting pastime. I did then think +myself qualified to do something more useful than "stringing blethers +into rhyme," or writing clishmaclavers in a closet.' And again: 'At no +time, as I frankly confess, have I been a great admirer of mere literary +character; to tell the truth, I have sometimes felt a little shamefaced +in thinking myself so much an author, in consequence of the estimation +in which I view the profession of book-making in general. A mere +literary man--an author by profession--stands low in my opinion.' The +petulance and perversity of the first statement, and the sheer vulgarity +of the second, may be palliated by the fact that the author was in low +spirits and bad health when he made them. It remains none the less true +that these opinions ruled his practice. But they carried their +punishment with them. For who will doubt that Galt would have been a +happier man had he been truer to his vocation, had he resisted the +temptation to fly off at a tangent in pursuit of every commercial +will-o'-the-wisp that might chance to catch his eye, and devoted his +great powers with something more of steadiness and of seriousness to +doing his best at what he was best qualified to do? + +He expected that fuller appreciation would come to him after death, and +perhaps this expectation, so fallacious in ninety-nine cases out of +every hundred, was in his case not without plausible grounds. For, from +a literary point of view, Galt, like De Stendhal, was in advance of his +time. Employing the word in its specialised sense, he was more 'modern' +than the greatest among his contemporaries. For example, as has been +already indicated, when most himself he had more of what we are pleased +to consider the characteristically modern qualities of sensitiveness and +imaginative intensity than had Scott. In illustration of this, perhaps +we cannot do better than cite the already quoted _Omen_, with its sombre +and lurid effects, the sense of bated breath, suspense, impending +tragedy, which pervades its every page. Nothing of all this, as I need +hardly say, was in Scott's line; even in the finest and most imaginative +of his shorter pieces, in _My Aunt Margaret's Mirror_, the tension is +eased by characteristic diffuseness of manner. And Galt's superior--some +will call it morbid--sensitiveness extended also to his style: his use +of words, when he is at his best, is much more interesting than Scott's. +It might possibly even be argued that his Scotch, if perhaps less +abundant, is more remarkable for nice appropriateness of word and phrase +than Sir Walter's. [And, by the way, the failure of Galt's reputation to +cross the Tweed may, perhaps, be partly explained by the fact that, +whereas in Scott's novels the dialogue alone is Scotch, in some of +Galt's best books the entire narrative is interspersed with dialect +words. One can fancy, for instance, the puzzled condition of a southern +reader who is informed by the author himself that 'Mrs Malcolm herself +was this winter brought to death's door by a terrible host that came on +her in the kirk,' or that a certain clock 'was a mortification to the +parish from the Lady Breadland.'] But, to continue our argument, besides +the above, Galt has more of the modern pictorial quality than Scott: +there is more in his descriptive work which is addressed directly to the +eye. Once more, he repeatedly gratifies a modern taste by choosing for +his theme what is fantastic, or occult, or what lies off the beaten +track. In stating all this, we would, of course, guard against being +understood to imply that all these characteristics are points of +advantage possessed by Galt over Scott. On the contrary, some of them +may even be symptoms of an age of literary decadence; what we do +maintain is that, in virtue of these characteristics, his chance of +appealing to a late nineteenth-century audience is improved. As a final +word under this heading, Galt may be called the forerunner of the +Realistic movement in Scottish fiction. _The Provost_ and _The Annals_ +might almost belong to the age of Tourguenieff and Mr Henry James, and +in this respect his works have been more studied than they have been +praised, their influence has been greater than their reputation. +Generally, and in conclusion, Galt may be credited with having done to +some extent for Glasgow and the West of Scotland what Scott triumphantly +accomplished for the Borders and the Highlands, and for the trading and +professional classes of his country what Scott did for its gentry and +peasantry. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] _The Crusade._ + +[4] _Literary Life_, p. 79. + +[5] _Autobiography_, vol. i., p. 147. + +[6] R. P. Gillies, _Memoirs of a Literary Veteran_, vol. iii., p. 59. + +[7] _Autobiography_, vol. ii., p. 157. + +[8] 'Journal,' under date January 21st, 1832. + + + + +D. M. MOIR + +'DELTA' + + +'After all, how precarious a thing is literary fame! Things to which I +have bent the whole force of my mind, and which are worth +remembering--if any things that I have done are at all worth +remembering--have attracted but a very doubtful share of applause from +critics; whilst things dashed off like _Mansie Wauch_, as mere sportive +freaks, and which for years and years I have hesitated to acknowledge, +have been out of sight my most popular productions.' Thus wrote Moir, +under date of April 12th, 1845--six years before his life's labours +closed--to his friend and biographer, Thomas Aird, author of _The +Devil's Dream_. And in this instance posterity has taken its cue from +contemporary popularity; for it is upon the homely and genial _Mansie +Wauch_, and on that alone, that the once considerable literary +reputation of 'the amiable Delta' rests to-day. + +David Macbeth Moir, born on the 5th January 1798, was the son of Robert +Moir and Elizabeth Macbeth, whom Aird describes simply as 'respectable +citizens.' His birthplace was Musselburgh, and to Musselburgh he +remained faithful through life. Indeed, though lives of +men-of-letters--from Shakespeare to Thomas Hardy--afford plenty of +instances of local attachment, there can be few instances I should +suppose of lives more closely associated with a single place. In +Musselburgh Moir's life was spent; Musselburgh he served faithfully, +both in his profession and as a public servant; and in the neighbourhood +of Musselburgh he placed the scene of his most popular work. Gratifying +is it, therefore, to know that Musselburgh has recognised him as her +poet--a minor writer certainly, yet exclusively her own. + +Having received his schooling in his native town, at the age of thirteen +young Moir was bound apprentice to a physician in practice there. His +apprenticeship lasted four years, during the latter part of which, as +also during the year following, he studied medicine in the Edinburgh +University. In 1816 he obtained his surgeon's diploma. In the following +year he lost his father, and being then eighteen, became the partner of +a Dr Brown of Musselburgh, whose practice kept him so occupied that for +more than ten years to come he is said not to have spent a single night +out of the town. + +Meantime, having a facile pen (too facile it has proved!) he had begun +to compose as far back as 1812, about which year he sent two essays to a +Haddington publication entitled _The Cheap Magazine_. In 1816 he +contributed to the _Scots Magazine_, and, further, commemorated the +exploit of Lord Exmouth by publishing anonymously _The Bombardment of +Algiers, and Other Poems_. Despite pressure of work, he did not give up +literature on entering the medical profession, but in time became a +contributor to Constable's and Blackwood's Magazine--to the latter of +which, over the signature '[Greek: Delta],' he came regularly to furnish +not only _jeux d'esprit_ but essays and serious verse as well, his +contributions in all amounting to the large total of nearly four +hundred. In this manner he became acquainted with John Wilson, for +whose showy poetry he entertained an admiration which was doubtless less +uncommon then than it would be now. Other periodicals to which he +contributed were _Fraser's Magazine_ and the _Edinburgh Literary +Gazette_. Between medicine and literature, his life now went on busily +but uneventfully. In the end of 1824 or the commencement of the next +year, he published, under his pseudonym, a volume of verse to which he +gave the title of the _Legend of Genevieve_, which he dedicated to the +veteran author of the _Man of Feeling_. The titular poem is a +sentimental story written in the manner of Byron's Tales, the remaining +pieces being on miscellaneous subjects. About the same time the first +instalments of _Mansie Wauch_ made their appearance in _Blackwood's +Magazine_, the completed story, with additions, being published as a +book in 1828. Moir was a man of an intensely domestic disposition, and +having become affianced in this year, in the following summer he took to +himself a wife in the person of Miss Catherine Bell of Leith, whom he +espoused in the Church of Carham in Northumberland, celebrating the +occasion by a series of Sonnets on the Scenery of the Tweed. By this +lady he eventually became the father of eleven children. His literary +reputation was now established, and in 1829 Mr Blackwood made him an +offer of the editorship of the _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_, +which, however, he declined. In remaining constant to the medical +profession, he has been credited with purely philanthropic motives; but, +without bating a jot of my respect for the man, the following (his own) +explanation of the case seems to me the more reasonable one. 'In early +youth,' says he, in a letter to David Vedder, the sailor poet of Orkney, +'I had many aspiring feelings to dedicate my life to literature, and to +literature alone; but I thank God--seeing what I have seen in Galt, in +Hogg, in Hood, and other friends--that I had resolution to resolve on a +profession, and to make poetry my crutch and not my staff. I have, in +consequence, lost the name which, probably, with due exertion, I might +have acquired; but I have gained many domestic blessings which more than +counter-balance it, and I can yet turn to my pen, in my short intervals +of occasional relaxation, with as much zest as in my days of romantic +adolescence.' This is the utterance of a sensible man who, having his +way to make in the world, decides on the expediency of a certain course +and adheres to it. Possibly Moir's estimate of his own powers was a +juster one than that of many of his friends; at any-rate it is +satisfactory to learn that, 'in spite of the common distrust of the +literary character,' he succeeded in making his way as a doctor even in +that place where proverbially a prophet is apt to lack honour. Mr +Blackwood and others of his friends also urged him to leave Musselburgh +and to set up in practice in Edinburgh, offering to use their interest +in obtaining patients for him. But these offers he likewise declined. +His next publication (1831) consisted of _Outlines of the Ancient +History of Medicine_, and was intended as the first instalment of a +complete history of the subject, although increased pressure of +professional duties, occasioned first by the events of the next year and +then by the retirement of his partner in the year following, prevented +his further execution of the design. + +The period at which we have now arrived is one of those which have been +rendered terribly memorable by a visitation of cholera, and in the +commencement of 1832 the town of Musselburgh was attacked with special +severity by the epidemic. So great was the terror prevailing throughout +the country that many physicians are said to have fled from their posts, +but now, as also during a later outbreak, was the time when Moir's +character shone out with peculiar lustre. Rising to the height of the +emergency, he was to be found night and day at his post, endeavouring +both to lessen the sufferings of the sick by his medical skill, and to +comfort the dying with the consolations of religion. His humane +exertions on behalf of the poor were, in particular, remarkable. This is +a period regarding which one would gladly supply further facts, for it +is, no doubt, the most interesting in Moir's life, and it is +consequently with regret that we find it passed over in a few lines in +the accredited biography. When that was written, circumstantial details +of his faithful labours might still have been collected, and these would +have brought the man nearer to us than anything else could do. But Aird +has given us nothing but generalities. During the outbreak, Moir held +the post of Secretary to the Board of Health of Musselburgh, and it was +as an answer to numberless enquiries addressed to him in this capacity +that he now wrote and published a pamphlet, entitled 'Practical +Observations on Malignant Cholera,' which, says Aird, flew like +wild-fire through the country, and which he shortly supplemented by +'Proofs of the Contagion of Malignant Cholera.' + +No doubt by way of recruiting after his labours, he this year attended +the Meeting of the British Association, which was held at Oxford, and +afterwards visited London, mainly in order to see Galt, with whom he had +become friendly some years before, and who was now living in broken +health at Brompton. On this occasion he had an interview with Coleridge +at Highgate. The sage, who received him in bed, and treated him to 'two +hours of divine monologue,' talked at first of his own early life, +incidentally reciting part of his early-written Monody on the Death of +Chatterton, and so far all went well. But Moir, who had a constitutional +dislike of mysticism, and who ought to have known better, had the +rashness to put a few questions to the poet, 'relative to his peculiar +speculations in philosophy,' and from that moment, needless to say, he +found himself involved in the intricacies of a labyrinth. + +As that of a medical man in the full swing of a large practice, Moir's +life now affords but little material to the biographer. In a letter to +Robert Macnish, his dearly-loved friend and brother in medicine and the +muses, he has himself described his daily existence. 'Our business,' +says he, 'has ramified itself so much in all directions of the +compass--save the north, where we are bounded by the sea--that on an +average I have sixteen or eighteen miles' daily riding; nor can this be +commenced before three or four hours of pedestrian exercise has been +hurried through. I seldom get from horseback till five o'clock; and by +half-past six I must be out to the evening rounds, which never terminate +till after nine. Add to this the medical casualties occurring between +sunset and sunrise, and you will see how much can be reasonably set down +to the score of my leisure.' Still, such leisure as he had, he +perseveringly devoted to literature. When driving upon his rounds, he +would read in his carriage; but his chief time for study was after the +house was shut up for the night, when all was quiet around him, and when +he could, with some degree of comfort, sit down in his library to read +and write. 'Even then, however, from the uncertainty of his profession, +he was never altogether sure of his own time. Often did he remark that, +whether it was the contrariety of human nature, or his own peculiar +sensitiveness to interruption at such a time, he was most liable to be +broken in upon when he was most deeply engaged in writing.' Under such +circumstances we cannot wonder that his literary work lacks finish. The +wonder is rather that he did not give up literature altogether; but we +read that he loved it too well to do this, and that he never seemed so +happy as when his mind was employed upon it. As a doctor of literary +men, he exercised a beneficial influence. Shortly before the death of Mr +Blackwood, that gentleman lay ill in Ainslie Place; whilst Galt, who was +also in bad health, was living in lodgings close by. Relations between +the two had been strained, and illness prevented their meeting. But it +is pleasing to read that their mutual respect and esteem were now +renewed, and that Moir, who was in attendance on both, carried kind +messages between them. + +A most affectionate parent, Moir had sustained a succession of cruel +bereavements by losing three of his children, who died in early +childhood, within the space of about eighteen months, in the years 1838 +and 1839. To relieve his feelings on these occasions, he wrote a series +of elegies, which, after being circulated among his friends, were +published, with a few other poems, in 1843, under the title of _Domestic +Verses_. It is as an elegiac poet--if as a poet at all--that the author +is now remembered, and one of these elegies--called by the +self-conferred name of one of the babes, 'Casa Wappy'--has enjoyed +great popularity and is still included in anthologies, though in my own +opinion a less meritorious composition than the the second of the three +poems on the same subject, entitled 'Casa's Dirge':-- + + 'Now winter with its snow departs, + The green leaves clothe the tree; + But summer smiles not on the hearts + That bleed and break for thee: + The young May weaves her flowery crown, + Her boughs in beauty wave; + They only shake their blossoms down + Upon thy silent grave.' + +His elegiac muse is sweet and fluent, and breathes the consolations of +Christianity. But, like Motherwell, he is apt to be over-lachrymose and +to insist upon his grief, which is fatal to pathos. His touch, too, is +uncertain. For instance, in one Sonnet we have this fine line, + + 'The bliss that feeds upon the heart destroys,' + +in near juxta-position with the ridiculous figure, + + 'Joy's icicles melt down before Time's sun.' + +Here as elsewhere, too, he freely repeats himself. Aird has named _The +Deserted Churchyard_ as Moir's highest imaginative piece. But Aird is no +critic, and description was not Moir's forte. He multiplies +touches--each perhaps good in its way--multiplies them, indeed, to +excess; but to combine and compose them into a whole is beyond him. And +the same defect--the mark either of an inferior talent, or of an +untutored one--is noticeable in his critical portraits. Of his poetry +generally, then, it must be confessed that it belongs to that class +which, finding acceptance to-day, is without significance for the +morrow. But, in justice, it must be remembered that in its own day it +not only pleased the general reader, but also drew warm praises from +such judges as Tennyson, Jeffrey, Wordsworth, and Lockhart. Moir's time, +as we have seen, was not at his disposal, but besides--or perhaps +because of this--he was an impatient composer. He chose--if such things +be determined by choice--to write much rather than to write well. As a +whole his poetry is inferior in style to that of his less prolific +contemporary, Thomas Pringle. And certainly, if poetry is intended to +endure, it must be moulded in some less pliant material than that which +Moir employed. + +Not much now remains to tell. In the year after the publication of his +_Domestic Verses_, Moir contracted a serious illness by sitting all +night in damp clothes by the bedside of a patient, and in 1846 his +general health suffered further from the effects of a carriage accident, +which also permanently lamed him. In 1848 he made an excursion, lasting +two and a half days, and meditated during seven previous years, to the +Lake District with Mrs Moir; and in the following year he visited the +Highlands, with Christopher North, who was 'in great force,' Henry +Glassford Bell, and one or two others. In spring of 1851, he delivered a +course of six lectures at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, his +subject being the Poetical Literature of the Past Half Century. On +appearing on the platform, he had a very warm reception, and his +lectures, proving popular, were soon afterwards published; nor have they +quite lost their interest yet. Of course at the present day no one would +be likely to turn to them for an estimate of the genius, say, of Byron +or of Shelley, or for a summing up of the poetical achievement of +Wordsworth, Coleridge, or Keats. It is in the nature of things that +truth in criticism, as in evidence, is arrived at by a slow process, and +abler pens have dealt with these great writers since Moir's day. But +should anyone wish to know the estimation in which they were held at the +date in question, he will generally find a good indication of it here. +And in so doing, as was inevitable, he will come across some curiosities +of criticism--as, for instance, where the lecturer, speaking of Byron +and Wilson together, as the two rising poetic lights of the year 1812, +adds that 'it is difficult even yet to say which of the two was most +distinguished for general scope of mind, for imaginative and +intellectual power.' Also, should any student desire a sketch--descriptive +rather than critical--of such half-forgotten literary figures as 'Monk' +Lewis and his followers, or of the 'artistic artificial school' of +Hayley, the 'Swan of Lichfield,' and the Della Cruscans, or seek for +appreciative observations on the author of _The Farmer's Boy_, on Kirke +White, or on Samuel Rogers, here he will find them. Besides these +lectures and the works already mentioned, Moir's literary undertakings +include an edition of the works of Mrs Hemans, an Account of the +Antiquities of the Parish of Inveresk, written for the Statistical +Account of Scotland (1845), and a few occasional monographs. + +On the 22nd of June of this year, in dismounting from his horse at the +door of a patient's house, Moir sustained further injuries to his +already partially disabled leg. Failing to rally from the effects of +this accident, and hoping to derive benefit from rest and change, about +a week later he set out upon a short excursion. Mrs Moir accompanied +him, and they had reached Ayr, and had visited the cottage where Burns +first saw the light, when the Doctor became seriously ill. Declining +medical assistance, however, he struggled on to Dumfries, where he +became so much worse as to be forced to take to his bed. It was soon +evident that death was at hand. On hearing of his illness, several of +his friends had hastened to his side, and surrounded by these and by +members of his family, faithfully attended by his wife, and fortified by +a firm religious faith, he passed away on the morning of Sunday, the 6th +July. The inhabitants of the town in which he had laboured so +indefatigably decreed him a public funeral, paying every mark of respect +in their power to his memory, and shortly afterwards his statue, +executed by a sculptor named Ritchie, who had been a pupil of +Thorwaldsen, was erected in a commanding situation on the banks of the +river Esk. Besides his professional labours, he had been a Member of the +Council of his native town and of its Kirk Session, had attended the +General Assembly as a Representative Elder, and had acted as Secretary +to a local Reform Committee appointed on the eve of the passing of the +great Bill. In fine, his life had been essentially that of the good +citizen--an honourable part for which we have so high a respect that we +should be glad to see it oftener adorned with literary distinction. + +In person Moir was tall, well-formed and erect, of sanguine complexion +and with hair tending to the 'sandy' hue, his keen sense of humour, +during friendly intercourse, being particularly manifest in his +countenance. In private life, he was amiable and exemplary, and much +beloved by many friends, including several distinguished writers--'a +man,' says the writer of his obituary in _Blackwood's Magazine_, 'who, +we verily believe, never had an enemy, and never harboured an angry or +vindictive thought against a human being.' Nor did this proceed from +any lack of determination or force of character, of which he had plenty. + + * * * * * + +Did not one recognise the relation subsisting between humour and pathos, +it would be a surprise to find the melancholy Moir--the mourner of a +score of dirges--figuring as author of a succession of broadly and +farcically comic episodes; for such, in the main, is the _Life of Mansie +Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith_. The book was conceived in avowed imitation +of Galt; and, in general outline, the autobiographical tailor, with his +unconscious self-revelation, is obviously suggested by the Provosts and +Micah Balwhidders of that writer. For in literature Galt is as much the +originator of the 'pawky' Scotsman of the commercial or professional +class as was the creator of Dinmont and Headrigg of the Scotsman living +on the soil and racy of it. But if Delta borrowed the first idea of the +story from his friend, the means by which he develops it owe little or +nothing to that source. There, indeed, the sprightly little volume +reminds us of a very different class of literature. In their frank +appeal to those who are easily amused (happily a numerous body), and in +the pleasant clownishness of their fooling, a large proportion of the +scenes recall forcibly the ancient folk-tales, 'drolls' and chap-books, +or the more modern collections of local stories founded upon the same, +and the peculiar style of humour associated with such time-honoured +popular favourites as Lothian Tom and George Buchanan, the King's +Jester. Incidents, for instance, like that of James Batter, the weaver, +concealed in the closet during the visit of the Minister, and of his +inopportune fall through the bottomless chair and imprisonment there, or +of the big suit of clothes being sent home to the little man, and the +little suit to the big man, belong to the primeval stock-in-trade of the +rustic humourist; whilst as for the episode of Deacon Paunch and the +cat--probably there are few parishes in the country boasting the +possession of a phenomenally heavy man where some 'variant' of this +story is not current at the present day. The epigram--if I may so call +it--of the book is also conceived after the popular model; as, for +instance, when the aggrieved collier-woman, taunting Cursecowl on the +prominence of one of his features, declares that he has 'run fast when +the noses were dealing'; when it is observed, in reference to the +various grades of society and their interdependence, that 'we all hang +at one another's tails like a rope of ingans'; or when the writer speaks +of an 'evendown pour of rain, washing the very cats off the house-tops,' +or remarks of hopes not quite likely to be fulfilled that 'many a +rottener ship has come to land.' Some of these phrases may perhaps be +proverbial, but at any rate into just such verbal moulds flows, or used +to flow, the expression of the livelier fancy of the people. The Scotch, +too, in which the book is written is singularly rich and racy. + +It may possibly be asked whether stories such as those referred to above +have much to gain from literary elaboration, brevity in this peculiar +form of wit appearing perhaps even more than usually desirable. The +answer is that the result has justified the experiment. For one thing, +_Mansie Wauch_--which preceded the _Pickwick Papers_ by some years--is +one of the earliest classic specimens of broad humour which is entirely +free from coarseness; and, secondly, in this instance, most of the +farcical episodes--such as the mock duel, the Volunteering scene, the +scenes in the watch-house or with the dumb spaewife, and the playhouse +scene, where Mansie so artlessly mistakes feigning for reality--are made +in a way to serve the purpose of illustrating character. In the case +last named--even allowing for the tailor's native simplicity, for the +fact that this is his first play, and for the 'three jugs' of which he +has partaken in the company of Glen, the farmer--a pretty strong call is +made on humorous convention, or on the credulity of the reader. But, +after all, in this style of writing, who would 'consider curiously'? No! +give the humourist his head is the rule, concede him a trifle of +exaggeration, and let him make you laugh if he can. This book was never +meant for closets and the midnight oil, but to be read aloud over the +fire on winter's eves in the family circle. + +Of course strokes of humorous portraiture somewhat subtler than the +above are by no means wanting, as is shown for instance, in the same +scene, in the fuddled tailor's preoccupation with the clothes worn by +the actors--the good coat 'with double gilt buttons and fashionable +lapells,' or 'the very well-made pair of buckskins, a thought the worse +of the wear, to be sure, but which if they had been cleaned, would have +looked almost as good as new.' But throughout the book little Mansie is +equally 'particular,' especially in regard to clothes,--he has the +loquacity of one occupied in a sedentary manual toil, and the abounding +detail in description of minute occurrences which characterises dwellers +in small towns. The scene of the stampede from the barn, following his +reply to the players, is quite in the best manner of the humourists and +caricaturists of that day,--when uncouth persons tumbling one over the +other in their haste, coat-tails torn off, bull-dogs fastening teeth in +human calves, and wigs flying to the winds, seem to have constituted a +never-failing resource for 'bringing down the house.' Pity that, like +Mercutio, we are become grave men since then! However by far the best +scene of this sort--a classic of its kind--is that which paints the +inroad of the gigantic butcher, infuriated at the misfit of his new +killing-coat, into the tailor's shop, and the subsequent tussle between +him on the one hand and Tommy Bodkin, the three 'prentices, Mansie, and +James Batter on the other. Everywhere George Cruikshank, the illustrator +of the book, is neck and neck with the author, hitting off the very +spirit of his fun, and indeed sometimes adding a point to it; but in his +delineations of this scene and of that with the spaewife he surpasses +himself. + +Of course the book would not be Moir's if it entirely lacked poetic and +pathetic relief, which is supplied in the contents of the papers found +in the Welshman's coat-pocket; in the episode of Mungo Glen, the +apprentice from the Lammermoors, who dies of home-sickness and of a +country boy's hatred of the town, and in the story of the _Maid of +Damascus_. + +Of the character of Mansie--the keystone, so to speak, of the book--it +cannot be said that it stands out with the firmness and clearness of +Galt's best work in the kind, still less of one of Miss Ferrier's +inimitable creations. Yet, if somewhat faintly limned, the little +tailor--so eager, so busy, and so thrifty, such a queer mixture of +guilelessness, shrewdness, and superstition, 'a douce elder of Maister +Wiggie's kirk,' and abounding in Scriptural allusion accordingly, +cautious, yet apt to be 'overtaken' as well as overreached, but with his +heart exactly in the right place--is a figure who in the long run wins +and holds a place in our sympathy. In the course of his professional +avocations, Moir may have had occasion to observe that tailors generally +are a nervous race of men, and from the commencement of the narrative we +are shown that Mansie is full of groundless fears and anxieties--terrified +to discharge his musket when on parade as a Volunteer, and frightened +out of his wits in the Kirk Session house by night. And yet in the hour +of need, when house and home are in danger on the night of the fire, we +see him brave as a lion and brimful of resource--saving 'the precious +life of a woman of eighty that had been four long years bed-ridden,' and +by well-directed efforts with his bucket accomplishing more than the +local fire-engine had done. Such a contrast as this--at once effective +and true to human nature--or as that where Mansie, finding the escaped +French prisoner concealed in his coal-hole, is divided between wrath +against the enemy of his country and sympathy for a fellow-creature in +distress, put the finishing touches to a genial figure, which in our +Scottish national literature has a little niche of its own. + + + + +MISS FERRIER + + +Susan Edmonstone Ferrier, the great mistress of the novel of manners in +Scotland, was born in Edinburgh on the 7th September 1782, and was the +youngest of her parents' ten children. Her father, James Ferrier, was a +younger son of John Ferrier, laird of Kirklands, in Renfrewshire, and +her mother--whose maiden name was Helen Coutts--was the daughter of a +farmer near Montrose. James Ferrier was by profession a Writer to the +Signet, having been admitted a member of the Society in the year 1770. +He had been trained to his vocation in the office of a distant relative, +who had the management of the Argyll estates, and to this gentleman's +business he ultimately succeeded. He was thus on terms of intimacy with +the Duke of Argyll, through whose instrumentality he was appointed a +Principal Clerk of Session. In this office he had Sir Walter Scott as a +colleague, and he was also so fortunate as to enjoy the friendship of +Henry Mackenzie, author of the admirable _Man of Feeling_, of Dr Blair, +and last, not least, of Burns. Thus, from her earliest years onward, his +young daughter must have been accustomed to see and to hear of the +literary lights of the Scotland of that day. + +After their marriage, Mr and Mrs Ferrier occupied a flat in Lady Stair's +Close in the Old Town. Their large family was made up of six sons and +four daughters. When Susan was fifteen she lost her mother, and soon +afterwards she was taken by her father to visit at Inverary Castle, the +seat of his patron the Duke. Here a new world was opened to the plainly +brought up Edinburgh girl. Here for the first time she saw fashion and +the 'high life,' and here--either on this or some subsequent +occasion--she formed several acquaintances which were destined to +influence her career. Under John, fifth Duke of Argyll, society at the +Castle had at that period a somewhat literary and artistic tone. Among +its visitors was the accomplished Lady Charlotte Campbell--afterwards +Lady Charlotte Bury--a name which, if unknown to the present generation, +was once of some repute in the world of letters. Lady Charlotte was the +Duke's younger daughter, and had inherited much of the beauty of her +mother, the celebrated Elizabeth Gunning. She was just seven years older +than Susan Ferrier, was distinguished by a passion for the +_belles-lettres_, and was accustomed to do the honours of Scotland to +the literary celebrities of the time. During the year of Miss Ferrier's +first visit to the Castle, she published anonymously a first literary +venture, which bore the conventional title of 'Poems upon Several +Occasions,' by 'A Lady.' + +It may readily be guessed that this fascinating and high-born +personage--distinguished as she was by the honours and the romance of +authorship--produced her due impression on the imagination of the young +visitor. Susan's literary instincts must certainly have been quickened +by the intimacy--for a friendship which lasted till death sprung up +between herself and Lady Charlotte. But, if she was a gainer in one +direction from the acquaintance, I am inclined to believe that she was a +loser in another. Years after, when she herself became an authoress, +her earliest work was disfigured by direct and unsparing portraiture of +living persons among her acquaintance. Now no doubt this kind of writing +may be productive of extreme mirth to persons qualified to read between +the lines, and it must be acknowledged that Miss Ferrier's talent has +made the mirth outlast its immediate occasion. Still, judged as art, +this kind of thing is neither great nor gracious, and to her credit be +it said that the authoress of _Marriage_ lived to see that this was so, +and to amend her style accordingly. It may be noted, however, that the +works attributed to her friend Lady Charlotte include conspicuous +instances of a similar error in taste. Amid the vicissitudes of many +years, her ladyship lived to produce a number of works of fiction, of +the contents of which such titles as _Flirtation_, _The Journal of the +Heart_, _A Marriage in High Life_, may afford some indication. But the +single work with which in the present day her name is associated--and if +she never acknowledged the authorship, it must be remembered that she +resisted all provocations to deny it--is the notorious Diary in which a +lady-in-waiting of Caroline of Brunswick has chronicled the follies and +indiscretions of that unhappy princess, and the unpleasantnesses of +daily life in her Court. Bearing this in mind, one can scarcely regard +the brilliant Lady Charlotte as the best of friends for a young woman, +her inferior in years and station, though greatly her superior in +talent. + +Among other visitors met by Susan at Inverary, two may be particularised +as having afterwards contributed by their oddities to enliven the pages +of her first book. These were the eccentric Mrs Seymour Damer, the +amateur sculptor and friend of Horace Walpole, and Lady Ferrers, widow +of the peer who was hanged for the murder of his steward. With a Miss +Clavering, a grand-daughter of the Duke, who was a child of eight at the +time of her first visit to the Castle, she struck up an eager +friendship. An animated correspondence was started between them, some of +the letters in which have been preserved. These are for the most part +undated, but have reference to a work of fiction which the young ladies +proposed to undertake in partnership, and it is thus that the germ of +_Marriage_ is first brought to light. + +'I do not recollect,' says Miss Ferrier, writing in high spirits; 'I do +not recollect ever to have seen the sudden transition of a high-bred +English beauty, who thinks she can sacrifice all for love, to an +uncomfortable solitary highland dwelling among tall red-haired sisters +and grim-faced aunts. Don't you think this would make a good opening of +the piece? Suppose each of us try our hands on it.' And, later on, after +submitting a portion of her work, she writes again:--'I am boiling to +hear from you, but I've taken a remorse of conscience about Lady +Maclaughlan and her friends: if I was ever to be detected, or even +suspected, I would have nothing for it but to drown myself. I mean, +therefore, to let her alone till I hear from you, as I think we might +compound some other kind of character for her that might do as well and +not be so dangerous. As to the misses, if ever it was to be published +they must be altered or I must fly my native land.' + +In this passage, even after allowing for girlish facetiousness of +expression, Susan Ferrier appears in the character of an accomplished +'quiz,' sailing dangerously close to the wind. Of course her +correspondent is delighted with the specimen of work submitted to her, +and will not hear of anything being altered. What school-girl would? She +essays to allay her friend's fear of discovery, and offers to take the +responsibility of the personalities upon herself. In a subsequent +letter, dated December 1810, she describes reading the manuscript to +Lady Charlotte during a drive. Her ladyship laughed as she had never +been seen to laugh before, and pronounced the fragment 'without the +least exception the cleverest thing that ever was written'--a verdict +which after more detailed examination she endorsed in writing, declaring +it to be '_capital_, with a dash under it.' Not otherwise do the +thoughtless and light-hearted egg each other on to mischief. + +But Miss Ferrier was by this time eight-and-twenty years of age. Her +native strong good sense asserted itself, and for a long time she +resolutely declined to publish her work. (I ought ere this to have +explained that the intended collaboration with Miss Clavering had fallen +through, the sole passage contributed by the younger lady being the +brief and not particularly interesting _History of Mrs Douglas_). In +course of time, however, the merits of the book became known to persons +having more authority to judge them than Lady Charlotte Bury or her +niece. Mr Blackwood, the publisher, read the manuscript, and strongly +urged the authoress to prepare it for publication; whilst no less a +personage than Sir Walter Scott, in the conclusion to his _Tales of My +Landlord_--then seemingly in proof--referred flatteringly to a 'very +lively work entitled _Marriage_,' and singled out its author for mention +among writers of fiction capable of gathering in the rich harvest +afforded by Scottish character. At length, in 1818--after undergoing +several changes in the interval--the book was given to the world. It was +published anonymously, and the authoress, speaking at a later date, +professes to have believed that her name 'never would be guessed at, or +the work heard of beyond a very limited sphere.' But from such obscurity +the gallery of portraits which it contained must alone have sufficed to +save it. For, in addition to the two ladies already mentioned--whose +oddities appear to have contributed jointly to the inimitable figure of +Lady Maclaughlan--the three spinster aunts were drawn from certain +Misses Edmonstone, whilst Mrs Fox represented Mary, Lady Clerk, a +well-known Edinburgh character of the time. It must not, however, be +supposed that the vogue of the book depended upon adventitious +circumstances alone; for _Marriage_ soon became popular far beyond the +limits of any local set. In London it was attributed to the pen of Sir +Walter Scott, and it is even stated to have been very successful in a +French translation. + +Its success at home can surprise no one, for never before had the +idiosyncrasies of Scottish society been so vigorously pourtrayed. As has +already been seen, the means adopted for showing them off are +ingeniously contrived. At the commencement of the story we are +introduced to the beautiful but shallow and artificial Juliana, the Earl +of Courtland's only daughter--a young lady who has been trained solely +with a view to social success and the formation of a brilliant alliance, +the more solid parts of education having in her case been systematically +neglected. She is betrothed to the elderly Duke of L----, but at the +last moment throws him over and elopes to Scotland. The companion of her +flight is Douglas, a handsome young officer in the army, the child of +Scotch parents, but brought up in England by a wealthy adoptive father. +The honeymoon is scarce over when the young people find themselves, not +only partially disabused of their illusions, but in actual pecuniary +straits. Juliana's elopement has hopelessly alienated the Earl; whilst +Douglas, absent from his regiment without leave, is superseded in the +_Gazette_. In these circumstances the only course open to them is to +take up their quarters with the bridegroom's father, at his castle of +Glenfern in the Highlands. Their proposal to do so is most cordially +received, and now the irony of circumstance begins to declare itself. +Lady Juliana has repeatedly protested that with the man of her choice +she could be happy in a desert. But then her idea of a desert, as she +avows when 'tis too late, is a beautiful place full of roses and +myrtles, which, though very retired, would not be absolutely out of the +world; where one could occasionally see one's friends and give +_dejeuners_ and _fetes champetres_. A very different kind of place is +Glenfern Castle. After a long journey in a drizzling rain through dreary +scenery, their destination is reached, and Juliana makes her _entree_, +attended by her footman and lady's-maid, surrounded by her lap-dogs, +squirrel, and mackaw, and encumbered by all the paraphernalia of an +artificial elegance. Never was there a meeting between more opposed +extremes. + + 'At the entrance of the strangers, a flock of females rushed forward + to meet them. Douglas good-humouredly submitted to be hugged by + three long-chinned spinsters whom he recognised as his aunts, and + warmly saluted five awkward purple girls he guessed to be his + sisters: while Lady Juliana stood the image of despair, and, + scarcely conscious, admitted in silence the civilities of her new + relations.' + +The three elderly spinsters are the Laird's sisters--Miss Jacky, who is +esteemed the most sensible woman as well as the greatest orator in the +parish, Miss Grizzy the platitudinous, and Miss Nicky, who is not +wanting in sense either; and these representatives of a bygone social +order are the most celebrated characters in the book. + +Appalled by the sight of the surroundings amid which her life is to be +spent, and distressed by the insolence of a pampered lady's-maid who +instantly throws up her place, Juliana presently succumbs to hysterics. + + 'Douglas now attempted to account for the behaviour of his noble + spouse by ascribing it to the fatigue she had lately undergone, + joined to distress of mind at her father's unrelenting severity + towards her. + + '"O the amiable creature!" interrupted the unsuspecting spinsters, + almost stifling her with their caresses as they spoke. "Welcome, a + thousand times welcome, to Glenfern Castle!" said Miss Jacky. + "Nothing shall be wanting, dearest Lady Juliana, to compensate for a + parent's rigour, and make you happy and comfortable. Consider this + as your future home. My sisters and myself will be as mothers to + you: and see these charming young creatures," dragging forward two + tall frightened girls, with sandy hair and great purple arms; "thank + Providence for having blest you with such sisters!" + + '"Don't speak too much, Jacky, to our dear niece at present," said + Miss Grizzy; "I think one of Lady Maclaughlan's composing draughts + would be the best thing for her--there can be no doubt about that." + + '"Composing draughts at this time of day!" cried Miss Nicky; "I + should think a little good broth a much wiser thing. There are some + excellent family broth making below, and I'll desire Tibby to bring + a few." + + '"Will you take a little soup, love?" asked Douglas. His lady + assented; and Miss Nicky vanished, but quickly re-entered, followed + by Tibby, carrying a huge bowl of coarse Scotch broth, swimming with + leeks, greens, and grease. Lady Juliana attempted to taste it, but + her delicate palate revolted at the homely fare; and she gave up + the attempt, in spite of Miss Nicky's earnest entreaties to take a + few more of these excellent family broth. + + '"I should think," said Henry, as he vainly attempted to stir it + round, "that a little wine would be more to the purpose than this + stuff." + + 'The aunts looked at each other; and, withdrawing to a corner, a + whispering consultation took place, in which "Lady Maclaughlan's + opinion, birch, balm, currant, heating, cooling, running risks," &c. + &c. transpired. At length the question was carried; and some + tolerable sherry, and a piece of very substantial _short-bread_, + were produced. + + 'It was now voted by Miss Jacky, and carried _nem. con._, that her + ladyship ought to take a little repose till the hour of dinner.' + +So bad begins, but worse remains behind; for these are but the +occurrences of a few hours, whilst the visit is to be of long duration. +However enough has been said to indicate the lines along which the story +now develops. The feather-pate Juliana is not of those to whom Time +brings wisdom, and a further acquaintance with her surroundings only +serves to bring to light fresh disgusts. The gaunt apparitions of the +first evening grow no less tiresome as she knows them better, no less +hopelessly remote from every habit, tradition or association of her +life. But her poison is the reader's meat. In the course of the next few +pages we are introduced to Miss Grizzy's friend, Lady Maclaughlan, a +distinguished amateur of medicine and an object of awed admiration to +the sisters. As this lady steps upon the scene--fearfully and +wonderfully attired, and bearing in her hand her gold-headed cane--with +her deep-toned voice, her mercilessly blunt remarks, and her +uncompromising 'humph!'--her ineffectually recalcitrant little husband +borne behind her much as if he were a parcel--she is certainly one of +the most memorable figures in all fiction. And among the most laughable +scenes in all fiction must certainly be counted those in which in high +dudgeon she cuts short her visit to Glenfern Castle, and--still better, +and indeed unsurpassable--in which the ill-starred spinsters, mistaking +the day, arrive to visit her when they are not expected. + +Nor must it for a moment be supposed that such creations as this and the +Aunts are mere masterpieces of the caricaturist. In Miss Ferrier's best +characters it may almost be said to be a rule that caricature enters +only into the details, and is never allowed to interfere with the main +outline. An accusation far more justly to be brought against the +authoress of this book is that of hard-heartedness, or a defect of +sympathy and even of toleration for her own creations. Susan Ferrier was +an uncompromisingly candid woman, as her interesting account of the +visits paid by her to Sir Walter Scott are enough to show. That her +heart was a kind one we know; but when she took pen in hand it was not +her way to extenuate anything. Neither was she given to view persons or +occurrences through any softening light of imagination or feeling. 'What +a cruel thing is a farce to those engaged in it!' wrote another Scottish +author. But she, having devised a farcically cruel situation, squares +her shoulders and regards its development with a ruthlessness more +proper perhaps to science than to art. Not a touch of compunction has +she for her heroine--who, intolerably selfish and heartless as she is, +is yet but a child and the victim of the harshest circumstance; not a +touch of pity for the pathos and repression of such lives as those of +the Aunts. In a word, tolerance is not her strong point. And, admirable +as it is, her art yet suffers by the limitation of her sympathies. For +one pines for the hundred little humanising touches by virtue of which +the same characters--living though they be--might have lived with a +fuller and more gracious life. It is stated that Miss Ferrier's +favourite author was La Bruyere, and in such studies as those of Lady +Placid and Mrs Wiseacre he is obviously the model followed. And, though +her best creations surpass those of her master as a living character +will always surpass an abstract type, yet in this, her earliest effort, +she still retains a good deal too much of the frigid intellectual method +of the Frenchman. + +What will, perhaps, more generally be considered a legitimate ground for +the unpleasant task of fault-finding is, however, the extremely +inartistic construction of the book. As we approach the middle, we are +surprised to find the interest shifted to an almost entirely new set of +characters, who belong to a new generation. Thus at a time when Lady +Juliana cannot be much more than eighteen years of age, she ceases to be +prominent in the story, and after the briefest interval we are called on +to follow the fortunes of her twin daughters, who are now nearing that +age. The bridegroom, Douglas, and two of the Aunts disappear altogether +from the book; and this is the more to be regretted because there are +few readers but will infinitely prefer the racy humours of the elder +generation to the insipid long-drawn-out love-affairs of the contrasted +sisters, even when these are more or less successfully enlivened by the +sallies of the shrewd Lady Emily, by the caricature figure of Dr Redgill +the _gourmand_, and by the absurdities of the literary _precieuses_ of +Bath. + +The success of _Marriage_, justified by its painting of Scottish manners +and by the figures of Lady Maclaughlan and the spinster aunts, had the +right effect upon the sterling Scottish character of the authoress. It +led her to try how much better still she could do. Six years elapsed +before the appearance of her next book, which was published in +1824--like its predecessor, anonymously. Indeed secrecy as to her +literary undertakings appears to have been one of the novelist's +strongest desires; and, writing much of _The Inheritance_ at Morningside +House, near Edinburgh--where her father spent the summers--she complains +of the smallness of the house as making concealment very difficult. + +In the endeavour to improve upon her first achievement, Miss Ferrier was +triumphantly successful. 'The new book,' wrote one of Mr Blackwood's +correspondents at the time of its publication, 'is a hundred miles above +_Marriage_.' Nor does this assertion overshoot the mark; for if the one +is at most a bit of brilliant promise, the other is a superb +performance. Foremost among its advantages must be counted, in place of +the slip-slop of _Marriage_, an interesting and admirably-compacted +plot, and a vigorous literary style--the latter marked indeed, yet not +marred, by a mannerism of literary quotation. What was shapeless and +redundant in _Marriage_ is here moulded and restrained by exigencies of +the story, with the result that characters well-defined, and skilfully +contrasted and relieved, confront the reader standing boldly and firmly +on their feet. + +Several features of _The Inheritance_ seem to have been suggested by the +celebrated Douglas Cause. The Honourable Thomas St Clair, youngest son +of the Earl of Rossville, has forfeited the countenance of his family by +marrying out of his own rank in life. He settles with his wife in +France, and here in the course of years a succession of deaths places +him in the position of heir-presumptive to the earldom. He announces at +head-quarters the important tidings that Mrs St Clair is expecting to +be confined, and having done so, with the Earl's concurrence he and his +wife prepare to return to Scotland. But the confinement takes place, +prematurely, on the journey. A female child is born, after which event +the projected return is indefinitely postponed. So much by way of proem. +The opening of the story shows us Mrs St Clair, now a widow, and her +daughter, Gertrude, a beautiful and blooming maiden, taking up their +abode with the elderly and unmarried Lord Rossville, who recognises the +young lady as heiress to his title and estates. Under his roof, +attention is drawn to a likeness existing between Gertrude and the +portrait of one Lizzie Lundie, a low-born beauty of a bygone day, who +had sat as model for a painting in the Castle. This resemblance is +noticed by more than one person, and on more than one occasion, and +reference to it is generally accompanied by marks of agitation in Mrs St +Clair. Meantime the youthful heiress has won the admiration of two young +men, cousins of her own, who frequent the Castle--the handsome and +elegant Colonel Delmour, a man of fashion and of the world, and the less +showy but far deeper-natured Edward Lyndsay. A singular meeting now +takes place between Mrs St Clair and a stranger named Lewiston, and soon +afterwards it becomes apparent that the latter exercises a great, though +unexplained, power over the lady. The stranger's identity is presently +revealed as that of the husband--long supposed to be dead--of a nurse of +Gertrude's, to whom she had been tenderly attached. At a nocturnal +meeting with Lewiston, at which Mrs St Clair has by entreaty, and by +throwing out vague threats, compelled her daughter to be present, +Lyndsay arrives upon the scene in time to save Gertrude from +molestation, and thus earns her gratitude. However Delmour now declares +his passion, which Gertrude returns--with the result that an +understanding is come to between them. But the Earl has other intentions +regarding the disposal of the hand of his heir, which for family and +political reasons he designs to confer upon the Colonel's elder brother, +a colourless man-of-affairs. By asserting her independence in this +matter, Gertrude provokes Lord Rossville's displeasure; but the +unforeseen effect of his lordship's purblind and blundering intervention +is merely to bring to light the fact that Lyndsay also is in love with +his beautiful cousin. The Earl, who has power to dispose of his +possessions as he pleases, is meditating to disinherit Gertrude on +account of her disobedience, when his sudden death leaves her free to +follow her own wishes. In the meantime, Delmour's conduct has supplied +ground for doubting the purity of his motives; whilst Lyndsay, who has +again come to her rescue in a trying interview with Lewiston, has shown +himself throughout a staunch friend to her best interests. But Gertrude +is now Countess of Rossville in her own right; her lover returns to her +side, and she is herself too noble-minded to question his +disinterestedness. Under his influence she launches out into a variety +of extravagant schemes, and going to London, where she becomes the +admired of all admirers, devotes herself wholly to the pleasures of +society, which for a time have rather an injurious effect upon her +character. Lyndsay makes an appeal to her better self, but amid the +excitement of her surroundings his remonstrance passes unheeded. Jaded +by the excesses of fashionable life, at the end of the season she +returns to Rossville, where the intrusive Lewiston, who has been +thought drowned, now again appears upon the scene, and provoked by her +disdainful treatment divulges the secret that she is the daughter, not +of Mrs St Clair, but of her nurse, and that consequently she has no +title to her present position. Overwhelmed by this intelligence, which +Mrs St Clair's confession confirms, Gertrude loses no time in informing +her lover of the true state of matters, and in so doing reveals the +miserable shallowness of his nature. Delmour's love for the beautiful +and high-spirited girl is genuine; but nameless and without fortune as +she now is, he hesitates to fulfil his engagement towards her. Her love +for him has been of such a different nature that she is well-nigh +broken-hearted by the discovery. But the faithful Lyndsay stands her +friend in need, and the book closes with her reinstatement, long +afterwards, as his wife, in the brilliant position which she has already +wrongly, though innocently, occupied. + +The plot of _The Inheritance_, of which the above is a sketch, is a +model of its kind, whilst from first to last the conduct of the +narrative is perfect. Indeed the _form_ of the story could not be +improved--a rare merit even in a masterpiece of British fiction; and +though the book is a long one, it contains not a superfluous page. Among +the numerous authors quoted in the course of it are Shakespeare and the +Greek dramatists, and perhaps, without stretching probability too far, +we may assume that the authoress had studied the latter as well as the +former. In any case _The Inheritance_ in its own degree unites principal +characteristics of the Greek and the Shakespearian drama, for the web of +circumstance inexorably woven about the innocent and unconscious heroine +is entirely in the manner of the first, whilst the indifferent, +life-like alternation of tragic and ludicrous incident in the narrative +is of a piece with Shakespeare's irony. No finer example of the latter +could be cited than the impressive scene in which Lord Rossville, +looking blankly from his window one snowy afternoon, is amazed to see a +hearse approaching the Castle. Out of the vehicle, when it has reached +the door, steps his lordship's pet aversion and the reader's +delight--the undaunted and ubiquitous Miss Pratt. The voluble lady has a +long story to tell of the circumstances which have compelled her to +resort to this unconventional mode of conveyance, whilst the pompous +Earl is scandalised at the general impropriety of the proceedings, and +especially at thought of the hearse of Mr McVitae, the Radical +distiller, putting up for the night at the Castle. However there is no +help for it; nor as it turns out is the visit so ill-timed as had +seemed, for the next morning Lord Rossville is discovered dead upon his +bed. + +But if the book is remarkable for its admirable story, certainly not +less remarkable is it for the extraordinary wealth of character which it +portrays. Probably few 'novels of plot' are so rich in character, few +'novels of character' so strong in plot. It may be that some carping +critic of the ungentle sex will be found to object to Lyndsay and to +Delmour, the contrasted lovers of the heroine, as to 'a woman's men'--to +urge that their demeanour is too consistently emotional, too +demonstrative, to be founded upon any very solid base of character or of +disposition. But supposing (which I am far from granting) that there +were some truth in this, here at any rate all ground even for +hypercriticism must end. And where in fiction is there a heroine more +charming and more lovable than Gertrude St Clair--gentle yet +high-spirited as she is, natural, and the soul of truth? Her pretended +mother--ambitious and worldly-minded, violent, embittered by the slights +and mortifications of her youth and bent vindictively upon +retaliation--rises to the dignity of tragedy. Then we have the +inimitable rattle and busybody, Miss Pratt, at home everywhere except in +her own house, and incessantly referring to the sayings and doings of an +invisible 'Anthony Whyte'--a very masterpiece of humorous delineation; +and old Adam Ramsay, the cross-grained, misanthropic, Indian uncle, who +yet compels our sympathy by his sentimental attachment to the home of +his boyhood, and his constancy to the memory of his ill-starred love. +Miss Bell Black, afterwards Mrs Major Waddell, is delightful in her +perfect inanity and fatuity; and though her creator may not yet have +learned to suffer fools gladly, she certainly has by this time mastered +the art of portraying 'as though she loved' them. The Earl of Rossville, +puffed up by a sense of his own importance, long-winded, sesquepedalian +and null; Miss Lilly, the poetess, her Cockney lover and her brothers; +gentle Anne Black; Miss Becky Duguid, the accommodating poor relation; +Mrs Fairbairn, the materfamilias; and the peasant-woman whose misguided +foresight leads her to prepare betimes her ailing husband's +dead-clothes,--all of them are admirable, and all bear evidence of being +freshly observed from the life. But the writer has learnt the lesson of +substituting poetic for local truth; and if any portraits appear in this +gallery--and it is stated that Adam Ramsay to some extent represents the +authoress's father--they are such as can no longer rightly give offence +to anyone. Miss Ferrier had reached middle life when she wrote _The +Inheritance_, and perhaps the laughter which it provokes is less +boisterous than that aroused by the first essays of her youth. But for a +scene of high comedy--to select one from many--the first conversation of +Miss Pratt and Uncle Adam would certainly be difficult to surpass. +Finally, we have abundant evidence that in all that she wrote our +authoress was actuated by a genuine desire for the moral and religious +welfare of her reader; but in comparison to that of _Marriage_, her +_tone_ in this book is as is the influence of a well-guided life to a +sententious homily delivered from a pulpit. In one word, there is no +single point in her art in which she has not risen from what is crude +and tentative to what is finished and masterly. + +As it well deserved to be, _The Inheritance_ was a great success, and +amongst those from whom it elicited warm commendation the names of +Jeffrey and Sir Walter Scott may be particularised. Some of the chief +comic actors of the day wished to have it produced upon the stage, with +which object the manager of Covent Garden Theatre applied to Mrs Gore, +the novelist, for a dramatic version of the story. But that lady's +intentions were anticipated by one Fitzball, a purveyor of transpontine +wares in the kind, to whose unfitness for his task the complete failure +of the play, when it came to be produced, may probably be ascribed. For +in its strong, well-developed plot, and diversified characterisation, +the story possesses in a high degree the chief requisites of a +successful stage-play. _The Inheritance_ has also the distinction of +having furnished to Tennyson the outline of his beautiful ballad of +_Lady Clare_. + +Miss Ferrier was a very careful craftswoman--a fact to which much of her +success has been attributed--and it was not until 1831 that her next +book, _Destiny_, appeared. Much of it was written at Stirling Castle, +while she was on a visit to the wife of the Governor of the garrison. +The new novel was dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, to whom the authoress +had good reason to feel obliged, for it was largely in consequence of +his skilful bargaining that she had received for it the large sum of +L1700 from Cadell. The prices paid to her by Blackwood for her two +previous books had been L150 and L1000 respectively. + +As _The Inheritance_ represents the meridian of the writer's powers, so +_Destiny_ represents their decline--not because there are not some as +good things, or very nearly as good things, in the latter as in the +former, but because the whole is very much less good. The construction +of _Destiny_ is loose and inartificial, and almost from the outset the +want of a strong frame-work which shall hold the contents together and +keep them in place makes itself felt. Properly speaking, there are two +stories in the story,--namely, that which centres in the disposal of the +Inch Orran property and the adventures of Ronald Malcolm, and that which +concerns itself with the development of the relations between Edith and +her recalcitrant lover. In itself of course this would be no defect, but +instead of being interwoven, or subordinated one to the other, the two +stories are allowed to run parallel and distinct until near the end of +the book. Thus their interest is dissipated--an effect which diffuseness +of treatment materially increases. Idle pages and straggling incidents +abound, and in fact the sense of form which was so conspicuous in _The +Inheritance_ is in _Destiny_ conspicuous only by absence. + +If we judge it as an essay in character-painting, rather than as a +story, no doubt the novel comes off better. Again, as in _The +Inheritance_, we have a gallery of masterly portraits--though this time +the collection is smaller, and the paintings less highly-finished; and +again we feel that these portraits are drawn, not from some conventional +limbo of the novelist's, but from observation of life itself, backed up +by true imagination. Among the group, the Reverend Duncan M'Dow bears +off the palm from all competitors. This insufferable person, +imperturbable in his own conceit--with his horse-laugh over his own +jocularity, his grossness of manners, his greed for 'augmentation,' and +his wounded self-love mingling with overweening vanity at the end of the +book--is a piece of life itself, and the description of his +luncheon-party is as good as anything accomplished by the authoress. The +incarnation of fashionable selfishness and frivolity in the person of +Lady Elizabeth Malcolm runs him close; but she is probably a less +entirely original creation than the Minister--not that she is in any +sense a copy, but that the same sort of model has been oftener studied. +If we seek for something pleasanter to contemplate, the simple +warm-hearted Molly Macauley, the dreamer of dreams, and the devoted +adherent of the Chief who snubs her, is an endearing figure. The Chief +himself, who loves good eating, and does not disdain to truckle to his +rich childless kinsman, is a conspicuous example of materialisation and +degeneracy, though the dotage of his 'debilitated mind and despotic +temper' becomes almost as tiresome to the reader as it became to Edith +and Sir Reginald. The key to the character of Benbowie, Glenroy's echo, +is not quite apparent, and we should have liked to be assured (as we +believe) that it was mere ineptitude, and not meanness, which caused him +to disappear so hastily on an important occasion when money was +required, and to return bringing it with him when it could no longer be +of use. The vignettes of Inch Orran, the 'particular man,' and his wife, +also stand out in the memory, as does that of the odious Madame Latour. +And from this it will be seen that, with one or two exceptions, the more +disagreeable personages of the book remain the most in evidence, for the +Conways and the family of Captain Malcolm fade into insignificance +beside those whose names are enumerated above. And, though the crux is +an old one, where the high purpose of the writer is so much insisted on, +perhaps it may not be unfair to enquire how far exactly she can be held +to succeed in her aims, when even the regenerate reader is ill at ease +in the company of her good characters and enjoys himself among her awful +examples. The artificiality of some of its dialogues and the triteness +of some of its reflections are further symptoms of the enervation which +has begun to invade the book. + +Miss Ferrier's history is the history of her books, and to these remarks +upon her final literary production little need be added. Her mother +being dead, and her three sisters married, it fell to her lot to keep +house for her father, to whom she was devotedly attached, and with him +she continued to reside until his death in January 1829. Her life, which +was divided between Morningside House and Edinburgh, and varied by +occasional visits to her sisters, is described as a very quiet one, and +if we may accept the Adam Ramsay of _The Inheritance_ as at all a close +portrait of Mr Ferrier, it must have had its grim side too. She had long +suffered from her eyes, and in 1830 she paid her final visit to London, +in order to consult an oculist. From his treatment, however, she seems +to have derived little benefit; her eyesight failed, and it became +necessary for her to spend much of her time in a darkened room; and +though she still continued occasionally to receive a few friends at tea +in the evening, her life from henceforth was a very retired one. She +died in Edinburgh, on the 5th November 1854, at the house of her +brother, Mr Walter Ferrier, and was interred in St Cuthbert's +Churchyard. + +Her dislike of publicity characterized her to the last. It was not until +1851, when a new edition of her works was published, that she consented +to allow her name to appear upon the title-page, whilst her +unwillingness to be made the subject of a biography led her to destroy +all letters which might have been used for such a purpose, and in +particular a correspondence with one of her sisters, which contained +much biographical matter. The records of her life are consequently few, +but the following testimony of an intimate friend is interesting:-- + + 'The wonderful vivacity she maintained in the midst of darkness and + pain for so many years, the humour, wit, and honesty of her + character, as well as the Christian submission with which she bore + her great privation and general discomfort, when not suffering acute + pain, made everyone who knew her desirous to alleviate the + tediousness of her days; and I used to read a great deal to her at + one time, and I never left her darkened chamber without feeling that + I had gained something better than the book we might be reading, + from her quick perception of its faults and its beauties, and her + unmerciful remarks on all that was mean or unworthy in conduct or + expression.' + +Still more interesting is the sentence in Scott's diary which describes +her as 'A gifted personage, having, besides her great talents, +conversation the least _exigeante_ of any author-female, at least, whom +I have ever seen among the long list I have encountered; simple, full of +humour, and exceedingly ready at repartee, and all this without the +least affectation of the blue-stocking.' Of her considerate kindness to +the author of _Waverley_, then in failing health, on the occasion of her +last visit to Abbotsford, Lockhart gives this pleasing description:-- + + 'To assist in amusing him in the hours which he spent out of his + study, and especially that he might make these hours more frequent, + his daughter had invited his friend the authoress of _Marriage_ to + come out to Abbotsford; and her coming was serviceable. For she knew + and loved him well, and she had seen enough of affliction akin to + his to be well skilled in dealing with it. She could not be an hour + in his company without observing what filled his children with more + sorrow than all the rest of the case. He would begin a story as + gaily as ever, and go on, in spite of the hesitation in his speech, + to tell it with highly picturesque effect; but before he reached the + point, it would seem as if some internal spring had given way. He + paused and gazed around him with the blank anxiety of look that a + blind man has when he has dropped his staff. Unthinking friends + sometimes gave him the catchword abruptly. I noticed the delicacy of + Miss Ferrier on such occasions. Her sight was bad, and she took care + not to use her glasses when he was speaking, and she affected also + to be troubled with deafness, and would say, "Well, I am getting as + dull as a post, I have not heard a word since you said so and so," + being sure to mention a circumstance behind that at which he had + really halted. He then took up the thread with his habitual smile of + courtesy, as if forgetting his case entirely in the consideration of + the lady's infirmity.' + +In conclusion, if Miss Ferrier's work lacks the sweetness and delicacy +of Miss Austin's, it has at its best a strength to which her English +sister's makes no pretension. The portraits of the former are _bitten +in_ with a powerful acid unknown in the chemistry of the latter. But if +she was sometimes _downright_ to the verge of cruelty, Miss Ferrier's +view of life was a sound one. She strikes unsparingly at the rawness and +self-sufficiency which are characteristic defects of such large numbers +of our countrymen; yet she remains without rival as a painter of +Scottish society, and one at least of her novels deserves to rank with +the masterpieces of British fiction. + + + + +MICHAEL SCOTT + + +There used to be a tradition at Cambridge to the effect that an +undergraduate, being called on in examination to give some account of +John the Baptist, returned the answer, 'Little or nothing is known of +this extraordinary man,'--a reply which probably did not go far enough +to satisfy the examiner. Scarcely more satisfying, however, must be the +response of the biographer who is called on to gratify natural curiosity +regarding the author of _Tom Cringle's Log_--scarcely more satisfying, +though with apparently so much less of excuse. For it is only a little +over sixty years since the death of Michael Scott. Neither was his a +case of posthumous reputation, or of rehabilitation after long neglect, +which might have accounted for the obscuring of biographical detail--his +work, though it has lost nothing of popularity, or certainly of +readableness in the interim, having been received with acclamation on +its first appearance. And yet, after diligent and eager enquiry, the +present writer finds himself forced to acknowledge that all but a meagre +outline of the facts of Scott's life is lost. This is the more +remarkable in that he was obviously no bookworm or literary recluse, and +that all who know his writings will feel instinctively that one so +characterised by humour and the love of good company--to say nothing of +practical joking--should have strewn anecdote thick behind him wherever +he went. But if this was so, his traces have been most effectually +expunged. The sort of find which now rewards, or mocks, his would-be +biographer is, for example, such a tradition as that which records that +he was fond of whisky punch--a solitary survival in the mind of one who +remembers him in Glasgow, but a trait which, considering the times and +the society in which Scott lived, can scarcely be held as individual. +This, however, is not the worst. The writer has reason to believe that +the glorious sea masterpiece with which Scott's name is chiefly +associated was written, or at least partly written, in a house now +belonging to himself--namely, the secluded cottage of Birseslees, +situated on the banks of Ale, in Roxburghshire. Such, at least, is the +tradition which he received from his father, one constitutionally averse +to random statement, who had himself occupied the cottage within ten +years of Scott's decease, and who, as an enthusiastic yachtsman, +familiar with the West Indies, had special reasons for being interested +in his writings. Such testimony--as Mr Mowbray Morris, Scott's +biographer, remarks--is at least as good as that on which rest most of +the statements regarding his life, and no apology is made for adducing +it here. Yet, in despite of this testimony, a careful search, recently +conducted among the oldest inhabitants of the neighbourhood, has failed +to bring to light any but the vaguest and most uncertain references to +the author of the _Log_. Under these conditions, what is left for a +biographer to do? He has no choice but to content himself with a +recapitulation of the few facts already current. One person, indeed, +there is in whose power it almost certainly lies, by enlightening our +ignorance, to gratify our by no means unkindly curiosity; but it is +generally understood that, for reasons which we have no right to +challenge, and which at least in no wise concern the fair fame of the +author, that person's lips are sealed. It therefore now only remains to +consider whether the darkness which surrounds Scott's life is the result +of intention or of accident, and in support of the former conclusion it +may be stated that, among men-of-letters of the time, taking their cue +from the author of _Waverley_, and the practice of Maga, there existed +an undoubted taste for mystification; whilst that the younger Scott +shared in it is proved by the facts that his true name was never known +to his publisher otherwise than by hearsay, and that in his own family +circle and that of his immediate acquaintances the identity of Tom +Cringle was unknown. One suggestion is that these measures were taken +from a prudential point of view, in the interest of his business as a +merchant, which might possibly have suffered had it been known to +receive but divided attention. But as he avoided publicity in +authorship, he may also have chosen to do so in other things. Otherwise, +if internal evidence counts for anything, we should certainly suppose +him to have been the least self-conscious of men, and one of the last in +the world to trouble his head--unless he did it as a joke--as to what +might be known, or not known, about himself. + +Under existing circumstances, to write the life of Scott is to reproduce +the narrative of Mr Mowbray Morris. Born at Cowlairs, near Glasgow, on +the 30th October 1789, he was his father's fifth and youngest son. To +that father, Allan Scott by name, the estate of Cowlairs had come from +an elder brother, Robert, described as a Glasgow merchant of good +family, who had purchased it in 1778,--at which time the house stood in +the country, though its site has long since been swallowed up by the +encroachments of the town. Young Scott was sent first to the Grammar +School, as the High School of Glasgow was then called, and afterwards to +the University, where he matriculated when just twelve years of age. +Aird states that he was at school with John Wilson. At the University he +remained four years, during the latter part of which he had as his +inseparable companion the future author of _Cyril Thornton_, a +fellow-student of tastes akin to his own, who has furnished in that +novel a picture of the college life of the time. At the University Scott +does not appear to have gained distinction. Perhaps, like many another +author in embryo, he preferred miscellaneous reading to the college +course; at any rate, the few literary allusions scattered over the pages +of his books are generally apt and appreciative. However his taste seems +to have been for active life, spiced if possible by adventure, and +accordingly, in 1806, we find him leaving Scotland for the West Indies. + +At this point Mr Morris, our authority, makes a digression in order to +describe the magnitude and antiquity of the Clyde shipping-trade, and +the effect exercised upon it by the revolt of our American colonies, +which, by diverting it from Virginia to the West Indies, had changed its +staple from tobacco to sugar. It happened that a family friend of the +Scotts, Bogle by name--a Glasgow merchant and the descendant of Glasgow +merchants--had at that time a nephew resident in Jamaica, where he was +occupied as an estate-agent, and on his own account as a trader. To the +care of this gentleman young Scott is now supposed to have been +consigned, that he might be taught an estate-agent's duties. The agent's +name was George William Hamilton, and one feels sure that no admirer of +the _Log_ will hear with indifference that in him Scott found the +original of the most individual of his many droll planter portraits--the +portrait of Aaron Bang. + +After profiting for three or four years by the instructions of Hamilton, +who combined with his humorous propensities a very decided talent for +business, in the year 1810 Scott entered a mercantile house at Kingston, +in the employment of which he continued for seven years more. 'These +years,' says Mr Morris, 'were the making of the _Log_. His business, +coupled with Hamilton's friendship, not only brought him into contact +with every phase of society in Jamaica, but sent him on frequent voyages +among the islands and to the Spanish Main; and certainly few travellers +can have carried a more curious pair of eyes with them than Michael +Scott, or entered more heartily into the spirit of the passing hour.' In +1817 he returned to Scotland, and in the year following married +Margaret, daughter of the Mr Bogle previously referred to, and +consequently first cousin to Hamilton. He was soon back in Jamaica, +however, and it was presumably at this time that he occupied the +house--situated high up among the Blue Mountains, in midst of some of +the finest scenery in the world--which is still shown to visitors as +his. He remained in Jamaica till 1822, when he finally returned to his +native land to start business on his own account. This he seems to have +combined with a share in other mercantile concerns, being at the time of +his death a partner in a commission-house in Glasgow, as well as in a +Scottish commercial house in Maracaybo, on the Spanish Main. + +It was in 1829 that he first appeared as an author, in which year--again +to quote Mr Morris--'the _Log_ began to make its appearance in +Blackwood's Magazine as a disconnected series of sketches, published +intermittently as the author supplied them, or as the editor found it +convenient to print them. The first five, for instance, appeared in +September and November, 1829, and in June, July and October, 1830, under +the titles of "A Scene off Bermuda," "The Cruise of H.M.S. _Torch_," +"Heat and Thirst--a Scene in Jamaica," "Davy Jones and the Yankee +Privateer," and the "Quenching of the _Torch_"; and these five papers +now constitute the third chapter.' But shrewd Mr Blackwood, who greatly +admired the sketches, persuaded the author to give them some sort of +connecting link, 'which, without binding him to the strict rules of +narrative composition, would add a strain of personal and continuous +interest in the movement of the story. The young midshipman accordingly +began to cut a more conspicuous figure; and in July, 1832, the title of +"Tom Cringle's Log" was prefixed to what is now the eighth, but was then +called the eleventh chapter. Henceforward the _Log_ proceeded regularly +each month, with but one intermission, to its conclusion in August, +1833'; and a few months later, after some final touches, it made its +appearance as a book. Its success was immediate. It was hailed with +applause in particular by Coleridge, Christopher North, and Albany +Fonblanque--the first-named of whom pronounced it 'most excellent.' +Lockhart in the _Quarterly Review_, in an article on 'Monk' Lewis's +West Indian travels, also speaks of it as the most brilliant series of +magazine papers of the time; whilst the _Scottish Literary Gazette_ for +November 1833 concludes a glowing notice by adjuring the writer, +whatever he may undertake next, to remember that he is the author of +_Tom Cringle's Log_. + +Its successor, _The Cruise of the Midge_, made a more regular progress, +from its commencement in March 1834, to its conclusion in June of the +following year, though it also required some final overhauling before +its appearance as a volume. These two books constitute the literary +output of their author, and the completion of the _Cruise of the Midge_ +brings us within a short distance of his death, which occurred at his +house in Glasgow[9] on the 7th November 1835, when he had just completed +his forty-sixth year. A large family survived to mourn his loss. He is +buried in the Necropolis, where an unpretending monument marks his +resting-place and that of his wife and several of their children. In the +inscription which it bears, no allusion whatever is made to his literary +achievements. I have been told that in private life Scott was a quiet +easy-going man, of modest and retiring disposition, and also, on the +authority of an old lady who remembers his death, that great was the +surprise in Glasgow when it became known that he had been the author of +thrilling tales of adventure by sea and land. It is said, by the way, +that certain of Cringle's adventures were drawn from the experiences of +a Captain Hobson, father of the Arctic explorer of that name, who when a +lieutenant, about the year 1821, was engaged in putting down piracy in +the West Indies. The character of Paul Gelid can likewise be traced to +an original. + +Here ends what is to be known about Scott's life, and if it is with +regret that we accept this fact as inevitable, there is at least a +certain consolation to be derived from reflecting that, in this prying +age, at least one gallant literary figure stands secure from the +mishandling of meddlers. But--the author himself having evaded the +biographer--it is scarcely less remarkable that the popularity of his +works seems to have won them no adequate eulogy. For, so far as I know, +we may search in vain among critical essays for an appreciation of these +masterpieces. Possibly their character as books of adventure relegated +to the boys' shelf may be in part accountable for this; whilst doubtless +the frequent roughness and homeliness of their style--whether casual, or +introduced for the purpose of fitting the speech to the speaker--may +have scared off many such pedants and wiseacres as have yet to learn +that mere _correctness_ is one of the very humblest of literary +qualities, or at least that genius--so it _be_ genius--is like King +Sigismund, above the grammar-books. At an age when most boys are still +puzzling over syntax and orthography, Mr Thomas Cringle and Lieutenant +Benjamin Brail had already brought stout hearts and ready hands to bear +upon the work of men, and it is quite true that in the records of their +experiences not only do we find foreigners talking their own languages +very imperfectly, but also the authors themselves from time to time +making use of faulty constructions and of novel spelling. Now had their +business been mainly an affair of words and phrases, this had been +serious indeed; but as, instead, it happens to be one of thoughts, +feelings, sensations, and the art of communicating them, the case is +very different. And we may add that had any man composed ten times as +loosely as Cringle sometimes chose to do, whilst still retaining +Cringle's power to make us see and feel with him, that man had still +remained a most remarkable writer. However already more than enough has +been said on the subject of these few and very trifling errors, which in +fact interfere not at all with a style which is usually clear, nervous +and straightforward. + +As has been already indicated, Scott's principal literary gift lay in +his power of presentation--his power, that is, of putting simply, +sufficingly, and without redundancy, a scene or person before the +reader, so that he shall see the one and hear the other speak. From the +days of Homer to those of the world-wide success of the youngest of our +distinguished novelists, this gift has been recognised as quintessential +in the story-teller. In the two broad classes of temperaments, it is +wont to assume two separate forms, which differ from one another--in +class-room terms--as the objective from the subjective. Of the latter of +these--by virtue of which a reader is compelled so completely to +identify himself with scenes depicted that he not only seems to witness +them, but actually for the time being to participate and play the +leading part in them--the works of Currer Bell, and perhaps especially +_Villette_, the most highly-finished of her novels, afford notable +examples. The converse side of the gift is displayed by the virile and +active temperament of Michael Scott; and, of this particular quality, +many a writer of far higher reputation has possessed greatly less than +he. In illustration of this, the example of his greater namesake may be +quoted, for with all his many other excellences, Sir Walter's pictorial +or mimetic effects are seldom, or never, perfectly 'clean'--direct, and +free from surplusage or alloy. Michael Scott's, on the other hand, are +about as direct as it is possible to be. Illustrations might be quoted +at will, for if there is one thing more surprising than the gift itself, +it is the lavish use made of it by its possessor on page after page of +his writings. The following characteristic scene may serve as an +example, and it must be borne in mind that all Scott's fine scenes are +incidental: he never, so to speak, makes a point of them. + + 'It was eleven o'clock in the forenoon, a fine clear breezy day, + fresh and pleasant, sometimes cloudy overhead, but always breaking + away again, with a bit of a sneezer, and a small shower. As the sun + rose there were indications of squalls in the north-eastern quarter, + and about noon one of them was whitening to windward. So "hands by + the top-gallant clew-lines" was the word, and we were all standing + by to shorten sail, when the Commodore came to the wind as sharp and + suddenly as if he had anchored; but on a second look, I saw his + sheets were let fly. The wind, ever since noon, had been blowing in + heavy squalls, with appalling lulls between them. One of these gusts + had been so violent as to bury in the sea the lee-guns in the waist, + although the brig had nothing set but her close-reefed + main-top-sail, and reefed foresail. It was now spending its fury, + and she was beginning to roll heavily, when, with a suddenness + almost incredible to one unacquainted with these latitudes, the veil + of mist that had hung to windward the whole day was rent and drawn + aside, and the red and level rays of the setting sun flashed at + once, through a long arch of glowing clouds, on the black hull and + tall spars of his Britannic Majesty's sloop, _Torch_. And, true + enough, we were not the only spectators of this gloomy splendour; + for, right in the wake of the moonlike sun, now half sunk in the + sea, at the distance of a mile or more, lay a long warlike-looking + craft, apparently a frigate or heavy corvette, rolling heavily and + silently in the trough of the sea, with her masts, yards, and the + scanty sail she had set, in strong relief against the glorious + horizon.' + +Or this-- + + 'The anchorage was one unbroken mirror, except where its glass-like + surface was shivered into sparkling ripples by the gambols of a + skipjack, or the flashing stoop of his enemy the pelican; and the + reflection of the vessel was so clear and steady, that at the + distance of a cable's length you could not distinguish the + water-line, nor tell where the substance ended and shadow began, + until the casual dashing of a bucket overboard for a few moments + broke up the phantom ship; but the wavering fragments soon reunited, + and she again floated double, like the swan of the poet. The heat + was so intense, that the iron stancheons of the awning could not be + grasped with the hand, and where the decks were not screened by it, + the pitch boiled out from the seams. The swell rolled in from the + offing in long shining undulations, like a sea of quicksilver, + whilst every now and then a flying-fish would spark out from the + unruffled bosom of the heaving water, and shoot away like a silver + arrow, until it dropped with a flash into the sea again. There was + not a cloud in the heavens, but a quivering blue haze hung over the + land, through which the white sugar-works and overseers' houses on + the distant estates appeared to twinkle like objects seen through a + thin smoke, whilst each of the tall stems of the cocoa-nut trees on + the beach, when looked at steadfastly, seemed to be turning round + with a small spiral motion, like so many endless screws. There was a + dreamy indistinctness about the outlines of the hills, even in the + immediate vicinity, which increased as they receded, until the Blue + Mountains in the horizon melted into sky. The crew were listlessly + spinning oakum, and mending sails, under the shade of the awning; + the only exceptions to the general languor were John Crow, the + black, and Jacko the monkey. The former (who was an _improvisatore_ + of a rough stamp) sat out on the bowsprit, through choice, beyond + the shade of the canvas, without hat or shirt, like a bronze bust, + busy with his task, whatever that might be, singing at the top of + his pipe, and between whiles confabulating with his hairy ally, as + if he had been a messmate. The monkey was hanging by the tail from + the dolphin-striker, admiring what John Crow called "his own dam + ogly face in the water." + + 'Tail like yours would be good ting for a sailor, Jacko; it would + leave his two hands free aloft--more use, more hornament, too, I'm + sure, den de piece of greasy junk dat hangs from de captain's + taffril.--Now I shall sing to you, how dat Corromantee rascal, my + fader, was sell me on de Gold Coast-- + + '"Two red nightcap, one long knife, + All him get for Quacko, + For gun next day him sell him wife-- + You tink dat good song, Jacko?" + + '"Chocko, chocko," chattered the monkey, as if in answer. + + '"Ah, you tink so--sensible hominal!--What is dat! shark?--Jacko, + come up, sir: don't you see dat big shovel-nosed fis looking at you? + Pull your hand out of the water--Garamighty!" + + 'The negro threw himself on the gammoning of the bowsprit to take + hold of the poor ape, who, mistaking his kind intention, and + ignorant of his danger, shrunk from him, lost his hold, and fell + into the sea. The shark instantly sank to have a run, then dashed at + his prey, raising his snout over him, and shooting his head and + shoulders three or four feet out of the water, with poor Jacko + shrieking in his jaws, whilst his small bones crackled and crunched + under the monster's triple row of teeth.' + +To this talent for presentation, by a most fortunate coincidence, +Scott's experience enabled him to add a command of rich and rare +material: his subject-matter was quite worthy of the powers which he +brought to bear upon it. Indeed, few literary men have been more +favoured by time and place. For, letting alone the fact that the West +Indies were in those days virgin soil to the romance-writer, letting +alone the glorious opportunities afforded by a familiarity with Nature +in the tropics, studied in storm and calm, by land and sea--and +especially to a man of Scott's taste for strong effects, one gifted with +his eye for atmosphere, whose genius itself has something of tropical +grandeur and luxuriance, were these opportunities valuable,--letting +alone, also, the rich and varied social order amid which he moved--its +quaint and original types of planter and seaman, the picturesqueness of +its desperadoes, and the naivete of its coloured people--Scott's sojourn +in the islands was timed at a particularly stirring epoch in their +history. Warfare, smuggling and piracy, slavery and the suppression of +the slave-trade were being carried on before his eyes; and it is even +suggested that such scenes as the boarding of the _Wave_, the +examination of Job Rumble-tithump, and the trial and execution of the +pirates, may very probably have had their foundation in things actually +witnessed by the writer. Now I suppose that I am not singular, and that +like myself many genuine lovers of romance delight to cherish the belief +that what they are reading, if not actually true, is at least in some +way related to the author's experience. In this respect Scott satisfies +us perfectly. And herein lies his immense advantage over other +competitors in the same field. For in reading, for instance (admirable +as they are), the pirate scenes of the _Master of Ballantrae_, we cannot +but miss this sense,--so that whilst we hear with bated breath of bloody +deeds and hairbreadth 'scapes, we are haunted all the while by an uneasy +feeling that this is all but a most brilliantly executed _fantasia_, or +variation, upon documents. + +Granting, then, that rarely if ever have more brilliant pictures of more +interesting incidents been more lavishly set before a reader than in the +pages of _Tom Cringle's Log_, we are impelled to enquire what are the +corresponding weaknesses which have debarred the author from taking the +highest rank as a writer. The answer is not far to seek; it is a defect +of constructive power. If he possessed much genius, Michael Scott had +but little art. The effect of his fine pictures is not cumulative; each +is alike revealed, as it were, by a powerful flash, and the result is +that they obliterate one another. For it is surely needless to point out +that every work of high artistic achievement is a whole, and that in +that whole, and in relation to that whole, each part has a value +greatly exceeding its value when considered separately. But in Scott's +stories this is not so. Remove any one incident from one of his stories, +and the reader will be the poorer by the loss of an interesting +incident, and by no more. And so, with injury only of the same kind, his +books might be extended or curtailed, whilst their incidents might be +transposed without injury at all. I am aware that to write in this +somewhat heavily academic style of a writer than whom no man of equal +gifts made ever less pretention, may be to incur the imputation of +taking too high a ground, and to draw down criticism upon the critic's +head. I can only reply that the extreme excellence, within their own +limits, of Scott's literary achievements has provoked me to it, and that +had his works shown less surprising merit they should have been treated +in a lighter vein. + +The same neglect of constructive power which strikes us in the conduct +of the tales is apparent in the treatment of the characters. It is the +practice of masters of characterisation to make their characters, so to +speak, _turn round_ before the reader, so that, ere the end of the book +is reached, no aspect of them shall have been left unseen. But with +Scott one aspect is exhibited repeatedly, and thus our knowledge is +circumscribed. That the characters live we feel assured, but with one or +two such exceptions as Aaron and Obed, it is as members of a class that +we recognise them, not as _individuals_, whilst again and again as we +read we are compelled to turn back would we distinguish from his fellows +any particular one among the quaintly-named officers and seamen. + +In female portraiture Scott attempts but little, in which he is +probably well-advised. For though Cringle's sweetheart is certainly a +pleasing sketch enough, in his more ambitious and quasi-Byronic +flights--the delineation of the pirate's leman or the bride of +Adderfang--the author for the moment leaves nature behind him, and +consequently gives us almost the only passages in his books which do not +ring true. These passages may perhaps be held to justify the +condemnation of Captain Marryat, who pronounced him melodramatic. +But--despite the strong nature of the fare which he provides--melodramatic, +except in such passages, he certainly is not. For to describe thrilling +situations, with the eye not fixed upon the situations themselves but +intent on their _effect_, is melodrama in the true sense; and of this +the genial author of _The Pirate and Three Cutters_ himself supplies +some choice examples. + +It strikes a reader as strange that the occasion of Cringle's visit to +Carthagena evokes no allusion to Smollett, for it is with Smollett and +Marryat that we most naturally think of comparing Cringle's creator. +Michael Scott does not rise to the Cervantic heights of humour of the +former; but few, indeed, are the writers who have done this. Nor, of +course, has he Smollett's style; though, on the other side of the +account, with thankfulness we acknowledge that his page is quite free +from Smollett's filth and coarseness. Marryat also possessed more of the +gifts of the novelist than Scott, or at least had greater opportunities +of showing them. But there is one point, and that a most telling one, in +which Scott has immeasurably the advantage of the others--he comes far +_nearer to the reader_ than either of them. Of course his easy and +homely style, his use of the first person, his occasional confidential +digressions, are means employed towards this end, but equally of course +the secret of his success lies in his personality. Personality, or, in +other words, genius it is which gives him his power over the reader--a +power which makes even the refractory and fastidious to follow him, as a +dog follows its master. Constitutionally a reader may have small relish +for farce, and a positive distaste for horse-play; and yet when Scott is +in the mood for either, the reader will become so too. And in a higher +and sweeter kind of humour, his power is equally in proportion to the +demand of the occasion--in support of which I can cite no better +evidence than the delightful scenes in which the sailors of the _Midge_ +seek to resuscitate the apparently drowned baby boy, afterwards +nicknamed Dicky Phantom; and in which their joy is expressed when he +gives signs of life; with Dogvane's mission to the officer in command to +plead on behalf of his mess-mates for the custody of the child (which +shall replace in their affections a parrot blown away in a gale, a +monkey washed overboard, and a cat which has died of cold) and the +subsequent scenes in which, with a comical shamefaced roundaboutness, +one after another, to the admiral himself, puts in his claim for the +care of the babe. Scenes more winningly human than these would, I think, +be far to seek. In equal degree does this beloved writer hold the key to +our manlier enthusiasms. Far distant be the day when amongst +generous-minded boys such books as his shall lose their popularity, for +it is by these that the best lessons of our history are enforced. It has +been said of the playwright Shakespeare that his works are proof that he +had it in him to strike a stout blow in a good cause. The spirit of +Agincourt was not found wanting at Trafalgar, and the same may be said +with truth of the Glasgow merchant, Scott. The voice of Britain's +greatness itself speaks in his books, and as we read them we seem +brought nearer to the spirit of Drake or of Dundonald. + +In conclusion, Scott's stories have here been considered together, for +though the _Log_ is on the whole justly the favourite of the two, in +general characteristics they are almost identical. Quite towards the +close, both books display some slight tendency to 'drag,' but in this +respect the _Cruise_ is the worse transgressor. It is also the more +loosely put together, and this despite the fact that in the relations +subsisting between Lennox and Adderfang, and the mystery which surrounds +young De Walden, the author has obviously been at pains to sustain +interest by something in the nature of a plot. Again, if he does not +repeat himself in the _Cruise_, Scott at least does not steer quite +clear of all danger of doing so; for, in addition to the fact that the +general pattern of the two tales is the same, several incidents of the +latter have counterparts in the former. And yet, on the whole, such fine +books are they both that to criticise either is deservedly to incur the +imputation of being spoiled with good things. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] No. 198 Atholl Place. Article in _Glasgow Herald_, 1st May 1895. + + + + +THOMAS HAMILTON + + +The statement--somewhat disquieting to the professed litterateur--that +almost any man may if he choose write one good book in a life-time, +finds something like confirmation in the case of Thomas Hamilton. Not +primarily a writer, and not gifted by nature with any very remarkable +talent or grace of the pen, he yet contrived to produce a book for which +a few transcripts of military life in peace and war, a few pictures of +travel, perhaps a portrait or two drawn from the life, have sufficed to +preserve, after seventy years, a portion of the favour with which it was +greeted on its first appearance. The materials for a sketch of his +career are scanty, but blanks in the narrative may to some extent be +filled in from a perusal of _Cyril Thornton_. + +Born in the year 1789, he was the younger son of William Hamilton, +Professor of Anatomy and Botany in the University of Glasgow, his elder +brother becoming in time Sir William Hamilton, the celebrated +metaphysician and intellectual luminary of Edinburgh. He was put to +school in the south of England, and about the year 1803 entered the +Glasgow University, where he studied for three winters, giving evidence, +as his brother has borne witness, of ability rather than of application. +His taste for a military life was at first opposed, but having satisfied +his friends by experiment that he was unsuited for a commercial career, +in 1810 he obtained by purchase a commission in the 29th Regiment. He +had hardly joined, when the corps was ordered out to active service in +the Peninsula, where it bore the brunt of the hardly-won battle of +Albuera, in which Hamilton himself was wounded by a musket bullet in the +thigh. During his short military career, he was once more on active +service in the Peninsula, and also served in Nova Scotia and New +Brunswick during the American War, subsequent to which he returned to +Europe, his regiment being sent as part of the army of occupation to +France. Retiring on half-pay about the year 1818, he came to reside in +Edinburgh, and began to turn his attention to literature. He had +received a good classical education, and being well introduced, he was +hailed as a congenial spirit by the Blackwood circle, and becoming +associated with the magazine, threw himself into the spirit of the +enterprise, to which he furnished contributions both in verse and prose. +In the _Noctes Ambrosianae_ he occasionally figures as 'O'Doherty,' a +name, however, which was also applied to Dr Maginn. He is described in +_Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk_ as possessing a 'noble grand +Spaniard-looking head,' with a very sombre expression of countenance, +and a tall graceful person. The natural freedom of his movements seems, +however, to have been to some extent impeded by his wound. Carlyle, who +knew him later, describes him as a 'pleasant, very courteous, and +intelligently talking man, enduring, in a cheery military humour, his +old Peninsular hurts,' and altogether it is easy to see that he must +have formed an interesting and popular figure in the Edinburgh society +of his day. + +Having married in 1820, he resided for several summers at the +picturesque little dwelling of Chiefswood, near Melrose, where he had an +appreciative neighbour in the person of Sir Walter Scott, and where the +greater part of the _Youth and Manhood of Cyril Thornton_ was written. +This book appeared in 1827, and at once attracted attention. In 1829, +the author followed it up with _Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns, from +1808 to 1814_, and in 1833, after a visit to the New World, by _Men and +Manners in America_. In later life, having lost his first wife and +married again, he settled at Elleray, in the Lake District, where he saw +a good deal of Wordsworth, of whom he had long been an admirer, +frequently, as we are told, accompanying the poet upon long mountain +walks. His death, occasioned by a shock of paralysis, took place at +Pisa, whilst he was travelling with Mrs Hamilton, on the 7th December +1842. He was buried at Florence. + +No doubt the novel of _Cyril Thornton_ has in time past owed much of its +popularity to its varied action and frequently shifting scene, and if we +are to judge it now on literary grounds we have no choice but to +acknowledge that great portion of its interest has perished. Still, +there remain a few admirable passages, and in this particular instance +the lines of cleavage between true and false are marked with peculiar +distinctness. For the book may be described as fragments of +autobiography embedded in a paste of romance. Now imagination was by no +means Hamilton's strong point; his fancy was neither very happy nor very +abundant, and when he essays character-painting on an important +scale--as in the case of old David Spreull, the conventional eccentric +but beneficent uncle of the story, and his faithful servant Girzy, he is +as deficient in anything like true insight as he is in lightness of +touch. But though his fiction is of this heavy quality, he could present +to admiration what he himself had seen and taken part in, and from time +to time he has thought fit to do so, with excellent effect. + +Cyril Thornton is the scion of an old county family, who, at a very +early age, has the misfortune accidentally to kill his elder brother. +His father's affection is in consequence alienated from him, and he +grows up under a cloud. In time he is sent to the University, and the +scene of the story shifts to Glasgow, thus affording opportunity for +some scathing portraiture of the merchant life of that city. At Glasgow +Cyril makes the acquaintance of his uncle, and by the amiability and +independence of his character conquers the affection of the rich old +childless man. He has now arrived at man's estate, and whilst visiting +his aristocratic connection, the Earl of Amersham, at Staunton Court, he +sees, loves, and is beloved by, the beautiful and fascinating Lady +Melicent, the daughter of the house. Their scarcely-avowed attachment is +interrupted by the fatal illness of Cyril's mother, and being summoned +to return home with all speed, Cyril is there informed that, in a spirit +of cruel vindictiveness, his father has disinherited him. His gloom +deepens, and after some further romantic and amatory experience, at +length--alas! it is, indeed, at length--he joins the army. This is what +we have been waiting for, and our patience is now rewarded. At first he +is quartered at Halifax, where, at that time, the Duke of Kent was +Commander-in-Chief, and we are treated to a satirical portrait of His +Royal Highness, followed by a good deal of interesting description of +the military life of those days, interspersed with characteristic +anecdote, and varied by love-intrigue and a duel. Then follow travel and +sea-faring, with eloquent picture of an ascent of the Peak of Teneriffe, +of the Bermuda islands, and Gibraltar. Whilst Cyril is at the last-named +station, the vicissitudes of military life are illustrated by an +outbreak of yellow-fever, and when he is on his way back to England the +transport ship which bears him becomes engaged with a French privateer. +From all this it will be seen that of incident and movement there is no +lack, yet it is not until after the outbreak of the Spanish War of +Independence, when the hero is ordered with his regiment to the +Peninsula, that our expectations are fully satisfied. In such passages +as, for instance, those which describe the storming of the heights of +Roleia, the night spent by Cyril on out-piquet duty, or the capture of +the fort witnessed by the light of fire-balls, we have, not only the +scenes of war, but the poetry of the soldier's life set before us to +admiration. Scarcely less excellent is the account of Cyril's further +service under Wellington, Sir Rowland Hill, and Marshal Beresford, at +the lines of Torres Vedras, the siege of Badajos, and the battle of +Albuera, our interest in which is greatly strengthened by knowledge that +the writer was himself a part of what he describes. Our only regret is +that he has devoted so comparatively little of his book to what he does +so well. For all too soon we have the hero back in London once more, +frightfully disfigured by a wound received in action, and as a +consequence slighted by the dazzling but shallow Lady Melicent, who +before had looked so graciously upon the handsome soldier. And now the +novel begins to drag lamentably. The hero's domestic misfortunes strike +us as superfluous, whilst the madhouse scenes, where the characters +discourse in 'poetic prose,' are in the basest style of melodrama. Nor +do we care enough for Mr Spreull and his Girzy to have much patience +with the languid and long-drawn concluding scenes in which they take +part. Suffice it then to say that, ere we bid adieu to Cyril, he is +restored to his family estate, enriched by the inheritance of his +uncle's fortune, and consoled for the loss of the fickle Melicent by +worth and affection in the person of Laura Willoughby, the friend of his +youth. + +The writer of the obituary of Hamilton in _Blackwood_ is eloquent in +praise of the literary style of the book. But when we find the novelist, +who writes in the first person, declaring that 'the elements of thought +and feeling within him were conglomerated into confused and inextricable +masses,' or describing a housemaid as being 'busied in her matutinal +vocation,' or alluding to the 'supererogatory decoration of shaving,' +or, when he wishes to inform us that there was a doctor in a certain +village, employing the locution that the village 'had the advantage of +including in its population a professor of the healing art,'--then we +dispute the competency of his critic. This inflation of style is the +more curious in that, fortified by his English education, Hamilton, like +Miss Ferrier, is by no means inclined to deal mercifully with the +foibles of his countrymen, as is amply shown by his portrait of Mr +Archibald Shortridge, or his account of the visit of the five Miss +Spreulls, of Balmalloch, and their mother to Bath. But for this we +should naturally have passed over any slips in his own style, preferring +to regard them as the not unamiable lapses of a hand more skilled to +wield the sword than drive the pen. His book on the Peninsular +Campaigns is written in good straightforward English, but in _Men and +Manners in America_ he again falls victim to the temptation never to use +one word where two will do nearly as well. When the characters in _Cyril +Thornton_ converse--be they officers in the army, charming young ladies, +peers of the realm, or (like Miss Mansfield) daughters of respectable +tradesmen--they uniformly make use of finely rounded and elaborately +constructed periods, preferring as a rule the third person as a form of +address--as, for instance, when a lady, addressing the hero, observes, +'I should be surprised to hear that Captain Thornton was of those,' and +so on. This, however, is, of course, no fault of the author's, but +simply a not ungraceful literary convention of the age in which he +wrote. + +Though he professed Whig politics, Hamilton's pose throughout his +writings is one of aristocratic hauteur, and we are consequently the +less surprised to learn that the book in which he embodied his +observations on America gave dire offence in that country, provoking +angry reprisals. It may be that the comments of the gallant captain are +made occasionally in a spirit neither wholly free from insular +prejudice, nor from that particular pedantry which is sometimes +generated by a military training. But it is also manifest that the +existence which he surveyed--in a world, as must be remembered, at that +time really new--was in many respects a sufficiently bare, comfortless, +inelegant, and unrefined one, strangely lacking in the elements of +elevation in public or private life. Hamilton strove to judge it fairly, +and his observations are those of an intelligent and honest critic. +Passing easily, as they do, from grave to gay--now commenting on the +tendencies of democratic government or of the tariff, now comparing the +constitutions of the different States, now describing the prison or +scholastic systems of the country, and now touching upon the beauty and +the dress of the ladies, upon dinner parties, modes of eating, +barbarisms of language, and the like--they may be read with interest and +historically not without profit to this day. + +Of his _Annals of the Peninsular Campaigns_, the author tells us that it +was intended to appeal to a wider public than was likely to be available +for the lengthy histories of Napier and Southey, its object being to +extend a knowledge of the great achievements of the British arms and an +appropriate pride in them. Hamilton had special qualifications for the +task, and he supplied an admirably terse and lucid narrative, but this +was not accomplished without a sacrifice of much of that picturesque and +personal detail which does so much to save history from dryness, and to +make it attractive and memorable to the general reader. So that his end +was but half attained. + + * * * * * + +FAMOUS SCOTS SERIES + +_The following Volumes are in preparation:_-- + +NORMAN MACLEOD. By John Wellwood. +SIR WALTER SCOTT. By Professor Saintsbury. +GEORGE BUCHANAN. By Robert Wallace, M.P. +JEFFREY AND THE EDINBURGH REVIEWERS. By Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid. +ADAM SMITH. By Hector C. Macpherson. +KIRKCALDY OF GRANGE. By Louis Barbe. +MUNGO PARK. By T. Banks Maclachlan. +ROBERT FERGUSSON. By A. B. Grosart. +JAMES THOMSON. By William Bayne. +DAVID HUME. 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