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Title: Scottish chapbook literature
Author: William Harvey
Release date: December 12, 2025 [eBook #77447]
Language: English
Original publication: Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1903
Credits: Mairi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SCOTTISH CHAPBOOK LITERATURE ***
_Scottish Chapbook Literature_
_Scottish
Chapbook Literature_
By WILLIAM HARVEY
Author of
“Scottish Life and Character in Anecdote and Story,”
“Kennethcrook: Some Sketches of Village Life,”
“Robert Burns in Stirlingshire,”
&c., &c.
[Illustration]
PAISLEY: ALEXANDER GARDNER
Publisher by Appointment to the late Queen Victoria
1903
PRINTED BY
ALEXANDER GARDNER, PAISLEY
PREFACE.
The diffusion of knowledge by means of the Chapbook practically began
with the introduction of printing into Scotland. From the days when the
_Gude and Godlie Ballates_ of the Wedderburns were put in circulation,
down to the middle of last century, the chapman was a travelling
publisher of much importance. In crowded mart and on solitary moor he
plied his calling: there he sold his broadsides by the ream, here he
tempted the reading rustic to a judicious selection from his pack: in
both cases he did what he could to spread knowledge and line his pockets.
The object of this volume is to provide a brief account of the chapman
and his literary wares: to present a short survey of the literature
of the common people during a period of three centuries, to trace the
rise and influence of the Chapbook, and to mark its decay, or rather
its blending into the cheap publication of the present time. The most
important of the Chapbooks are discussed at length, and as many of them
are valuable for the light they throw upon the life and customs of the
people among whom they circulated, the extracts that have been made will
doubtless be read with interest and enjoyment.
Much biographical and bibliographical information concerning authors
and printers and publishers is given. The greater part of this is
presented in footnotes, which have been introduced freely with the view
of enhancing the usefulness and value of the work, and at the same time
preventing the text from becoming overloaded with details.
To facilitate reference, an alphabetical list of all Chapbooks referred
to in the volume is included. It will be found at page 145. A Glossary
and General Index have also been added.
In the matter of Illustrations the book is well supplied. A number of
the quaintest pictures are reproduced, many of which shew at once the
crudities of art and the pictorial limitations with which early printers
had to contend.
No pains have been spared to make the volume worthy the subject of
which it treats, and it is hoped that it will be of value both as a
contribution to the literature of the social life of Scotland, and as
supplying, in the absence of an exhaustive history, a hitherto unwritten
chapter of the literary annals of our country.
55 MILNBANK ROAD, DUNDEE, _July 1903_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY, 9
HUMOROUS, 35
INSTRUCTIVE, 72
HISTORICAL, 72
BIOGRAPHICAL, 84
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL, 89
MANUALS OF INSTRUCTION, 99
ALMANACS, 100
ROMANTIC, 103
SUPERSTITIOUS, 107
SONGS AND BALLADS, 116
CONCLUSION, 122
LIST OF CHAPBOOKS, 145
GLOSSARY, 149
GENERAL INDEX, 151
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
THE WEDDING OF JOCKEY AND MAGGY, 39
BRUCE AND DE BOUNE, 85
THE WRECK OF ROBINSON CRUSOE, 88
NOAH ENTERING THE ARK, 89
HAGAR AND ISHMAEL CAST OUT, 90
JOSEPH SOLD INTO EGYPT, 91
THE PLAGUE OF FROGS, 92
THE SUN AND MOON STAND STILL, 93
JONAH IS SWALLOWED BY A FISH, 94
DANIEL CAST INTO THE DEN OF LIONS, 95
SARAH PROMISED A SON, 96
THE OLD HOUND, 99
THE BURIAL OF JACOB, 100
SOLOMON’S TEMPLE, 102
JACK THE GIANT KILLER AND THE GIANT, 104
THE TRIAL OF SIR JOHN BARLEYCORN, KNT., 117
THE LAST DAY, 144
Scottish Chapbook Literature.
INTRODUCTORY.
Nothing has yet been done in the way of providing an exhaustive history
of Scottish chapbook literature, but the wish for such a work has
not remained unexpressed. So long ago as the late twenties of last
century, when the chapman was still a person of considerable importance,
and chapbooks—properly so called—were in wide circulation, it was
believed that Sir Walter Scott would undertake the task. When it became
evident that the author of _Waverley_ was not to do anything, a hope
was expressed that William Motherwell might become the historian of
the vulgar literature. That poet entertained the idea himself, but
subsequently abandoned it owing to paucity of materials and want of
leisure. Other writers may have thought to do something, but up to the
present time nothing of a general nature has been accomplished. Certain
departments of our chapbook literature, however, have not lacked their
editors and historians. The _Humorous Prose Chapbooks of Scotland_[1]
found an able editor in Professor Fraser, although the work done is but
a portion of his original scheme; and George Mac Gregor—notwithstanding
that his volumes are not much more than a paraphrase of Professor
Fraser’s books—accomplished a notable work in _The Collected Writings of
Dougal Graham_.[2] The volumes published by Robert Lindsay of Glasgow[3]
are valuable for the specimens of chapbooks which they contain; and
Robert Hays Cunningham has compiled a not unmeritorious work in his
_Amusing Prose Chapbooks Chiefly of Last [the Eighteenth] Century_.[4]
But these are only fragments. It is true that Dougal Graham was the chief
writer of secular Scottish chapbooks, and that the humorous production
found a wider circle of readers than the sermon or the serious poem,
but the Skellat Bellman of Glasgow and the comic effusion are not, on
that account, wholly representative of Scotland’s cheap literature of a
by-gone day. It is to be regretted that too often that section of our
chapbooks has been held up as typical of the whole, and that our fathers
have not received the credit which is due them for their appreciation
of history and theology. The more serious chapbooks—such as those which
recounted the deeds of Wallace and the achievements of Bruce, and those
which contained the fiery eloquence of the Covenanters, and, later, of
the Erskines—have been almost entirely overlooked. The song chapbooks,
too, of which there were myriads, have only been referred to incidentally
when they happened to be humorous. It is to be hoped—though every hour
that passes makes the task more difficult of accomplishment—that some day
a history of our national chapbooks will be written, so that a record may
be preserved of a most interesting chapter of our literary annals.
Many difficulties beset a writer on this subject, and probably the
greatest is to define exactly what a chapbook is. In _Chambers’s
Encyclopædia_ publications of the chapbook order are defined as
“a variety of old and scarce tracts of a homely kind, which
at one time formed the only popular literature. In the trade
of the bookseller they are distinguishable from the ordinary
products of the press by their inferior paper and typography,
and are reputed to have been sold by chapmen or pedlars.”
This may be _Encyclopædia_ information, but it is hardly accurate, and
was apparently written by one who knew nothing about the subject. The
chapbook is much more than, and is sometimes very different from what
is here defined. In a general sense it is anything from a broadside to
a decent-sized volume, and it received its name, “chapbook,” not on
account of its size or its contents, but in virtue of the fact that it
was chiefly circulated by the pedlars who sought to carry civilization
and soft goods into hamlets and farm-towns far from the madding crowd.
These men were known as chapmen. The derivation of the word shews that
a “chapman” was simply a “cheap-man”; and chap literature may therefore
be truthfully set down as “cheap literature.”[5] In these days of
“World’s Classics” and Sixpenny Reprints, “Penny Poets” and “Halfpenny
Novelettes,” chapbooks are unknown, while cheap literature is more in
evidence than ever it was. But though it is true that chapbook literature
derived its name from the fact that it was vended by chapmen, it in
reality existed before it was added to the pedlar’s pack of multifarious
goods, just as it flourished apart from the chapman altogether, and
continued to survive after he had ceased to vend it to any extent.
The chapman, although still with us, and hated no less fervently than
ever, is not in these days the indispensable travelling merchant of
by-gone years. At the time when the telegraph and the telephone were
undreamt of, and “iron horses” were things to be discussed with bated
breath and wondering eyes, the smaller towns and villages of Scotland
dwelt in complete isolation from each other. News—even bad news—travelled
slowly; the stage-coach—where there was one—lumbered along, a prey to
bad roads and drunken drivers; and the average Scot who desired to go
from home expressed a lofty contempt for a conveyance, and increased his
mileage by what was facetiously termed “shanks’ machine.” In such times
and circumstances, the pedlar was a necessity. His pack of needles and
laces, buttons and tapes, handkerchiefs and cravats, and other trifles,
formed the stock from which many a matron replenished the store, that
supplied her with the means of passing the long winter nights.
That the chapman’s life was not all lavender, is evident from the
literature and the successor he has left behind. Various references in
Dougal Graham’s booklets prove that his lot was not a happy one. By
many people he was tolerated as a necessary evil, and in _The Loss of
the Pack_—a chapbook which doubtless had a wide circulation—we learn
something of the esteem (or, rather, want of esteem) in which the
travelling merchant was held. The author of that poem says:—
“It fires, it boils my vera blude,
And sweets me at ilk pore,
To think how aft I’m putten wud,
When drawing near a door:
Out springs the mastiff, through the mud,
Wi’ fell Cerberian roar,
And growling, as he really would
Me instantly devour,
Alive that day.
“‘Ye’re come frae Glasgow, lad, I true;’
(The pert guidwife presumes;)
‘Ye’ll be a malefactor, too,
Ye’ll hae your horse and grooms;
What de’il brings siccan chaps like you
To lea’ your wabs and looms?
Wi’ beggars, packmen, and sic crew,
Our door it never tooms
The live-lang day.’”
But this angry outburst on the part of “the pert guidwife” at an end, she
lapses into kindlier speech and indicates the more humane side of the
pedlar’s life:
“‘Nae doubt ye’ll e’en right hungry be,
I see your belly’s clung:
I ha’e some parritch here to gi’e
As soon’s a sang ye’ve sung;
Come, lilt it up wi’ blithesome glee;
Ye’re supple, smart, and young,
And gin ye please our John and me,
Ye’se get the kirnan rung
To lick, this day.’”
It was the “lilting up wi’ blithesome glee” that constituted the pedlar’s
passport to every farm-town. The songs he sang and the stories he told
brought him bed and breakfast and sometimes helped to lighten his pack.
When newspapers were unknown the chapman was a moving “Intelligencer,”
who carried the doings of the outer world into remote parts, and extended
the horizon of many who otherwise might have been inclined to think that
the earth was their own and the fulness thereof.
The chapman did not change much in the course of years, The frontispiece
to Mr. John Ashton’s _Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century_[6] is a
portrait of a pedlar reproduced from _The Cries and Habits of the City
of London_, published in 1709. The attire of the man in the picture is
that of the period to which he belongs, but beyond that there is nothing
to distinguish him from the street-vendor of to-day. There he stands,
with his tray of nick-nacks and cheap jewellery suspended in front of him
like the street-pedlar to be seen at any time in the busy thoroughfares
of Edinburgh, Glasgow, or Dundee. The city hawker, like his brother who
vended in rural parts, was not slow to recognise a valuable and saleable
commodity in broadsides and booklets. These he added to his goods, and
ere long gave them a name derived from himself.
Just when he did this is somewhat difficult to say. Broadsides and
booklets similar to those which at a subsequent period formed the
staple of chapbook literature were issued from the Scottish presses at
a very early date. Indeed, the earliest printed examples of our popular
poetry are comprised in a series of black-letter chapbooks published by
“Walter Chepman and Androw Myllar, Edinburgh, in the year M.D.VIII.” In
the previous year these two printers—burgesses of Edinburgh—received a
patent under the hand of James IV. which entitled them to establish a
printing-press. The instrument set forth that Chepman and Myllar had, at
the request of His Majesty,
“for our plesour, the honour, and profitt of our Realme and
leigis, takin on thame to furnis and bring hame ane prent, with
all stuff belangand thereto, and expert men to use the samyne,
for imprenting within our Realme of the bukis of our Lawis ...
and all utheris bukis that salbe sene necessar, and to sel the
sammyn for competent pricis,” etc.
The printers duly implemented their bargain, and started business in the
Cowgate,[7] from which place these black-letter chapbooks issued. A few
years later Scotland was in the throes of the fight for Protestantism.
The press was called into use both for and against the new order.
“During the heat of the Reformation,” says one writer, “there were
many ‘ballatis, sangis, blasphematious rhymes, alsweill of kirkmen as
temporal and utheris tragedies’ published.” Robert Lekprevick, another
early Scottish printer, issued many broadsides of a political and
ecclesiastical character in the interests of Protestantism. So partisan
were these productions that Sir Robert Maitland was constrained to say in
his verses “On the Malice of Poets”—
“Sum of the poyets, and makars, that are now,
Of grit despyte, and malice are sa fow
That all lesingis, that can be inventit,
They put in writ, and garris thame be prentit.”
The chief of the broadside authors of this period was Robert Sempill.
Along with him may be mentioned Sir William Kirkcaldy of Grange and
Sir John Maitland, Lord Thirlestane and the Earl of Glencairn, John
Davidson and Nicol Burne. Reference should also be made to the brothers
Wedderburn of Dundee, whose _Gude and Godlie Ballates_[8] were so
popular in their day, and are believed originally to have been issued
singly in broadside form. Writers of the Reformation period, too—notably
Buchanan and Knox—issued tractates not dissimilar in appearance from the
chapbooks of a later age. But these, in one sense at least, were not
chapbook literature. They may have done much, in an indirect way, to
fire the imagination of “the rascal multitude,” but they must have been
sealed books to many of the commonalty, with whom reading was an unknown
accomplishment.
The Scottish printers were not long at work ere their labours were viewed
with apprehension. The Scots Parliament, jealous, doubtless, of the power
of the press, early instituted a press-censorship. On 1st February,
1551-52, it ordained—
“That na Prentar presume, attempt or tak upone hand to prent
ony bukis _ballatis_, _sangis_, _blasphematiounis rymes_, or
tragedies, outhir in Latin or Englis toung in ony tymes to cum,
unto the tyme the samin be sene, vewit, and examit be sum wyse
and discreit persounis depute thairto ... and thaireftir ane
licence had and obtenit ... under the pain of confiscatioun of
all the Prentaris gudis, and banisshing him of the Realme for
ever.”
Notwithstanding these restrictions, the art of printing developed in many
directions.
As time went on, education became more general and broadsides more
numerous. The single sheet was the vehicle by which many authors sought
to reach the public. Ballads and songs, old and new, genuine and
fictitious, made their appearance in broadside form, and thus ceased to
be dependant on oral tradition for their existence. It is not too much
to suppose that these broadsides circulated among all classes. Their
cost could not have been great, and if they were vended at fairs and
markets, as is not unlikely, they may be accepted as the earliest form
of our chapbook literature. In many ways they resembled the productions
common in later times, and as Mr. T. F. Henderson says in his _Scottish
Vernacular Literature_,[9]
“they indicate the existence in Scotland, in the seventeenth
century or earlier, of a great variety of forgotten lyrics,
most of them coloured with the ingenuous indelicacy which, more
or less, tinges all our early literature, and some of them very
much akin to the ditties collected by Burns.”
This, the vulgar literature of an earlier age, would seem to have met at
the hands of our fathers a fate similar to that which we have awarded to
the chapbook literature of later times, and which our children may mete
out to the cheap ephemeral publications of these days.
During the seventeenth century and down to the time of Allan Ramsay,
broadsides were in general circulation, and by their means popular
interest in our national song was kept alive. Many of our most
widely-known lyrics appeared originally in song-sheets. The earliest
version of “Auld Lang Syne” was so published, and so also was “Maggie
Lauder,” “The Blythesome Bridal,” and numberless others. Habbie Simpson,
the famous piper of Kilbarchan, was immortalised by Robert Sempill of
Beltrees and the broadside press; and thousands all over Scotland learned
how—
“At fairs he played before the spear-men
All gaily graithed in their gear, man:
Steel bonnets, jacks, and swords so clear, then,
Like ony bead:”
and then, with the author, asked—
“Now, wha will play before such weir-men,
Sen Habbie’s dead?”
This, and other productions by Sempill and his contemporaries,
popularised the single sheet publication, and Allan Ramsay seems
instinctively to have turned to the broadside printer when he added
poetry to the prosaic duties of a wig-maker. He soon became the laureate
of the Edinburgh streets, and his biographer tells us that “the women
of Edinburgh were wont to send out their children with a penny to buy
‘Ramsay’s last piece.’”[10] These broadsides of the author of _The Gentle
Shepherd_ were published in the early years of the eighteenth century,
but before this date chapbooks of eight, sixteen, twenty-four, and
sometimes a greater number of pages, had become common.
Mr. John Ashton, in his Introduction to the volume of English _Chapbooks
of the Eighteenth Century_, says that in England the chapbook proper
did not exist before the year 1700.[11] There is ample evidence that
it was known in Scotland before that date. In 1644 we find the famous
Glasgow divine, Zachary Boyd, complaining to the General Assembly, in
the vigorous language of the period, that “their schools and country
were stained, yea pestered, with idle books, and their children fed on
fables, love-songs, baudry ballads, heathen husks, youth’s poison;” and a
complaint of this kind clearly indicates that chapbook literature, in the
form of “idle books” and “fables,” “love-songs,” and “baudry ballads,”
was in general, if not approved, circulation. The troubles which came
upon the country with the Restoration, and the long period of unrest
that preceded the Revolution of 1688, doubtless turned men’s thoughts
to more serious matters. The Covenanting divines who were ejected from
their pulpits by Claverhouse and his dragoons, sought to spread the truth
according to their light by means of the press, and numerous sermons
were issued in chapbook form. Admirers of the “Scots Worthies,” too,
prepared tracts relating to them, their sufferings, and their prophecies,
which, we may suppose, were read with avidity in quiet corners by their
followers, and treasured almost as carefully as the Bible, for their
peculiar interpretation of which they were ready to lay down their lives.
“The internal evidence of the chapbooks relating to Peden, Cargill,
and other worthies of the ‘Killing-time,’” writes George Mac Gregor,
“indicates that their first editions were published within a few years at
least of the events recorded in them.”[12]
The Revolution of 1688 may be said to mark the beginning of the period
which may be called the chapbook era. There were earlier indications, as
has been pointed out, but from that date the commonalty were supplied
with booklets and broadsides in gradually increasing numbers, and the
work of their distribution was taken up more generally and thoroughly
by the scores of pedlars who did their best to keep village joined to
village and hamlet in touch with hamlet.
“Books and pamphlets,” writes Mr. J. M. Barrie in the chapter,
“A Literary Club,” which appears in _Auld Licht Idylls_, “were
brought into the town by the flying stationers, as they were
called, who visited the square periodically, carrying their
wares on their backs, except at the Muckly [an occasional
fair], when they had their stall and even sold books by
auction. The flying stationer best known in Thrums was
Sandersy Riach, who was stricken from head to foot with palsy,
and could only speak with a quaver in consequence. Sandersy
brought to the members of the club all the great books he could
get second-hand, but his stock in trade was _Thrummy Cap_ and
_Akenstaff_, _The Fishwives of Buckhaven_, _The Devil upon Two
Sticks_, _Gilderoy_, _Sir James the Rose_, _The Brownie of
Badenoch_, _The Ghaist of Firenden_, and the like.”[13]
The chapbook period—if one may set limits where points are difficult to
adjust—may be said to have extended from 1688 to 1830. From the date of
the Revolution chapbooks gradually increased in number and importance,
down to 1746, when Dougal Graham published his metrical _History of the
Rebellion_. Graham was a new and distinct force in Scottish chapbook
literature. The popularity of this class of reading was greatly enhanced
by his many productions, and during the next thirty years the gradual
increase of the earlier period gave place to a circulation that went
up by leaps and bounds. By 1775 they doubtless had attained their
widest limits, and for the next fifty years their prestige remained
unchallenged. With the later twenties of the nineteenth century, however,
the literature shewed signs of decay. Probably the fact that little new
was being added accounted in some degree for this, but doubtless the
chief reason was the introduction of other literature of a cheap kind.
Gradually chapbooks lost the potent sway they had had. Societies and
publishers set themselves to issue series little calculated to offend
public taste in the way the broad publications of Graham had done, or,
rather, were beginning to do. One firm, that of Messrs. D. Webster &
Son of Edinburgh, considering it desirable to print the old chapbooks
“in a more correct and neat form,” began the issue of a series under
the high-sounding title, “Caledonian Classics of the Common People.”
But even “apt alliteration’s artful aid” failed to do much, and this
series, in common with others, did not meet with unbounded success.
Popular taste demanded something entirely different from what had been,
and the chapbooks, though still lingering for many years, were gradually
superseded by, or became merged in, the cheap literature with which we
are familiar to-day.
It has been said that the chapbook varied in size. Leaving out of
consideration what are known as broadsides, it was a publication of
any extent from eight pages to two hundred pages, and sold at prices
ranging from a penny to a shilling. Sometimes, in the larger and more
expensive productions, there was an attempt at artistic printing, but, as
a general rule, chapbook literature did little credit to the followers
of Caxton. The paper was invariably of the coarsest kind. The heavy
duty on that article of manufacture kept it dear, and accounts for the
rude appearance of many of these productions. A study of a number of
chapbooks from any one press reveals some of the difficulties with which
the printer had to contend. For one thing, his type not unfrequently
gave out. An edition of Allan Ramsay’s _Collection of Scotch Proverbs_
forms one of the chapbooks of G. Caldwell of Paisley. This book naturally
entailed a heavy drain on “capitals,” and it is amusing to notice
with what frequency the compositor had to fall back on “italics” or
“lower-case” letters when his Roman capitals failed him. Sometimes the
paper ran short. In these days, the proverbial editorial blue-pencil
is called into use to effect a judicious condensation. The chapbook
printer scorned such a method. His reader must have everything, and the
last page or so was occasionally set in a smaller size of type, so that
all the author’s work might appear. At other times, the story was too
short to fill the desired number of pages, and trifles of any kind were
introduced to fill up space. In this last-mentioned respect, the editor
of the present day still follows the chapbook publisher. In the matter
of illustrations, some amazing results were achieved. Anything in the
way of ornament was called into service, and one picture had frequently
to do duty in many chapbooks. So long as an illustration did not deal
with a specific subject, the matter was of little moment; but when it
came to the portrait of one man—and that man probably a creature of the
artist’s imagination—doing duty for several authors, the result was as
amusing as it was absurd. A few examples may be mentioned. A number of
religious chapbooks, issued in Glasgow and “printed for the booksellers,”
were adorned with an illustration on the title page. This was a clergyman
of the conventional type, clad in gown and bands, and wearing a
full-bottomed wig. There was apparently only one woodcut in the printer’s
stock, and it did duty in turn for John Welch and Donald Cargill, William
Secker and Ebenezer Erskine, Thomas Wilcocks and Isaac Watts. No less
amusing was the combination effected on another occasion. A _History of
Wallace, the renowned Scottish Champion_, was issued at Glasgow, without
date, “printed for the booksellers.” At the first glance the illustration
on the cover did not seem quite accurate. It was the portrait of a man
wearing a crown. Now, not even the Scottish Rights Association or the
“Britain _v._ England” patriots ever claimed a crown for Wallace, and
there was evidently an error somewhere. A scrutiny of certain other
chapbooks explained the matter. The portrait requisitioned to adorn the
_History of Wallace_ had done duty in another chapbook as an illustration
of Henry the Second of England! For the humour of the thing, one could
wish that it had been Edward Longshanks. Less glaringly absurd were
some other combinations. A portrait of a man in Highland costume—with
an unmistakable claymore and an abbreviated kilt—adorned a history of
Prince Charlie. Accompanied by other text, it served to represent Rob
Roy. A Highland piper, seated on a stool or “creepie,” and playing
lustily on his pipes, embellished the front page of _Odds and Ends_,
and a footnote, which referred to one of the anecdotes contained in the
publication, set forth that he was “the Piper who was carried away for
dead during the Plague in London, but revived before interment.” Without
the explanatory footnote, he adorned _The Scotch Haggis_; somewhat
appropriately he embellished the _History of James Allan, the Celebrated
Northumberland Piper_, and he also played in _The Long Pack, or the
Robbers Discovered_. So far as the artist was concerned, Dick Turpin and
O’Donnel, the Irish assassin, wore a garb and features common to each
other in the chapbook, and in real life alien to them both. These facts
are not without consolation to those of us who have had to submit to the
not very tender mercies of the newspaper artist. A comparison of a number
of song-chapbooks, with the same imprint, shows that the early printer
was alive to the possibilities of variation, and that he frequently “rung
the changes” on certain pieces. When a song was put into type, it was
seemingly kept “standing” for some time, and made to serve in several
chapbooks ere the type was distributed. This afforded the printer an easy
and cheap method of producing a number of publications, and meant that if
any one wanted a collection of songs, he had to buy a greater quantity of
books than would have been the case if the contents of each sheet had
been entirely different.
The chapbook printer did not greatly concern himself with questions of
literary ownership. He was, in this way, as great a thief and pirate as
the men whose exploits he sometimes recounted in penny pamphlets. Readers
of Allan Ramsay will remember that, in his _Address to the Town Council
of Edinburgh_, the poet bewails the action of “Lucky Reid.” He begins by
saying:—
“Your poet humbly means and shaws,
That, contrair to just rights and laws,
I’ve suffered muckle wrang,
By Lucky Reid and ballad-singers,
Wha thumb’d with their coarse, dirty fingers,
Sweet Adie’s funeral sang;
They spoil’d my sense, and staw my cash,
My muse’s pride murgully’d,
And printing it like their vile trash,
The honest lieges whilly’d.”
“Lucky” Reid was the relict of John Reid, who had a printing
establishment in Bell’s Wynd, Edinburgh, and who did an extensive
business in the production of popular literature. She, Ramsay explains
in a footnote to his poem, “with the hawkers,” reprinted his pastoral on
Addison, without his knowledge, “on ugly paper, full of errors.” Having
made his plaint to the civic fathers, he pleads that he may be allowed
“to guide his gear” himself, when—
“clean and fair the type shall be,
The paper like the snaw,
Nor shall our town think shame wi’ me,
When we gang far awa.”
Ramsay’s was only one of many complaints that might have been made on the
score of literary piracy. Byron may have heard of such things when he
coined his phrase about Barrabas.
While the vast majority of chapbooks were issued singly, and were what
may be called fugitive productions, there were one or two publications
which took the form of series. One of these, issued at Edinburgh and
undated, was known as the _Select Collection_, and ran to a good many
numbers. Each part consisted of eight pages. Another, also undated, was
named _The Edinbury (sic) Gleaner: being a Collection of Anecdotes, etc.,
for the Amusement of Youth_. The title-page stated that it was “To be
published in numbers, with a beautiful wood engraving, price 3 Pence, by
W. Smith, Bristo Port, Edina.” It consisted of sixteen pages, and, in the
preface setting forth the aims of the publication, the editor invited
contributions from readers. In these days of two guineas per column and
five pounds per page, it is interesting to hear the terms on which this
old-world editor was prepared to accept MSS.
“As the work is to be published in numbers,” he says, in
somewhat halting English, “the editor hereby intimates to any
person who has any entertaining piece by them (either in prose
or verse), that they will send such pieces to him (free of
postage); and if he approves of the same, and print it, they
shall receive a few copies without any expence whatever.”
Verily, publication was its own reward.[14]
The chapbook literature of Scotland, in addition to those
productions—sermons, poems, songs, and sketches—which were of native
origin, included many chapbooks of English authorship. They issued from
Scottish presses, were vended by Scottish chapmen at Scottish fairs
and markets and all over Scotland, but they were not Scottish books.
While it is impossible to say how many chapbooks found readers north of
Tweed, it is worth noting that Robert Hays Cunningham, in his _Amusing
Prose Chapbooks Chiefly of the Last [the Eighteenth] Century_, which is
a Scottish production and is doubtless intended to be representative,
only includes four that are distinctly Scottish in a collection of
twenty-five. These four are _The Comical Sayings of Paddy from Cork_
(Scottish in authorship, as it was written or compiled by Dougal Graham);
_The Penny Budget of Wit and Package of Drollery_ (a collection of mainly
Scottish anecdotes); _Mansie Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith_ (a condensation
of Delta’s famous work); and _The Life and Astonishing Adventures of
Peter Williamson, who was carried off when a Child from Aberdeen and
sold for a Slave_. But none of the others in Cunningham’s collection
was unknown to our fathers, though they are all of English origin. _The
Comical History of the King and the Cobbler_, _Mother Bunch’s Closet
Newly Broke Open_, _The History of the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green_,
are three among many that were familiar as household words; while
_Jack the Giant Killer_ and _Blue Beard_, _Simple Simon_ and _Dick
Whittington_, have descended in all their grotesque glory to our own time.
In any survey of Scottish chapbook literature, it is almost essential
that English productions should be excluded or only referred to
incidentally. English chapbooks supplemented our national supply, but
did not enrich it. “Scottish chapbooks,” writes Professor Fraser, with
perhaps just a touch of the perfervid Scot, were “superior in every
respect to kindred productions in England, Ireland, and France.” With a
pronouncement such as that from a man who knew the subject so intimately
as Fraser did, we may well consider the Scottish publications in
themselves and apart—as far as we may—from the booklets of the sister
kingdom.
Chapbook literature has been divided into many sections. Professor Fraser
proposed to deal with the subject under five headings; John Ashton (and
his arrangement is applicable to Scottish as well as English chapbooks)
divided it into ten sections; and Cunningham, finding both of these
proposals inadequate for his needs, set out the literature in no fewer
than thirteen divisions. Probably an arrangement something like that of
Fraser’s is as good as any. We shall therefore glance briefly at our
chapbook literature under the following five sections:—
I.—HUMOROUS.
II.—INSTRUCTIVE.
III.—ROMANTIC.
IV.—SUPERSTITIOUS.
V.—SONGS AND BALLADS.
I.
HUMOROUS.
The humorous booklet undoubtedly occupied foremost place in public
favour. It frequently depicted a phase of life which was familiar to
readers, and dealt with men whose acquaintance they had made in the
flesh. The stories that were recounted may have been broad—coarse,
sometimes, as the paper on which they were printed—but they were always
true to actual life as the commonalty saw it. “John Cheap, the Chapman,”
was to be found at every fair and in every hamlet, and “Leper the Tailor”
was a visitor at every farm-town. What is more reasonable, then, than
that books which dealt with these worthies should be bought rapidly
and read with delight? In addition to their enjoying first place in
popularity, the humorous chapbooks are unique in that we know something
of some of their authors. Much of our vulgar literature, like a great
deal of our ballad minstrelsy, is the work of innominate writers.
Certain songs have been traced to particular poets, sermons invariably
appeared with their authors’ names, but the great bulk of general
chapbook literature was published anonymously. And, with the exception
of the most characteristic of the humorous booklets, the authorship has
continued in obscurity.
Dougal Graham, the Skellat Bellman of Glasgow, is the chief of chapbook
writers, and he must always occupy a prominent place in any history of
our vulgar literature. He was born at Raploch (a hamlet that nestles at
the foot of the rock on which Stirling Castle stands), in or about the
year 1724, and we are told that he was
“The wittiest fellow in his time,
Either for prose or making rhyme.”
In view of his subsequent career, there was something appropriate in
the place of his birth. He was born within sight of the Jousting Flats,
where the ancient fraternity of chapmen of the counties of Stirling and
Clackmannan were wont for centuries to engage in sports: he was born
under the shadow of the Palace of the Stuart Kings, and this may have
given him that interest in the “Auld Hoose” which impelled him to follow
Prince Charlie through victory and defeat to Culloden, and to write his
_History of the Rebellion_; and he was almost a native of Stirling,
one of the towns which were subsequently to become centres of chapbook
enterprise. Little or nothing is known of Graham’s early life. It is
believed that he was for some time engaged in farm-service at Campsie,
and that at an early period he relinquished that employment, for which,
from his deformity, he must have been unsuited, and turned pedlar. He
was pursuing this calling when Prince Charlie raised his standard in the
West Highlands. Meeting the Pretender’s army in the neighbourhood of
Stirling, he joined it—in the capacity of sutler or camp-follower, it
is surmised—and was with it in all its subsequent marchings. He himself
tells us, in the preface to his _History of the Rebellion_, that he was
“an eye-witness to most of the movements of the armies, from the rebels
first crossing the Ford of Frew to their final defeat at Culloden.” Then
Dougal’s faith failed him. “Life,” he says, in his own rugged phraseology,
“was preciouser to him
Than all the Princes in Christendom;”
and, cutting himself apart from Jacobite and Royalist, he returned to his
native Stirlingshire. From this time onwards, for more than thirty years,
he was the moving spirit in the production and sale of Scottish chapbook
literature.[15]
One of the earliest and best of Graham’s books is _The Whole Proceedings
of Jockey and Maggy_, which is believed to have been published in
1755.[16] It is written with considerable dramatic power, and gives a
striking and faithful representation of rustic life and manners in the
eighteenth century. We are introduced to Jockey and Maggy at a fair
in a neighbouring town, and, accompanying them on the way home, learn
something of how a country wooing is effected. They agree to accept each
other for “better or worse,” and thereafter communicate the fact to their
mothers, who immediately set about preparing for the wedding. The main
feature in a marriage of that time was the feast, and the author gives us
a delightful glimpse of what comprised it.
“The wooing being over,” he writes, “and the day being set,
Jockey’s mither killed the black boul horn’d yeal Ewe, that
lost her lamb the last year, three hens an’ a gule-fitted cock
to prevent the ripples, five peck o’ maut maskit in the meikle
kirn, a pint o’ trykle to mak’ it thicker an’ sweeter an’
maumier for the mouth; 5 pints o’ whisky, wherein was garlic
and spice, for the raisin’ o’ the wind an’ the clearing o’
their water.”
[Illustration: _The Wedding of Jockey and Maggy—from “The Whole
Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy,” by Dougal Graham._]
Then follows a description of the bridal procession.
“The friends and good neighbours went a’ wi’ John to the
kirk, where Maggy chanced to meet him, and was married by the
minister. The twa companies joined the gither and cam hame
in a croud; at every change-house they chanced to pass by,
Providence stopt their proceedings with full stoups, bottles
and glasses, drinking their healths, ‘wishing them much joy,
ten girls and a boy.’ Jockey, seeing so many wishing well to
his health, coupt up what he got to augment his health, and
gar him live lang, which afterwards coupt him up and proved
detrimental to the same.
“So hame cam they to the dinner, where his mither presented
to them a piping-het haggis, made o’ the creish o’ the black
boul horn’d Ewe, boil’d in the meikle bag, mixt with bear-meal,
onions, spice and mint.”
The heavy dinner, with the drink he had consumed on the way home,
proved too much for the bridegroom, who had to be assisted to bed. Then
the respective qualities of the young spouses were discussed by their
parents; they disagreed, words came to blows, and the marriage feast
ended in a regular Donnybrook.
“His friends and her friends being in a mixt multitude, some
took his part, some took her’s; and there did a battle begin
in the clap of a hand, being a very fierce tumult, which ended
in blood; they struck so hard with stones, sticks, beetles,
and barrow-trams; pigs, pots, stoups and trunchers were flying
like bombs and granadoes. The crook bouls and tangs were all
employed as weapons of war, till doon cam the bed, with a great
mou of peats! So this disturbet their bedding.
“The hamsheughs were very great, until auld uncle Rabby came in
to redd them; and a sturdy auld fallow he was. He stood stively
with a stiff rumple, and by strength of his arms rave them
sindry, flinging the tane east and the tither west, until they
stood a’ round about like as many breathless forfoughten cocks,
and no ane durst steer anither for him; Jockey’s mither was
driven o’er a kist, and brogit a’ her hips on a round heckle;
up she gat, and rinning to fell Maggy’s mither wi’ the ladle,
swearing she was the mither o’ a’ the mischief that happened,
Uncle Rabby ran in between them, he having a lang nose, like a
trumpet, she recklessly came o’er his lobster neb a drive wi’
the ladle till the blood sprang oot, an’ ran down his auld grey
beard and hang like snuffy bubbles at it. O! then he gaed wood,
and looked as waefu’ like as he had been a tod-lowrie come frae
worrying the lambs, wi’ his bloody mouth. Wi’ that he gets an
auld flail, and rives awa’ the supple, then drives them a’ to
the back o’ the door, but yet nane wan oot; then wi’ chirten
an’ chappen down comes the clayhallen and the hen bawk, wi’
Rab Reid the fiddler, who had crept up aside the hens for the
preservation of his fiddle.”
As a description of the humours of rustic life, _Jockey and Maggy’s
Courtship_ is difficult to excel. Scenes such as those depicted were
not uncommon, and they belong to a time when the whole machinery of
ecclesiastical law was brought into motion to impart decency and order
to “blithesome bridals.” But even strait-laced Scotland would not be
Kirk-ridden, and the eighteenth century Scot enjoyed life to the full,
and sinned, sometimes to his heart’s content, in spite of scowling Holy
Willies and stools of repentance. The remainder of _Jockey and Maggy’s
Courtship_ deals with some of the sins of Jockey’s youth and their
consequences. He had loved one of his mother’s maids not wisely but too
well, and this coming to the ears of the Kirk-Session he is summoned to
answer for his misdeeds. But he proves intractable, and aided and abetted
by his mother, who delivers herself of a denunciatory harangue against
the repentance stool, he refuses to come under the censure of the Church.
We get an interesting glimpse of what Church discipline really was, and
of the material with which the elders of the Kirk had to deal. In his
mother, Jockey had a stout defender and voluble advocate, but death put
an end to her pleading, and he was left to fight his battle alone. Then
he yielded to the order of the Kirk, and submitted to public correction.
“Upon Sunday thereafter, John comes with Uncle Rabby’s auld
wide coat, a muckle grey-tailed wig, and a big bonnet that
covered his face, so that he seemed more like an old Pilgrim
than a young fornicator; mounts the creepy[17] wi’ a stiff,
stiff back, as he had been a man of sixty. Every one looked at
him, thinking he was some old stranger that knew not the stool
of repentance by another seat, so that he passed the first
day unknown but to very few; yet on the second it came to be
known, and the whole parish, with many more, came to see him,
which caused such a confusion that he was absolved and got his
children baptized the next day.”
Love, Courtship, and Marriage are the themes most frequently dealt with
in Graham’s chapbooks. They were subjects at which a great deal of fun
might be poked, and in which everybody was more or less interested. Books
treating of them were assured a ready sale.
_The Coalman’s Courtship to the Creelwife’s Daughter_ is one which
deserves to be mentioned alongside _Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship_. Sawny,
a young coalman, is, like his friend Jockey, desirous of securing a wife,
but, not being informed in the art of courtship, he applies to his mother
for counsel and advice. That worthy dame—contrary to the general belief
that mothers never wish their sons to marry—enters heartily into the
project, and lays all her advice and experience at Sawny’s disposal.
She advises him
“to go in wi’ braw good manners, and something manfu’; to put
on a Sunday’s face and sigh as he were a saint; to sit down
beside her as he were a Mess John; to keek aye till her, now
and then, with a stolen look, and haud his mouth as mim and
grave as a May paddock.”
She also enjoins him “to crack weel o’ their wealth and hide their
poverty.”
Sawny was a “blate wooer.” Having considered the matter, he thought it
would be judicious to approach his sweetheart by means of her mother.
After selling his coals one day, he attires himself in his best and
proceeds in quest of Katie’s mother. They meet, and, over a gill and a
“het pint,” old Be-go promises her daughter to Sawny. Having obtained
the mother’s consent, he, a few days later, sets out on a visit to his
intended bride, to ascertain whether she is agreeable to his proposal. An
amusing dialogue ensues.
_Sawny._—“Now, Katty, do you ken what am come about?”
_Kate._—“Oh yes, my mither telt me; but I’m no ready yet. I hae
twa gowns to spin and things to mak’.”
_Sawny._—“Tute, things to mak’! ye hae as mony things as ye’ll
need, woman; canna ye spin gowns in oor ain hoose wi’ me, as
weel as here wi’ an auld girning mither?”
_Kate._—“But, dear Saunders, ye maun gie a body time to think
on’t—’twad be ill-far’d to rush thegither just at the first.”
_Sawny._—“And do ye think I hae nothing a-do but come here
every ither day hoiting after you! it’ll no do; I maun be
either aff wi’ ye or on wi’ ye; either tell me or tak’ me, for
I ken o’ ither twa, an’ some o’ ye I will hae; for, as am a
sinner, my mither is gaun to be married, too, an’ she can get a
bit man o’ ony shape or trade.”
_Kate._—“’Deed then, Saunders, since ye’re in sic a haste, ye
maun e’en tak’ them that’s readiest, for am no ready yet.”
_Sawny._—“A, dear woman, when your mither and my mither’s
pleased, and am willing to venture on ye, what a sorrow ails
ye?”
_Kate._—“Na, na, I’ll think on’t twa or three days; it’s o’er
lang a term to see without a thought.”
_Sawny._—“Wode, I think ye’re a cumstrarie piece o’ stuff; it’s
true enough ye’re mither said of ye, that ye’re no for a poor
man.”
_Kate._—“And what mair said she o’ me?”
_Sawny._—“Wode, she said you could do naething but wash mugs
and scoure gentleman’s bonny things; but hissies that is bred
amang gentle houses minds me o’ my mither’s cat, but ye’re far
costlier to keep, for she wastes nayther saep nor water, but
spits in her lufe and washes ay at her face, and wheens o’ ye
can do naether thing;” and up he gets.
_Kate._—“O, Saunders, but ye be short; will ye no stay till my
mither come hame?”
_Sawny._—“I’ve staid lang aneugh for onything I’ll be the
better; and am nae sae short as your tottom o’ a taylor that I
could stap in my shoe.”
Chagrined at being repulsed where no repulse was dreamt of, and having
fired off this parting shot at his rival, the “tottom of a taylor,” Sawny
made his way home feeling, like many a slighted lover before and since,
that he might now take melancholy farewell of the earth, the moon, and
the stars.
“‘O death, death!’ he exclaimed, ‘I thought the jade wad a
jumped at me; no comfort or happiness mair for poor me. O,
mither, gae mak’ my kist and bake my burial bread, for I’ll die
this night or soon the morn.’”
But a broken heart is only fatal on rare occasions. With the dawn came
Katie’s mother, anxious to smooth matters, and effect the union so much
desired by Sawny, and perhaps not altogether unwished by the independent
sweetheart of yesterday.
“In comes auld Be-go, his good mither,” says the author, “who
had left her daughter in tears for the slighting of Sawny, and
hauls him and his mither away to get a dinner of dead fish,
where a’ was agreed upon, and the wedding to be upon Wednesday;
no bridal folks but the mithers and themselves twa.”
Thus the matter that was first discussed over “a gill and a het pint,”
was concluded on the strength of “a dinner of dead fish,” and all
that remained to do was the tying of the nuptial knot. The coalman
and the creelwife belonged to a class not in very close touch with
the Church—they were representative of the “lapsed masses” in a time
before that phrase was coined—and they did not, therefore, trouble
themselves about marriage in the orthodox fashion. A “Cheap Priest” was
requisitioned. He tied the Gordian knot as securely as the Moderator of
the General Assembly could have done, and as perfunctorily as the High
Priest of Gretna Green would have done if an enraged parent had been
knocking at the door for admission with the butt-end of a well-primed
pistol. The slipshod manner was not altogether lost on the creelwife.
The priest,[18] says Graham, gave them “twa-three words and
twa-three lines, took their penny and a good drink, wished
them joy, and gaed his wa’s. ‘Now,’ said auld Be-go, ‘if that
be your minister, he’s but a drunken ——; mony a ane drinks
up a’, but he leaves naething; he’s got that penny for deevil
a haet; ye micht hae cracked lufes on’t, tane ane anither’s
word, a kiss and a hoddle at a hillock side, and be as well
if no better; I hae seen some honest men say mair o’er their
brose nor what he said a’ thegither; but an ye’re pleased, am
pleased; a bout in the bed ends a’ and makes firm wark, sae
here’s to you and joy to the bargain—it’s ended now, weel I
wat!’”
The _History of the Haverel Wives_, another of Graham’s chapbooks,
differs widely from those already mentioned, but is not the least
important of his works. Many editions have been issued. One, printed at
Stirling by William Macnie, bears the following elaborate title:—
“_The History of the Haverel Wives; or, The Folly of Witless
Women Displayed._ Written by Humphrey Clinker, the Clashing
Wives’ Clerk. Being a Comical Conference between Maggy and
Janet, his Two Old Aunts. With Janet’s advice to Maggy
concerning marriage, with the manner in which she courted her
husband, which began by taking him by the twa lugs and kissing
him. To which is added, An Oration on the Virtues of the Old
Women and the Pride of the Young. Dictated by Janet Clinker,
and written by Humphrey Clinker, the Clashing Wives’ Clerk.”
This dual production—the _History_ was sometimes published apart from
the _Oration_—is freer from indecencies than certain others of Graham’s
compositions. In it the author indulges his satire against “clashing
wives.” A prefatory note reads:—
“It is a certain old saying, That where women are conven’d
in crowds, there can be but little silence; and some have
acknowledged that it was a great bondage for them to hold their
peace in the church; and where there is much talk by ignorant
speakers, it is diverting for persons of understanding to hear
them. Therefore, we have furnished the public with a small
collection of old wives’ noted sayings and wonders, which they
relate happened in their own time, also what has been told them
by their forefathers.”
With this preface, we are introduced to Maggy and Janet busily “cracking”
“at their rocks.” The first subject they discuss is Maggy’s age, and
this leads to an interesting description of Scottish life and custom in
pre-Reformation times.
“‘Indeed, Janet,’ replies Maggy, in answer to the question of
how old she may be, ‘that’s what naebody kens, for my father
and mother had sae mony o’ us they ne’er counted how auld ane
o’ us was; they minded ay wha o’ us was born first, and wha was
neist ane anither, and that was a’ that e’er we socht to ken
aboot it; but I ha’e mind o’ the mirk Munanday.’[19]
“‘Hout, tout, woman, the mirk Munanday,’ exclaims Janet, ‘I
mind since there was na Munandays at a’, and Sabbath days
was nae come in fashion; there was a day they ca’d Sunday
came ance i’ the ouk for it; we ken’d ay when it came, for
my father cow’d ay his beard when the bell rang, and then
everybody ran to the kirk that had onything to do, gin it were
to buy saut or shune, for the chapman chiels set up a’ their
creims at the kirk door, and the lasses wad a gotten keeking
glasses, red snoods, needles, prins, elshinirons, gimblets,
brown bread, and black saep, forby sweety wives’ things, and
rattles for restless little anes; the men wad a bought pints
o’ ale and gotten a whang o’ gude cheese to chew i’ the time
o’ drinking o’t. Ay, ay, there was braw markets on Sunday i’
the time o’ paepery; we had nae ministers then but priests,
mess Johns, black friars and white friars, monks, abbots,
and bishops; they had nae wives, yet the best o’ them wad a
spoken baudy language, and kissed the lasses; fickle, sykin
bodies they were, unco ill to please; they wad baith curs’d
folk and bless’d them just as we paid them; indeed, they were
unco greedy o’ the penny, and pray’d ay to the dead fouk, and
gard the living pay them for’t; and although they had play’d
the loon wi’ a poor hizey, she durst na speak o’t for her very
life, for they could gie ony body o’er to the de’il when they
liket. They didna gar fouk learn to read, and pray like our new
ministers, but thump on your breast, strake your fingers o’er
aboon your nose, tell your beads, and rin bare-fit thro’ amang
hard stanes and cauld snaw.”
Dougal was never a friend of the Roman hierarchy. In his metrical
_History of the Rebellion_ he apostrophises the children of the Pope in
lines beginning—
“You Papists are a cursed race,”
and the _History of the Haverel Wives_ testifies that he was equally
unfriendly in prose. The description of a Scottish Sunday before the
Reformation is historically true, and proves that the prolific pedlar was
not ignorant of the social life of an earlier day. Maggy, after listening
to the harangue of her friend, and learning that the priests were
possessed of all power over men and death and devils, asks pertinently
enough—
“What’s come o’ them a’ now? I’m sure the like o’ thae fouks
that had sae meikle power needed neither dee nor yet be sick:
they wad live a’ their days.”
The answering of this question affords Janet another opportunity of
indulging her antipathy to “Paepery,” and gives her a chance to air
her views on Episcopacy. This part of the chapbook is interesting as
preserving a fair reflection of the minds of the common people on the
subject of Prelacy. Lonely graves on the moorlands of the west, and
memories of the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, could still move men to
tears; the terrible sufferings of the Covenant days were things but of
yesterday, and—rightly or wrongly—Bloody Claverhouse and his Dragoons,
and relentless Archbishop Sharp, were still emissaries of the devil
and typical representatives of Scottish Episcopacy. In these days a
good true-blue Presbyterian can sit down to breakfast and make a hearty
meal in spite of the fact that his newspaper tells him the Churches are
“praying for union;” but at the time when the chapbook was written,
things were very different. Every Presbyterian held the same opinion as
the Skellat Bellman of Glasgow, and only refrained from expressing it
because, unlike Dougal Graham, he was seldom “unco glib at the pen.”
The most of the priests, says Janet, are “dead and rotten, and
the rest o’ them gade awa to Italy, where the auld Pape their
faither, the deil, the witches, brownies, and fairies dwal;[20]
and than we gat anither sort o’ gospel fouks they ca’d
curits—fine sort o’ dainty honest fouks they war, but geyan
greedy.... They bid to hae tithes o’ everything that grew; mony
a time my faither wisht they wad tak tithes o’ his hemp too, if
it were to hang themsels. They were ay warst whare a puir man
or wife died, though they left weans fatherless and mitherless:
a deed they wad a sent their bellman, and wi’ his lang prelatic
fingers he wad a harled the upper pair o’ blankets aff o’ the
poor things’ bed for some rent that they gard fouks pay for
dying, a sae did they een, and yet they keepit a hantle o’ braw
haly days and days o’ meikle meat—Fastren’s-e’en and Yule days,
when we got our wames fou o’ fat brose, and suppit Yule sowens
till our sarks had been like to rive; and, after that, eaten
toasted cheese and white puddings well spiced. O! braw times
for the guts! Well, I wat, onybody might live then that had
onything to live on.”
In this strain, Janet “haivers” on to the end of the chapter, in answer
to Maggy’s questions. She discusses the devil and his wife (is there any
other record of Satan having added matrimony to his sins?); blackamoors
and what they are made of; and that fruitful subject of discussion in
all ages—the minister. Janet points out, in a woman’s unerring way, the
many faults of the minister, his wife, and “twa gigglet, gilliegaukies
o’ dochters;” and tells how _she_ would preach if she had the chance of
“wagging her pow in the pu’pit.” Then she proceeds to give her younger
sister some advice concerning marriage; and the chapbook—in some of its
editions—concludes with her “Oration on the Virtues of the Old Women and
the Pride of the Young.” In a humorous fashion she expatiates on her sex,
pointing out their many vices, and wherein they have fallen from the high
estate they enjoyed when she, “Janet, was a Janet.” She regrets that they
will not speak their mother tongue, and will not even swear in it, “but
must have southern oaths.” Having said her say, she imparts some advice
to her readers as to waling a good husband or a perfect wife.
“If a puir man want a perfect wife, let him wale a weel-blooded
hissie, wi’ braid shouders and thick about the haunches, that
has been lang servant in ae house, tho’ twice or thrice awa’
and ay fied back; that’s weel liket by the bairns and the
bairns’ mither; that’s naeway cankard to the cats nor kicks
the colley-dogs amang her feet; that wad let a’ brute beasts
live, but rats, mice, lice, flaes, neits, and bugs, that
bites the wee bairns in their cradles; that carefully combs
the young things’ heads, washes their faces and claps their
cheeks, snites the snotter frae their nose as they were a’ her
ain—that’s the lass that will mak’ a good wife; for them that
dauts the young bairns will ay be kind to auld folk an they had
them.
“And ony hale-hearted, halsome lassie that wants to halter a
good husband, never tak’ a widow’s ae son, for a’ the wifely
gates in the world will be in him, for want of a father to
teach him manly actions; neither tak’ a sour-looking sumf wi’
a muckle mouth and a wide guts, who will eat like a horse and
soss like a sow, suffer none to sup but himsel’, eat your meat
and the bairns’ baith; when hungry angry, when fu’ of pride,
ten sacks will not haud his sauce, tho’ a pea-shap wad haud his
siller. But go, tak’ your chance, and, if cheated, chamer not
on me, for fashionable fouk flee to fashionable things, for
lust is brutish blind and fond love is blear-ey’d.”
The three works of Dougal Graham, with which we have dealt, and from
which we have given extracts illustrative of their style and the
subjects of which they treat, are, in certain respects, different from
the other productions attributed to the Skellat Bellman’s pen. They show
that their author was possessed of an inventive faculty, and that he
could create characters and make them play their parts in the development
of a plot. The plot was never intricate, but the sketches had a dramatic
construction which is wanting in his other chapbooks. Such histories,
for example, as those which relate the _Entertaining Exploits of George
Buchanan_, or the _Comical Transactions of Lothian Tom_, are merely a
number of stories gathered from many sources, and thrown together with a
certain amount of local colour. _John Falkirk the Merry Piper_, _Paddy
from Cork_, and _Simple John_—like George Buchanan and Lothian Tom—are
called into service merely to enable Graham to weave his anecdotes, wise
and otherwise, and his witticisms, new and old, into a composite whole.
It would seem, indeed, as though the Skellat Bellman, like authors of
a later date, had found it impossible to keep up a continuous output
of original matter, and had descended to mere hackwork or pot-boiling.
To say this is not to say that there is nothing of interest in these
collections of facetious anecdotes and droll misfortunes. Like his other
sketches, they are valuable for the light they shed on Scottish life and
custom in a by-gone time.
Two chapbooks, attributed to Graham, differ in construction from the
anecdotal compilations such as _The Exploits of George Buchanan_, or
the dramatic sketches of the nature of _Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship_.
These are _John Cheap the Chapman_, and _Leper the Taylor_. The former is
understood to be autobiographical in part. “John Cheap” is an interesting
fellow, and in his company—though often-times it is more agreeable than
polite—we can wander over a large stretch of lowland Scotland and learn
something of the life he lived. He got his
“name of John Cheap the chapman, by his selling twenty needles
for a penny, and twa leather laces for a farthing. He swore no
oaths but one, Let me never sin; and he used no imprecations
but, Let me never cheat nor be cheated, but rather cheat than
be cheated.”
Many a man in a higher walk of life than that in which John Cheap moved,
could plead guilty to harbouring the same wish.
In this sketch, the author paints with a broad brush. The trials of
a pedlar’s life are duly set forth. One quotation will suffice for
illustration.
“I prevailed,” says John Cheap, “to get staying in a great
farmer’s house, about two miles from Haddington; they were
all at supper when I went in; I was ordered to sit down
behind their backs. The goodwife then took a dish, went
round the servants, and collected a sowp out of every cog,
which was sufficient to have served three men. The goodwife
ordered me to be laid in the barn all night for my bed, but
the bully-fac’d goodman swore he had too much stuff in it to
venture me there; the guidwife said I should not ly within the
house, for I would be o’er near the lasses’ bed; then the lads
swore I should not go with them, for I was a forjesket little
fellow, and (wha kens whether I was honest or not) he may fill
his wallet wi’ our cloaths and gang his wa’ or daylight. At
last I was conducted out to the swine’s stye, to sleep with an
old sow and seven pigs, and there I lay for two nights.”
To the pictures of early Church life, which are found in the _History of
the Haverel Wives_, may be added one from _Leper the Taylor_. It belongs
to a later age, and while the others dealt with the Church in the days
of Popery and Episcopacy, this gives us a glimpse of matters as they
existed under Presbytery. It illustrates ecclesiastical life in Glasgow
at the time when Dougal Graham held the position of Skellat Bellman. The
Kirk-Session, acting in conjunction with the Town Council, appointed
certain officers, known as “civileers,” whose duty was to see that
everybody attended Church at both diets of worship on Sabbath.[21] These
functionaries pounced upon Leper on one occasion, and the following
extract narrates the sequel:—
“Leper was in use to give his lads their Sunday’s supper, which
obliged him to stay from the kirk in the afternoon, he having
neither wife nor servant maid; so on Sunday afternoon, as he
was at home cooking his pot, John Muckle-cheeks and James
Puff-and-Blaw, two Civileers, having more zeal than knowledge,
came upon him and said, What’s the matter, Sir, you go not to
the kirk? Leper replied, I am reading my book, and cooking my
pot, which I think is the work of necessity. Then says the one
to the other, Don’t answer the graceless fellow, we’ll make
him appear before his betters; so they took the kail-pot, and
puts a staff through the bowls, and bears it to the Clerk’s
chamber. Leper, who was never at a loss for invention, goes
to the Principal of the College, his house, no body being at
home but a lass roasting a leg of mutton; Leper says, My dear,
will you go and bring a pint of ale, and I’ll turn the spit
till you come back; the lass was no sooner gone than he runs
away with the leg of mutton, which served his lads and him
for his supper. When the Principal came home, he was neither
to bin nor ha’d, he was so angry; so on Monday he goes and
makes complaint to the Lord Provost, who sends two officers for
Leper, who came immediately. My Lord asked him, How he dared to
take away the Principal’s mutton? Leper replied, How came your
Civileers to take away my kail-pot? I am sure there is less sin
in making a pot-full of kail than roasting a leg of mutton:
Law-makers should not be law-breakers, so I demand justice on
the Civileers. The Provost asked him what justice he would
have? Says he, Make them carry the pot back again; as for the
Principal, a leg of mutton won’t make him and me fall out. So
they were forced to carry the pot back again, and Leper caused
the boys to huzza after them to their disgrace.”
Of the other humorous chapbooks attributed to Graham, no lengthy mention
need be made. At most, as has been indicated, he was only editor of them;
and they are, for the greater part, merely collections of _facetiæ_.
Many of the stories were chestnuts even in Dougal’s time, and some of
them are none the fresher for the fact that they have been fathered on
every beadle and minister of distinction within the last decade. He had
an eye for a good story, and one seldom lost anything in being retailed
by him. If the George Buchanan of his pages is rather a buffoon than the
first statesman of his age, it should be borne in mind that the Bellman
wrote for a people who demanded mirth, and that the George Buchanan of
history—if Graham had chosen to treat him seriously—would have cut a
sorry figure in the company of Paddy from Cork and Lothian Tom, and would
not have been so much appreciated as the ribald courtier of a ribald age.
Besides the Skellat Bellman of Glasgow, there were a number of others
who contributed humour to Scottish chapbook literature. One of the most
notable of these was William Cameron, who in certain respects was a
fitting successor to Dougal Graham. He, like Graham, was born within
sight of Stirling Castle; like him, too, he wandered over a large part of
Scotland as a “flying stationer;” and, like him, he ultimately settled
down in Glasgow and became one of the worthies of St. Mungo.[22] Cameron
has a connection with Graham’s work in respect that he edited _Janet
Clinker’s Oration_, and, giving it a new title, sent it forth on a fresh
lease of life. His own words are:—
“I fell in with _Janet Clinker’s Oration on the Wit of the
Old Wives and the Pride of the Young Women_. This piece never
fails. I have turned it ‘heels over head’ many times; and, when
it would sell no longer, I gave it a fresh name, as well as a
new introduction, and sold it as freely as ever.... I changed
its title to _Grannie M’Nab’s Lecture on the Women_, and sold
it through the West of Scotland.”
Cameron was author of one or two chapbooks. He wrote _The Prophecies of
‘Hawkie’: a Cow_, which poked fun at a prophet who “prophesied in Fife
and appeared in Glasgow, and converted numbers.” The book sold well, and
secured for Cameron the name by which he was subsequently known—he was
“Hawkie” to two generations of Glaswegians. Another of his productions is
_The Gauger’s Journey to the Land of Darkness: what he discovered there
and his journey back_. It narrates the story of an exciseman who, being
found drunk and asleep by some colliers, was taken down a pit and laid in
a corner. When he awoke, he fancied he was in another world.
_The Life of Mansie Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith_, is a notable chapbook,
and cannot be overlooked in this connection. It is—as many of the
chapbooks were—a condensation of a larger work, and, in its extended
form, is still widely esteemed. There is this difference between
“Delta’s”[23] creation and all of those of Graham, that he is always
respectable. Mansie, like many other mortals in chapbook literature,
finds himself in strange places and the victim of unfortunate
circumstances—such as his experience of “calf-love” and his adventures in
the playhouse—but he never loses his self-respect or finds it necessary
to be obscene to be emphatic. Doubtless these very characteristics led to
his being less widely appreciated by the common people, but he has this
much to his credit that when, in later times, a movement originated to
suppress or supplant the coarse productions of the Skellat Bellman, it
did not—because it could not—affect him.
There were a number of chapbooks in verse which deserve to be noticed
under the present heading. One of the most popular of these was Alexander
Wilson’s[24] humorous poem, _Watty and Meg; or, the Wife Reformed—Owre
True a Tale_, which was first published in 1792, and considered worthy
of the Ayrshire Bard. Another was, _The Comical Story of Thrummy Cap and
the Ghost_, from the pen of John Burness,[25] a cousin of the national
poet. Both of these effusions enjoyed a wide popularity as chapbooks;
they were reprinted time and again, down to the very close of the period
when these books may be said to have ceased to be vended; and then
they passed on into standard collections of our national verse, through
which they are known to a wide circle of readers. Two other publications
which were popular, but which had not that fate, are—(1) _The Comical
Tale of Margaret and the Minister_, which narrates how Margaret, having
been invited to dinner at the manse, accepted the invitation; and then,
through ignorance or misadventure, affixed the table-cover instead of a
napkin to her breast: all went well until, having swallowed some mustard,
she beat a hasty retreat from the room to hide her discomfiture, and
dragged the cloth and dishes with her; (2) _The Dominie Deposed, with a
Sequel_, by William Forbes, A.M., late schoolmaster of Petercoulter. This
sets forth in vigorous verse the lamentation of a dominie, who had the
misfortune to sweetheart, as Mr. Henley might say, “with all his heart,
and soul, and strength.”[26]
While these were the most important of the humorous chapbooks, there were
many others of a similar kind but of lesser merit. Graham called forth
numerous imitators, and stories of love, courtship, and marriage fell
fast from the chapbook press. _The Art of Courtship_,[27] a somewhat
commonplace production, which, in Professor Fraser’s judgment, “bears
strong signs of having been written or edited by Dougal Graham, or at
least suggested by his writings,” was one; _A Diverting Courtship_,[28]
and _The Pleasures of Matrimony_,[29] were others. Subjects of such a
nature lent themselves to broad treatment; and the chapbook writer of a
century ago—like the enterprising publisher of to-day—gave the public
what it wanted, rather than what was good for it. If Graham was imitated
in these productions, he also had companions who issued publications
after the style of _Paddy from Cork_ and the _Exploits of George
Buchanan_.
A collection of amusing, and sometimes coarse, anecdotes was published
at Glasgow in 1767, under title, _The Comical Notes and Sayings of the
Reverend Mr. John Pettigrew, Minister in Govan_,[30] and a budget of
stories of a more general character was issued with the name of _The
Scotch Haggis_.[31] In addition to these, there were _Odds and Ends; or,
a Groat’s Worth of Fun for a Penny_,[32] and _Grinning Made Easy; or,
Funny Dick’s Unrivalled Collection of Jests_.[33] By way of description,
these books of _facetiæ_ do not call for much attention. Anything in the
way of wit and humour was pressed into service. The editors did what
they could to caricature Scotland, before _Punch_ and other enterprising
London periodicals found this a pleasant and paying duty. Many of the
more characteristically Scottish anecdotes in these chapbooks have been
made familiar to modern readers through the dignified pages of Dean
Ramsay’s volume and the works of other gleaners in the field of Scottish
story.
II.
INSTRUCTIVE.
Under the heading of “Instructive Chapbooks,” much falls to be noticed.
It is a section which readily sub-divides itself, although at the
same time it is difficult to arrive at any very exact classification.
Following Professor Fraser’s plan, which, unfortunately, he did not
elaborate, an attempt will be made to range the productions under one or
another of these five heads:—(_a_) Historical; (_b_) Biographical; (_c_)
Religious and Moral; (_d_) Manuals of Instruction; (_e_) Almanacks.
(_a_) HISTORICAL.—The historical chapbook was much in evidence, and
few outstanding events in national history were overlooked. There were
publications dealing with _The Battle of Otterburn_, _The Battle of
Bothwell Bridge_, _The Battle of Drumclog_, _Executions in Scotland from
the Year 1600_, _The Battle of Killiecrankie_, _The Massacre of Glencoe_,
and _The Rebellion of 1745-6_. Then there were others that dealt with
such subjects as _Scotland_, _Edinburgh_, and _Glasgow and the High
Church_.
Three of these chapbooks have the merit of being written by eye-witnesses
of the actions they describe. The account of _The Battle of Bothwell
Bridge_ was composed “by the Laird of Torfoot, an Officer in the
Presbyterian Army.” It forms a 16 page chapbook, and is written, as
will be readily understood, from the Presbyterian point of view. A
later editor of this work, in an undated edition issued by G. Caldwell
of Paisley, added a footnote which strangely confuses the author of
the _Scots Worthies_—John Howie of Lochgoin—with Old Mortality of the
_Waverley Novels_. Referring to the John Howie of the Covenant days, the
editor says,
“The grandson of this person (John Howie) was the person whom
the Great Unknown calls Old Mortality. I have been from infancy
familiar with the history of this author of the epitaphs, this
repairer of the tombs of the martyrs; but I never heard him
called Old Mortality. Everybody in the west of Scotland is
familiar with the name of John Howie—Old Mortality is the name
in romance.”
It is quite apparent that the editor confused Robert Paterson with John
Howie. An abridgement of this narrative, together with an account of
_The Battle of Drumclog_, was issued as another chapbook. That portion
relating to Drumclog was also from the Laird of Torfoot’s pen. It was
extracted, a prefatory note explains, “from an American Newspaper
entitled, the _National Gazette_.” Like that which chronicles the doings
at Bothwell Bridge, it is written in sympathy with the Covenanters.
For the author of the most important of all the Scottish historical
chapbooks, we must return to Dougal Graham. If the _Caledonian Mercury_
is correct in its statement that Prince Charlie was the first to plunge
into the Forth at the Ford of Frew, it may have been that courageous
incident which impelled the little hunchback to throw in his lot with
the Jacobite army. He followed the Young Chevalier in his triumphant
march into England, returned with him in his hasty retreat northwards,
and witnessed the sun of the Stuarts set in blood on Culloden Moor. It
is not improbable that he took notes of the incidents he witnessed, and,
like the war-correspondent of a later day, set about their extension
with all possible speed. Culloden was fought on the 16th of April, 1746.
By September of the same year Graham was in a position to announce the
publication of his _History_. The following advertisement appeared in the
columns of the _Glasgow Courant_ for September 29, 1746:—
“That there is to be sold by James Duncan, Printer in Glasgow,
in the Saltmercat, the 2nd Shop below Gibson’s Wynd, a Book
intituled A full, particular, and true Account of the late
Rebellion in the Year 1745 and 1746, beginning with the
Pretender’s Embarking for Scotland, and then an Account of
every Battle, Siege, and Skirmish that has happened in either
Scotland or England.
“To which is added, several Addresses and Epistles to the Pope,
Pagans, Poets, and the Pretender: all in Metre. Price Four
Pence. But any Bookseller or Pack-men may have them easier from
the said James Duncan, or the Author, D. Graham.
“The like has not been done in Scotland since the days of Sir
David Lindsay.”
That last exclamation shews that Graham had faith in his work (what poet
has not?), and there is little doubt that it became at once extremely
popular. It dealt with a subject in which there was the most intense
interest; it appeared ere Scotland had recovered from the effects of
the shock of the Rebellion; and in the pedlars’ wallets it was carried
over the length and breadth of the land. It would seem that, with
the exception of two copies, the first edition has been read out of
existence. Graham’s _History_ is scarcer than the Shakespeare folios or
the “Kilmarnock” Burns! The title-page of his book contained the couplet—
“Composed by the poet, D. Graham,
In Stirlingshire he lives at hame”—
which is at once a biographical note and a specimen of the author’s
doggerel. But, its rough and frequently infelicitous rhymes
notwithstanding, the work affords good reading. Dougal’s information was
received at first hand, and he paints his pictures with the baldness of
reality. Here, for example, is his description of the arms of the men who
went forth to battle for the White Rose:—
“Old scythes, with their rumples even,
Into a tree they had been driven;
And some with batons of good oak
Vow’d to kill at every stroke;
Some had hatchets upon a pole,
Mischievous weapons, antick and droll.”
These were the weapons that cleared the way to the Scottish capital and
routed Cope’s army at Prestonpans! The expedition into England is duly
set down in the historian’s halting numbers, and he does not hesitate to
chronicle the chagrin of those
“to plunder London that were keen”
when the order went forth at Derby to retreat. The incidents of the
homeward march are narrated. This is how he speaks of the eight days’
sojourn at Glasgow:—
“Eight days they did in Glasgow rest,
Until they were all cloth’d and drest;
And tho’ they on the best o’t fed,
The town they under tribute laid.
Ten thousand sterling made it pay,
For being of the Georgian way,
Given in goods and ready cash,
Or else to stand a plundering lash.”
Those “to plunder London that were keen” having been baulked of their
aims on the capital, did their best to recoup themselves at the expense
of Glasgow. The thrilling scenes on Culloden Moor are graphically
described. Here is what he says of Cumberland’s artillery:—
“It hew’d them down, ay, score by score,
As grass doth fall before the mower;
Breaches it made as large and broad
As avenues in through a wood.”
The subsequent wanderings of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” in the western isles
are duly set forth, although much of what is said must be imaginary so
far as Graham is concerned, or told at second-hand. Many editions of
the book were published, and some of them differed widely from others,
for Dougal found it necessary on occasion to express himself as a
good Hanoverian rather than as a discredited Jacobite. It is usual to
characterise the work as “Hudibrastic,” and from the extracts given it
will be seen that the criticism is not unjust. In point of literary
workmanship, it has small claim to distinction, but it is not without
merit as the record of an eye-witness. “It contains,” says Chambers,
“and in this consists the chief value of all such productions, many
minute facts which a work of more pretensions would not admit.” Dougal
wrote with a graphic pen, and had his facility in verse been equal to his
power of description, the metrical _History of the Rebellion_ had not now
been a forgotten volume.[34]
Under the heading “Historical,” may be included those broadsides and
chapbooks which referred to topical events. Frequently the matters
dealt with were too local or too trivial to be regarded as history in
the proper acceptation of the word, but a passing sentence at least may
be awarded them. There was one, for example (and it certainly rises to
the dignity of history), which provided “An Account of the Massacre of
Captain Porteous of the City Guard,” and another which set forth “A
Particular Account of the Great Mob at Glasgow that happened on Tuesday,
9th of February, 1779; with an account of the Magistrates’ and Trades’
activity in assisting to suppress the same.” Occasionally, when an
important event was to take place, a chapbook in connection therewith
was put in circulation. “Hawkie” tells us that he published an account
of _Ancient King Crispin_, which was sold in Edinburgh on the day of a
Crispin procession in that town. Sometimes rivals in trade sought the
help of the flying-stationer. Cameron says that he sold, for a newspaper
office, a broadside entitled, _The Expiring Groans, Death, and Funeral
Procession of the “Beacon” Newspaper_. It is safe to say that the
erewhile proprietors of the extinguished _Beacon_ did not engage “Hawkie”
to spread the news of their disaster. Sometimes these topical chapbooks
consisted of the last speeches of condemned criminals. At a time when
public executions were in force, and when great crowds of all classes
assembled to see a fellow-mortal dance into eternity, such literature
commanded a ready sale. The last speeches were usually supplied to the
“flying-stationers” on the day before the execution, and “pattered” among
the assembling multitude. When no speech was forthcoming, the chapman,
recognising that the opportunity was too good to be lost, invented
something that would sell. A case in point may be mentioned, and the
pedlar’s own words quoted[35]:—
“There was a man named Robertson under sentence of death in
Glasgow for housebreaking and theft, and the execution, which
took place 7th April, 1819, brought ‘flying-stationers’ from
every quarter.... The day before Robertson’s execution, Jamie
[Blue] and I were in Wilson Street, and in a bookseller’s
shop saw a tract entitled, ‘A Reprieve from the Punishment of
Death.’ As a reprieve was expected for Robertson, we considered
that this tract was likely to sell.
“We asked the price, and were told ‘three half-pence.’ We took
four dozen each, and started, Jamie in the Candleriggs, and I
in Bell’s Wynd. I had scarcely reached Albion Street before I
had sold the four dozen, and turning back for more I met Jamie,
who had sold about three dozen. On the head of our good luck we
proposed a ‘dram,’ to which Jamie agreed, on condition that we
would go to one Millar’s cellar in the Saltmarket.
“I would not consent to this as it was too far, and we might
be dogged by other speech-criers, who would find out the shop
where we got the tracts; but Jamie, who was naturally of a
cringing disposition, would go there, as they had given him a
dram in the morning _on pledging his spectacles_. We went, got
the glass, and started again; at night I had nine shillings.
“Next morning we started it again, although the apparatus
of death was now fixed in front of the jail. We continued
pattering the ‘Reprieve’ till one o’clock, when the people were
collecting for the execution. By this time we were both drunk,
and had come as far as ‘The Cross.’ Jamie ‘took’ down the High
Street, and I the Saltmarket.
“I had not gone far, when a boy came and told me to ‘stop, as
Jamie had been taken to the police office.’ A policeman came
down the Saltmarket, and I was sure he was in search of me, but
at that time there were no less than seven speech-criers who
used stilts, and not being so well known I escaped. I went to
the printers to get some more books, and found there dozens of
speech-criers in as deep sorrow as if they had been friends of
the unfortunate man, on account of being prohibited crying the
speeches, and thereby deprived of a fuddle.”
Having sold the fictitious _Reprieve_ for all he was worth, Cameron
turned his attention to the _Last Speech_. A continuation of the above
extract gives us an interesting glimpse of the business.
“Thomas Duncan,” he writes, “would sell no speeches to be cried
in Glasgow. John Muir also printed speeches, and the criers
went to him to try to get some. When the criers left, Duncan
told me he would give me half-a-ream if I would go and sell
them in Paisley; I took them, and had got to the foot of the
Saltmarket when they were bringing the unfortunate man out to
the scaffold. I went through the Briggate, started on the old
bridge, and sold them all in one hour.
“I could have sold more, but was afraid to go back, as I had
not kept my promise. I went to Muir’s and got seven quires,
intending to go to Paisley; but by this time Muir had sold his
speeches, and the criers were out on the street.
“When they began to cry, they were all apprehended and taken
to the ‘Old Guard House’ in Montrose Street, where upwards
of fifty were kept over the Fast Day.... I ... started for
Paisley. After I passed through Tradeston I changed my mind,
and took the road by Renfrew for Greenock.
“When I got to Renfrew there were two ‘patterers’ there
before me; when I saw them I was aware they were for Greenock
also. A dram was proposed. They were as ‘kittle’ neighbours
as Glasgow could produce. One of them, William Anderson, had
been three times transported for seven years; he and the other
man, James Johnston, could never meet without a fight.” In this
case they did fight. “Anderson got Johnston down, and when
down put Johnston’s books in the fire, and held them till they
were burned. Johnston got an opportunity and burned Anderson’s
books.” Later on Cameron’s stock received the same treatment,
“and,” he adds, “we were all without a book.”
The extract is interesting as affording an illustration of life in the
days of spectacular executions, and as showing the character of the
men who “pattered” the speeches of the criminals. Fifty or sixty of
these ruffians—hardly more respectable than the central figure in the
tragedy—moving through the dense throng and shouting their wares, did
nothing to dignify a public hanging.
Last Speeches and Confessions were, as a rule, melancholy productions,
chiefly notable for their bad grammar and the spirit of lamentation in
which they were written. Sometimes they were accompanied by a short
history of the crime for which the extreme penalty was being exacted,
or by some “Verses” called forth by the incident. In these days, when
public executions are no longer carried out, and when the populace
cannot even indulge its morbid curiosity so far as to hail the hoisting
of the black flag, the chapbook has been superseded by the newspaper.
In the public prints the revolting details are duly served up, and a
confession—where one is made and supplied to the reporters—awarded due
prominence and set out with all the blandishments of expressive headlines
and effective type. The relish and avidity with which such news is read
prove that human nature has not changed much since the days when fifty
flying-stationers found it worth their while to risk being laid by the
heels for vending literature of a similarly sensational kind.[36]
(_b_) BIOGRAPHICAL.—In many instances the biographical chapbook was
closely allied to the historical. The _History of Sir William Wallace,
the Renowned Scottish Champion_, _The History of the Life and Death of
the Great Warrior, Robert Bruce, King of Scotland_, and _The History of
the Black Douglas_, really comprise a narrative of the wars of Scottish
independence. Again, _The Life and History of Mary, Queen of Scots_, and
_The Life and Meritorious Transactions of John Knox, the Great Scottish
Reformer_, supply an account of Scotland during the troublous Reformation
days. _The History of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, commonly called the
Pretender_, is largely and naturally a resumé of the rebellion of 1745.
More distinctly biographical are the chapbooks which deal with Michael
Scott and John Welch, Alexander Peden and Donald Cargill, Thomas the
Rhymer and Robert Burns, William Lithgow and Peter Williamson, Paul
Jones and Rob Roy. None of these is remarkable for literary excellence.
They are, as a rule, bald narratives of incidents in the lives of the
subjects with whom they deal, and, without exception, they may be said to
present the traditional view of the person they describe. The craze of
modern historical writers to alter the conventional colours of certain
portraits was undreamt of by these old-world authors. Wallace is not in
these badly-printed pages the beer-stealing thief of Sir Herbert Maxwell,
and there is no suggestion that in digging the pits at Bannockburn Bruce
was treacherous rather than strategical. The Good Lord James is “the
Black Douglas” of the tender heart, and Knox is the stout Reformer “who
never feared the face of man.” Mary Queen of Scots and Prince Charlie
come in for not unfriendly treatment, and a good deal is forgiven them on
account of the circumstances in which they found themselves. The “Lives”
of John Welch and John Knox, Alexander Peden and Donald Cargill, are
drawn either wholly or in part from Howie’s _Scots Worthies_, and are
written in the sympathetic style of the Foxe of the Scottish Reformation
and Covenant Days. A notable biographical chapbook was the _History of
the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland from the Reign of James the
First to Victoria the First_. This, which must have been published during
the later forties of the nineteenth century, is “Part II.” of an earlier
book, which dealt with the English sovereigns from William the Conqueror
to Elizabeth. Each monarch is represented by a woodcut and a short
biography.
[Illustration: _Bruce and de Boune—from the “History of the Life and
Death of the Great Warrior, Robert Bruce, King of Scotland.”_]
The two outstanding literary portraits in the gallery of chapbook
literature are Thomas the Rhymer and Robert Burns. Here Thomas of
Ercildoune is Thomas of “the east corner of Fife.” He was born near
Crail, according to this chapbook writer, and much credit was given
to his prophecies, although “they are hard to be understood.”[37] The
chapbook on the national poet, which is entitled _An Interesting Account
of Robert Burns, the Ayrshire Bard_, is largely made up of extracts from
letters of the poet and of his brother Gilbert. The salient points of
Burns’s life are narrated in a simple manner, and occasionally a word
of apology is offered for his misdeeds. But there is no enthusiasm; the
author is not even a “common Burnsite,” and if a stranger chanced on
this booklet for a knowledge of the “peasant poet,” he would doubtless
conclude that Mr. Henley’s “half-read M.P.’s and sheriffs, and divines
and provosts flushed with literary patriotism” had a poor excuse for
drinking oceans of whisky and eating mountains of haggis, and belching
forth be-fuddled speeches every 25th of January. The pen-portrait is
about as indistinct as the woodcut which forms the frontispiece.
[Illustration: _The Wreck of Robinson Crusoe—from “The Surprizing Life
and most Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.”_]
_Rob Roy, the Celebrated Highland Freebooter, or Memoirs of the
Osbaldistone Family_, and the _History of Paul Jones, the Pirate_, may
be mentioned as typical examples of the Scottish chapbook literature
which dealt with _Notorious Characters, Highwaymen, and Burglars_. _Rob
Roy_ is nothing more than a fictitious account of the Highland cateran
written up from Scott’s novel. We meet the creations of the Author of
_Waverley_—Die Vernon, Bailie Nicol Jarvie, Dougal Craitur, Rasleigh,
Andrew Fairservice, and all the others—but they are mere skeletons, not
the living beings that move in the pages of Scott. The _Life of Paul
Jones_ would not be wanting in readers. It presents in small compass the
life-story of one who for a considerable time “kept the coasts of the
United Kingdom in a constant state of alarm,” and disputed Britannia’s
right to rule the waves.
(_c_) RELIGIOUS AND MORAL.—This is a section in which Scottish chapbook
literature was largely supplemented by English productions. Sermons by
outstanding martyrs and divines, such as James Renwick and Ebenezer
Erskine, were in great demand, but the Scot was not averse from nurturing
his Presbyterian soul on the pulpit orations of clergymen furth of
the realm. The English Nonconformist always commanded a wide public.
Of notable sermons may be mentioned, _Man’s Great Concernment_, and
_Christ’s Glorious Appearance to God! or the End of Time; The Grones of
Believers under their Burdens_, and _God’s Little Remnant Keeping their
Garments Clean in an Evil Day; The Plant of Renown_, and _A Wedding Ring
fit for the Finger; A Choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ_, and
_Sins and Sorrows Spread before God_. A sermon that passed through many
editions was _The Stone rejected by the Builders, exalted as the Head
Stone of the Corner_. Preached at Perth, at the opening of the Synod
of Perth and Stirling, on October 10, 1732, it gave rise, its author
tells us, “to three days’ warm debate” in that reverend Synod. In the
other Courts of the Church it was taken up and as warmly debated, and
it led eventually to the secession of its author[38] and his associate
friends from the Church of Scotland. Other religious books were many
and varied. There was _Divine Songs for the Use of Children_, by Isaac
Watts, with its faulty rhymes and homely phrases; and there was also—one
can hardly conceive it possible in the land of Jenny Geddes and Jacob
Primmer—_A Prayer Book for Families and Private Persons upon various
subjects and occasions_. A Scottish sheriff, famous more for his erratic
judgments than his law, recently stated that so far as Scotland was
concerned the word “Liturgy” was a nickname. Probably this particular
directory of devotion deserved such an epithet, and Carlyle may have
seen it ere he wrote about “worshipping by machinery.” The compiler has
discharged his duty in such manner that—a prefatory note explains—“the
Prayers are so arranged that when any one is too long to be used without
inconvenience, it may be shortened by leaving out some of the paragraphs;
and this may be done without injury to the connection.” If history
speaks truthfully, the extensive devotional exercises of the pulpit did
not lend themselves to such a laudable arrangement. An early chapbook
writer, whose productions were of a religious character, was William
Mitchell, better known as “The Tinclarian Doctor.” Many of his booklets
were originally printed by John Reid, Bell’s Wynd, Edinburgh, husband
of the piratical “Lucky Reid,” against whom Allan Ramsay complained to
the Town Council. Mitchell, says George Mac Gregor, “was an odd being
who sought by his works to spread ‘light’ through Scotland. He was a
lamplighter in Edinburgh for twelve years, but losing this situation,
he got, as he says himself, ‘an inward call from the Spirit to give
light to the ministers.’ His works may be classed among the chapbooks of
Scotland, for, though he sold them himself, and did not allow them to be
retailed by the chapmen, they are of the same description.”[39] Incidents
in Holy Writ frequently formed subjects for chapbooks, and these were
almost invariably illustrated. _The New Pictorial Bible_, which comprised
notices of the most important events in Scripture from “the creation of
light” to “the last day” foreshadowed in “Revelation,” was a series of
forty-six illustrations. _The History of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob_, _The
History of Joseph and His Brethren_, _The History of Moses_, _Jonah’s
Mission to the Ninevites_, and _The Life, Journeyings, and Death of the
Apostle Paul_, were some of the subjects. _The Life of Paul_ and _Jonah’s
Mission_, which, in the chapbooks I have examined, were added merely
to eke out space, do not seem to have lent themselves to illustration,
but the other subjects were profusely embellished with woodcuts. The
higher critic draws none of his inspiration from these books. So far
as the artist is concerned, it _was_ a serpent that tempted Eve, the
sun and the moon _did_ stand still, and it _was_ a fish that swallowed
Jonah.[40] One of the most curious, and certainly one of the most
repellant of these Biblical chapbooks, is that entitled, _The Life and
Death of Judas Iscariot, or the Lost and Undone Son of Perdition_. It is
possible to feel a kindly interest in the mortal who played a necessary
part in a disagreeable business even though one may have never read a
line of Marie Corelli, but the Judas of these pages is not calculated
to inspire esteem. He was a villain of the deepest dye—a man who, to
his other crimes, added those of murdering his father and marrying
his mother. Indeed, one rises from a perusal of this booklet with the
conviction that the historic transaction for thirty pieces of silver
was not the greatest of Iscariot’s sins. Two other popular chapbooks
were _The Pilgrim’s Progress_, told in a series of twenty-one realistic
pictures, and _Evan’s Sketch of all Religions_, an abridgment of a larger
work which gives particulars of forty-two different sects, including
“Atheists,” “Jumpers,” and “Hutchinsonians.” Religious poetry was not
unrepresented in the chapman’s wallet, and the _Grave_ by Blair, which
ran through numerous editions, may be cited as a typical example. The
religious chapbook occasionally took a form which has been perpetuated
and developed in the later tracts issued by Missionary Societies and
similar bodies. This was the life-story of some precocious youth with an
early genius for Christianity. Typical examples are found in _An Account
of the Last Words of Christian Kerr, who died at Edinburgh on the 4th of
February, 1702, in the 11th year of her age_, and in _A Brief Memoir of
Urcilla Gebbie, who died at Galston on the 28th of August, aged 15 years_.
[Illustration: _Noah entering the Ark—from “The New Pictorial Bible.”_]
[Illustration: _Hagar and Ishmael cast out—from “The History of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob.”_]
[Illustration: _Joseph sold into Egypt—from “The History of Joseph and
his Brethren.”_]
[Illustration: _The Plague of Frogs—from “The History of Moses: giving an
account of his birth, his being found by Pharoah’s daughter in the ark
of bulrushes, and the miracles wrought by him for the deliverance of the
children of Israel.”_]
[Illustration: _The Sun and Moon Stand Still—from “The New Pictorial
Bible.”_]
[Illustration: _Jonah is swallowed by a fish—from “The New Pictorial
Bible.”_]
[Illustration: _Daniel cast into the den of Lions—from “The New Pictorial
Bible.”_]
[Illustration: _Sarah promised a Son—from “The History of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob.”_]
The term “Moral” embraces a number of secular chapbooks. _The Wonderful
Advantages of Drunkenness_ deserves to be remembered for its “Comparisons
of Drunkenness.” It gives the following comparisons and explanations:—
“As drunk as an Owl—as drunk as a Sow—as drunk as a Beggar—as
drunk as the Devil—as drunk as a lord. The explanation of which
is as follows: A man is as drunk as an Owl when he cannot see.
He is as drunk as a Sow when he tumbles in the dirt. He is as
drunk as a Beggar when he is very impudent. He is as drunk as
the Devil when he is inclined to mischief; and as drunk as a
lord when he is everything that is bad.”
One cannot fail to be impressed with the distinct temperance note
which is sounded in Scottish chapbook literature. It is true that
there are verses in praise of “Scottish Whiskie,” and also that there
is the equivocal song entitled the “Effects of Whiskey”; but these
notwithstanding, there are many chapbooks which are directed against the
use of intoxicants. The most notable is undoubtedly _Scotland’s Skaith;
or, the Sad Effects of Drunkenness, exemplified in the History of Will
and Jean_. This poem, from the pen of Hector Macneill,[41] had an almost
unprecedented run of popularity, although it is doubtful if more than
one verse is known to-day, and many who quote it would probably be at a
loss to give the author’s name—
“Of a’ the ills poor Caledonia
E’er yet preed, or e’er will taste,
Brew’d in hell’s black pandemonia,
Whisky’s ill will skaith her maist!”
Temperance teaching is inculcated in _A Night frae Hame_, and, in a
lesser degree, in _Rab and Ringan_. The subject is also dealt with in
the _Oration on Teetotalization_, and in the _Dialogue between John and
Thomas_ on sundry questions. The vigorous verses entitled a _Protest
against Whisky_, might have been written by an uncompromising Rechabite.
Chapbooks of this nature could not fail to exert some influence upon the
people who read them, and although, as unspeakable Scots, we may never be
able to get over our thirst for the barley bree, it is gratifying to know
that—even in our darkest hour—we endeavoured to free ourselves from one
at least of our original and selected sins.
Allan Ramsay’s _Collection of Scotch Proverbs_ should not be overlooked
in this section. First published in 1736, this volume of “sententious
saws of antecedent centuries,” as William Motherwell would call it, was
considerably abridged, and frequently produced as a penny chapbook. It
professed to contain “all the wise sayings and observations of the old
people of Scotland,” and as it circulated at a time when the average Scot
punctuated his conversation with proverbial expressions, it doubtless
sold as readily as anything in the pedlar’s pack.
[Illustration: _The Old Hound—from “The Fables of Æsop, the Celebrated
Ancient Philosopher.”_
_An old hound who had been an excellent good one in his time, had at last
by reason of years, become feeble and unserviceable. However, being in
the field one day, he happened to be the first to come up with the same,
but his decayed teeth prevented him from keeping his hold of it, and it
escaped. His master, being in a passion, was going to strike him. “Ah,
do not strike your old servant,” said the dog, “it is not my heart or
inclination, but my strength that fails me. If what I am now displeases
you, pray don’t forget what I have been?”_
_Moral:—“It is a sad thing to be treated unkindly by the man you have
served.”_]
(_d_) MANUALS OF INSTRUCTION.—This is a section which cannot be said
to be distinctly Scottish, There was _The Housewife’s Cookery Book_,
which provided recipes for many things from the roasting of beef to
the fermenting of wines; and there was _The Housekeeper_, which gave
practical instruction in domestic economy. The bashful swain who found
it difficult to woo in words on the 14th of February, found refuge in
_The Valentine Writer_; while _The Art of Courtship_ or _The Accomplished
Courtier_ or the _New Academy of Compliments_, assisted him towards the
same end all the year round.[42] There were text-books on the making of
money and on personal etiquette; and treatises on divers subjects from
the killing of vermin to the art of swimming.
[Illustration: _The Burial of Jacob—from “The History of Joseph and his
Brethren.”_]
(_e_) ALMANACS.—These were hardy annuals, and were always in great
demand. Their number is legion. Only one or two can be noticed,
and these in a very general way. In Kelly’s _Collection of Scottish
Proverbs_, published at London in 1721, there is a reference to an early
almanac in the maxim, “Buchanan’s _Almanac_, lang foul and lang fair.”
The _Aberdeen Almanac_ enjoyed a wide popularity, and readers of Burns
will remember that the poet, writing to his friend, Gavin Hamilton,
during the Edinburgh period of his life, said he was “in a fair way of
becoming as eminent as Thomas à Kempis or John Bunyan,” and that he might
expect henceforth to see his “birthday inserted among the wonderful
events in the _Poor Robin’s_ and _Aberdeen Almanacs_.”
“The _Aberdeen Almanac_ (or _Prognostication_, as it was
commonly called),” writes Dr. William Wallace, “was among the
first of the kind issued in Scotland. It was founded in 1623 by
Edward Raban, Aberdeen’s first printer, enjoyed a long life,
and acquired an almost proverbial celebrity. It had an immense
circulation, accounted for by the fact that Aberdeen had for
long a monopoly (in Scotland) of the sale of almanacs.”[43]
When this monopoly was broken down, other almanacs were rapidly put in
circulation. _Poor Robin’s_, which existed for nearly two centuries—from
1664 to 1823—also enjoyed considerable popularity north of Tweed. A
typical example of these publications, but of later date, is to be found
in _Orr’s Scottish Almanac_, which still circulates widely and preserves
all the outstanding features of the almanac of a by-gone day. Published
by the firm of Messrs. Francis Orr & Sons, Glasgow, who issued many
chapbooks during the first half of the nineteenth century, this annual
has changed but slightly—if at all—in its appearance. Features have been
forced upon it, and things of which it once took note have passed out of
everyday life, but, when allowances of these kinds have been made, it
is still—in its paper and general get-up—the chapbook almanac of long
ago. Any one searching in the mass of cheap literature of these days for
a lineal descendant of the chapbook family, could hardly find a nearer
representative in the direct line than _Orr’s Scottish Almanac_.
[Illustration: _Solomon’s Temple—from “The New Pictorial Bible.”_]
III.
ROMANTIC.
Scotland’s contribution to this section of our chapbook literature is
remarkable for its poverty. Few of the romantic chapbooks were of native
growth. Apart from certain of Dougal Graham’s productions and _Mansie
Wauch_, which have been considered under the heading “Humorous,” the
most notable romances of Scottish origin were those by the Ettrick
Shepherd.[44] _Duncan Campbell and his dog Oscar_, and _The Long Pack;
or, The Robbers Discovered_, are two of Hogg’s tales which were in much
demand as chapbooks. They were printed by the thousand, and editions came
from almost every press in the country. Although in many cases they were
published anonymously, the authorship was occasionally acknowledged,
and these tales did much to increase the popularity of the Ettrick
Shepherd with the Scottish people. His _Brownie of Bodsbeck_, appearing
shortly after _Old Mortality_, was sometimes compared by the _literati_
of Edinburgh with that work, to the disadvantage of the former, but
his shorter tales, such as those mentioned, circulating widely among
that class of people whom Messrs. Henley and Henderson would call “the
uncritical,” were read and enjoyed for themselves alone. At many a
fireside the touching tale of Duncan Campbell and his faithful dog has
moved readers and hearers to tears. So familiar did it become in time
that matrons all over the country were able to tell the story to their
children without the book, and garnished occasionally with little touches
of added pathos that detracted nothing from the genius of Hogg. The
popularity accorded to _Duncan Campbell_ was equalled by that meted out
to _The Long Pack_. The concealment of a robber in a pedlar’s pack was a
thing that concerned the everyday life of the people, and many a later
chapman who had the good fortune to possess a large stock of goods would
be looked upon with suspicious eyes until he opened his bundle and proved
that there was no robber where no robber should be. The people of those
days, like their successors of our time, enjoyed a spice of sensation,
and doubtless gloated over the “moving pack” from which, when the fatal
shot was fired, “blood gushed out upon the floor like a torrent, and a
hideous roar, followed by the groans of death, issued from the pack.”
Hogg was a master of the gruesome, and in this sketch he maintains
the _rôle_ to the very end. The body “lay open for inspection for a
fortnight,” and, even after it was buried, the neighbours “confidently
reported that his grave was opened and his corpse taken away!” Hogg
has fallen upon evil days, and to many his romances are practically
non-existent. The copious tears of the up-to-date “Kailyairder” blind the
eyes of his readers, who, in their endeavour to master the “pidgin” Scots
that flows from his pen, forget that Scottish life was lived generations
before London publishers found a Klondyke in the joys and sorrows of
every Scottish village. But to those who care to read them, the Ettrick
Shepherd’s tales are still accessible in the two volumes of his collected
romances.[45]
[Illustration: _Jack the Giant Killer and the Giant—from the “History of
Jack the Giant Killer, containing his Birth and Parentage—His meeting
with the King’s Son—His noble Conquests over many monstrous Giants—and,
his relieving a beautiful Lady, whom he afterwards married,” etc._]
Christopher North[46] was laid under tribute to the extent of _Blind
Allan_, which was extracted from the now forgotten _Lights and Shadows of
Scottish Life_. In addition to these, there were a few, such as _Allan
Barclay_, and _The Broken Heart: a Tale of the Rebellion of 1745_; _The
Ghost of my Uncle_, and _John Hetherington’s Dream_; _The Murder Hole_,
and _The Strange Adventures of Tam Merrilees_, by innominate writers, but
the great bulk of romance was of alien manufacture. Many of the fairy
tales which still delight and terrify young readers were in constant
circulation. _Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves_, _Aladdin and the Wonderful
Lamp_, and _Sinbad the Sailor_; _Beauty and the Beast_, _Whittington and
his Cat_, and _Jack the Giant Killer_; _Gulliver’s Travels_, _Robinson
Crusoe_, and _Baron Munchausen_; _Hero and Leander_, _The Siege of Troy_,
and _The King and the Cobbler_, may be cited as representative types of
the romantic literature of the pedlar’s wallet. But, beyond the fact that
they were extremely popular with readers north of Tweed, these are in no
sense Scottish.
IV.
SUPERSTITIOUS.
Unlike the Romantic, the Superstitious chapbook flourished vigorously in
Scotland. Some one has said that the average Scot spoke to and of God
as though He had been a next-door neighbour. This familiarity was not
confined to the Divinity. A very material Devil held Scotland in fear
and trembling, and, aided by numberless servants, kept the powers—both
civil and ecclesiastical—in active employment. Many chapbooks went to
the elucidation of “Satan’s Invisible World,” of which, one of 24 pages,
published by C. Randall at Stirling in 1807, may be regarded as a typical
specimen. It is entitled:—
“_Satan’s Invisible World Discover’d_: or, the History of
Witches and Warlocks; containing The Wonderful Relation of
Major Weir and His Sister; The Witches of Calder, Pittenweem,
Borrowstounness, Bargarran and Culross; and a Remarkable
Proclamation, which was heard at the Cross of Edinburgh at
Twelve o’clock at night, in the Reign of King James the IV. of
Scotland.”
The above may be said to be the ordinary chapbook version—and there were
many more or less varied editions—of George Sinclair’s credulous work, a
duodecimo, which was printed at Edinburgh by John Reid in 1685, and the
full title of which is as follows:—
“_Satan’s Invisible World Discovered_; or A Choice Collection
of Modern relations, proving evidently against the Sadducees
and Atheists of this present Age that there are Devils,
Spirits, Witches and Apparitions, from Authentick Records,
Attestations of Famous Witnesses and undoubted Verity. To all
which is added, That Marvellous History of Major Weir and
His Sister. With two Relations of Apparitions at Edinburgh.
By George Sinclair,[47] late Professor of Philosophy in the
Colledge of Glasgow.”
This is not the place to refer at any length to that terrible condition
of matters which led to so many innocents being sacrificed to the demands
of a deluded people. The literature of witchcraft and devilry affords
amusing reading in these days, but it is almost impossible to gauge
the seriousness with which it must have been read by folks who found
it difficult to distinguish an old woman from a witch. The stories are
ludicrously absurd to a modern reader: they were doubtless very real to
the simple Scots of a by-gone day. One is inclined for once to oppose
Sydney Smith in his exclamation, “Thank God, I was born so late,” and
wish that he could have met some of these children of the devil in the
flesh. How exciting it would be, for example, if one could join Major
Weir[48] in his fiery chariot at Edinburgh, and ride out with him as
far as Dalkeith; or how comforting it would be if one could venture out
with Luggy, the Zetland fisherman and wizard, knowing that he could cast
out a line and, from the depths of the ocean, bring up “fish well boiled
and roasted.” The chapbook says his companions “would make a merry meal
thereof, not questioning who was cook,” and one would be prepared to
be similarly silent if one could meet him on these terms. The marks of
Peter’s finger and thumb, and the finding of the piece of money, lose
something of the miraculous alongside Luggy’s wonderful feat. If the
“chapman billies” of Burns’s day vended books of this kind, and were at
all communicative as to the nature of their wares, the wonder is that
“Tam o’ Shanter” did not witness something more infernal than “warlocks
and witches in a dance” during that immortal ride from Ayr to the Shanter
Farm.
Witchcraft formed a common subject for chapbook treatment. Among others
there were _The Life and Transactions with the Trial and Burning of
Maggie Lang, the Cardonald Witch_, who was executed at Paisley in 1697;
_The History of Witches, Ghosts, and Highland Seers_; _Witchcraft
Detected and Prevented, or the School of Black Art Newly Opened_;
_Witchcraft Proven, Arraign’d and Condemned_, etc., by a Lover of the
Truth; and _The Life and Transactions with the Trial and Burning of
Maggie Osborne, the Ayrshire Witch_.
In the _Elegy in Memory of Sir Robert Grierson of Lag_, we are introduced
to a Devil who is as remorseless as the creation of Milton, and who is
in keeping with the superstition of the time. If there is a material
Devil, there is also a material Hell, and Lag is there without even
the privilege of Judas, who, according to a kindly legend, gets out to
cool himself for one day in each year. The _Elegy_ is 24 pages of what
is probably as ribald verse as ever was put forward in connection with
religion. It is not lacking in point, and one or two impressive lines
save it from being altogether commonplace. There is something striking in
the idea that Satan cannot weep. The author says:—
“Could such a furious fiend as I
Shed tears, my cheeks would never dry;
But I could mourn both night and day,
’Cause Lag from earth is ta’en away.”
It is interesting to learn who have served the Devil. Beginning with
Cain, he claims quite a host of notabilities—Saul, Doeg, Ahab, of early
days; and Clavers, Middleton, Fletcher, King Charles, of Covenant times,
are all
“Among the princes of my pit.”
None of these, however, not even
“My dear cousin, Provost Mill,”
is worthy to be named with Lag for his exertions on behalf of the Prince
of Darkness. Nor in the hour of death was he forsaken by his master.
“For,” says the Devil,
“when I heard that he was dead,
A legion of my den did lead
Him to my place of residence,
Where still he’ll stay, and not go hence:
For purgatory, I must tell,
It is the lowest place in Hell:
Well plenish’d with the Romish sort,
Where thousands of them do resort.
There many a prince and pope doth dwell,
Fast fetter’d in that lower cell,
And from that place they ne’er win free,
Though greedy priests for gain do lie
In making ignorants conceive
They’ll bring them from the infernal cave.
...
This Lag will know and all the rest
Who of my lodging are possest,
On earth no more they can serve me,
But still I have their company;
With this I must my grief allay,
So I no more of Lag will say.”
It is interesting to note—though the authority is “The Father of
Lies”—that according to this Presbyterian rhymer there is such a place as
“purgatory.” As a rule, the Covenanter denied its existence, even as “the
lowest pit of Hell.”
Superstitious literature of a different and slightly more respectable
kind was that which treated of the prophetic utterances of Thomas the
Rhymer, Alexander Peden, and Donald Cargill. Where a fulfilment of a
prophecy is desired, it is sometimes an easy matter to find it, and the
populace which enrolled Peden and Cargill among men of more than natural
power would have sent them—a few years earlier or a few years later—to
the stake to be burned as wizards endowed with powers from the Evil One.
There was yet another class of superstitious chapbooks—that which dealt
with dreams and fortune-telling. Three which were common to Britain were,
_The New Fortune Book; or, the Conjuror’s Guide_, which largely concerned
itself with fortune-telling by cards; _Napoleon Bonaparte’s Book of
Fate_, which is still on sale in various forms; and _Mother Bunch’s
Golden Fortune-Teller_, which was perhaps the most popular of all. There
were others that bore evidence of being more distinctly Scottish. Such,
for example, was _The Spaewife, or Universal Fortune-Teller, wherein your
future welfare may be known, by Physiognomy, Cards, Palmistry, and Coffee
Grounds: Also, a Distinct Treatise on Moles_. The matter comprising this
book is just the nonsense which, notwithstanding our School Boards,
our vanity, and our superior intelligence, finds thousands of readers
(shall we say believers?) at the present time. Two chapbooks—_The Golden
Dreamer; or, Dreams Realised, containing the Interpretation of a Great
Variety of Dreams_; and _The True Fortune Teller; or, The Universal Book
of Fate_—deserve to be noticed for a different reason. Undated editions
of these were issued at Glasgow, “printed for the Booksellers,” and
appended to both there is a note “To the Reader” in the following terms:—
“The foregoing pages are published principally to show the
superstitions which engrossed the mind of the population of
Scotland during a past age, and which are happily disappearing
before the progress of an enlightened civilization. It is
hoped, therefore, that the reader will not attach the slightest
importance to the solutions of the dreams as rendered above, as
dreams are generally the result of a disordered stomach, or an
excited imagination!”
It almost seems like a case of wilful fraud to ask a person to pay
a penny for a dream-book which, when he has referred to it for the
meaning of his yesternight’s dream, gives him a solution, and then—in
effect—tells him that he had better consult a doctor, as his stomach is
disordered. Still, one cannot but admire the candour of the old-world
publisher. How many of the dream-books at present on sale are as honest?
V.
SONGS AND BALLADS.
For number and variety, the song chapbook occupies first place.
Considerable notice has already been taken of the broadside which
flourished during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and is,
indeed, far from being extinct even at the present date, and little
further need be said here. Of the song chapbook, however, a more detailed
account may be given.
[Illustration: _The Trial of Sir John Barleycorn—from “The Whole Trial
and Indictment of Sir John Barleycorn, Knt., A Person of noble Birth and
Extraction and well known by Rich and Poor throughout the Kingdom of
Great Britain; Being accused of several Misdemeanours, by him committed
against His Majesty’s Liege People; by killing some, wounding others, and
bringing Thousands to Beggary, and ruins many a poor family.”_]
It was ordinarily the single sheet broadside folded so as to form a
book of 8 pages, and, like the other productions vended by the chapman,
was usually badly printed on execrable paper. As is the case with the
song-sheets which are still issued from “Poets’ Boxes” and other similar
adjuncts of Parnassus, all sorts and conditions of verse were admitted
to its pages. The choicest lyrics of Burns and Tannahill, Lady Nairne
and Susanna Blamire are found in company with doggerel stanzas by the
veriest tyro in rhyme; and verses dealing with local events of momentary
importance are sandwiched between songs written for all time. Unholy
hands are laid on sacred lines, and poems are sometimes parodied and
altered out of all recognition. “Scots Wha Hae” in a common chapbook
version was spun out to four verses more than its normal length. The
extra stanzas were hardly an improvement, and it is possible that it
was this version that came under the notice of the “southron loon” who
characterized the war-song as “swaggering rant.”[49] A parody of Burns’s
“Ode” was published under the title of “Wellington’s Address,” and the
opening stanza may be quoted as a sample:—
“Britons bauld though Britons few,
On the plains o’ Waterloo;
Britons, heroes always true
To rights and liberty.
Fire your blood my vet’ran boys,
Usurpation’s yoke despise;
Slavery fa’s and slavery dies,
Before brave British play.”
If the “Iron Duke” had been as indifferent a soldier as he is a poet in
this “Address” put into his mouth, Napoleon might never have learned that
little lesson about “striking his medals at London;” or, if Wellington
had met the bard, he would probably have told him what he told an
ultra-obsequious hero-worshipper who doffed his hat to the great soldier,
and remarked how pleased he was to do so—“Don’t be a damned fool!” The
author of _The Gentle Shepherd_ waxed wroth with Lucky Reid over the
liberties she took with his text, and one wonders what he would have said
had he seen the later version of “Lochaber No More.” Borrowing Ramsay’s
title, some minstrel who “rhymed in [odd] numbers” composed a Jacobite
song, of which the following are the closing stanzas:—
“Defeating of Johnny Coup at Prestonpans
Enliven’d our hearts and encouraged our clans;
Being flush’d with success, we to England did steer,
But valiant Duke William put us all in great fear.
“He fought us, he beat us, he ruin’d us quite,
And now we are all in a sorrowful plight!
May Heaven its blessing upon thee, love, pour,
For thee nor Lochaber I ne’er shall see more.”
If the Jacobite lines were as broken as these, they were in a sorrowful
plight indeed.
It is only fair, however, to say that these doggerel effusions formed a
small percentage of the songs which were issued in chapbook form. The
best of our national minstrelsy was put in circulation in this way,
although acknowledgments of authorship were seldom made. Publishers
apparently believed that the song, not the singer, deserved to survive.
Burns had a chapbook devoted to himself, and a fairly good selection of
his songs is given in it; and he and other bards—Tannahill, Hogg, Scott,
Lady Nairne, Susanna Blamire, Jean Elliot, Ramsay, Sempill, Macneill—are
represented in many publications.
It is not improbable that, so far as Scottish song is concerned, the
chapbook in one way did a distinct disservice to the cause. Rude
productions such as those cited were committed to print and stereotyped
for all time, or as much of it as they might survive. In this way their
crudities were perpetuated. Had topical ballads such as “The Lamentation
for Mr. M’Kay” and “Wellington’s Address,” and lyrics of love like “The
True Lovers’ Farewell” and “The Sailor’s Journal,” been cast upon the
world after the manner of our early ballad minstrelsy, and made to depend
for existence on oral tradition, they, in passing from mouth to mouth,
might have been shorn of their faulty rhymes and infelicitous expressions
as the poly-sided stone is smoothed of its angularities by the ebb and
flow of many tides. The means taken for their preservation may have
proved their undoing!
CONCLUSION.
The foregoing survey, brief though it is, may be sufficient to indicate
the varied nature, as well as the poverty and riches, of the productions
that went to the formation of our chapbook literature. Every one of the
five divisions was supplemented by publications from beyond the Border;
and even though Professor Fraser’s opinion, that the English chapbook was
inferior to the Scottish, be true, no student of the subject can fail to
be struck with the variety which the English compositions gave to the
publications of the north. We have nothing, for example, to take the
place of _The Comical History of the King and the Cobbler_; and there is
no doubt that the Scot would laugh as hilariously as the Englishman over
the “entertaining and merry tricks” that were enacted in the Strand in
the early hours of the morning, when the King of all England discussed a
pot of ale with the poor follower of St. Crispin. The wonder is that we
have nothing. These tales of King Henry the Eighth are in line with the
adventures of King James the Fifth, and it does seem strange that _Harry
Tudor_ never suggested _The Gudeman of Ballengeich_ to a Scottish author
as a subject for chapbook treatment. Again, our romances and fairy tales
would make a poor show were it not for the classics imported from south
of Tweed; and our sermons and religious verse would lose much in bulk at
least if we expunged the tractates of English ministers and the simple
rhymes of Isaac Watts. Mother Bunch and Mrs. Shipton were not native
born. The adventures of Dick Turpin, George Barnwell, and James Allan the
Northumberland Piper, were pleasing variants to those of Rob Roy, Paul
Jones the Pirate, and Gilderoy.
It has been said that the chapbook existed in all its vigour down to
the early years of the nineteenth century, and George Mac Gregor,
clearly confounding a part with the whole, says: “An impression of
their vulgarity got abroad, they were regarded by public moralists as
pestilential, and therefore deserving extinction.”[50] Such a remark can
only apply to the broadly humorous effusions of Graham and productions
of a similar kind, and we must look elsewhere for an explanation of the
passing away of the distinctive chapbook. The introduction of periodical
literature had as much to do with the matter as anything. A notable
printer and publisher of chapbooks in Haddington was Mr. G. Miller, who
sought to impart something new to the cheap literature in existence by
the starting of a penny literary paper. This he entitled _The Cheap
Magazine_, and readers of _A Window in Thrums_ will remember that it was
in the pages of that periodical that Tammas Haggart read the account
of the origin of cock-fighting. But the natives of Thrums and other
places appreciated the old familiar booklets better than _The Cheapy_,
and, after a short existence, it expired. Other publishers endeavoured
to succeed where Miller had failed, but they, too, were unsuccessful,
until the Messrs. Chambers took the matter in hand. The first number of
_Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal_ was produced on 4th February, 1832. From
the beginning its success was phenomenal. Fifty thousand copies of the
first issue were put in circulation, and, so heartily was the new venture
taken up, that the third number totalled the remarkable figure of eighty
thousand. _Chambers’s Journal_ was followed by other publications of a
similar kind, such as _Hogg’s Instructor_ and the _Scottish Reader_,
which have collapsed, and _The People’s Friend_, which was founded in
1869, and still flourishes vigorously.
To keep pace with this newer form of cheap literature, some of the
chapbook firms began the issue of “New and Improved Series.” Reference
has already been made to the “Caledonian Classics of the Common People.”
Another series, “illustrated with fine wood-cuts,” was issued by James
Watt, Montrose; and publishers in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and elsewhere,
hoping to gratify popular taste, set about the preparation of emasculated
versions of Graham’s works. But the public that might have gone on
enjoying the realistic pictures of Scottish life which amused their
fathers would not tolerate the colourless outlines, and ere long they
ceased to sell in any great quantity.
The work of destruction begun by _Chambers’s Journal_ and other similar
periodicals was assisted by the increase of daily and weekly newspapers.
The abolition of the duty on this form of literature gave an impetus to
journalism, and soon organs of all kinds began to issue from all parts
of the country. The bi-weekly of the city became a daily, sometimes with
several editions; and soon every town with a few thousand inhabitants
could boast as many rival newspapers as churches. The circulation of
these sheets demanded the institution of the newsagent, who soon made his
(or her) appearance in town and village and hamlet.[51] The _Advertiser_,
or the _Journal_, or the _Gazette_, penetrated with the mail-coach into
rural parts, and was displayed in the window of the local post-office
beside ginger-bread horses and double-strong peppermints. By and by the
local newsagent found that she could sell song-sheets and dream-books,
almanacs and penny-histories as well as newspapers; and then the “Flying
Stationer” awoke to find his occupation gone. The business of vending
popular literature was silently transferred from one agency to another,
and the chapman became the occasional character he is to-day. He could
still push his trade at farm-towns remote from hamlets, and follow his
vocation at fairs and centres of interest, but as a permanent and general
means of supply he had outlived his time.
Something has already been said of the nature and character of the
literary chapman, and, in taking leave of him here, a few notes may be
added. Like his great prototype, John Cheap, he was seldom a respectable
being, and not unfrequently turned pedlar when he had failed in a higher
line of merchandise. The able-bodied man who makes Saturday night hideous
in our busy streets with his raucous rendering of “the newest and popular
songs of the day,” and spends his profits in the nearest tavern, is
not an unworthy successor to, as he certainly maintains the inglorious
traditions of, the “Flying Stationer” of a century ago. Hawkie describes
two of them as being “as ‘kittle’ neighbours as Glasgow could produce,”
and the description might apply to many, including Cameron himself.
Of course, in the city, amid the excitement of fairs and hangings,
the pedlar was seen at his worst, and to those who may incline to the
opinion that the outline here given is lurid rather than just, the
following sketch of the chapman as he appeared in rural places will be
more acceptable. It is taken from a volume of Scottish sketches, which
was published in 1872, under title, _Round the Grange Farm; or, Good Old
Times_.
“Old Dauvit was a middle-sized, broad-shouldered man, with
a keen, pawky eye, and a very sleek, worldly face. He was
always clad in a blue coat like a large surtout, with big
metal buttons, homespun grey vest and trousers, while his
head was surmounted by a huge broad bonnet with a red top;
round his neck he wore a green and yellow Indian neckerchief,
which encircled his unbleached shirt collar. The lappels of
his coat and vest pockets were the only fanciful parts of his
dress; his pack was tied in a linen table-cover and slung over
his shoulders, but Dauvit strode on as if he felt no burden,
planting his staff firmly on the ground, and keeping a sharp
eye on business. His stock consisted, perhaps, of hardware
goods, comprising _five-bawbee_ knives, needles, pins of all
sizes, from the small ‘mannikin’ to the large ‘Willie Cossar;’
thimbles, scissors, bone-combs, specks; also ballads such as
‘Gill Morice’ and ‘Sir James the Rose,’ or four and eight
page pamphlets generally comprehending among the number ‘John
Cheap the Chapman,’ ‘The King and the Cobbler,’ and ‘Ali
Baba or the Forty Thieves.’ Dauvit had his regular ‘rounds,’
which he traversed twice, or it might be many times a year,
usually contriving at nightfall to reach some friendly
farmhouse, where the cog of porridge and bed of straw were
cheerfully given in return for his budget of news, his packet
of chapbooks, or small parcel of tea and sugar, bespoken on
his last visit. Every person, from the peer to the peasant,
welcomed and encouraged Dauvit to castle and cot. When he
entered a house he had always a suitable remark to set off
his rustic bow and confident familiar smile. ‘Uncommon fine
weather, mistress,’ was his favourite salutation, varying the
‘fine’ with ‘coarse,’ ‘cauld,’ ‘dry,’ ‘wat,’ or ‘changeable,’
to suit the weather. Then followed some complimentary remark,
such as, ‘I needna ask if ye’re weel the day, for ye’re
the very picture o’ health;’ or some decidedly pleasant
observation, especially to the young lasses, as ‘fair fa’ your
bonny face, I haena seen your match in a’ the borders;’ or,
‘Eh, now! but a sight of you’s a gude thing, I wonder if I hae
ony nice ribbon in my pack for you the day,’ with, it might be,
‘Ye’re a comely lassie; I wish he saw you the noo that likes
ye best.’ Of course, after such flattering speeches Dauvit was
asked to lay down his pack and give them his news; and then he,
nothing loath, opened up his budget of information, told the
mistress when he last saw her married daughter, and how she
was looking; delivered the message to Jenny the kitchen-maid,
received from some far-away brother; or told the master all
about the various ‘craps’ upon the different farms he passed
through, generally ending with—‘I hae seen nae pasture to
compare wi’ your ain,’ or, ‘Ye’ve braw corn, maister, in the
park down there.’ He was generally asked to join the family of
the small farmer at meals; but he was a very moderate eater and
well bred in his own fashion, handing all the plates of bread
to the company at table till told again and again ‘that he was
eatin’ nane his sel’ but only watchin’ other folk.’ Dauvit
learned about all the marriages likely to take place, and,
throwing himself in the way of the bridegroom or bride, would
make him or her a present of a ribbon or neckerchief; then,
after a joke and an encomium on the absent one, expressing his
certainty that two such ‘weel-doin’ industrious young folk
couldna but be happy,’ he would inform them that he ‘was aye at
hame frae the last Monday o’ the ae month to the first Monday
o’ the other; or, if they wad either write what they wanted or
come owre, he wad gie them some grand bargains,’ adding ‘that
he wad tak’ the siller as they could gie him it?’ But Geordie
Johnston o’ the Shaw remarked, after doing, as he termed it,
a ‘gude stroke wi’ Dauvit,’ that ‘he wasna sae accommodatin’
as he made believe.’ When business was over, if he could reach
another farm-town before dark, he would roll up the pack, and,
wishing them all ‘a gude afternoon,’ speed on his way; but,
if it was near nightfall, he remained and spent the evening,
sitting with the assembled household round the fire, retailing
his news, or it might be slyly, but faithfully, delivering a
message or letter to some lad or lass amongst the company from
an absent sweetheart. The _fore supper_ was the best time for
gossip, and this, during winter, was from _lowsin’_ time, about
five o’clock, until eight, when the cows were milked and the
horses _suppered_. All eagerly listened to Dauvit’s summary of
news, as well they might, for his budget was varied, extending
from Parliamentary discussion to domestic cookery, the _bairns_
listening so intently and so quietly that they generally fell
asleep on their stools, while the older part of the audience,
unwilling to break the thread of his narrative, scarcely
interrupted him with a single question.”
This picture is more pleasing than that of the drunken crew with whom
Hawkie and the Glasgow police hob-nobbed, and it presents what is the
most favourable sketch that could be drawn of the travelling pedlar. But
it is not essentially different from the coarser portrait to be found in
_John Cheap the Chapman_. Both characters are wily merchants, ever ready
to watch the main chance, and to further their interests by a word in
season or a remark that is flattering rather than complimentary. The life
they live is the same, and when one is a little more decently clad—in
tongue and manner—than the other, it is due to the fact that the portrait
came from a feminine pen. Dauvit doubtless broke as many commandments as
John Cheap, and it was well for him that his author, being a woman, had
not, presumably, so intimate a knowledge of her subject and his sins as
had Dougal Graham of “John Cheap” and his shortcomings.
It is to be feared—perhaps regretted—that the “Flying Stationer” seldom
acquired wealth. If he had watched his business, it could have made him
a man of money. There were large profits on his wares. William Cameron
tells us that he could buy eight-page ballads at twopence a dozen, and
states that, out of a capital of twopence, he made six shillings in about
three hours. On another occasion, he bought tracts at three half-pence a
dozen and sold them so well that by night he had nine shillings, and was
drunk into the bargain. Sometimes, when there was a ready purchase, the
price of the chapbook went up a hundred per cent., and, notwithstanding
the increase, sold by the ream.
The chapman had various ways of going to work. A great deal of his
success lay in his being able to “patter” well. If he could give an
attractive rendering of the song or ballad he was selling, he was sure
to draw a crowd of customers. Sometimes recourse was had to the practice
of vending straw. The “Flying Stationer,” pretending that the books he
carried were of a particularly interesting nature, informed his audience
that he dared not “call” them, but that he would sell them a straw for
a penny and give them a copy of the book to the bargain. This “catch”
seldom failed. The selling of the straw was more or less a piece of
imposition, but sometimes the unscrupulous chapman descended to even
greater fraud. When the worst came to the worst, he did not hesitate
to “patter” one thing and sell another. Cameron, in his interesting
reminiscences of a pedlar’s life, affords an illustration of this, and
the good folks of Paisley were his victims.
“Paisley,” he writes, “was the first town that ever I imposed
on, by selling useless paper for books. One Saturday night I
could get no books to buy, as there was only one bookseller
in Paisley who sold them, George Caldwell, residing in Dyer’s
Wynd, Moss Street, who had retired from business; and in a room
of his dwelling-house was selling off the remainder of his
stock.
“That night he was out, and had taken the key of the room along
with him; I wearied waiting for him, and seeing a number of
papers lying on the kitchen table, I bargained for them with
Mrs. Caldwell; and she, honest woman, not knowing the purpose
for which I wanted them, sold them to me. I went out into the
street, told a long tale, and sold the papers. Times were good
then. I drew upwards of four shillings. None challenged me
that night, but on the Monday following, when I was at the
‘Cross,’ a young woman came to me and said, ‘You rascal, you
cheated me on Saturday night; you sold me a newspaper instead
of a book.’ I asked her, ‘What she gave for it?’ She said, ‘A
halfpenny.’ And I told her ‘She could never be cheated with a
newspaper for a halfpenny.’”[52]
John Milne, a poet-pedlar of Aberdeenshire, who sold his own effusions
over a wide tract of the East of Scotland, always pleaded his cause in
a verse of doggerel. He was one of the later-day chapmen. His poems
frequently dealt with incidents connected with the great religious
struggle that culminated in the Disruption of 1843, and these he recited
at fairs and markets, always concluding with the following lines:—
“I, Jock Milne of the Glen,
Wrote this poem wi’ my ain pen;
And I’m sure I couldna sell it cheaper,
For it’ll hardly pay the price o’ the paper.”[53]
The chapman was not always dealt with in life in a kindly fashion, and
it is to be feared that he frequently found himself deserted and alone
in the hour of death. Sometimes in the gloaming of his days he found “a
hained rig” in the shelter of a city hospital, but it is likely that more
often he died,
“a cadger-powny’s death
At some dyke-side.”
Mr. Alan Reid, writing of John Burness, the author of _Thrummy Cap_, says
his end was unutterably sad. “His occupation was anything but lucrative;
his spirit was broken, and his physique impaired through struggles and
disappointments; and at Portlethen, in 1826, the toiling wayfarer was
overtaken in a snowstorm and literally ‘driven to the wall’ by the
conqueror Death.”[54] The shroud of many, like that of Burness, was woven
by the snowy flakes of a wintry blast.
The flying-stationer did not lack his elegist. Part of a lament for
Dougal Graham has been preserved, but it is more in relation to the
bellman than the pedlar side of his character, and a few lines from the
“Elegy on Peter Duthie”[55] may be quoted in preference to it. Duthie,
who flourished from 1721 to 1812, was a flying-stationer for “upwards of
eighty years,” and when at length he passed away his memory was embalmed
in elegaic verse, from which the following is an extract:—
“Lament ye people, ane an’ a’,
For Peter Duthie’s e’en awa’;
Nae mair will Pate e’er travel round
The circle o’ his native ground;
Nae mair shall he last speeches cry,
Nor in the barns will ever lie;
Nae mair shall he again appear
To usher in the infant year
With _Almanacks_ frae Aberdeen,
The best and truest ever seen;
Nae mair shall he again proclaim
The prophecies in _Rhymer’s_ name;
Nor sell again the great commands,
Nor praise the book ca’d _Meally Hands_;
Nor _Arry’s_ ware for lads and lasses,
Which for the highest wisdom passes;
Nor shall he _Jock and Maggie’s_ tale
Again expose to view or sale;
Nae mair shall he e’er gain a dram
Upon the tricks o’ _Louden Tam_;
_Buchanan’s_ wit he cannot praise,
As aft he did in former days;
Nor tell how _Leper_ threw the cat
Into auld Janet’s boiling pat.
...
[Death’s] sov’reign will nae doubt it was,
Altho’ we canna tell the cause,
To drive poor Peter from the earth,
An’ cause sic mourning into Perth,
Where lang the honest body dwelt,
Where mony a hunder beuk he selt,
An’ where ten thousand wad defend him,
And sae wad ilk ane done that kend him.
Alas! poor Pate! nae mair will ye
Tell tales again wi’ mirth and glee;
Lang will the country lasses weary,
To see that face was ay sae cheery,
A face weel kent o’er Britain’s Isle,
A face ay painted with a smile.
O, wha will now fill up thy place,
And fill it with so good a grace?
There’s only one that I do ken,
Among the mortal sons o’ men,
An’ that is Jackey, ance thy friend,
The fittest fellow e’er I kend;
Thy customers he knew right well,
An’ can a canty story tell,
On winter nights, while round the ingle,
The wheels an’ reels an’ plates do jingle,
So let him now tak’ up thy trade,
An’ then I’m sure his fortune’s made.”
If “Jackey” took up the business where Peter Duthie left it, and lived
to anything like the age of his predecessor, the chances are that his
elegist—if he had one—would not be under the necessity of looking for
somebody to succeed him. By that time, the newsagent would be supplanting
the “Flying Stationer.”
The chapbook was issued from many towns in Scotland, and Dr. Robert
Chambers—though his figure is believed to be well within the mark—put
the annual circulation at 200,000. The leading presses were those of
Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Stirling, and Paisley. Many of the chapbooks
were issued without printer’s name, and cannot therefore be assigned to
any particular office. In Edinburgh, the great places of publication
were Niddery’s Wynd and Cowgate, and the most notable printers were J.
Morren and Alexander Robertson. In Glasgow, the firm of James and Matthew
Robertson did an extensive business, and are understood to have realised
£30,000 from the work. Their premises were situated in the historic
Saltmarket. Other printers of the same locality were R. Hutchison and
Thomas Duncan. Francis Orr, who started business in 1790, was a notable
Glasgow printer. In 1825, he assumed his three sons as partners, and his
firm has since been known as that of Francis Orr & Sons. James, the last
of the three sons, died so recently as 1899, leaving wealth to the value
of about a million sterling. Paisley and Falkirk had two outstanding
publishers. In the former town, George Caldwell carried on business, and
was the original printer of many of Dougal Graham’s productions; in the
latter place, T. Johnston issued a numerous collection of chapbooks.
Stirling had no fewer than four printers engaged in the business.
There were the two separate firms of C. Randall and M. Randall, and J.
Fraser and W. Macnie, one or another of whose imprints appear on many
publications. A number of other towns throughout Scotland—Leith, Dundee,
Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Irvine, Newton-Stewart, Haddington, Montrose,
Airdrie—contributed to the general stock, and endeavoured to meet the
demands of the “Flying Stationer.”
In criticising our chapbook literature, the prevailing tone has been
either—as in the case of George MacGregor—to say that “no one need
regret that the days of chapbooks are gone[56];” or—as in the case of
Professor Fraser—to say that they “should be read in the light of the
age that gave them birth.”[57] Neither position is quite just to the
literature itself. In the mass that circulated over Scotland there was a
considerable leaven of indecency, just as there is more than a suggestion
of filth in the literature of to-day. Writing of what was virtually the
chapbook era, Mr. Henley described Scotland, out of the fulness of his
ignorance and epigram, as a land of “fornication and theology.” To the
Southron mind, therefore, it will not appear strange that Erskine’s
Sermons were sandwiched between _The Comical Adventures of Lothian Tom_
and _Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship_, or that Isaac Watts’s _Divine Songs_
lay cheek for jowl with _The Coalman’s Courtship of the Creelwife’s
Daughter_. There were many tastes to be suited, and in this direction we
are probably as diverse as our fathers were. Any bookseller will supply
you with Newman’s _Apologia_ and _Jude the Obscure_.
The distinctive chapbook—that is, the broadly humorous production of
which Dougal Graham was author-in-chief—affords a faithful reflex of
life as it really was. Graham was an early “kailyairder,” who reared his
plants from a stronger and more strictly Scottish soil than Barrie or
Maclaren or Crockett. These later workers in the same field met uncommon
Scots who knew more about Hell than the sins that fit a man for it, and
who were religious to the point of extravagance. Their narrowness of
view and their feeling for sanctity are insisted on, and only a glimpse
of their normal condition is given here and there by way of comedy or
burlesque. The weavers of Thrums, and the villagers of Drumtochty,
and the rustics around Cairn Edward lived in the time when, as the
old Scotswoman said, swearing was regarded as “a grand set-aff to the
conversation,” and yet not one of them could say “Damn it!” to save his
life. It may be that the exigencies of modern taste, or the sympathies
of the authors, demanded that their mouths be closed against the “aith
that wad relieve” them, but to that extent many readers may think them
less truthfully Scottish in their walk and conversation. The authors
of some of the chapbooks felt no such scruples; and in their desire to
paint life as they saw it, had no inclination to tone down that forceful
beauty of our native tongue which is not taught at school. Their wish was
like that of old Oliver—to have warts and all. It may be also, so far as
Graham at least is concerned, that the old author was more intimately
acquainted than the new with the life portrayed. The modern “kailyairder”
writes from his study—it may be in London or in Liverpool—of a life he
only knows by hearsay or from observation in long past years; Dougal
Graham condescended on scenes and manners, customs and traits which he
himself had witnessed or experienced—he was neither a son of the soil nor
a chapman for nothing. What Fraser says of him, in comparison with the
historian, is true of him as compared with J. M. Barrie or Ian Maclaren.
“He possessed this advantage over the ordinary historian,”
writes Fraser, “that the latter, from his superior height and
position, seldom condescended to enter the huts of the poor;
and when he did enter, the inmates were frightened into their
‘Sunday clothes and manners’ by his stately and majestic
presence. But Dougal, being himself one of the poorest,
introduces us into the most secret, domestic, and everyday life
and thoughts of the lower classes of the last [the eighteenth]
century. Nothing is hidden from him. He is treated with a
familiarity which shows that his hosts have no wish to hide
anything.”[58]
But if the recent “kailyairder” has not repeated the expressive Scots of
the Skellat Bellman and his compeers, it cannot be said that the modern
novelist has forgotten the incidents which bulk in the chapbook pages.
The dominie, or the minister, is still occasionally “deposed” for the old
lechery to help out an attractive plot, and even the prim, semi-religious
authoress can insinuate a good deal about the nameless “Pleasures of
Matrimony.” And although it is sometimes embellished with art and
occasionally obscured with indifferent grammar, the incident round
which much of _Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship_ circles is so frequently
turned to account that one wonders what the average novelist would do
if it were an impossibility for children to be born out of wedlock. The
newspaper, too, often provides all the naked realism of the chapbook; and
the generation which supports the journal supplying the longest account
of the obscenities of the Breach of Promise and Divorce Courts, is hardly
entitled to pronounce a very strong judgment against the indecencies of
the antiquated chapbook. If there must be filth, the vulgar frankness of
Graham is preferable to the insinuated suggestiveness of the present-day
romancist.
Mention has already been made of the suppression of the chapbook by the
literary periodical and of the abolition of the flying-stationer by the
resident newsagent. Alongside these factors, there was a third, which had
much to do with altering the tone of the compositions which circulated
among the working classes. This was the wide distribution of religious
tracts. Many of these—issued by the Religious Tract Society which was
instituted in 1799—came from south the Border. Others were of Scottish
production. During the forties of last century the land was deluged with
pamphlets and tracts, many of which had reference to the Morisonian
controversy. Series were issued at different towns, such as Perth,
Edinburgh, Kelso, and Falkirk, and in 1848 Stirling revived the position
it held in the dissemination of the older chapbooks by the establishment
of a Tract Depot. This organisation, which is now known as “The Stirling
Tract Enterprise,” originated in the hobby and Free Church leanings of a
Stirling seed merchant. It began in a very casual way—its inception was
almost unconscious—but when it attained its jubilee, in October, 1898,
the trustees were able to state that they had circulated something like
four hundred and seventy millions of publications during the fifty years.
These productions are distributed over all the world, and, so far as
Scotland is concerned, they must have largely taken the place of the old
religious chapbook.
In its other departments, chapbook literature has equally developed. The
old romances were followed by a succession of lurid penny and twopenny
dreadfuls issued at Glasgow, but chiefly dealing with American life. An
attempt was made to counteract the influence of these by the issue of a
series of religious tales under title, “The Stirling Stories.” A more
recent Scottish publication with a similar aim, though not ostensibly
religious, is the series of “People’s Penny Stories,” issued by Messrs.
John Leng & Co., Dundee. In addition to these Scottish issues, there is
a bewildering plethora of productions of English growth. Penny romances
abound, and weekly miscellanies of the _Tit-Bits_ order are legion. The
advertising fiend, too, does much towards this multiplication of books.
Enterprising soap-boilers now add literature to their business, and a
man may shave himself into possession of a library of shabby editions of
famous authors. The free distribution of almanacs and dream-books is
carried on wholesale by pushing patent-medicine vendors. Mother Shipton
and Mother Bunch have given place to Mother Seigel, and Dr. Williams
and his pink pills have superseded Dr. Faustus and Major Weir. When
this gratis circulation and the gorgeous array of cheap literature are
compared with the chapbooks of an earlier time, one may be inclined to
commiserate the old-world reader. And yet he had compensating advantages.
If he did not have the newest discoveries in photography or the latest
achievements in colour-printing, neither was he invited to buy soap that
wouldn’t wash clothes, or tempted to gorge himself on pills worth a
guinea a box.
[Illustration: _The Last Day—from “The New Pictorial Bible.”_]
FOOTNOTES
[1] _The Humorous Chapbooks of Scotland._ By John Fraser. New York: Henry
L. Hinton, publisher, 744 Broadway. 1873.
[2] _The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham, “Skellat” Bellman of
Glasgow._ Edited, with notes, by George Mac Gregor. Glasgow. 1883. 2 vols.
[3] Robert Lindsay, Queen Street, Glasgow, printed several volumes
(reprints) of representative chapbooks.
[4] _Amusing Prose Chapbooks Chiefly of Last Century._ Edited by Robert
Hays Cunningham. Glasgow. 1889.
[5] “The prefix ‘chap,’” says Professor Fraser, “originally meant
‘to cheap or cheapen,’ as in the word ‘cheapening-place,’ meaning a
market-place,—hence the English Cheapside and Eastcheap.” The word
“chap,” meaning “a fellow,” is a mere shortening of the name. “In
addition,” writes George Mac Gregor, “it may be stated that the word
‘chapman’ is derived from the Anglo-Saxon ‘ceap-man,’ _ceap_ meaning
‘a sale, or bargain’; and it is related to the Suio-Gothic or Swedish
_keop-a_, whence is derived the Scottish ‘coup’ or ‘cowp,’ now confined
to horse-selling, colloquially spoken of as ‘horse-cowping.’” The
chapman, like his successor of to-day, had to procure a licence, and in
old byelaws and proclamations he is classed among “Hawkers, Vendors,
Pedlars, petty Chapmen, and _unruly people_.” There are occasional
references in English literature to these itinerant merchants. Chaucer
speaks of the commercial travellers of the age of the “Canterbury Tales”
as
“A compane of chapmen riche;”
and in “The Winter’s Tale” there is a description of them on their
literary side. The servant (act iv. scene 3) gives the following account
of the wares of Autolycus:—“He hath songs for man, and woman, of all
sizes; no milliner can so fit his customers with gloves; he has the
prettiest love-songs for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange;
with such delicate burdens of _dildos_ and _fadings_.” Thus introduced,
Autolycus describes his wares. He has one ballad, “to a very doleful
tune, How a usurer’s wife was brought to bed of twenty money-bags at a
burden; and how she longed to eat adders’ heads and toads carbonadoed:”
and another, “of a fish that appeared upon the coast, on Wednesday, the
fourscore of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and sung this
ballad against the hard hearts of maids:” and yet another, of “two maids
wooing a man.” Readers of “Tam o’ Shanter” will remember that Burns
there speaks of “chapman billies.” In his _Dictionarie of the French and
English Tongues_, which was published at London in 1611, Cotgrave defines
the chapman thus:—“Bissoüart, m. A paultrie Pedlar, who in a long packe
or maunde (which he carries for the most part open, and hanging from his
necke before him) hath Almanacks, Bookes of News, or other trifling wares
to sell.” In “Troilus and Cressida,” and also in “Love’s Labour Lost,”
Shakespeare refers to the chapman in the sense of a general dealer. In
the former (act iv. scene 1) Paris says—
“Fair Diomed, you do as _Chapmen_ do,
Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy;”
and in the latter (Act ii, scene 1), the Princess of France exclaims—
“Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
Not uttered by base sale of _Chapmen’s_ tongues.”
[6] _Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century, with Facsimiles, Notes, and
Introduction._ By John Ashton. London. 1882.
[7] Two earlier works than the chapbooks here mentioned, viz., _Expositio
Sequentiarum_, dated 1505, and _The Interpretation of Many Ambiguous
Words_, by Master John Garland, also dated 1505, appear to have been
printed by Androw Myllar, but it is conjectured that they were printed at
Rouen, where Myllar may have gained instruction in the art of typography.
[8] “That patchwork of blasphemy, absurdity, and gross obscenity, which
the zeal of an early Reformer spawned under the captivating title of _Ane
Compendvious Booke of Godlie and Spiritvall Songs_”—_vide_ Motherwell’s
_Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern_: Glasgow, 1827—Introduction, p. lix.
Motherwell’s criticism is neither accurate nor just. There were more
than one Reformer at the making of the “Gude and Godlie Ballates,” and
probably many readers will prefer the words of another writer who says
the hymns “quickened and refreshed the little companies of evangelical
Christians that struggled for religious reform.” Blasphemy, absurdity,
and obscenity were, doubtless, far removed from the minds of many early
readers of these quaint broadsides.
[9] _Scottish Vernacular Literature: a Succinct History._ By T. F.
Henderson. London. 1898.
[10] _The Poems of Allan Ramsay._ Paisley: Alexander Gardner. 1877. Vol.
I., p. xvi.
[11] “The Chap-Book proper did not exist [in England] before the former
date [1700], unless the Civil War and political tracts can be so termed.
Doubtless these were hawked by the pedlars, but they were not those
pennyworths, suitable to everybody’s taste, and within the reach of
anybody’s purse, owing to their extremely low price, which must, or
ought to have, extracted every available copper in the village, when
the Chapman opened his budget of brand new books.”—_Chapbooks of the
Eighteenth Century_, p. vii.
[12] _The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham._ Vol. I., p. 71.
[13] _Auld Licht Idylls_, p. 249. London. 1892.
[14] Another of these was _The Paisley Repository_, which was published
in occasional numbers, which varied from 4 to 12 pages. The parts were
printed locally, sometimes at one press and sometimes at another.
[15] Leaving Stirlingshire, Graham migrated to Glasgow where, it is said,
he learned printing, and thereafter set up a press in the Saltmarket.
He became a familiar figure in the Second City, the more so after his
appointment, about 1770, to the post of “Skellat” Bellman. This office
brought him a salary of £10 a year and a picturesque uniform. Dougal was
one of two civic functionaries. There were in his time the advertising or
“skellat” bellman, and the mort or death bellman. The “skellat” bellman,
at a time when newspapers were unknown, was almost the only advertising
medium in existence, and the post must therefore have been one of
considerable monetary value. In addition to his salary, the official
had a graded scale of fees for his proclamations. The word _skellat_,
according to Jamieson, is of Norse origin, and is traced to the same root
as our word _squeal_. It was applied to the bells of monasteries, and
also to bells worn by persons of distinction to keep their inferiors out
of the way. Dougal continued in office till his death, which took place
in July, 1779.
[16] This is the date suggested by Professor Fraser, but it is purely
conjectural. Sheriff Strathern, in a paper on “Chapman Literature,” read
to the Glasgow Archæological Society on 6th April, 1865, regards this
production as the earliest of Graham’s prose publications, and says “it
was published in 1783.” This, too, would seem to be conjectural. Graham
was in his grave four years before that date, and it is hardly likely
that this, the most important of his prose writings, was not in print
during his lifetime. The year suggested by Fraser is probably nearer the
truth.
[17] The “creepy,” or “cock-stool,” or “black-stool,” or—to give it
its more dignified name—“the stool of repentance,” was erected in
front of the pulpit, and the delinquent who had to sit thereon was, in
consequence, in full view of the congregation. No mercy—in the way of
screening from sight—was extended to victims, indeed the rule in some
parishes was that the offenders had to stand during the service, that
they might be the better seen and the more humiliated.
[18] There were men in other parts of Scotland, besides Gretna Green,
who were willing to tie the nuptial knot without question and for a
small consideration. Ministers who had been deposed, or who had found
it convenient to leave their parishes, were always ready to assist when
invited. These men, of course, were not recognised in any way by the
Church. The “Cheap Priest” of Graham’s pages is doubtless typical of his
class, and no injustice is done to him by the portrait which is drawn.
[19] The day referred to as “the mirk Munanday” was Monday, the 25th of
March, 1652. In consequence of an eclipse of the sun there was total
darkness for eight minutes. Great fear possessed the people, and there
is an entry in the Records of the Burgh of Peebles which sets forth that
the inhabitants of that place began to pray to God. There is a reference
to the occasion in Law’s _Memorials_. He says: “The like, as thought
by astrologers, was not since the darkness at our Lord’s Passion. The
country people, tilling, loosed their ploughs, and thought it had been
the latter day.... The birds clapped to the ground.”
[20] A prevalent opinion among the common people of a by-gone day seems
to have been that witches, brownies, and other “unco bodies,” were
inhabitants of foreign countries. Here we have a reference to them as
being domiciled in Italy, and in _The History of John Cheap the Chapman_,
there is a remark about London being their home. John Cheap explains to
a woman at Tweedside that he had been at Temple-bar, in London, when she
answers—“Yea, yea, lad, an ye be cum’d frae London ye’re no muckle worth,
for the folks there awa’ is a’ witches and warlocks, deils, brownies, and
fairies.”
[21] The subject of Sabbath observance and regular attendance at worship
has long received the attention of the Scottish Church. In every part
of the kingdom the Sabbath-breaker was found. The evil was to a certain
extent a local one, arising from local causes, and consequently each Kirk
Session framed enactments to suit its own needs. Occasionally—as _Leper
the Taylor_ sets forth—the Church called in the assistance of the civic
authorities. In the records of the Guildry and Trade Incorporations of
Dundee there are various references to church attendance and Sabbath
observance. The Bonnetmaker Craft considered the question of the keeping
of the Lord’s Day in 1665. Finding that it was not observed as it ought
to have been, they passed an act rendering the brethren liable in a
penalty of forty shillings for transgression of the Sabbath in any manner
of way, but especially if the transgression took the form of drinking
in a tavern, or of abstention from divine service. This enactment was
deemed sufficient to meet the cases of brethren in ordinary, as they
were called, but if the defaulter was a member of the Trade Council his
sin was punishable by deposition from office. Despite these penalties,
the evil continued, and eighteen years later, the same Corporation was
forced to pass more stringent acts. At that time—1683—they declared it
an offence to hang out bonnets, clothes, or fish to dry. Each of these
articles had its own penalty. In the case of bonnets, the fine was
6/8; clothes, 4/-; and fish, 3/-. Here again attendance at church is
introduced, although in an indirect way. Certain practices are declared
to be punishable if they are indulged in “in time of sermon.” If water
was carried from a well in time of sermon, the penalty was 8/-; gathering
kail during the same period was apparently less offensive, as the fine
was only 5/-. The kindly call of one neighbour on another was censured
by the Craft if the visit were made “in time of sermon;” and, unless
there was a good excuse, such as illness, a penalty was imposed. A first
offender was mulct in a sum of 12/-; if the offence were repeated,
the amount was doubled and a “rebuke before the Craft” added to it;
and if the practice were indulged in a third time, the delinquent was
haled before the Kirk Session, and thereafter rebuked in presence of
the congregation. The civic and church authorities in Aberdeen fought
the evil of Sabbath journeying by means which would appear strangely
ludicrous if adopted in these days. Watchers were stationed at the
various places by which citizens could pass out of the town, to take
the names of those who sought to escape the sermon. Apparently the
enquiries of these watchers were sometimes met with the excuse that
the persons were journeying to a neighbouring church to attend service
there, for we find the Session circumventing this by ordaining “that na
inhabitant within the burgh sall ... go to sermons in Futtie Kirk on
the Sabbath,” but resort to “their ain parish kirks” within the burgh,
and hear sermons there “both before and after noone.” If they bowed to
this order, it cost them the usual collection; if they preferred Futtie,
they had to contribute a collection plus 6/8 of a fine, “for the use of
the poor.” The penalties imposed at Stirling were more severe. In 1649
the Kirk Session of that place took into consideration the case of a
citizen who bore the honourable name of “Johne Smythe.” They found him
guilty of “vaiging through the fields unnecessarlie in time of sermon.”
On a previous occasion Smythe had been admonished, and as the admonition
had not proved a sufficient deterrent, the Session ordained him to make
public repentance before the congregation for his fault, “and to stand
before the pulpit all the tyme of sermon.” The Rev. George S. Tyack,
B.A., in his article entitled “Discipline in the Kirk,” which appears in
Mr. William Andrew’s work on _By-gone Church Life in Scotland_, mentions
several instances of Sabbath breaking in different parts of the country.
“In 1627,” he writes, “nine millers at Stow, in Midlothian, had to do
public penance and pay forty shillings for that ‘their milnes did gang on
the Sabbath;’ and in 1644, another miller, in Fifeshire, was sentenced
to a fine of thirty shillings, with the same addition, for a similar
offence. The uncertainty of the weather was not admitted as any excuse
for Sunday harvesting, as is shown by a fine inflicted (together with the
usual penance) upon one Alexander Russell and his servant, for ‘leading
corn on the Sabbath evening,’ at Wester Balrymont. There are records
of the stool of repentance being called into use for the correction of
fishermen who mended their nets, of sundry people who gathered nuts,
of a woman who ‘watered her kail,’ and of another who ‘seethed bark’
on a Sunday. The last named had to stand in the jagg for three Sundays
as well.” An interesting case, and one with a deal of humanity in it,
came before the Fraserburgh Kirk Session. A woman, the wife of one
William Whyte, was accused of breaking the Sabbath by grinding corn. She
admitted the charge, but pleaded that having got the “roche corn giffen
her the same morning,” she ground it to satisfy the “hunger of herself
and her young anes.” Even in those days of rigid observance and drastic
punishment of offences, this particular Session was not wholly unfeeling.
They found her guilty of the charge, but overlooked her “repentance upon
ye alledgit necessitie.” Had Mrs. Whyte lived further south, she might
have fared worse. The Kirk Session of Stow have an inglorious immortality
in a record which states that they compelled one, William Howatson, to
do public penance on account of his having walked on a Sunday “a short
distance to see his seik mother.” These are but a few instances, but they
show the rigour with which Sabbath observance was enforced, and prove
that Graham’s statements are not exaggerated.
[22] Cameron’s life-story is told in _Hawkie: the Autobiography of
a Gangrel_, edited by John Strathesk (Glasgow: David Robertson &
Co.). He was born in 1781 at Plean, in the parish of St. Ninians,
Stirlingshire, was educated at a school in the adjoining village of
Milton, and thereafter apprenticed to a tailor in Stirling. He was of a
roving, reckless disposition, and was, by turns, tailor, schoolmaster,
actor, mender-of-broken-china, field-preacher, flying-stationer and
street-orator. The last years of his life were spent in Glasgow, where he
died in 1851.
[23] David MacBeth Moir, better known as “Delta,” was born at Musselburgh
in 1798. He studied for the medical profession, qualified early, and from
his eighteenth year was a practitioner in his native town. Amid the cares
of his profession he found time to cultivate literature. He contributed
to the _Edinburgh Magazine_ from its commencement, and for many years
was a frequent writer to _Blackwood_. His contributions to the latter of
these miscellanies were occasionally signed with the Greek Δ (Delta), and
in time he came to be better known by the initial than by his name. He
died at Dumfries in 1851.
[24] The author of this notable chapbook was born at Paisley on 6th
July, 1776. He was apprenticed to the craft of weaving, and worked for
some time at this calling in Paisley, Lochwinnoch, and Queensferry.
Subsequently he became a pedlar, and, in company with his brother-in-law,
travelled about in this capacity for three years. In 1790 he published a
collection of his poems which, however, did not meet with great success.
Four years later he emigrated to America, where the remainder of his days
were passed. At first he travelled as a pedlar over a large part of the
State of New Jersey, but afterwards he took up teaching. He devoted much
time to ornithology, and by many he has been recognised as a naturalist
rather than as a poet. He died—to some extent a martyr to ornithology—on
the 23rd of August, 1813, and was interred at Southwark, Philadelphia.
[25] John Burness was (according to the sketch of his life which he
prefixed to his volume of _Plays, Poems, and Metrical Tales_, published
in 1819 at Montrose), the youngest son of William Burness, farmer,
Bogjorgan, in the parish of Bervie. He was born on the 23rd of May, 1771,
learned the trade of baker in Brechin, and followed his calling for some
years in different places in Forfarshire. In 1794 he enlisted in the
Angus Fencible Volunteer Corps of Infantry. He was with this regiment
when it was stationed in Dumfries in 1796, and while there made the
acquaintance of his relative, Robert Burns, who perused _Thrummy Cap_,
and—according to another authority—told him “it was the best ‘ghaist’
story he had ever seen in the Scottish dialect.” The Angus Fencibles
were disbanded at Peterhead in 1799. Burness proceeded to Stonehaven,
where he set up in business as a baker, and continued in that place
for nearly four years. Later he joined the Forfar Militia, in which he
served till 1815, when he was discharged. He then took up the calling of
a book-canvasser, which he pursued until his death, which occurred at
Portlethen in 1826.
[26] A lesser-known poetical chapbook was “_The Magic Pill; or, Davie and
Bess_. A Tale. Relating Davie’s Courtship to Bess, and how he Forsook
her—How Nanse, Bessie’s Mother, went to the Doctor for a Pill, which
she got, with Directions how to Use it—How it had the desired effect,
by being put into Davie’s Pouch by Bess, at a Wedding, which Discover’d
Davie’s Love to Bess, and they were Married. Likewise, how Nanse, being
a Widow, went to the Doctor with Twa Fat Hens, to return thanks for the
Pill, and how she wanted to buy a Pill for herself, to gain a Neighbour
Carle she liked; with an Account of what the Doctor said to her, and a
Receipt how to make up this Pill, and an Advice to all young women how to
Use it. EDINBURGH: Printed for the Booksellers in Town and Country. _By
R. Menzies, Lawnmarket._ (Price One Penny).” 8 pp.
[27] _The Art of Courtship_, containing _An Interesting Dialogue_ that
passed between William Lawson and his sweetheart Bessy Gibb. _Also
two Love-Letters which he sent to his Sweetheart, and her Answers_:
Very beneficial for such blate wooers, or young beginners, as have not
gotten the art of courtship. And two receipts: _The one for young Men
how to wale a good wife, and the other for young Women how to wale a
good husband...._ Stirling: printed and sold by M. Randall, 12mo, N.D.
“Hawkie,” in his Autobiography, refers to this chapbook. At page 92, he
says, in relating his adventures as a flying-stationer:—“An old copy of
an eight-page book entitled _Willie Lawson’s Courtship of Bess Gibb_, was
the first that I tried, It was a peck of ill-put-together nonsense, but
I afterwards found that _nonsense_ was the article that ‘took’ best in
the street. Of this piece I sold a number of reams, and cleaned out the
shop; I have never seen it since, and it is a small loss to the public.”
There were other chapbooks very similar in title to this in circulation.
_The Accomplished Courtier; or, A New School of Love_, published at
Edinburgh in 1764, was not unlike the _Letter Writers_ of a later date.
Another, also published in Edinburgh in 1764, was entitled _The Art of
Courtship_, and contained “Amorous dialogues, love letters, complimental
expressions, with a particular description of Courtship,” etc., etc. A
more pretentious work was _A New Academy of Compliments; or, the Complete
English Secretary_, which was published at Glasgow in 1783. It is a
duodecimo of 132 pages, and has the appearance of being made up of the
contents of a number of smaller books. There are sections dealing with
letter-writing and the art of good-breeding; and chapters which treat of
moles and their meanings and the interpretations of dreams. Then there
are “dialogues very witty and pleasing,” and “the Comical Humours of
Jovial London Gossips, in a Dialogue between a Maid, Wife, and Widow,
over a Cup of the Creature.” To all this is added “A Collection of the
newest Play-House Songs.”
[28] “An Account of a diverting Courtship that lately happened in this
Neighbourhood between a Woman of four-score and a Youth of eighteen,
whom she married. Likewise an Account of the great and most wonderful
Concessions this fond old Woman made, during the Courtship, in order to
secure this young Man for a Husband.
“1. She solemnly promised, under the penalty of keeping separate Beds,
which would break her Heart, to be blind to all his Faults,—never to
scold or be jealous, even if she should catch him toying with a young
Lass.
“2. To support and cherish Him, suppose he got sick or lazy; and to be
ready, at all times, to light and help him Home from the Alehouse, drunk
or sober.
“3. That, even if he should get a Child or two by the bye, she would
nourish and cherish them as if they were her own.
“But, sorrowful to relate, poor Granny could not keep her word; for the
third week after Marriage, she detected him kissing yellow Meg in her
own bed-chamber, broke his head with the tatoe beetle, and scolded most
furiously—on which he ran off with Meg to Edinburgh, after robbing the
old Wife of seventy pounds sterling.” 8 pp. N.D.
[29] _The Pleasures of Matrimony, interwoven with Sundry Comical and
Delightful Stories_, with the charming Delights and ravishing Sweets of
Wooing and Wedlock, in all its diverting Enjoyments. By Author Reid,
Glasgow. Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers.
[30] _The Comical Notes and Sayings of the Rev. Mr. John Pettigrew,
Minister in Govan._ Glasgow: 1767.
[31] _The Scotch Haggis: a Selection of Choice Bon-Mots, Irish Blunders,
Repartees, Anecdotes, etc._
Care to our coffin adds a nail no doubt,
While every laugh so merry draws one out.
Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers. 12mo. 24 pp. N.D.
[32] _Odds and Ends; or, a Groat’s-worth of Fun for a Penny._ Being a
Collection of the Best Jokes, Comic Stories, Anecdotes, Bon-Mots, etc.
Printed for the Booksellers. 12mo, 24 pp. N.D.
[33] _Grinning Made Easy; or, Funny Dick’s Unrivalled Collection of
Jests, Jokes, Bulls, Epigrams, etc., with many other descriptions of Wit
and Humour._ Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers. 12mo. 24 pp. N.D.
[34] Elizabeth Isabella Spence (George MacGregor calls her _Mr._ E. J.
Spence), an observant tourist if somewhat inaccurate author, writes as
follows concerning Graham in her work, _Sketches of the Present Manners,
Customs, and Scenery of Scotland_. (2 Vols. London, 1811.) Vol. I., p.
147. “On the side of the hill, above the old village of Campsie, are to
be seen the traces of a turf cottage, the birthplace and early residence
of Dougal Graham, who, about the year 1750, wrote a rhyming history of
the rebellion of 1745. He was lame from his infancy; but, having an
inherent propensity to wander, he, with many others of his countrymen,
joined the Pretender on his arrival at Doune, and continued in his train
until his departure from Scotland, but in what capacity is unknown. He
was afterwards reduced to great poverty, and _hawked_ ballads about the
streets of Glasgow, till the magistrates, in reward of his services,
gave him the charge of the music-bells, which situation he retained
till his death near sixty years ago. He had little imagination; in his
compositions he adhered to a bare recital of facts in doggrel rhyme; and,
as he says, is likely to please only those who, like himself, had no
other than a common education. The volume, however, contains some curious
anecdotes not noticed by historians of events at that particular period;
and though it possesses otherwise little merit, it serves to illustrate
the propensity to literary pursuits amongst the lowest of the Scotch.”
This somewhat amusing note is chiefly interesting for the statement
that Graham was a native of Campsie. The author was either misinformed
or misled. Dougal narrates some biography in the first edition of his
metrical _History_, and among other things states that he was born at
Raploch.
[35] _Hawkie: the Autobiography of a Gangrel_, p. 93.
[36] A notable chapbook of this order, and one that would find a ready
sale all over Scotland is the following:—“_West Port Murders!_ A Full
and Correct Account of the Trial of William Burke and Helen M’Dougal,
before the High Court of Justiciary, on Wednesday, the 24th Dec., 1828,
for the wilful murder of Mary Campbell or Docherty, with the felonious
intent of selling her body to a Surgeon, as a subject for Dissection, and
of the Sentence, Confession, and Execution of Burke. Falkirk: Printed by
T. Johnston.” 24 pp. N.D. This particular edition is embellished with a
crude illustration, which is doubtless intended as a portrait of Burke.
[37] J. Ross, in _The Book of Scottish Poems, Ancient and Modern_, p. 13,
says this chapbook is “very likely from the pen of Dougal Graham.” Ross
gives no authority or reason for his statement, and “very likely” it is
not a production of “the metrical historian of the Rebellion.”
[38] Ebenezer Erskine.
[39] _The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham._ Vol. I., p. 73.
[40] The illustration referred to is in _The New Pictorial Bible_. There
are, as stated in the text, no pictures in _Jonah’s Mission to the
Ninevites_.
[41] Hector Macneill, who was born at Roslin in 1746, was the son of a
retired Captain of the 42nd Highlanders. Shortly after his birth, the
family removed to the west of Stirlingshire, and in due time Macneill
entered the Stirling Grammar School, which was then under the capable
management of Dr. David Doig. When a young man, he emigrated to the West
Indies, where he was engaged for a short time in a counting-house. He
returned to Scotland in 1795, when he published _Scotland’s Skaith_. A
year later he went out again to Jamaica, coming back to Scotland in 1800.
He died at Edinburgh on March 15, 1818, aged seventy-two.
[42] See _ante_, page 68, note 1.
[43] _The Life and Works of Robert Burns_, edited by Robert Chambers,
revised by William Wallace. Edinburgh, 1896. Vol. II., p. 17.
[44] James Hogg, born 1770. Died 1835.
[45] _The Tales of James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd._ London. 1880.
[46] John Wilson, born 1785. Died 1854.
[47] George Sinclair, who was born in 1630, was appointed to the Chair
of Philosophy in Glasgow University in 1654, but eight years later—in
1662—was ejected from office on account of his non-compliance with
Episcopacy. He thereafter devoted his time and energies to the business
of mineral surveying and engineering, and in 1670 he superintended
the introduction of water into Edinburgh. In addition to the above
contribution to the literature of witchcraft, he wrote various works on
astronomy, hydrostatics, and mathematics.
[48] Major Weir, who has been called the prince of Scottish wizards,
was the son of a farmer in Clydesdale. He entered the army, held a
commission as Lieutenant for some time, and took part in the quelling
of the insurgents in Ireland in 1641. Later, he settled in Edinburgh,
joined the Town Guard, and in time was promoted to the position of Major
of that body. In that credulous age when Satan, forgetting his Bible,
went about, not as a “roaring lion,” but as a docile cat or timid hare,
or took upon himself some more lovely form of passion, and made compacts
with many people, he found a ready recruit in the Major. Gradually it
was voiced abroad that Weir was in league with the Devil. He was put
on trial on April 9, 1670, when he “confessed himself guilty of a life
of wretched hypocrisy and vice—guilty, in fact, of crimes possible and
impossible. He felt some relief in the idea that the Devil had the larger
share in his misdeeds.” He was sentenced to be burned, and five days
later the doom was carried out “between Edinburgh and Leith, at a place
called Gallowlee.” The memory of the wizard of the West Bow was long held
in dread, and for more than a century his house remained tenantless. At
length a person foolhardy enough to occupy the place was found in William
Patullo, an old soldier, and this is what happened:—
“On the very first evening after Patullo and his spouse had taken up
their abode in the house,” says the author of _Reekiana_, “a circumstance
took place which effectually deterred them and all others from ever again
inhabiting it. About one o’clock in the morning, as the worthy couple
were lying awake in their bed, a dim, uncertain light proceeded from the
gathered embers of their fire, and all being silent around them, they
suddenly saw a form like a calf, but without the head, come through the
lower panel of the door and enter the room: a spectre more horrible,
or more spectre-like conduct, could scarcely have been conceived. The
phantom immediately came forward to the bed, and setting its forefeet
on the stock, looked steadfastly in all its awful headlessness at the
unfortunate pair, who were of course, almost ready to die with fright.
When it had contemplated them thus for a few minutes, to their great
relief it took itself away, and slowly retiring, vanished from their
sight. As might be expected, they deserted the house next morning, and
for another half century no other attempt was made to embank this part of
the world of light from the aggressions of the world of darkness.” There
is something amusing in the expression “looked steadfastly in all its
awful headlessness.” How a headless object without eyes could look at all
is known only to the Patullos and the author of _Reekiana_.
[49] “Scots Wha Hae” in one chapbook version began as follows:—
“Near Bannockburn King Edward lay,
The Scots they were not far away;
Each eye bent on the break of day,
Glimm’ring frae the east.
“At last the sun shone o’er the heath,
Which lighted up the field of death,
While Bruce, with soul-inspiring breath,
His heroes thus addressed.”
Then followed the version, according to Burns, to which these stanzas
were added by way of finish:—
“Now fury kindled every eye,
‘Forward! forward!’ was the cry;
‘Forward, Scotland, do or die!’
And where’s the knave shall turn?
“At last they all run to the fray,
Which gave to Scotland liberty;
And long did Edward rue the day
He came to Bannockburn.”
Thomson’s monstrous interpolations are kindly, compared with these verses.
[50] _The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham._ Vol. I., p. 77.
[51] In the early years of the nineteenth century there were no
newsagents in the Scottish towns, and the sale of the few newspapers in
existence was undertaken by the regular booksellers and by law-agents.
The latter have ceased to regard this as part of their duty, but many
booksellers still have a newspaper counter.
[52] _“Hawkie”: the Autobiography of a Gangrel_, p. 35.
[53] It is due to Milne’s memory to say that as a man he was distinctly
more respectable than the average pedlar.
[54] _The Bards of the Angus and Mearns_, p. 75. By Alan Reid. Paisley.
[55] _Memoirs of the late John Kippen, Cooper in Methven, near Perth_, to
which is added an Elegy on Peter Duthie, who was upwards of eighty years
a flying-stationer. Stirling: Printed by C. Randall. 12mo. 24 pp.
[56] _The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham._ Vol. I., p. 79.
[57] _The Humorous Chapbooks of Scotland._ By John Fraser. Part I., p.
114.
[58] _The Humorous Chapbooks of Scotland._ By John Fraser. Part II., p.
215.
LIST OF CHAPBOOKS REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING PAGES.
Aberdeen Almanac, 101
Accomplished Courtier; or, a New School of Love, 68, 100
Account, an Interesting, of Robert Burns, 87
Account of the Last Words of Christian Kerr, 96
Account of the Massacre of Captain Porteous, 79
Address to the Town Council of Edinburgh, 30
Akenstaff, 25
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, 106, 127
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, 106
Allan Barclay, 106
Ancient King Crispin, 79
Art of Courtship, 68, 100
Auld Lang Syne, 21
Baron Munchausen, 106
Battle of Bothwell Bridge, the, 72, 73
Battle of Drumclog, the, 72, 73
Battle of Killiecrankie, 72
Battle of Otterburn, the, 72
Beauty and the Beast, 106
Blind Allan, 106
Blithesome Bridal, the, 15
Blue Beard, 33
Brief Memoir of Urcilla Gebbie, 96
Broken Heart, the, a Tale of the Rebellion of 1745, 106
Brownie of Badenoch, the, 25
Buchanan’s Almanac, 101
Caledonian Classics of the Common People, 26
Choice Drop of Honey, a, 89
Christ’s Glorious Appearance to Judgment, 89
Coalman’s Courtship to the Creelwife’s Daughter, 43, 139
Collection of Scotch Proverbs, 27, 98, 101
Comical History of the King and the Cobbler, 33, 106, 122, 127
Comical Notes and Sayings of Mr. John Pettigrew, 70
Comical Sayings of Paddy from Cork, 33, 56, 70
Comical Transactions of Lothian Tom, 56, 139
Comical Tale of Margaret and the Minister, 67
Devil upon Two Sticks, the, 25
Dialogue between John and Thomas, 98
Dick Whittington and his Cat, 33, 106
Diverting Courtship, a, 69
Divine Songs for the Use of Children, 90, 139
Dominie, the, Deposed, with a Sequel, 67
Duncan Campbell and his Dog Oscar, 103, 105
Edinburgh, 72
Edinbury (_sic_) Gleaner, the, 31
Elegy in Memory of Sir Robert Grierson of Lag, 111
Entertaining Exploits of George Buchanan, 56, 57, 70
Evan’s Sketch of All Religions, 95
Executions in Scotland from the year 1600, 72
Expiring Groans, Death, and Funeral Procession of the _Beacon_
Newspaper, 79
Fables of Æsop, 99
Fishwives of Buckhaven, the, 25
Gauger’s, the, Journey to the Land of Darkness, 64
Gentle Shepherd, the, 22, 119
Ghaist of Firenden, the, 25
Ghost of my Uncle, 106
Gilderoy, 25
Glasgow and the High Church, 72
God’s Little Remnant Keeping their Garments Clean, 86
Golden Dreamer, the, or Dreams Realised, 114
Grannie M’Nab’s Lecture on the Women, 64
Grave, the, 95
Grinning made easy, 70
Grones of Believers Under their Burdens, 89
Gude and Godlie Ballates, 19
Gulliver’s Travels, 106
Hero and Leander, 106
History of the Rebellion of 1745, 25, 36, 37, 51, 74, 78
History of Sir William Wallace, the Renowned Scottish Champion, 24, 84
History of the Haverel Wives, 48, 57
History of James Allan, 29
History of the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, 33
History of the Great Warrior, Robert Bruce, 84
History of the Black Douglas, 85
History of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, 85
History of the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland, 86
History of Paul Jones the Pirate, 87
History of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 90, 93, 96
History of Joseph and His Brethren, 91, 93, 100
History of Moses, 92, 93
History of Witches, Ghosts, and Highland Seers, 111
Housekeeper, the, 100
Housewife’s Cookery Book, 99
Jack the Giant Killer, 33, 104, 106
Janet Clinker’s Oration, 63
Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship, 38, 41, 43, 57, 139, 141
John Cheap the Chapman, 35, 53, 57, 127, 130
John Falkirk, the Merry Piper, 56
Jonah’s Mission to the Ninevites, 93
John Hetherington’s Dream, 106
Leper the Taylor, 35, 57, 58
Life and Astonishing Adventures of Peter Williamson, 33
Life and Death of Judas Iscariot, 94
Life and History of Mary Queen of Scots, 85
Life and Meritorious Transactions of John Knox, 85
Life and Transactions with the Trial of Maggie Lang, 111
Life and Transactions with the Trial of Maggie Osborne, 111
Life, Journeyings, and Death of the Apostle Paul, 94
Loss of the Pack, the, 14
Long Pack, the, or the Robber Discovered, 29, 103, 105
Maggie Lauder, 21
Magic Pill, the, or Davie and Bess, 67
Mansie Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith, 33, 64, 103
Man’s Great Concernment, 89
Massacre of Glencoe, the, 72
Memoirs of the late John Kippen, 134
Mother Bunch’s Closet Newly Broke Open, 33
Mother Bunch’s Golden Fortune Teller, 114
Murder Hole, the, 106
Napoleon Bonaparte’s Book of Fate, 114
New Academy of Compliments; or, the Complete English Secretary, 68,
100
New Pictorial Bible, 89, 93, 94, 95, 102, 144
New Fortune Book, or the Conjuror’s Guide, 114
Night frae Hame, 98
Odds and Ends, or a Groat’s Worth of Fun for a Penny, 29, 70
Oration on Teetotalization, 98
Orr’s Scottish Almanac, 102
Paisley Repository, the, 32
Particular Account of the Great Mob at Glasgow, 79
Penny Budget of Wit, the, 33
Pilgrim’s Progress, the, 95
Pleasures of Matrimony, the, 69
Plant of Renown, 89
Poor Robin’s Almanac, 101
Prayer-Book, a, for Families and Private Persons, 91
Protest Against Whisky, 98
Prophecies of “Hawkie,” a Cow, 64
Rob Roy, the celebrated Highland Freebooter, 87
Rebellion of 1745-46, 72
Reprieve, a, from the Punishment of Death, 80
Satan’s Invisible World Discover’d, 107, 108
Scotch Haggis, the, 29, 70
Scotland, 72
Scotland’s Skaith, 97
Select Collection, 31
Siege of Troy, the, 106
Simple John, 56
Simple Simon, 33
Sinbad the Sailor, 106
Sins and Sorrows Spread before God, 90
Sir James the Rose, 25, 127
Spaewife, the; or, Universal Fortune Teller, 114
Stone, the, rejected by the Builders, 90
Strange Adventures of Tam Merrilees, 106
Surprising Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 88, 106
Tam o’ Shanter, 13, 111
Thrummy Cap and the Ghost, 25, 66
Trial of Sir John Barleycorn, Knt., the, 117
True Fortune Teller, the; or, the Universal Book of Fate, 114
Valentine Writer, the, 100
Watty and Meg; or, The Wife Reformed, 66
Willie Lawson’s Courtship of Bess Gibb, 68
Wedding Ring fit for the Finger, 89
West Port Murders! a Full Account of the Trial of William Burke,
etc., 84
Witchcraft Detected and Prevented, 111
Witchcraft Proven, Arraign’d, and Condemned, 141
Wonderful Advantages of Drunkenness, 96
GLOSSARY.
Aboon, above.
A deed, indeed.
Ae, one.
Aft, oft, often.
Ain, own.
Ance, once.
Aneugh, enough.
Bare-fit, barefooted.
Baudy, evil.
Bawk, crossbeam in roof of house.
Bin nor ha’d, bind nor hold.
Boul-horned, obstinate.
Braid, broad.
Braw, beautiful.
Brogit, pierced.
Canker’d, ill-natured.
Canty, happy.
Chappin, knocking.
Chirtin, pressing.
Clap, pat.
Clung, empty.
Cog, basin.
Contrair, contrary.
Coupt, emptied.
Cow’d, trimmed.
Creesh, grease.
Creims, stalls.
Cumstrarie, perverse.
Curits, curates.
Dauts, fondles.
Dwal, dwell.
Elshinirons, shoemakers’ tools.
Fallow, fellow.
Flaes, fleas.
Forjeskit, disreputable.
Forfaughten, exhausted.
Fow, full.
Frae, from.
Gade, went.
Gar, make.
Gin, if.
Girning, grumbling.
Gude, good.
Gudis, goods.
Graithed, clothed.
Gule-fitted, yellow-footed.
Halesome, wholesome.
Hantle, lot.
Harled, pulled.
Haud, hold.
Heckle, a weaver’s comb.
Hizey, a girl, a huzzy.
Hoddle, waddle.
Hoiting, following, running after.
Ilk, every.
Keek, glance slyly.
Kend, knew.
Kirnan-rung, “That long staff with a circular frame on the head of
it, used anciently for agitating the cream, when upstanding
kirns were fashionable.”—_Gall. Encycl._
Kist, chest.
Lufe, hand.
Maist, most.
Mair, more.
Makar, poet.
Maumier, sweeter, pleasanter.
Maun, must.
Mou, mouth.
Muckle, much.
Munanday, Monday.
Murgully’d, mismanaged, abused.
Nayther, neither.
Neb, nose.
Neist, next.
Neits, nits.
Ouk, week.
Outhir, either.
Paepery, Popery.
Preed, tasted.
Prent, printing-press.
Prins, pins.
Redd, separate.
Ripples, a weakness in the back.
Rive, burst.
Rumple, the rump.
Saep, soap.
Saut, salt.
Sen, since.
Shaws, shows.
Shune, shoes.
Sic, such.
Siccan, such-like.
Skaith, harm.
Snites, wipes.
Socht, sought.
Sowp, sup.
Stap, put.
Staw, stole.
Steer, stir.
Stively, stoutly, firmly.
Sumf, a blockhead.
Supple, the part of a flail that strikes the grain.
Sykin, sighing.
Tane, tuther, one, other.
Tangs, tongs.
Tod-lowrie, a name given to the fox.
Toom, empty.
Trykle, treacle.
Unco, very.
Wab, web.
Waefu’, woful.
Wames, bellies.
Wan, got.
Wat, wet.
Weir-men, war-men.
Whang, piece.
Wheens, lots.
Whilly’d, cheated.
Wud, mad, distracted.
Yeal, old, barren.
Ye’se, you will.
GENERAL INDEX.
Aberdeen, 60, 101, 138
Airdrie, 138
_Amusing Prose Chapbooks chiefly of last Century_, 10, 32
Ashton, John, 16, 22, 34
_Auld Licht Idylls_, 24, 25
Barrie, J. M., 24, 140
Blamire, Susanna, 114, 120
Blue, Jamie, 80
_Book of Scottish Poems_, 87
Boyd, Zachary, 23
Brechin, 66
_Brownie of Bodsbeck_, 103
Bruce, King Robert, 11, 86
Buchanan, George, 19, 63
Bunyan, John, 101
Burne, Nicol, 19
Burness, John, 66, 133
Burns, Robert, 21, 66, 85, 87, 101, 111, 116, 118, 120
Caldwell, G., of Paisley, 27, 73, 138
_Caledonian Mercury_, 74
Cameron, William, 63, 68, 79, 80, 126, 130
Cargill, Donald, 28, 85, 86, 113
Chambers, Robert, 78, 122, 137
_Chambers’s Encyclopedia_, 11
_Chambers’s Journal_, 124, 125
Chepman, Walter, 17
_Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century_, 16, 22, 23
Charles, Prince, 74, 76
Chaucer, 12
Clackmannan, 36
Claverhouse, 52
Corelli, Marie, 95
Cunningham, Robert Hays, 10, 32, 34
Davidson, John, 19
_Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues_, 13
Duncan, James, 74, 82
Duncan, Thomas, 137
Dundee, 17, 59, 138
Edinburgh, 17, 30, 67, 69, 101, 108, 137, 142
Elliot, Jean, 120
Erskine, Ebenezer, 11, 28, 89
Falkirk, 137, 138, 142
Forbes, William, 67
Fraser, J., 138
Fraser, Professor, 10, 12, 33, 34, 38, 69, 72, 139, 141
Fraserburgh, 61
Glasgow, 10, 17, 38, 58, 68, 69, 74, 76, 80, 102, 114, 126, 130, 137
_Glasgow Courant_, 74
Glasgow Green, 47
Glencairn, Earl of, 19
Graham, Dougal, 10, 14, 25, 36, 47, 52, 55, 56, 58, 65, 68, 69, 74,
75, 87, 103, 123, 131, 139, 141
Greenock, 83
Haddington, 47, 123, 138
Hamilton, Gavin, 101
Hawkie (_see_ Cameron, William).
Henderson, T. F., 21
Henley, W. E., 67, 87, 104, 139
Hogg, James, 103, 105, 120
_Hogg’s Instructor_, 124
Howie, John, 73
_Humorous Prose Chapbooks of Scotland_, 10, 12, 33, 34, 35, 69, 72,
139, 141
Hutchison, R., 137
Irvine, 138
Johnston, T., 138
Jones, Paul, 85
Kelso, 142
Kempis, Thomas à, 101
Kilmarnock, 138
Kirkcaldy of Grange, William, 19
Knox, John, 19, 86
Leith, 138
Lekprevick, Robert, 18
_Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life_, 106
Lindsay, Robert, 10
Lindsay, Sir David, 75
Lithgow, William, 85
_Love’s Labour Lost_, 13
Mac Gregor, George, 10, 12, 24, 78, 92, 123, 139
Macnie, William, 48, 138
Macneill, Hector, 97, 120
Maxwell, Sir Herbert, 86
Maitland, Sir John, 19
Maitland, Sir Robert, 18
Menzies, R., 67
Miller, G., 123
Milne, John, 133
Mitchell, William, 92
Moir, David MacBeth, 65
Montrose, 66, 124, 138
Morren, J., 137
Mortality, Old, 73
_Mortality, Old_, 103
Motherwell, William, 9, 19, 98
Muir, John, 82
Myllar, Androw, 17
Nairne, Lady, 116, 120
_National Gazette_, 73
Newton-Stewart, 138
North, Christopher, 106
O’Donnell, 29
_On the Malice of Poets_, 18
Orr, Francis & Son, 102, 138
Paisley, 27, 65, 73, 82, 132, 137, 138
Paterson, Robert, 73
Peden, Alexander, 85, 86, 113
Perth, 90, 142
Peterhead, 66
_People’s Friend, The_, 124
_People’s Penny Stories, The_, 143
Raban, Edward, 101
Ramsay, Allan, 21, 22, 27, 30, 92, 98, 119, 120
Ramsay, Dean, 71
Randall, C., 107, 134, 138
Randall, M., 68, 138
Raploch, 36
Reid, Alan, 132
Reid, Author, 69
Reid, John, 30, 92, 108
Reid, “Lucky”, 30, 92, 119
Religious Tract Society, 142
Renwick, James, 89
Rhymer, Thomas the, 85, 87, 113
Rob Roy, 85
Robertson, Alexander, 137
Robertson, J. & M., 137
Ross, J., 87
_Round the Grange Farm_, 127
Sabbath Observance, 58
Scott, Sir Walter, 9, 120
Scott, Michael, 85
_Scottish Vernacular Literature_, 21
_Scots Worthies_, 73
_Scottish Reader, The_, 114
Secker, William, 28
Sempill, Robert, 18, 21, 22, 120
Shakespeare, 13
Sharp, Archbishop, 52
Simpson, Habbie, 21
Sinclair, George, 108
Smith, W., 31
Spence, E. J., 78
_Stirling Stories_, 143
Stirling, 36, 48, 60, 63, 68, 107, 134, 137, 138
Stow, 62
Stonehaven, 66
Strathern, Sheriff, 38
Strathesk, John, 63
Stirling Tract Enterprise, 142
Tannahill, Robert, 116
_The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham_, 10, 24
_The Winter’s Tale_, 12
_The Cries and Habits of the City of London_, 16
Thirlestane, Lord, 19
_Troilus and Cressida_, 13
Turpin, Dick, 29
Wallace, Sir William, 11, 86
Wallace, Dr. William, 101
Watt, James, 124
Watts, Isaac, 28, 91, 123
_Waverley_, 9, 73
Webster & Son, D., of Edinburgh, 26
Wedderburn (the brothers) of Dundee, 19
Weir, Major, 107, 108, 109, 144
Welch, John, 28, 85, 86
Wellington, Duke of, 118, 119
Wilcocks, Thomas, 28
Williamson, Peter, 85
Wilson, Alexander, 65
Wilson, John, 106
_Window in Thrums, A_, 124
THE END.
ERRATA.
Transcriber’s Note: The errata have been corrected.
Page 27, line 10, _for_ “characters” _read_ “capitals.”
Page 37, note 1, line 4, _for_ “1700” _read_ “1770.”
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