seized at the Opera--Carried to the Castle of
Vincennes--And forced to leave France_ 240
_A Quaker’s Address to Prince Charles_ 245
_Copy of the Rebels’ Orders before the Battle of Culloden_ 249
_Miss Flora’s Lament: A Song_ 250
_The Author’s Address to all in general_ 251
JOHN HIGHLANDMAN’S REMARKS ON GLASGOW 255
TURNIMSPIKE 261
TUGAL M‘TAGGER 265
HAD AWA FRAE ME, DONALD 269
EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION.
I.--BIOGRAPHY OF DOUGAL GRAHAM.
The negligence of contemporaries by failing to appreciate the real
worth of the great men of their time has often been a subject
of remark. No special case need be cited to give point to the
recurrence of the proposition here, for many such instances will
readily suggest themselves to the mind. The reasons for this fact
are many, and of divergent natures. Though it is beyond the scope
of the present inquiry to discuss the general question, it may be
observed, however, that some of the more potent causes which in
the past have led to this unfortunate result are being rapidly
removed through the spread of knowledge among the great mass of
the people, and through the remarkable activity of the press in
its various branches. Personal gossip regarding the hereditarily
and individually great is now and then served up to the public,
and it is always received with unmistakable relish. Autobiography,
also, has become fashionable, and this, within recent years, has
often shed light upon opinions and actions about which some doubts
had formerly existed. These and other circumstances, in themselves
perhaps not unmixed good, will tend to keep the biographers of
the great men of this and the last generation from being placed
in the awkward position in which almost all who attempt to record
the lives of men who have achieved local or universal fame prior
to the present century must at times find themselves placed.
Insufficient data is the great obstacle in the way of the latter
class. Traditions difficult to credit and as difficult to refute;
suggestions more or less probable; and many obscurities, all
incline to make their work perplexing, and, to a certain extent,
unsatisfactory. Yet the task must be undertaken, and the earlier
the better, in order that such scraps of information as have come
down from the past to the present may be preserved.
Dougal Graham, the literary pedlar and bellman of Glasgow, like
many a greater man, has suffered unmerited neglect, and the value
of his work was not discovered, or appreciated, until it was almost
too late to retrieve the loss involved by the remissness of his
contemporaries and immediate successors. Motherwell, lamenting this
fact, says very truly, ‘That a man who, in his day and generation,
was so famous, should have left no dear recollections behind
him; some Boswell to record his life, actions, and conversation,
need be subject of admiration to no one who has reflected on
the contemptuous neglect with which Time often treats the most
illustrious dead.’[1] Graham was first noticed as having done
something for the literature of his country by Mr. E. J. Spence, of
London, who in 1811 published _Sketches of the Manners, Customs,
and Scenery of Scotland_. Motherwell, in the short-lived _Paisley
Magazine_, next set forth fully Graham’s title to the regard of
his compatriots, and rescued a few recollections concerning him
which, in the course of a year or two more, would have been lost.
M‘Vean, in the appendix to his edition of M‘Ure’s _History of
Glasgow_, issued in 1830, added a few additional particulars. Then
Dr. Strang, through the medium of his work on _Glasgow and its
Clubs_, contributed his mite to the small collection of knowledge
concerning our author. Graham has provided only one or two details
about himself; an advertisement in a Glasgow newspaper fixes the
date of one of the most important events of his life; and Dr.
Strang has preserved some stanzas of an elegy on his death, written
by some unknown poetaster. There, practically, our knowledge
ceases. All beyond what is to be gained from these sources is
tradition or inference, and not a little of what has thus been
put on record has been questioned. A ‘metrical account of the
author,’ according to an existing tradition, was prefixed to an
early issue of Graham’s _History of the Rebellion of 1745-46_, but
owing to the disappearance of the first and second, and some of
the subsequent editions, this account, if it ever existed, can now
afford no assistance, nor can the tradition itself be traced to
its source. Sir Walter Scott felt interested in Dougal’s work, but
unfortunately he has contributed nothing to his biography, though
it is believed to have been his intention to have done so. Such
being the state of matters, it is only fair at this stage to assume
that comparatively few of the events in the life of Dougal Graham
have been ascertained beyond doubt, and that much that is related
about him might be overturned even by some minute discovery. The
probabilities, however, are against such a happy occurrence at
so remote a period. His career, in so far as it is known, is not
without a touch of romance, and it furnishes the key to a proper
acquaintance with his works.
Graham, according to all accounts, was born in the village
of Raploch, near Stirling, in or about the year 1724. If, as
has been supposed, his _History of John Cheap the Chapman_
is autobiographical, this is his own story of that important
event--‘I, John Cheap by chance, at some certain time, doubtless
against my will, was born at the Hottom, near Habertehoy Mill. My
father was a Scots Highlandman, and my mother a Yorkshire wench,
but honest, which causes me to be of a mongrel kind.’ Should this
account be accurate, the names of the places seem to be veiled;
but the uncertainty as to its application to Graham himself makes
it of comparatively little value. Unfortunately, Nature endowed
him with a deformed body, and his physical defects developed with
his growth. His parents, from their humble position in life, were
unable to give him anything beyond the common education of the
time, which was of a very scant description, but he seems to have
learned more by his native wit than by the instructions of the
schoolmaster. Taught no trade, his youth would probably be spent
at farm work, or at such odd employment as he could find, it may
have been in the weaver’s shop, or in the saw-pit, much the same,
in all likelihood, as his father had done before him, and as we
may still find men doing in remote country hamlets. Leaving the
old home under the shadow of Stirling Castle, Graham went in his
early youth as a servant to a small farmer in the neighbourhood of
the quaint little village of Campsie. A tradition regarding his
residence there lingered about the place for nearly a century, for
Spence saw traces of a turf cottage said to be the birth-place
and early residence of Dougal Graham.[2] As there are no good
grounds for questioning the statement that Graham’s birth-place
was Raploch, may it not be considered a feasible idea, in view of
Spence’s remark, that our author’s parents removed to Campsie, and
that he went with them? How long Dougal remained with the farmer is
unknown. Of an unsettled disposition, he, like his creation _John
Cheap_, made himself a chapman when very young, in great hopes of
being rich when he became old; and for some years he wandered over
the country in the exercise of his craft. The political events of
the time, however, effected another and more important change in
his career, and rapidly developed in him the mental capabilities
with which nature had, by way of compensation, endowed him.
The outbreak of the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745 found Graham ready
to follow the Young Chevalier. When the Highland army was on its
southward march, he joined it on the 13th of September of that
year, at the Ford of Frew, on the Forth. At that time he was
probably about twenty-one years of age. The capacity in which
he became attached to the Prince’s forces has been matter for
conjecture. His physical deformities are assumed to have unfitted
him for active service, and everything points to the conclusion
that he was not a soldier, but rather a sutler, or camp-follower,
blending, probably, his political aspirations with commercial
pursuits. In the preface to his _History of the Rebellion_, he
avoids saying he participated actively in the events he records,
but plainly states that he had ‘been 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.’ Throughout the
whole course of the seven months’ campaign, Graham accompanied the
rebel army, and while he has carefully recorded its movements, he
has given no indication of how he himself was occupied, or of any
adventures that may have fallen to his share. There can be little
doubt that, to a man of his temperament, the march to Derby and the
retreat upon Inverness, would be highly educative in its effects,
by showing him life in various parts of the country he had in all
likelihood never visited before, and by bringing him into contact
with men of all ranks. In this short period his knowledge of men
and manners would be largely increased, and the experience thus
gained would greatly facilitate the production of those graphic and
truthful descriptions which sometimes adorn--sometimes, it must
also be admitted, tarnish--the literary efforts of his later years.
Until this time, Graham is not known to have made any effort in
the direction of literature, though, in view of the magnitude of
the task he set before himself on the conclusion of the rebellion,
it is not improbable he may have courted the Muses from afar, and
indulged in poetical, or rhythmical, fancies for the amusement
of his customers and entertainers in his youthful chapman days.
However that may be, Dougal, immediately after the disaster at
Culloden, rapidly made his way homewards, and set about committing
to verse a narrative of the expedition of Prince Charles. The
self-imposed duty was great, but he was equal to it. The battle of
Culloden was fought on the 16th of April, 1746, and five months
later Graham’s work was announced. In the _Glasgow Courant_, of the
29th September, the following advertisement appeared:--
‘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 Booksellers or Packmen may have them easier from the said
James Duncan, or the Author, D. Grahame.
‘The like has not been done in Scotland since the Days of Sir
David Lindsay.’
There is every reason to believe that this work became popular
immediately on its publication. Scattered broadcast over Scotland
by chapmen and others, while the events of which it treated were
still agitating the minds of the people, Graham’s name by it would
be brought boldly to the front, and there would be opened up for
him the possibilities of a career wider than any he could have
contemplated under ordinary circumstances. In every way the work
appears to have been a success, and the judgment pronounced upon
it by Dr. Robert Chambers has been concurred in by all who have
read the production--‘The poetry is, of course, in some cases a
little grotesque, but _the matter_ of the work is in many instances
valuable. It contains, and in this consists the chief value of all
such productions, many minute facts which a work of more pretension
would not admit.’[3] Sir Walter Scott’s estimate of it was not
less favourable, for, writing to Dr. Strang in 1830, he said--‘It
really contained some traits and circumstances of manners worth
preserving.’[4]
Although the issue of the _History of the Rebellion_ was probably
large, it is remarkable that now, and for many years past, no copy
of the first edition has been known to exist. It would be difficult
to explain the cause of such a total disappearance. The fact must
be regretted both from literary and bibliographical points of view,
for a copy of it, besides being of interest in itself, would clear
up several obscurities and differences of opinion that have arisen
in relation to it and subsequent editions.
Prior to the publication of the _History of the Rebellion_, Graham
was not a resident in Glasgow, though it is probable he would be
known to many there, for he must have had frequent occasion to
visit the city for the purpose of purchasing his stock-in-trade.
These visits would bring him into contact with booksellers, and
the numerous tradesmen whose wares would be represented in his
miscellaneous pack. The title-page of his work is said to have
contained these lines:--
‘Composed by the poet, D. Graham,
In Stirlingshire he lives at hame.’
It would be useless to say whether the wide term ‘Stirlingshire’
bore reference to Raploch, or to Campsie, as has been suggested;
but the verse may fairly be considered, by the prefix ‘poet’ to the
author’s name, to give countenance to the inference that Graham was
not quite a tyro in the art of verse-making, and that previous to
the publication of his _History_ he was regarded by his intimate
friends, at least, as having qualified for the title. However that
may be, Dougal seems now to have made Glasgow his home. Possibly
he still continued to ply his calling as a pedlar; but he added
to this a profession for which his natural capabilities specially
adapted him. In Glasgow, he became the poet of passing events.
Little of local importance seemed to have escaped him, and the
few metrical pieces now extant, and attributed to him by various
authorities, can only be regarded as the representatives of an
extensive issue of facetious broadsides and chap-book ballads.
Among those believed to be referable to this period of his life,
are _John Hielandman’s Remarks on Glasgow_, and _Turnimspike_.
Although these have never been acknowledged by Graham himself,
in the formal way that he has acknowledged the authorship of
the _History of the Rebellion_, there is a consensus of opinion
that these two poems are undoubtedly his production. In them the
acquaintance he made with Highland modes of thought and expression
during the progress of the Jacobite campaign, served him in
good stead. M‘Vean attributes a humorous piece, entitled _Tugal
M‘Tagger_, to Graham, but this has been questioned on several
grounds, perhaps the most forcible suggestion being, that its style
and rhythm are liker the work of Alexander Rodger than of Graham.
Personally, we feel inclined to support M‘Vean, and that for a
variety of reasons, which may be better explained when dealing
with the bibliography of our author’s works; while other metrical
compositions of a similar character will also fall to be considered
under the same head.
Dougal was now a man of some note, and, in addition, he is believed
to have gradually worked himself into a position of comparative
freedom from pecuniary troubles. In the time of his poverty he
vented his ill nature on his Roman Catholic fellow-subjects in
verse far from elegant, charging them with having brought about,
for reasons best known to himself, the unsatisfactory state of his
exchequer:--
‘You Papists are a cursed race,
And this I tell you to your face;
And your images of gold so fine,
Their curses come on me and mine.
Likewise themselves at any rate,
For money now is ill to get.
I have run my money to an en’,
And have nouther paper nor pen
To write thir lines the way you see me,
And there’s none for to supplie me.’
Like many another man, Graham becomes incoherent when indulging
in strong language. But matters did not always remain in this sad
state, and when he published the second edition of his _History
of the Rebellion_ he was able to call himself ‘Dougal Graham,
merchant,’ showing he had advanced a step in his commercial
position. There is no reason to suppose he had a place of business,
such as a shop or warehouse, but the probability is that he had
become one of the better class of chapmen, whose packs contained a
large variety of finer goods than were usually hawked through the
country.
The second edition of the _History of the Rebellion_ was published
in 1752, probably with additions to include the adventures of
Prince Charles after the defeat at Culloden. This edition, like the
first, has disappeared, and at present no copy is known to exist.
The re-issue of his work would assist Graham in his pecuniary
affairs, and it is said that he was able to begin a business which,
even in these early days, would require some little capital.
According to M‘Vean, Graham, after 1752, became a printer, and,
like Buchan, the chronicler of Peterhead, he composed his works and
set them up at the case without committing them to writing; or, as
Strang puts it, he was in the habit of at once spinning thought
into typography. Beyond that there is no information as to Dougal’s
experience at the printing trade, though it must suggest itself as
strange that so many of his chap-books should be issued by other
parties, by Mr. Caldwell of Paisley, for instance, who is reported
by Motherwell to have said:--‘We were aye fain to get a haud of
some new piece frae him.’
Like Sir Walter Scott, who took a great interest in him and his
works, Graham after a time appears to have turned his attention
more particularly to prose composition, indulging rarely in verse.
The period during which most of his prose chap-books were written
and issued was probably between 1752 and 1774, the latter being the
date of the publication of the third edition of his _History of the
Rebellion_; though one or two are known to have appeared subsequent
to that date. These works would greatly add to his credit with
the people, and there can be no doubt that they had a most
extensive circulation. ‘A’ his works took weel,’ says Mr. Caldwell,
Motherwell’s informant, ‘they were level to the meanest capacity,
and had plenty o’ coarse jokes to season them. I never kent a
history of Dougal’s that stuck in the sale yet.’ Better testimony
as to their popularity could scarcely be desired; and that the
author was awarded a share of the favour his works received
cannot be doubted. It has sometimes been thought that several of
his chap-books were to a certain extent autobiographical--such,
for instance, as _John Cheap the Chapman_--but the absolute
impossibility of separating fact from fiction makes them of no
value in this direction. Whether printed by himself or others
the number of his works still known to exist prove him to have
been a most prolific writer, and it can be fairly assumed that,
in a pecuniary sense, they were successful. None of them appear
to have been published under Graham’s own name, but were either
issued anonymously or under a cognomen which would probably be well
understood in his own time as referring to him, such as ‘The Scots’
Piper,’ ‘John Falkirk,’ and ‘Merry Andrew at Tamtallon.’
An advertisement which appeared in the _Glasgow Journal_ of 14th
June, 1764, has raised the question of Graham’s domestic relations.
Everything known points to the conclusion that he never entered
into the conjugal yoke. The announcement spoken of ran thus:--
‘NOTICE.--Whereas, Jean Stark, spouse to Dougal Graham,
ale-seller, above the Cross, Glasgow, has parted from her
husband, he thinks it proper to inform the public that she
be inhibit by him from contracting debt in his name, or yet
receiving any debt due to him, after this present date.’
It has been usual to assume that this advertisement had no
reference to our author, and, even though the names are the same,
we see no reason to dissent from the general verdict. There is
neither direct information nor obscure indication of Graham having
at any time been an ‘ale-seller.’ The incident, however, has given
Professor Fraser an opportunity of pointing out a failing of
Dougal’s--‘In one sense, he was always a large dealer in spirits,
but it is not so certain that he was actually a publican.’[5]
Judging from his works, and if the few traditions concerning
him are to be accepted as evidence on this point, he was not a
teetotaller, but that in itself was no remarkable circumstance in
the times in which he lived.
An event of the first importance in Graham’s life was his
appointment to the post of skellat bellman of the city of Glasgow.
One would naturally have thought that in this matter at least there
would have been no room for any dubiety concerning the various
circumstances of the appointment, especially as it was to a post of
some credit under one of the most ancient municipal corporations
in Scotland, but that is not so. The ‘skellat’ bell, it may be
explained, was the one used for ordinary announcements by the
town-crier, as the ‘mort’ bell was in use on the intimation of
death. In former times the crier, on obtaining possession of the
two bells, had, according to the Burgh Records, ‘to cum bund for
the soume of thrie scoir pundis’ Scots, or £5 sterling; and in
addition to the importance of the office, it was always regarded
as being of some pecuniary value. As the appointment was in the
gift of the magistrates, it is surprising that no notice is taken
in the Town Council Records of Graham’s incumbency. Motherwell put
himself to some trouble in this matter, and wrote to Dr. Cleland,
author of the _Annals of Glasgow_, then Superintendent of Public
Works in the city, requesting information. In October, 1828, he
received this reply--‘With regard to Dougal Graham, I may safely
say there is nothing in the Records concerning him. This, from my
own knowledge, corroborated by Mr. Thomson, one of our Town-clerks,
who lately made an index of everything in the books for 150 years
back.’ In order to satisfy himself on this point, the editor of
these volumes took advantage of the opportunity kindly afforded him
of going over the Burgh Records in the Town Clerk’s Office, and
a careful search over the Council Minutes for a period of fully
forty years was unproductive of any result other than that recorded
by Dr. Cleland. As to the date of the appointment, therefore,
some doubt exists. Turner, a town officer of fully eighty years,
told Cleland that when he was a boy of about ten years of age,
he remembered Graham as bellman, and Motherwell infers from this
statement that our author was enjoying the whole emoluments of
office about 1750. M‘Vean, however, is of a different opinion, and
says Graham could not have been bellman earlier than 1770, ‘as an
old gentleman remembers other four bellmen, who held office before
Dougal, and after the year 1764.’ Possibly Turner’s memory may have
been failing him in his old age, and he may not have been accurate
by ten or fifteen years. M‘Vean was certainly in as good a position
as any one to ascertain the true version, and there seems no reason
why his statement should not be accepted in preference to the
haphazard guess by Motherwell.
Tradition has it that Graham did not obtain the office of bellman
without some little difficulty, because of his connection with the
Jacobite movement. Here is the story as given by Mr. Caldwell,
the Paisley publisher:--‘In his youth he was in the Pretender’s
service, and on that account had a sair faught to get the place o’
bellman, for the Glasgow bailies had an illbrew o’ the Hielanders,
and were just doun-richt wicked against onybody that had melled
wi’ the rebels; but Dougie was a pawkey chield, and managed to
wyse them ower to his ain interests, pretending that he was a
staunch King’s man, and pressed into the Prince’s service sair
against his will, and when he was naithing mair than a hafflins
callant, that scarcely kent his left hand frae his richt, or a B
frae a bull’s fit.’ In addition to this subtle reasoning with the
magistrates, Dougal is said by some writers to have effected very
material alterations on the third edition of his _History of the
Rebellion_, published in 1774, in order to please the Whig patrons
of the office to which he aspired. Here is a difficulty not easily
overcome. Caldwell’s information was likely to be correct, and it
is further supported by the knowledge that during the Jacobite
risings the Glasgow bailies, and the citizens generally, were
staunch supporters of the House of Hanover. The first thought that
must suggest itself to the mind is, that it was not at all likely
that Graham would seek to publish in Glasgow a Jacobite history of
the Rebellion, at a time when the city authorities were applying to
Parliament for an indemnification for the money and supplies levied
on them by the Prince and his army. But assuming that Graham did
publish a history of this complexion, we have M‘Vean’s statement,
to all appearance founded upon a personal knowledge of the second
edition--though he seems to regard it as the first--in these
words:--‘In 1752 Dougal talks of the rebels with a great deal of
virulence; in 1774 he softens his tone, and occasionally introduces
apologies for their conduct.’ Possibly no one of the present
generation, or of the one immediately preceding it, has ever seen
a copy of this second edition; and in the absence of other and more
conclusive evidence, the _ipse dixit_ of M‘Vean must be accepted,
and it goes directly against the assumption that Graham changed the
political colouring of the third edition of his history to please
the Glasgow bailies. If his appointment as bellman took place in
1750, as Motherwell, on what have been considered too slender
grounds, has suggested, there might be some reason for entertaining
the idea; but taking the date given by M‘Vean as approximately
accurate it seems altogether out of the question. Caldwell, with
his admitted knowledge of the incident, does not even hint at such
an action on Graham’s part, but only supplies a very feasible
account of the explanation afforded to the magistrates. Then,
again, it could not be the case surely, if the bailies were ‘wicked
against onybody that had melled wi’ the rebels,’ that the best way
to appease them would be to introduce into the _History of the
Rebellion_ apologies for the conduct of those whom they regarded
with such detestation. Dr. David Laing, writing, apparently, with
a personal acquaintance of the second edition, says:--‘The second
edition, 1752, bears, “Printed for and sold by Dougal Graham,
merchant in Glasgow.” In the third edition, 1774, the work was
entirely re-written, and not improved.... The first edition is so
extremely rare, that only one copy is known to be preserved, and,
as a literary curiosity, it might be worth reprinting; although it
demolishes the fine story of the author’s difficulty in obtaining
the bellman’s place from the Glasgow bailies, on account of his
being a Jacobite, and having joined the Pretender’s army.’[6] But
more than that, there are in the third edition itself some lines
which go against the notion of alterations in respect of the
colouring of the events recorded. In ‘The Author’s Address to all
in General’ there is this verse:--
‘Now, gentle readers, I have let ye ken,
My very thoughts, from heart and pen,
’Tis needless now for to conten’,
Or yet controule,
For there’s not a word o’t I can men’,
So ye must thole.’
He then proceeds to describe barbarities on both sides, of which
he had been witness. In the preface also he says:--‘I have no
dread of any Body’s finding Fault with me for telling the Truth,
because Charles has no Sway here; Duke William, once the Idol of
the loyal British, is gone to the House of Silence, and, I believe,
if I should take the Liberty to tell the Truth of him, no Body
could blame me.’ The contention here is not that Graham was not
sufficiently worldly to stoop to trimming, but rather that the
undoubted alterations made on the third edition were not of the
character many have imagined them to be. M‘Vean says that many
‘curious passages’ in the 1752 edition were suppressed in the
one of 1774, but he makes that statement with reference to the
toning down of the virulence against the rebels. Of course the
disappearance of the first and second editions precludes the final
and decided settlement of this not unimportant question, but the
arguments and citations now brought forward can only lead to the
impression that Graham made no alterations on the political tone
of the third edition of his history in order to win the Glasgow
bailies over to his cause. There were alterations and amendments,
but these, it may be surmised, would be more of a literary than
political character. The suggestion that they were of a different
nature appears to have arisen from a mistaken notion of M‘Vean’s
statement, which notion, by some means or other, became connected
with the difficulty Graham had in obtaining the office of bellman.
The two together make a most probable story, but it is a story
which seems to be founded upon insufficient premises. It is
curious that a somewhat similar misunderstanding arose with regard
to Chambers’s _History of the Rebellion of 1745-6_, and that in
order to put the public right, the author had to pen such words
as these, as a preface to his seventh edition:--‘It has been
customary to call it [this history] a Jacobite history. To this let
me demur. Of the whole attempt of 1745 I disapprove as most men
do.... But, on the other hand, those who followed Charles Edward
in his hazardous enterprise, acted according to their lights, with
heroic self-devotion.... Knowing how these men did all in honour,
I deem it but just that their adventures should be detailed with
impartiality, and their unavoidable misfortunes be spoken of with
humane feeling. There is no other Jacobitism in the book that I am
aware of.’
But leaving the region of debate, it will be refreshing to turn
to a humorous story on record, as to the competition Graham had
to face before he became bellman. There were many applicants for
the situation, and the magistrates decided that the merits of each
should be put to a practical test. Accordingly all the candidates
were instructed to be present on a certain day in the back-yard
of the old Town’s Hospital, then situated in what is now known as
Great Clyde Street. The magistrates were present as judges, and
there were with them, no doubt, many of the leading citizens to
witness the interesting spectacle. All the other competitors having
shown their skill with the bell, and demonstrated the quality of
their vocal powers, Dougal’s turn came. He entered into the spirit
of the contest, and his physical peculiarities would greatly assist
him. He rang the bell in a surprising manner, and called out in
stentorian tones--
‘Caller herring at the Broomielaw,
Three a penny, three a penny!’
adding, pawkily--
‘Indeed, my friends,
But it’s a’ a blewflum,
For the herring’s no catch’d,
And the boat’s no come.’
The victory was his, and the other competitors were out of
the reckoning. He had shown himself every way suited for the
office--to be endowed with that ready wit which has always been
a characteristic of the true Scottish bellman--and he was
accordingly invested with the official garments, and with the
magisterial authority to exercise his new calling. In the year
1774, probably two or three years after the events just related,
the third edition of Graham’s _History of the Rebellion_, with
amendments, was published. This edition, like its predecessors,
was successful, and it is understood to be the last edition issued
during the author’s lifetime. Dougal, as an official of the
Corporation of Glasgow, had now become a personage of no little
importance in the community. These were not the days of cheap
advertisements, reaching half-a-million readers in a few hours,
or of posters and handbills apprising the lieges of meetings and
sales, or of the lost, stolen, and strayed. All this Graham, with
the aid of his bell, had to intimate to the public. The ‘trial
scene’ affords a specimen of the kind of work he had to perform.
He had also, to a certain extent, to act as attendant on the
magistracy. The story goes that Dougal was on one occasion passing
along the Gallowgate, making some intimation or another. Several
officers of the 42nd Highlanders, then returned from the American
War of Independence, where their regiment had been severely
handled by the colonists, were dining in the Saracen’s Head Inn,
situated at the foot of the Dovehill. They knew Dougal of old,
and they thought to have a joke at his expense. One of them put
his head out of the window, and called to the bellman--‘What’s
that you’ve got on your back, Dougal?’ This was rather a personal
reference, for Dougal had the misfortune to be ‘humphie backit.’
But he was not put out by the question, for he at once silenced
his interrogator by answering--‘It’s Bunker’s Hill; do you choose
to mount?’ The good stories about Graham are said to have been
legion, but they have, unfortunately, been allowed to die out;
otherwise, a collection of his jokes and _bons mots_ might have
been a formidable rival to the now classical _Joe Miller_.
But death put an end to Dougal’s happy-go-lucky existence while he
was still in the prime of life. He died on the 20th of July, 1779,
at the age of fifty-five or fifty-six, in what circumstances, or of
what trouble, cannot now be discovered. These were not the days
of newspaper obituaries, or he would certainly have been awarded
a half-column notice. This, of itself, is unfortunate, for then
many biographical details could have been obtained, and subsequent
writers of Graham’s life would have been able to produce a record
of his career more satisfactory to themselves and their readers.
That Dougal did not die unregretted, is witnessed by an elegy of
twelve stanzas, written at the time of his death by some unknown
poetaster. This lament has, unfortunately, only come down to the
present generation in a fragmentary form, Dr. Strang[7] having
preserved seven of the verses:--
‘Ye mothers fond! O be not blate
To mourn poor Dougal’s hapless fate,
Ofttimes you know he did you get
Your wander’d weans;
To find them out, both soon and late,
He spared no pains.
‘Our footmen now sad tune may sing,
For none like him the streets made ring,
Nor quick intelligence could bring
Of caller fish,
Of salmon, herring, cod, or ling,
Just to their wish.
* * * * *
‘The Bull Inn and the Saracen,
Were both well served with him at e’en,
As ofttimes we have heard and seen
Him call retour,
For Edinburgh, Greenock, and Irvine,
At any hour.
‘The honest wives he pleased right well,
When he did cry braw new cheap meal,
Cheap butter, barley, cheese, and veal
Was selling fast.
They often call’d him “lucky chiel,”
As he went past.
* * * * *
‘Had any rambler in the night,
Broken a lamp and then ta’en flight,
Dougal would bring the same to light
’Gainst the next day,
Which made the drunk, mischievous wight
Right dearly pay.
‘It is well known unto his praise,
He well deserved the poet’s bays,
So sweet was his harmonious lays;
Loud-sounding fame
Alone can tell, how all his days
He bore that name.
‘Of witty jokes he had such store,
Johnson could not have pleased you more;
Or with loud laughter made you roar
As he could do:
He had still something ne’er before
Exposed to view.’
* * * * *
In concluding this biographical notice of Dougal Graham, it
will be appropriate to make one or two quotations which will
give a full and just idea of his personality. Our author seems
to have taken a portrait of himself--and through his modesty it
is not too flattering--when he thus delineates _John Cheap, the
Chapman_:--‘John Cheap the chapman, was a very comical short thick
fellow, with a broad face and a long nose; both lame and lazy, and
something leacherous among the lasses; he chused rather to sit
idle than work at any time, as he was a hater of hard labour. No
man needed to offer him cheese and bread after he cursed he would
not have it; for he would blush at bread and milk, when hungry,
as a beggar doth at a bawbee. He got the name of John Cheap the
chapman, by his selling twenty needles for a penny, and twa leather
laces for a farthing.’ Mr. Caldwell, of Paisley, told Motherwell
that ‘Dougald was an unco glib body at the pen, and could screed
aff a bit penny history in less than nae time. A’ his warks took
weel--they were level to the meanest capacity, and had plenty o’
coarse jokes to season them. I never kent a history of Dougald’s
that stack in the sale yet, and we were aye fain to get a haud
of some new piece frae him.’ Dr. Cleland, on the information of
Turner, an old Glasgow town-officer, was able to supply Motherwell
with this notice:--‘When Turner was a boy of about ten years of
age, Dougald was bellman, and being very poetical, he collected
a crowd of boys round him at every corner where he rang the
bell. Turner says that Dougald was “a bit wee gash bodie under
five feet.”’ ‘John Falkirk’ is believed to have been a nickname
assumed by, or applied to, Graham upon various occasions, and
this description of him is prefixed to one of the editions of
_John Falkirk’s Cariches_, published soon after his death:--‘John
Falkirk, commonly called the _Scots Piper_, was a curious little
witty fellow, with a round face and a broad nose. None of his
companions could answer the many witty questions he proposed
to them, therefore he became the wonder of the age in which he
lived.... In a word, he was
‘“The wittiest fellow in his time,
Either for Prose or making Rhyme.”’
M‘Vean says:--‘Dougal was lame of one leg, and had a large hunch
on his back, and another protuberance on his breast.’ Strang,
referring to the portrait prefixed to the third edition of the
_History of the Rebellion_, and reproduced in this volume, thus
pictures Graham: ‘Only fancy a little man scarcely five feet
in height, with a Punch-like nose, with a hump on his back, a
protuberance on his breast, and a halt in his gait, donned in
a long scarlet coat nearly reaching the ground, blue breeches,
white stockings, shoes with large buckles, and a cocked hat
perched on his head, and you have before you the comic author,
the witty bellman, the Rabelais of Scottish ploughmen, herds,
and handicraftsmen!’ But here is an even more graphic pen and
ink portrait, some of the details, no doubt, filled in from
imagination, but with the _tout ensemble_ admirably preserved, and
true to life:--‘It must have been a goodly sight to see Dougal in
his official robes, the cynosure of every eye in the busy Trongate,
or the life and soul of the company in Mrs. M‘Larty’s “wee bit
public,” where he and his cronies were wont to quench their native
thirst. He must, indeed, have been a grotesque figure. “A wee
bit gash body under five feet high;” with a round, broad, red
and much-seamed face; a prominent nose, truncated _à la Punch_;
an Æsopian hump on one shoulder, and a large protuberance on one
breast; legs of unequal length and peculiar shape; a long scarlet
coat hanging down from the shoulders to the ground; blue breeches
set off by white stockings, and large brilliantly buckled shoes:
with an imposing cocked hat perched fiercely on one side of the
massive head.’[8]
These word paintings, together with the two portraits given in
this work, will afford the reader a most vivid conception of the
appearance of the king of Scottish chapmen.
II.--THE WRITINGS OF DOUGAL GRAHAM.
It must be manifest, from all that has been stated in the preceding
pages, that anything like a complete bibliography of the works of
Dougal Graham is now impossible. This is the case for many reasons,
kindred in their nature to those that have rendered an absolutely
satisfactory biography unattainable; but more especially because,
with the exception of the _History of the Rebellion_, Graham
did not formally, on title-pages or elsewhere, acknowledge the
authorship of the ballads and prose chap-books attributed to him on
more or less trustworthy authority. Another important point is that
he did not seem to have interfered in any way with their re-issue
after their first publication, for there is evidence that in his
life-time editions were published in various places, other than
Glasgow and Paisley, to all appearance independent of the author.
Motherwell, in this as in other matters relating to Graham, acting
under the inspiration of information given him by Mr. George
Caldwell, the Paisley publisher, ascribes the following works to
Dougal, adding the dates of the earliest editions he had in his
possession when he wrote his article for the _Paisley Magazine_:--
The Whole Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy. In five parts.
Carefully corrected and revised by the Author. Glasgow: printed
for, and sold by, the Booksellers in Town and Country. 1783.
The Comical Sayings of Pady from Cork, with his Coat button’d
behind. In all its parts. Carefully corrected by the Author.
Glasgow: printed for George Caldwell, Bookseller in Paisley. 1784.
The History and Comical Transactions of Lothian Tom. In six
parts. Glasgow: printed by J. & M. Robertson. 1793.
The History of John Cheap the Chapman. In three parts. Glasgow:
printed and sold by J. & M. Robertson. 1786.
The Comical and Witty Jokes of John Falkirk the Merry Piper.
Glasgow: printed in the year 1779.
The Scots Piper’s Queries, or John Falkirk’s Cariches for the
trial of Dull Wits. (n.d.)
Janet Clinker’s Orations on the Virtues of Old Women and the
Pride of the Young. (n.d.)
Leper the Tailor. Two parts. Glasgow, 1779.
The Comical History of Simple John and his Twelve Misfortunes.
Motherwell adds that ‘John Falkirk’s Jokes and Cariches’ and ‘Janet
Clinker’s Orations’ were frequently found printed together, and
that the last named was sometimes issued as a separate publication,
with the title--‘Grannie M‘Nab’s Lecture in the Society of Clashing
Wives, Glasgow, on Witless Mithers and Dandy Daughters, who bring
them up to hoodwink the men, and deceive them with their braw
dresses, when they can neither wash a sark, mak’ parritch, or
gang to the well.’ In addition to the works already enumerated,
Motherwell mentions the following, regarding which he says that
though he had no authority for ascribing them to Graham he would
not be surprised to find that he was the author of them:--
Merry Exploits of George Buchanan.
The Creelman’s [Coalman’s] Courtship.
The History of Buckhaven.
This concludes Motherwell’s testimony; and here is that given by
Mr. M‘Vean, the antiquarian bookseller, whose authority can be
scarcely less valid than that of the Paisley Poet. Dr. Strang
says:--‘In a manuscript of the late Mr. M‘Vean, the antiquarian
bibliopole of the High Street, we find the following list of the
_Opera Dugaldi_, so far as he had met with them, keeping out of
view his lyrical productions, which were very numerous. Perhaps
no man ever devoted more time to ferret out bibliographical
curiosities connected with Scotland than Mr. M‘Vean....’:--
1. George Buchanan, six parts.
2. Paddy from Cork, three parts.
3. Leper the Tailor, two parts.
4. John Falkirk the Merry Piper.
5. Janet Clinker’s Oration on the Virtues of the Old, and the
Pride of Young, Women.
6. John Falkirk’s Curiosities [Cariches], five parts.
7. John Cheap the Chapman, three parts.
8. Lothian Tom, six parts.
9. The History of Buckhaven, with cuts.
10. Jocky and Maggy’s Courtship, five parts.
11. The Follower [Follies] of Witless Women; or, the History of
Haveral Wives.
12. The Young Creelman’s [Coalman’s] Courtship to a Creelwife’s
Daughter, two parts.
13. Simple John and his Twelve Misfortunes.
14. The Grand Solemnity of the Tailor’s Funeral, who lay nine
days in state on his own Shop-board; together with his last Will.
15. The Remarkable Life and Transactions of Alexander Hamwinkle,
Heckler, Dancing-master, and Ale-seller in Glasgow, now banished
for Coining.
16. The Dying Groans of Sir John Barleycorn, being his grievous
Complaint against the Brewers of bad Ale; to which is added,
Donald Drouth’s Reply, with a large Description of his Drunken
Wife.
17. A Warning to the Methodist Preachers.
18. A Second Warning to the Methodist Preachers.
Strang himself, who, in some respects, must be regarded as an
authority upon matters relating to Graham, does not condescend
upon bibliographical details; and the lists now given consequently
include the testimony of the only two writers whose opinions or
suggestions bear with anything like direct authority on the subject.
Two poems entitled _John Hielandman’s Remarks on Glasgow_ and
_Turnimspike_ have been unhesitatingly attributed to Graham by all
authorities; _Tugal M‘Tagger_, another metrical production, was
believed by M‘Vean to be his composition, though there has been
some subsequent questioning in the matter; while the following have
been claimed or suggested as his work by M‘Vean, in a note to his
edition of M‘Ure’s _History of Glasgow_:--Verses on the Pride of
Women, a poem on the Popular Superstitions of Scotland, a Dialogue
between the Pope and the Prince of Darkness, and an epitaph on the
Third Command. Professor Fraser, in his list, inserts _Proverbs on
the Pride of Women_, in addition to the verses on the same subject;
but he gives no authority for the addition.
Having thus traced the results of the labours of those who have
already written concerning Graham’s miscellaneous works, something
must now be said about his _History of the Rebellion_. The total
disappearance of the first and second editions of that curious
publication renders, as has already been hinted, any statements or
opinions regarding them of doubtful value, with the exception, of
course, of the date of their issue to the public. The advertisement
announcing the intended issue of the first edition in 1746, has
been quoted, and is undeniably authentic; but whether the work was
published immediately after, or some time later, is a moot point.
That it was published in that year is indicated by what follows,
which is believed to be the contents of the title-page of the
_editio princeps_:--
‘A full, particular, and true Account of the Rebellion, in the
years 1745-6.
Composed by the Poet D. Graham,
In Stirlingshire he lives at hame.
To the Tune of _The Gallant Grahams_. To which is added, Several
other Poems by the same Author. Glasgow, Printed and Sold by
James Duncan, &c., 1746. Price fourpence halfpenny.’
This edition was a duodecimo consisting of 84 pp. Probably the
matter it contained, assuming no alterations of this portion, would
end with the ninth chapter of later issues, the last lines of which
form an appropriate conclusion to the fatal adventure of Prince
Charles:--
‘This was a day of lamentation,
Made many brave men leave their nation.
Their eyes were open’d, all was vain,
Now grief and sorrow was their gain.’
It may be interesting to note that the published price of this
edition, was, if the title-page quoted is authentic, a halfpenny
more than that at which it was announced; but that is a trivial
affair compared with what is suggested by the words--‘To the Tune
of _The Gallant Grahams_.’ This may be taken as indicating that
the matter of the first edition was not altogether got up in the
purely historical method, but that it was to a certain extent what
might be called either an historic drama, or a dramatic history.
This idea may not be accurate, but the apparent impossibility
of referring to the first edition itself precludes any definite
knowledge on the subject. Fraser, speaking of the disappearance
of this edition, remarks:--‘Yet, at least a few copies of the
original history _must_ be hidden somewhere. So late as 1830,
the author of “Waverley” had one in his possession, a fac-simile
of which he intended to publish, with the view of presenting it
to the Maitland Club, but sickness intervened to derange his
plans, and two years later, death stepped in and snatched the pen
from the great magician.’[9] Again, Dr. David Laing says:--‘The
first edition is so extremely rare that only one copy is known
to be preserved, and, as a literary curiosity, it might be worth
reprinting.’[10] It is to be regretted that Dr. Laing’s statement
was not more explicit. As for the assumption made by Professor
Fraser, it is only natural to imagine that the whole edition cannot
have altogether disappeared, and that a copy or two should still
be in existence. But he takes for granted regarding Sir Walter
Scott’s intentions, and his preparedness to carry them into effect,
rather more than the words of Dr. Strang, on which he seems to have
founded, will legitimately bear. This is what Strang says:--‘So
late as the year 1830, Sir Walter Scott even “entertained the idea
of printing a correct copy of the original edition,” with the view
of presenting it to the Maitland Club as his contribution, stating,
as he did in a letter addressed to the writer, that he thought “it
really contained some traits and circumstances of manners worth
preserving.”’[11] Scott’s intention is here evident, but it in no
way bears that he was in possession of a first edition. In point
of fact, he had no copy of it at the time of his death, two years
after this letter was written, as a reference to the catalogue of
the Abbotsford Library will show. That catalogue contains this
reference to Graham’s History:--‘Graham’s (Dougal, Bellman of
Glasgow) Impartial History of the Rise, Progress, and Extinction
of the late Rebellion, &c. (in doggrel verse). 3rd edit. 18mo.
Glasgow: 1774.’ So far for the first edition.
As for the second edition of the _History of the Rebellion_,
published in 1752, it has also disappeared. There is no reason to
believe that, beyond a slight enlargement and some few alterations,
there was any material change in the work. Its tone is indicated
by the remark made by M‘Vean:--‘_The History of the Rebellion_,
published by Dougal in 1752, differs very much from the third
edition, published in 1774. This last appears to have been greatly
altered and enlarged, and many curious passages in the early
edition are suppressed in this. In 1752 Dougal talks of the rebels
with a great deal of virulence, in 1774 he softens his tone, and
occasionally introduces apologies for their conduct. In 1752 Dougal
styles himself “merchant in Glasgow;” a rhyming merchant could not
be expected to be rich, and he says--
“You Papists are a cursed race,”’ &c.
The lines, of which the one quoted is the first, have already
been given in the biography, and there is no need for their
repetition here. But it is worthy of note that M‘Vean states, to
a certain extent indirectly, that they formed part of the matter
in the second edition, and if that is the case they, it must be
admitted, fully confirm his statement as to that edition containing
passages in which Graham talked of the rebels with a great deal
of virulence; and, possibly, they may be taken as specimens of
many others of a like nature. Some writers have suggested that
Graham may have learned the printing trade while this edition was
passing through the press, and it has been suspected that he may
have had something to do with the printing of it himself. That is
not likely, or M‘Vean, who appears to have had a somewhat intimate
acquaintance with the work, would have mentioned it.
No such doubts, however, exist as to the third edition of the
_History of the Rebellion_, which, though rare, may be seen
occasionally. It was published in 1774, and bears on the title-page
this lengthy statement of its contents:--‘An Impartial History of
the Rise, Progress and Extinction of the late Rebellion in Britain,
in the years 1745 and 1746, giving an account of every Battle,
Skirmish, and Siege, from the time of the Pretender’s coming out
of France, until he landed in France again: with Plans of the
Battles of Prestonpans, Clifton, Falkirk, and Culloden, with a real
Description of his Dangers and Travels through the Highland Isles,
after the Break at Culloden. By D. Graham. The Third Edition, with
Amendments. Glasgow: Printed by John Robertson. MDCCLXXIV.’ The
narrative in this edition occupies 174 pp. It consists of fifteen
chapters, containing in all 5562 lines, and is preceded by a
preface of two pages, the title-page, and a full-page woodcut of
the author, bearing underneath it this couplet:--
‘From brain and pen, O virtue drope,
Vice fly as Charlie, and John Cope.’
At the conclusion of the narrative are--‘A Quaker’s Address to
Prince Charles, shewing what was the Cause and Ground of his
Misfortunes,’ of 146 lines; a copy of ‘The Rebels’ Orders before
the Battle of Culloden’; ‘Miss Flora’s Lament--A Song,’ of ten
four-line stanzas; ‘The Author’s Address to all in general,’ of
fourteen six-line stanzas; and two pages of contents--making a
total of 192 pages. The text of the third edition has been used in
the reprinting of the _History of the Rebellion_ for this volume.
The subsequent editions, so far as they have been discovered,
need only be mentioned. No trace has been found of the fourth
edition, though it must have been published soon after Graham’s
death. The fifth edition received this notice from a writer of
last century:--‘In 1787, “An impartial history of the rebellion
in Britain, in the years 1745 and 1746, by Douglas Graham” (the
fifth edition), was printed at Glasgow by J. & M. Robertson. This
history is in Hudibrastic metre. This is a sorry performance.’[12]
The seventh edition was published in Glasgow by J. & M. Robertson,
Saltmarket, in 1803; the eighth by the same firm in 1808; the ninth
in Falkirk, by T. Johnston, 1812; while the last, what its number
it would be difficult to say, was published in Aberdeen, in 1850,
conjointly by Alexander Watson and Alexander Murdoch. The Aberdeen
edition does not bear Graham’s name on the title-page, and instead
of the author’s preface, it contains a ‘Genealogical and Historical
Introduction,’ taken from the introduction to Chambers’s _History
of the Rebellion_. It is remarkable that the Advocates’ Library,
Edinburgh, should only possess an eighth edition.
Something must now be said about the miscellaneous poetical
works of Dougal Graham. The best known of these may be said to
be _John Hielandman’s Remarks on Glasgow_, a humorous sketch of
considerable power, valuable also, because of the information it
affords regarding the leading features of the City of St. Mungo in
the middle of last century. M‘Vean has put it on record that this
poem had long been popular, although it was not generally known
that it was by Graham that Glasgow had been ‘married to immortal
verse.’[13] The date of its first publication is unknown, but it
has been generally supposed to have been written in the decade
subsequent to Dougal’s settlement in Glasgow in 1746. The earliest
copy that has been seen by any writer was in one of the early penny
broadsides issued by J. & M. Robertson, of the Saltmarket, Glasgow,
who long occupied a prominent position as publishers of popular
literature. As a literary production _John Hielandman_ has not
attracted so much notice as might have been expected from writers
on Scottish literature, but even a casual glance will show that
it is a composition of great merit, abounding in graphic touches
and humorous situations. It must be admitted, however, that the
interest attaching to it has been almost entirely local, and to
that circumstance may be attributed the fact that its merits have
been frequently overlooked.
_Turnimspike_ has received more attention than any other of
Graham’s poems, with the exception, perhaps, of his _History of
the Rebellion_; and it has obtained the unqualified approval of
all the literary antiquaries who have had occasion to speak of it.
Sir Walter Scott said the _Turnimspike_ alone was sufficient to
entitle Graham to immortality.[14] Dr. Charles Mackay has taken
advantage of a note upon it, to tell a story which has considerable
bearing upon the state of feeling exhibited in the poem itself.
‘Turnimspike, or Turnpike,’ he says, ‘is ludicrously descriptive
of the agonies of a real Highlander at the introduction of toll
gates, and other paraphernalia of modern civilisation, into the
remote mountain fastnesses of his native land. Long after the
suppression of the Rebellion, great consternation was excited in
Ross-shire, by the fact that a sheriff’s officer had actually
served a writ in Tain. “Lord, preserve us!” said an Highlandman to
his neighbour, “What’ll come next? The law has reached Tain.”’[15]
Burns, in his _Strictures on Scottish Song_, expressed admiration
for _Turnimspike_, on account of its local humour, but he did not
seem to have known the author; though Motherwell, in his edition
of the works of the Ayrshire bard, supplies a few notes concerning
Graham, to whom he attributes the poem. Stenhouse, in his
illustrative notes to Johnson’s _Museum_, says--‘This truly comic
ballad, beginning _Hersell be Highland Shentleman_, by an anonymous
author, does not appear either in the Tea-Table Miscellany, or the
Orpheus Caledonius. It is preserved, however, in Herd’s Collection
of 1769.... From its excellent broad humour, and the ludicrous
specimen of a Highlander’s _broken_ English, it has long been a
popular favourite in the lower districts of Scotland. It is adapted
to the ancient air of “Clout the Caldron”.’ No writer has yet
ventured to fix the date of the publication of this poem. It may,
however, be pointed out that the first General Turnpike Act for
Scotland was 7 Geo. III., c. 42 (1766-7), and it is not improbable
the passing of this Act may have been the occasion of the verses
which, it has been seen, obtained a place in Herd’s Collection
in 1769. They were, in all likelihood, issued in broadside or
chap-book form previous to that date.
The two songs already discussed, are now without quibble regarded
as the work of Dougal Graham; but there are two others probably
from his pen, which bear the mark of his genius, were published in
his time, but which have not yet been generally regarded as his
by literary antiquaries. The first of these is _Tugal M‘Tagger_,
unhesitatingly ascribed to Dougal by the venerable M‘Vean.
It has been suggested that this work has traces of Alexander
Rodger, on the ground that the rhythm has a flow similar to that
characteristic of Rodger’s poems; but this reason of itself cannot
be taken as evidence in favour of the suggestion, in view of the
fact that Graham’s style was itself very uneven, and, probably
on account of carelessness, some of his pieces are as bad as
others are good. M‘Vean’s statement, also, must be allowed to go
a considerable length in a matter of this kind. The song is in
Dougal’s best vein, and may be regarded as a worthy counterpart to
_Turnimspike_. The following extract, by pointing to the occasion
and probable date of the composition, helps towards the conclusion
that it was the work of Graham:--‘The Court of Session, in 1754,
made an Act of Sederunt, establishing an equality of ranking among
all arrestors and poinders within a certain period of bankruptcy.
But this was a mere experiment; and upon the expiration of the
Act, which was in force for only four years, it was not renewed.
The law fell back into its old state of imperfection; priority
gave preference, and, on the slightest alarm, creditors poured in
with diligence against the unhappy debtor, and the most unjust
preferences took place among the creditors. In this position it
continued until 1772, when the first Sequestration Act, 12 Geo.
III., c. 72, was passed. It enacted that, on a debtor’s bankruptcy,
and upon a petition to the Court of Session by any creditor, a
sequestration of his personal estate should be awarded, which
should have the effect of equalising all arrestments and poindings
used within thirty days of the date of petition; that the estate
should be vested in a factor proposed by the creditors, and be
distributed by him according to the directions of Court; or, if it
should seem more eligible to the creditors, extrajudicially by a
trustee elected by them, as under a private trust deed. When, in
1783, this statute came to be renewed, _the alarm occasioned by the
novelty of the arrangements_ had given way to a conviction that
bankruptcies were much more beneficially administered under the new
system, imperfect as it was, than under the Common Law.’[16] Such
a radical alteration on the law would afford excellent opportunity
for a popular ballad, and as there is no good reason for doubting
M‘Vean’s statement that Graham was the author of _Tugal M‘Tagger_,
it must in the meantime be accepted as his production. The Act
being passed in 1772, the ballad would probably be published in
the same year. That it retained its popularity for a long time, is
attested by a note written upon it in 1869:--‘Tugal M‘Tagger was a
very popular song in Glasgow about forty years ago. It used to be
sung by Mr. Livingstone at the Theatre Royal there.’[17] Even yet,
it is not unknown to the people, and may be found in some penny
collections.
Another song, believed to be by Graham, but which has not yet met
with general approval, is an old version of _Had awa frae me,
Donald_. Stenhouse has indirectly suggested it as Dougal’s work,
by saying that it was probably by the same hand that produced
_Turnimspike_, and he mentions it as appearing in Herd’s Collection
in 1769. This song appears also in _The Blackbird_, a collection
of songs, ‘few of which,’ according to the title-page, ‘are to
be found in any collection,’ published in Edinburgh in 1764. The
likeness which struck Stenhouse must also force upon every reader
of the piece the same suspicion; and without being dogmatic upon
the point, the editor of these sheets sees no reason why the
version of _Had awa frae me, Donald_, given in this volume, should
not be admitted into the list of works ‘probably’ written by Graham.
This includes, so far as can be discovered, the metrical works,
still existing, which have been attributed to Graham. There are
others, M‘Vean mentions, but none of them appear to have been
seen since his time; and in the hope that they may be ultimately
discovered, their names, or, perhaps it may be more proper to say,
the subjects of which they treat, are here given:--Verses on the
Popular Superstitions of Scotland, Rhythmical Dialogue between the
Pope and the Prince of Darkness, An Epitaph on the Third Command,
and Verses on the Pride of Women. As for the second of these
pieces, it may be interesting to note that a twelve-page pamphlet
was issued in 1792, bearing a similar title--_Dialogue between the
Pope and Devil, on the present political state of Europe_. This,
however, refers to the events immediately preceding the French
Revolution, and cannot, therefore, be looked upon as the work of
Graham. A passing reference is made by the Devil to the beginnings
of the Reform movement in Glasgow, in these words:--
‘In Glasgow freedom sounds in every mouth;
And if I could but deign to tell the truth,
Not since the day I first saw Paradise,
Did earth maintain such a respectful race.’
But the works upon which the fame of Dougal Graham chiefly rests,
are his chap-books. On this matter Motherwell said that if Graham
had only written the _History of the Rebellion_, ‘we believe he
never would have occupied our thoughts for a moment; but as one
who subsequently contributed largely to the amusement of the lower
classes of his countrymen, we love to think of the facetious
bellman.’[18] It has already been stated that the period during
which the most of these chap-books were written and published,
was probably between 1752 and 1774, although the first editions
of several are known to have appeared subsequent to the latter
date. On a subject in which he took so much fruitful interest, no
apology is needed for again quoting Motherwell, who says:--‘Of some
of Graham’s penny histories we had a fair assortment at one time,
principally printed by J. & M. Robertson, Saltmarket, Glasgow,
which we believe might well be esteemed first editions, but some
unprincipled scoundrel has bereaved us of that treasure. There are
a number of infamous creatures, who acquire large libraries of
curious things, by borrowing books they never mean to return, and
some not unfrequently slide a volume into their pocket, at the very
moment you are fool enough to busy yourself in showing them some
nice typographic gem, or bibliographic rarity. These dishonest and
heartless villains, ought to be cut above the breath whenever they
cross the threshold. They deserve no more courtesy than was of old
vouchsafed to witches, under bond and indenture to the Devil.’[19]
Out of the ‘scanty wreck’ left him, Motherwell was able to furnish
the list given in a previous page.[20] This was probably the
nearest that any collector ever attained to having a collection
of first or very early editions of Graham’s chap-books; but even
in 1828 it was hardly possible to state when the first editions
were issued. It would be worse than useless to endeavour to trace
the chronological order of their publication, or to fix definitely
dates for one or all of them. The fact seems to be that the first
editions have either all disappeared, or else bear in their
title-page the vague, but not uncommon intimation--‘Printed in this
present year.’ The danger of attempting such an arrangement may
be best shown by a statement made by the late Sheriff Strathern,
a learned local antiquary, in a paper on ‘Chapman Literature,’
delivered before the Glasgow Archæological Society, on the 6th
April, 1863. Mr. Strathern, in the course of a somewhat exhaustive
sketch, says:--‘It is difficult to give them in the order of
publication; but I have, at some little trouble, collected a few of
the editions, and, as near as I can reach it, this is the order in
which the works appeared. His earliest was “The Whole Proceedings
of Jockey and Maggy,” in five parts. It was published in 1783....
“The Comical Sayings of Paddy from Cork” followed, and was printed
for George Caldwell, Paisley, in 1784,’ etc. Then follows a long
list of chaps by Graham, which, according to Sheriff Strathern,
were published subsequent to 1784. The learned Sheriff may possibly
have been correct in his surmise that the works he had enumerated
were published in the order he had given them, but surely not on
the understanding that Graham’s ‘earliest’ was issued in 1783? It
is not at all likely that Graham left his works for publication
after his death. Indeed, there is positive evidence that they
were in the market long before 1783, and any edition of that date
must be a reprint. This incident of itself shows the danger of
attempting to fix dates for Dougal’s ‘penny histories,’ or even the
order of their publication, without the absolute evidence of the
books themselves, if they bear any, or the testimony of any one
who, like Mr. Caldwell, actively took part in their issue to the
public. Even Caldwell offers no information on the matter. The only
statement in this direction, upon which any reliance can be placed,
is one by Motherwell, when he states that the _editio princeps_
of the second part of _Leper the Taylor_ was published in 1779.
Sheriff Strathern may have fallen into error by trusting the date,
1787, at which Motherwell fixed Graham’s death. That date, however,
was only a surmise; and the true date was supplied by Strang.
It is a matter of some interest to notice that while many of
Graham’s most popular chap-books have been issued to the public
subsequent to the period to which literature of this class is
assumed to belong, these modern editions, if they may be so
called, have for the most part been greatly mutilated. Nearly all
of them have been cut down, not apparently because of a desire to
keep out the indelicate allusions which most of them contain--for
comparatively few of these have been taken out--but on account of
the exigencies of printing. In some cases a chap-book, originally
of twenty-four or thirty-six closely printed pages, has been
compressed into twenty-five, sixteen, or even eight pages of much
larger print. The consequence is, that most of the modern editions
are utterly useless for all practical purposes, and, like most
other abridgments, the souls of their originals have been driven
from them. The truth of this remark will be indicated in the
following pages; but it will be borne out to its fullest extent by
a comparison between the early editions the editor has been able to
reprint in these volumes, and those now in circulation.
_The Whole Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy_, admitted by all
authorities to have been written by Graham, may be noticed first,
as being one of his ablest and most characteristic works. It
is written with great dramatic power, and affords many curious
insights into manners and customs about the middle of last century.
In respect of language, also, it possesses considerable value.
Professor Fraser suggests that the first edition was in all
likelihood published as early as 1755, but, as has already been
seen, it would be inadvisable to fix any date, in the absence of
either evidence or reasonable suspicion. In the work itself there
is nothing but what might have been written at any time during
the whole period of Dougal’s life. The edition, reprinted in this
collection, bears the imprint:--‘Glasgow: Printed and Sold by
J. & J. Robertson. MDCCLXXIX’--and is the earliest of which any
mention has yet been made. It was thus published in the year of
Graham’s death, and as the title-page states that it was ‘Carefully
Corrected and Revised by the Author,’ it was probably one of the
latest works upon which he was engaged. While most certainly not a
first edition, it has the advantage of being, to a certain extent,
fresh from the author, and on that account possesses a special
value and interest. Motherwell’s copy was dated 1783, and also
bore to have undergone the author’s revision. These editions both
occupy thirty-six pages, and are in five parts; but in 1793 an
edition, consisting only of three parts, was published. Since then,
the three-part edition has been the one most commonly issued to
the public, and it may still be found for sale. In 1823, however,
the complete edition was reprinted, and a few copies of it may be
seen occasionally. The abridgment, it must be noted, has seriously
marred Graham’s production. In it the first two parts are so far
almost literal transcripts of the earlier editions, but parts
three, four, and five, are omitted, a short and very imperfect
summary of part five being inserted for part three. In addition, an
epitaph and elegy on Jockey’s mother, whose death and burial are
graphically described in the last part, are consistently left out.
Of a somewhat similar character to the chap-book just noticed is
_The Coalman’s Courtship of the Creelwife’s Daughter_, though
it is by no means so valuable as an exhibition of manners and
superstitions. It contains, nevertheless, many interesting
references, and it gives a vigorous description of real life among
the lower classes in and around Edinburgh. Motherwell, it has been
seen, only hesitatingly ascribed this work to Graham; but M‘Vean
inserts it in his bibliography without any reservation, though it
is curious that both these writers should make a mistake in naming
it _The Creelman’s Courtship_. There is no good reason to doubt
that Graham was the author of it, for the broad treatment of the
subject, the animated dialogue, and the graphic descriptions, are
all in Dougal’s best style. The edition reproduced in these volumes
is the earliest to which any reference has yet been made, having
been issued by Messrs. J. & J. Robertson, from their Saltmarket
press, in 1782, though it bears on the title-page to be the tenth
edition of the work. M‘Vean stated that the chap contained only two
parts, but he had fallen into a mistake, for it really consists
of three parts. The modern editions, with the exception of a few
typographical alterations, are exact reprints of the one of 1782.
Among those we have seen are two undated editions, bearing the
following imprints--‘Glasgow: Printed for M‘Kenzie & Hutchison,
Booksellers, 16, Saltmarket’; ‘Edinburgh: Printed by J. Morren,
Cowgate.’
Very different in its design from the two works already mentioned
is _Lothian Tom_, a narrative of the ‘comical transactions’ of a
roguish fellow while sowing his wild oats. Many of the stories
told of the hero of the work are far from being new, but they
have been given a local colouring which imparts an appearance of
consistency to the book; and, incidentally, little circumstances
of life and character are brought in, giving additional value to
it as illustrating the home life of the Scottish peasantry of last
century. In the chap-literature of England and Scotland, there
are many other productions of a similar kind, in which the heroes
rejoice in the name of Tom; a circumstance that has given point
to a suggestion that the word ‘tomfoolery’ may owe its origin to
the mad pranks of the Toms of popular story. South of the Tweed
the great favourites were--_Wanton Tom, or the Merry History
of Tom Stitch the Taylor_; _The Merry Conceits of Long Tom the
Carrier_; _The Mad Pranks of Tom Tram_; and another one with the
euphonious title of _Swalpo_. All these, like _Lothian Tom_, are
but collections of jokes of which their respective Toms are made
the central figures. There is no reason to believe that any of
them were in the slightest degree really biographical. The modern
reprints of _Lothian Tom_ consist only of five parts, and in this
and several minor details they differ from the earlier editions,
in which there are six parts. Messrs. J. & M. Robertson, of the
Saltmarket, Glasgow, in 1793 and 1807, published editions of the
work; and in 1816 another was issued in Edinburgh, while there are
several editions still to be found without any date. A six-part
edition, without the song to be referred to further on, was issued
by C. Randall, Stirling, in 1801. The edition which has been used
by the editor of these volumes, was published in Edinburgh, in
three numbers--including all the six parts--the title-page of each
being embellished with a rough woodcut of a chapman full stride on
the road-way. The first number bears the imprint--‘Printed and Sold
in Niddery’s Wynd, 1775’; the second is dated 1777; while the third
has no date, though it appears to be quite as old as the others.
This, the earliest edition of which mention has yet been made, is
a most unique copy. Each number occupies eight pages. No attention
is paid to the breaking off in the middle of a part, or even of
a sentence, and the folios run right through. A large portion of
the third number is taken up by ‘Pady’s New Catechism,’ properly
belonging to another of Graham’s chap-books, entitled, _Pady from
Cork_, and on that account it has been left out here.
At the close of the third number of this edition of _Lothian Tom_,
and reproduced in the second volume, is ‘The Plowman’s Glory; or,
Tom’s Song,’ a doggrel description of the pleasures of country
life; but it is a piece which requires more than passing reference.
The first eight lines are as follow:--
‘As I was a walking one morning in the spring,
I heard a young plowman so sweetly to sing,
And as he was singing, these words he did say,
No life is like the plowman’s in the month of May.
The lark in the morning rises from her nest,
And mounts in the air with the dew on her breast,
And with the jolly plowman she’ll whistle and she’ll sing,
And at night she’ll return to her nest back again.’
It is interesting to notice that Cromek has attributed lines almost
identical with these to Robert Burns,[21] and the most eminent
editors of the works of the Ayrshire Bard have followed him. The
lines as given by Cromek read thus:--
‘As I was a wand’ring ae morning in spring,
I heard a young ploughman sae sweetly to sing,
And as he was singin’ thir words he did say,
There’s nae life like the Ploughman in the month o’ sweet May--
The lav’rock in the morning she’ll rise frae her nest,
And mount to the air wi’ the dew on her breast,
And wi’ the merry Ploughman she’ll whistle and sing,
And at night she’ll return to her nest back again.’
In a foot-note Cromek remarks--‘It is pleasing to mark those
touches of sympathy which shew the sons of genius to be of one
kindred.--In the following passage from the poem of his countryman,
the same figure is illustrated with characteristic simplicity;
and never were the tender and the sublime in poetry more happily
united, nor a more affectionate tribute paid to the memory of Burns.
---- “Thou simple bird,
Of all the vocal quire, dwell’st in a home
The humblest; yet thy morning song ascends
Nearest to Heaven;--sweet emblem of his[22] song,
Who sung thee wakening by the daisy’s side!”’
It can only be inferred from the nature of this foot-note that
Cromek believed the verses to have been written by Burns,
notwithstanding the fact that he had Gilbert Burns’s statement that
his brother was not their author. The subsequent editorial history
of the lines is still more interesting. In the Kilmarnock edition
of the poet’s works, they are given with this note:--‘Although
this double stanza exists in Burns’s own writing, his brother,
Gilbert, assured Cromek that the little song was sung by every
ploughman and ploughman’s mistress in Ayrshire, before the poet
was born.’[23] The Rev. Dr. P. Hately Waddel, and the Rev. George
Gilfillan, in their editions of the works of Burns, both insert
the verses without any comment. Mr. William Scott Douglas, one
of the latest and most competent editors of Burns, has this note
upon the ‘Ploughman’s Song’:--‘Gilbert Burns expressed to Cromek a
strong doubt regarding his brother’s authorship of these lines, as
also of some other pieces found in his handwriting, and included
in the _Reliques_ of the poet; but as the authorship of the “Bonie
Muirhen”--one of the pieces referred to--has been clearly traced
to Burns, we do not feel at liberty to reject the lines in the
text.’[24] Mr. Douglas inserts the verses under the date 1780,
when Burns was twenty-two years of age; and in this connection it
is worthy of notice that another editor has put it under the year
1794, when the poet was thirty-six years of age.
The obvious suggestion from what has been said is, that Burns was
not the author of the ‘Lines on a Merry Ploughman,’ which his
editors, after the dogmatic statement of Gilbert Burns, have more
or less insisted upon attributing to him; and, as a corollary, that
the verses having been found among others at the end of one of
Dougal Graham’s chap-books, as a consistent finish to the exploits
of his hero, Lothian Tom, in an edition published when Burns was a
youth, their authorship may be more clearly traced to Graham. With
a due admiration for the talents of Graham, we must submit that
the character of the verse, even as given in a slightly polished
state by Cromek, was not worthy of Burns, who said himself that
his work was all the result of careful revisal. Graham’s verses
often display false quantity; his rhyme is often far from true;
and his grammar is frequently lame: but these are faults which the
greatest detractor of the genius of Robert Burns would find it
difficult to lay to his charge. It might be urged, of course, that
this may have been a youthful production of Burns’s pen; but it is
more probable, from his known habit of noting down any remnant of
song he found among the people, that he wrote out what he had heard
sung from his infancy. In support of this idea, there is Gilbert
Burns’s assurance ‘that the little song was sung by every ploughman
and ploughman’s mistress in Ayrshire before the poet was born.’ To
us it seems conclusive that Burns was not its author, and that,
from its position in an early--not by any means the first--edition
of one of Graham’s most popular chap-books, to Graham must be
attributed its composition, with all the praise or blame that may
attach to it.
_The History of John Cheap the Chapman_ belongs to the same
class of chap-books as _Lothian Tom_, though it has been usual
to believe that, unlike the latter, it was to a certain extent
autobiographical, and that in it Graham related some of his own
experiences. It has been already seen that its value in this
respect, if it has any, cannot be estimated on account of the
doubt as to whether it is autobiography or fiction. There can be
no question, however, that it contains a most valuable account of
the real life of the Scottish Chapman, with many vivid glimpses
of home life in Scotland in the middle of last century. Like all
the others, its indelicacy is sometimes notorious, but like them
its truthfulness must be its apology. The earliest dated edition
we have seen is one published in 1798 by Johnston of Falkirk; but
another, in some slight details more complete, was issued by J.
Morren, of the Cowgate, Edinburgh, about the beginning of this, or
the closing year of the eighteenth, century. The modern editions
are almost identical with the ones mentioned.
The plan of another of Graham’s chap-books, _Fun upon Fun, or
the Comical Tricks of Leper the Taylor_, is very similar to that
which has been pointed out as characteristic of _Lothian Tom_
and _John Cheap_. Leper is a madcap whose impudent doings bear a
strong resemblance to stories told of similar beings in this and
other countries; and the design of the author seems to have been
to lay before his readers a collection of tales grouped round one
central figure, rather than to give a record of the life of any
real person. This, however, has been done so skilfully--by local
colouring, and the introduction of little incidents which must have
had their counterparts in the every-day life of the people--that
the work has always been most deservedly popular. In point of time,
this seems to have been one of the latest, if not the latest, of
Graham’s publications, for Motherwell was able to give the title
and date of what he believed to be the first edition of the second
part as follows:--‘Fun upon Fun; or the Comical Tricks of Leper
the Taylor. Part II. Glasgow: Printed for the Company of Flying
Stationers in Town and Country. 1779.’ As the work is in two parts,
it is probable that the first would be published a short time
before the date mentioned. Motherwell also records that there was
this _nota bene_ to the second part--‘The Third Part will contain
a variety of his Witty Tricks in the different periods of his
Life.’ It is a question whether Graham was ever able to fulfil his
promise; for his death occurred, as has been seen, in the July of
the year in which the second part was issued. The fact that, in
later editions of _Leper the Taylor_, there is added to the two
original parts one giving an account of _The Grand Solemnity of
the Taylor’s Funeral_, quite in the same style, and a consistent
conclusion to the life of the Sartorian worthy, affords reasonable
presumption that he did so, and without any hesitation the third
part has, like the others, been accepted as the work of Graham.
This chap-book is in many respects akin to several booklets which
found a place in the popular literature of England; but possibly
its counterpart may be found in _Joaks upon Joaks, or No Joak like
a True Joak, being the Diverting Humours of Mr. John Ogle, a
Life Guard Man_. As for the modern editions, they differ in many
respects from the early ones, though not materially, except that
they leave out the third part. The earliest dated edition that
we have seen was printed by C. Randall, Stirling, in 1799. It is
without the third part, and is of sixteen pages. The next was
‘Printed in the year 1816’; but the title-page does not state the
town of publication. It contains all the three parts, and occupies
twenty-four pages duodecimo. Another edition, almost identical
with the one mentioned, was ‘Printed in the year 1820,’ and in
this case also the town of issue is not stated. In what appears to
be a chap-book of English manufacture, without date or place of
publication, there is appended the _Grand Solemnity of the Taylor’s
Funeral_, on which some slight alterations have been made, notably
in the way of Anglicising the names of the characters. On the
title-page of the work mentioned is a rough woodcut, representing
the lowering of a body into the grave, while in the back-ground
stands a primitive-looking hearse, drawn by two horses.
The two chap-books that now fall to be spoken of are very different
in their nature from any to which reference has yet been made,
and, indeed, they may be said to form a class by themselves, for
they are unique in the popular literature of either Scotland
or England. _The History of Haverel Wives_, ‘written,’ as the
title-page states, ‘by Humphrey Clinker, the Clashing Wives’
Clerk,’ one of the many cognomens adopted by Graham, is a ‘comical’
and exceedingly interesting conference between two old women, on
their experiences of the past. The object of the author seems to
have been to bring together in small compass as much folk-lore
as possible, and this he prefaces by the remark, that he had
‘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.’ The
intention is thus shown to have been to hold the old wives up to
a little gentle satire, though this generation must regard the
result as being a most valuable contribution to the antiquities of
Scotland. The language used is frequently very old, and ancient
superstitions and beliefs are given expression to in the words of
those who more or less put faith in them. This chap-book, also,
must be esteemed because of the descriptions given in it of the
doings of an age long before the period usually dealt with by works
of a similar nature--an age, the great events of which have been
duly recorded by historians who have paid but little attention to
the lives of the peasantry, or to the motives of their actions. It
would not be too much to say that not within the whole range of
Scottish literature could a more graphic account be obtained of
the manner of observing the first day of the week in Scotland in
pre-reformation and prelatic times, than is to be found in this
unconsidered booklet The second chap-book of this class is _Janet
Clinker’s Oration on the Virtues of the Old Women, and the Pride
of the Young_. It is put forward as having been dictated by Janet
Clinker, one of the _Haverel Wives_, to ‘Humphrey Clinker,’ and it
consists of a comparison between the women of her young days and
those of the days in which she then lived. The whole tone of the
work is satirical, and the young women are made to undergo a severe
reprimand for their proud and upsetting behaviour. These chap-books
were frequently printed together, though a 1781 edition of the
_Haverel Wives_ concludes with the simple intimation--‘Humphrey’s
Aunt Janet is yet alive, and has made an oration in praise of
the old women, and on the pride of the young.’ Another edition,
undated, published by Morren of Edinburgh, is also without Janet’s
_Oration_, but it concludes by stating that the two old women went
and ‘birl’d their bawbees,’ and made an agreement
‘Never to drink ae drop of tea,
But stout brown ale and whisky bare’--
a conclusion quite different from what is given in the edition of
1781, for in it Maggy, Janet’s gossip, dies ‘keeping her purse in
her hand.’ An edition was published in Glasgow, in 1807, by J.
& J. Robertson. This is the first in which we have seen the two
chap-books printed together, and it is also the earliest copy of
_Janet Clinker’s Oration_ that has come under our notice. The
_Haverel Wives_, in this case, is reprinted from the 1781 edition,
and only in one or two slight matters, apparently typographical,
differs from it. The _Oration_ was printed alone in 1824, with the
title--‘Grannie M‘Nab’s Lecture in the Society of Clashing Wives,
Glasgow, on Witless Mothers and their Dandy Daughters, who bring
them up to hood-wink the men, and deceive them with their braw
dresses, when they can neither wash a sark, mak’ parritch, or gang
to the well. Printed for the Booksellers.’ A chap-book bearing the
title of _The Art of Courtship_,[25] an Undated edition of which
was published by M. Randall, of Stirling, contains matter somewhat
similar to much that is contained in _Janet Clinker’s Oration_, and
the part that relates to the choosing of a wife is quoted almost
_verbatim et literatim_. It is somewhat remarkable that no editions
of these works were, so far as we have been able to discover,
issued subsequent to 1824.
_The Comical and Witty Jokes of John Falkirk, the Merry Piper_,
one of the least known of Graham’s chap-books, is, as its name
indicates, merely a collection of _facetiæ_. Many of the tales
in it are cleverly told, while a few have nothing to recommend
them to the reader. Motherwell, on the authority of Caldwell,
attributes the work to Graham, and all other writers on the subject
have concurred with him. We have only seen one edition of _John
Falkirk_, and it was published in Edinburgh in 1777; but Motherwell
notes one issued in Glasgow two years later. No modern edition
of it has been published. The _Scots Piper’s Queries, or John
Falkirk’s Cariches_, is regarded as a sequel to the _Jokes_ of the
same worthy. The _Cariches_ are well known, and have long been
popular, though it cannot be said there is anything particularly
original about them. Many of the jokes in them were venerable in
Graham’s time, but he has touched them up to suit the tastes of
the age in which he wrote. Not a few of the questions and answers
have a distinct flavour of the proverbs of Solomon; and while the
expressions used are sometimes far from delicate, a good deal of
worldly wisdom is to be found in them. The intention of the author,
however, seems to have been amusement purely and simply, for in
the title-page of an undated edition, published by C. Randall, of
Stirling, there are these lines, which, it may be assumed belong to
the original work:--
‘’Twill please the bairns and keep them laughing,
And mind the goodwife o’ her daffing.’
‘John Falkirk,’ it has already been mentioned, was a cognomen
used by Graham; and Motherwell has noted that, in an edition of
the _Cariches_ published after Graham’s death, there was prefixed
an ‘Account of John Falkirk, the Scots Piper.’ The only early
edition we have seen is one printed by C. Randall, Stirling. It
is undated, but was probably printed about 1807, and consists of
eight pages. So far as it goes it does not materially differ from
the modern editions, but it is without forty questions and answers
which appear in them. It is probable that, out of the general rule,
the modern editions are more complete than the one published by
Randall. On the title-page of the Stirling chap-book is a rough
wood-cut of a blind beggar led by a dog, presumably designed as a
frontispiece for an English chap, entitled, ‘The Blind Beggar of
Bethnal Green,’ very popular south of the Tweed, and occasionally
printed in Scotland. Motherwell’s edition of _John Falkirk_ was
published in Glasgow in 1779, but his copy of the _Cariches_ was
undated.
The _Comical Sayings of Pady from Cork_ is the title of a chap-book
attributed to Graham by Motherwell and all his successors. Unlike
the bellman’s other works it does not deal with any phase of
Scottish life, but rather with the vagaries popularly believed for
many generations to be characteristic of the Irish mind. It is, in
fact, a collection of the proverbial Irish ‘bulls,’ some of them
‘comical’ and spontaneous, but others studied and consequently
stupid. In many respects the dialogue between Pady and his English
interlocutor, Tom, is clever, but frequently it is evident that the
author was out of his element. It must be confessed that there is a
good deal of force in Professor Fraser’s argument, so far as _Pady
from Cork_ is concerned, that there was not a single sentence in
it which might not have been written by any one other than Graham,
and that most of the incidents narrated in it were to be found in
the _facetiæ_ of almost every country in Europe long before Graham
carried a pack or rang the skellat bell of Glasgow.[26] Mr. Fraser
refers in these remarks in the first instance to _George Buchanan_
and _The History of Buckhaven_, but he applies them to _Pady from
Cork_, with the modification that it was less of a compilation
and had more local colouring than the chap-books he had been
discussing. But while all that may be true enough, Motherwell’s
authority in attributing the authorship of _Pady from Cork_ to
Dougal Graham cannot well be impugned, for on this point he
apparently writes under the inspiration of his friend Mr. Caldwell;
and it is notable that the copy in the possession of Motherwell
was published by Caldwell in 1784. The edition reprinted from in
this collection was published in Glasgow by J. & M. Robertson in
1807, and on the title-page there is a wood-cut showing a military
looking gentleman standing beside a small cannon. The modern
editions are considerably mutilated, and, among other things, want
the ‘Creed for Romish Believers,’ to be found in earlier copies.
‘Pady’s New Catechism’ and his ‘Creed’ have been mentioned in a
preceding page as being in the third number of a very rare edition
of _Lothian Tom_, to all appearance only as padding.
Motherwell and M‘Vean both attributed the authorship of _Simple
John and his Twelve Misfortunes_ to Dougal Graham; but Professor
Fraser, on the other hand, has brought a distinct charge of
plagiarism against the poetical bellman. ‘The original hero of the
“Misfortunes,”’ he says, ‘is _Simple Simon_; a history of whose
life and misadventures was common in England in the seventeenth
century. This, or a similar version--most likely one of the many
editions issued from Newcastle--Graham most certainly stole, and,
having changed the hero’s name to _John_, and written a racy
introduction to the work in broad Scotch, gave it to the world as
an original production. The prefatory matter is quite in Graham’s
style, and could not have been written by an Englishman. It is
frequently to be found published separately under the title of
_Silly Tam_.’[27] But before going into the question here raised,
it may be as well to state that the edition from which _Simple
John_ has been reprinted in this collection, is one published in
Glasgow in 1780, and ‘Printed for the Company of Flying Stationers
in Town and Country.’ The original is a duodecimo, and consists of
eight closely printed pages, with a wood-cut on the title-page,
representing the unfortunate husband running from his wife, who
pursues him with outstretched arms, while his haste is emphasised
by his hat and wig being shown as falling from his head to the
ground. The other editions now lying before the editor are--1st,
one printed in Edinburgh, in 1821, ‘for the booksellers,’ of
twenty-four pages duodecimo; and another almost identical in every
way, the print being nearly line for line the same, bearing the
imprint--‘Edinburgh: Printed for the Booksellers, 1823.’ Both these
editions have, as a frontispiece, the picture of a hook-nosed
termagant, giving a simple looking fellow, with a beer-mug in his
hand, a severe shaking. The matter in the modern undated edition,
‘printed for the booksellers’ in Glasgow, is the same, with one or
two slight differences, as what is to be found in the older ones
already enumerated. But, in addition to these, there also lies
before us a copy of _The Miseries of Poor Simple Innocent Tam_,
which, like one mentioned by Professor Fraser, is of eight pages
duodecimo, without covers, and gives no indication of date or
place of issue. With the exception of the alteration of the name
of the hero from ‘John’ to ‘Tam,’ the text is exactly the same as
that contained in the introduction to _Simple John_. An undated
edition, of eight pages, of _Simple John_ was printed by William
Cameron, in Edinburgh. It only contains the introductory matter,
and concludes with the addition of John’s lament on the death of
his mother, without making further reference to his misfortunes.
Having thus detailed the several editions of what has generally
been regarded as Graham’s chap-book, in its two-fold form of
_Simple John_ and _Simple Tam_, some attention may now be paid
to Professor Fraser’s allegations against the literary morality
of the reputed author. After a careful comparison of the English
chap-book, _Simple Simon_, with _Simple John_, we cannot but admit
the statement that ‘the prefatory matter is quite in Graham’s
style, and could not have been written by an Englishman;’ but we
are not prepared to admit that Graham ‘most certainly stole’ the
main body of the work. What Professor Fraser assumes to have been
stolen must have been, though he does not explicitly say so, the
‘Twelve Misfortunes,’ for he admits that the preface is original
and Scotch. This conclusion seems to have been come to without
careful collation. Any one who has the opportunity, and will
take the trouble to collate the two works, will find that only
in two instances do the misfortunes in the Scotch chap-book bear
any resemblance to those described in its English counterpart.
These two instances are the fourth and seventh misfortunes in
_Simple John_; but though the general features are the same,
there is a great difference in the mode of treatment. As for the
other misfortunes that befell _Simple John_, they have not even
counterparts in _Simple Simon_, and, indeed, they could not well
have, for they are almost entirely Scotch in their nature. Again,
the conclusions arrived at in the two books are different. _Simple
Simon_ endeavours to poison himself, but by mistake he takes a
draught from his wife’s bottle of sack, becomes drunk, and is
cudgelled in consequence, but he and his wife afterwards lead a
happy life. No such good fortune attends _Simple John_, for he
laments his unhappy fate, and ‘appeals to a Jedburgh jury, if it
be not easier to deal wi’ fools than headstrong, fashious fouks;
owns he has but an empty scull, but his wicked wife wants wit to
pour judgment into it, never tells him o’ danger till it comes
upon him, for his mither said he was a bidable bairn, if onybody
had been to learn him wit.’ We cannot, therefore, concur in Mr.
Fraser’s statement that Graham ‘stole’ this chap-book, ‘and gave it
to the world as an original production.’ For the reasons shown, we
believe Graham only took the idea--and it may be gravely questioned
if he did so much, for it has yet to be proved that _Simple Simon_
was ‘common in England in the seventeenth century,’[28]--from the
English chap-book, and worked it out in a manner peculiarly his
own, and, it must also be added, distinctively Scotch.
In the case of another chap-book usually believed to owe its
existence to Dougal Graham, Professor Fraser has seen fit to go
against the general verdict, without, as it seems to us, giving a
sufficient reason for the position he has taken up. He considers
it extremely improbable, judging from internal evidence, that
Graham ever composed the _History of Buckhaven_; and, further
on, referring to it and _The Witty Exploits of George Buchanan_,
he says, ‘There is not a single sentence in either of them that
might not have been written by any one else.’ The latter remark
may be all very true, but the former one must involve a serious
difference of opinion. It would indeed be difficult to say what
internal evidence is to be found in the _History of Buckhaven_
that gave good reason for the assumption that Graham was not its
author. Motherwell, judging apparently on this ‘internal evidence,’
says that, although he had not authority for ascribing any popular
chap-books to Graham other than those he had mentioned, he would
not be surprised to find that Graham was also the author of this
history. M‘Vean, without comment, gives the work a place in his
bibliography of Graham’s works, and it is to be presumed that a
man of his undoubted attainments as a literary antiquary would
not have done so without some reason satisfactory at least to
himself. For our own part, we see nothing in the work itself at
all inconsistent with the idea that Graham may have been the
author of it. On the contrary, there seem to be some points in
the course of the narrative which strongly support the commonly
accepted tradition. That Graham possessed an undoubted acquaintance
with the western district of Fifeshire, in which the respectable
town of Buckhaven is situated, is evident from _Jockey and
Maggy’s Courtship_, the scene of which is laid in the vicinity
of Torryburn; and his intimate knowledge of Fifeshire modes of
speech is further shown by an amusing character he introduced into
_The Coalman’s Courtship_--‘auld Mattie, the Fife wife ... the
wife it says, _Be-go laddie_.’ The language used in the _History
of Buckhaven_, the style of treatment, and the burlesque humour,
all bespeak Dougal as its author, for they are similar in all
important points to what are to be found in works which even Mr.
Fraser has without hesitation assented to being ascribed to Graham.
The history, of course, is a burlesque, after the style of a
well-known English chap-book, _The Wise Men of Gotham_, which it
far outstrips for cleverness and racy humour. It has, however, the
taint common to so many of Dougal’s works. The whole motive may be
summed up in a short quotation from one of the many defunct Glasgow
magazines:--‘The Buckhaven people, originally foreign colonists,
were a people on the Fife side of the Forth, who lived much by
themselves, had singular manners, and were of uncouth speech. All
kinds of absurdities could thus be safely palmed upon them.’[29]
Messrs. J. & M. Robertson, Saltmarket, issued a 24 pp. edition of
the _History of Buckhaven_ in 1806, illustrated by some very rude
woodcuts, most of them having done duty in other chap-books. This
edition is in three parts; and the title-page bears that the work
was written by ‘Merry Andrew at Tamtallon.’ The more modern issues
only contain the first two parts, and even these are considerably
abridged.
The last work attributed to Dougal Graham, and calling for any
detailed notice in this place, is the one entitled _The History and
Entertaining Exploits of George Buchanan, who was commonly called
the King’s Fool_. It is a chap-book which has been long popular,
and one which has given rise to a variety of speculations, not
only as to its authorship but also as to who was really the person
whose ‘exploits’ are professedly recorded in its pages. As to the
first of these points, Motherwell said he would not be surprised
if Graham were its author; and M‘Vean heads his list of Dougal’s
works with it. Fraser, on the other hand, argues against it being
the composition of Graham, the ground he takes up being the same
as that already quoted in relation to _The History of Buckhaven_
and _Simple John_. In this instance, however, we think he has a
stronger case than he had against Graham’s authorship of the two
other publications. The internal evidence of the work itself--the
time at which George Buchanan is shown to have lived--is sufficient
proof that in it Graham could not in any sense lay claim to
originality. But at the same time it is more than probable that
he brought together the stories told about the country regarding
his hero, and for the first time gave them forth to the world in
a collected form. Until some additional light can be shed upon
this matter, dogmatism either on the one side or the other would
be imprudent; but, while sympathising to some extent with the
position taken up by Professor Fraser, we do not see our way clear
to dissent from the tradition of Graham’s connection with the
chap-book. The idea that he may have been its editor, or compiler,
appears to be quite reasonable.
The next question, as to the identity of the hero of _The Merry
Exploits of George Buchanan_, is one upon which a more definite
opinion can be expressed, though it has given rise to several
curious notions. The idea most common at the present day among
the mass of the Scottish people is that there were two Scotsmen
who bore the name of George Buchanan, one of them being the King’s
fool, and the other the eminent Latinist, historian, and poet.
This theory, it must be confessed, is the one which does the most
credit to the scholar, but we are afraid it does not do justice to
the fact. There can be no doubt, from many of the stories given in
the chap-book, that George Buchanan, the scholar, is the person
pointed at; and a careful consideration of his life and opinions,
viewed in the light in which these were regarded by many of his
contemporaries and immediate successors, will readily furnish the
origin of the extraordinary actions attributed to him. We must not,
however, be understood to give countenance to another impression,
by no means uncommon among a certain class, that George Buchanan
acted as the King’s buffoon or fool. The life of the historian of
Scotland was cast in a troublous age. Born in the year 1506, he was
an active participant in the turmoil of the Reformation period,
and had a large share in the proceedings against the unfortunate
Queen Mary. Like most of the reformers his nature was stiff and
unbending, but he possessed a dry and caustic wit which made him
valuable to his friends and more and more hated by his enemies.
His opponents took every opportunity to vilify his character,
and spread abroad by means of books and conversations, after his
death, even by Acts of the Scottish Estates, aspersions on his
life and opinions. To show how this was done, one or two instances
may be given. A French priest named Garasse, in a work entitled
_Doctrine Curieuse_,--an edition of which was published in 1590,
a few years after Buchanan’s death--speaks of that illustrious
man as a ‘hard drinker.’ After endeavouring to show how his whole
life had been one of continual debauchery, Garasse proceeds with
his shameless libel, and makes Buchanan say on his death-bed, in
answer to the remonstrances of his doctors:--‘“Go along with you,
you and your prescriptions and dietaries! I would far rather live
only three jolly weeks, getting comfortably drunk every day, than
live six dreary _wineless_ years.” ... He died in brief space,
however; his chamber being then rarely littered with glasses and
wine-measures.’ In his native country, also, his memory was abused.
His death in 1582 was little noticed, but it was soon followed by
an outburst against his writings. His works have long been regarded
as valuable in spite of the many defects they admittedly have; but
the Scottish Estates, in 1584, issued an order for their purgation
because they contained ‘sundrie offensive matters, worthie to
be detecte,’ because of their ‘steiring up his hienes subjectes
theirby to misliking sedition unquietness, and to cast off their
due obedience to his Majestie.’ Heylin, in his _Cosmographie_, said
Buchanan’s _History of Scotland_ and _De Jure Regni_ had ‘wrought
more mischief in the world than all Machiavel’s works’; and the
authorities of the University of Oxford, in 1683, publicly burned
the political works of George Buchanan, along with others equally
obnoxious to them. These few incidents, among many, are sufficient
to indicate how the extraordinary stories told in the chap-book
came to be attached to George Buchanan, one of the most learned
and cultured men of his time. There is good ground for the remark
that the _Merry Exploits of George Buchanan_ ‘is a terrible libel
on an eminent man; never was mental greatness so “let down” in the
popular estimation as by this vulgar performance; by and through
which Buchanan’s humble countrymen were taught, not to look up
to him, but down upon him as a coarse buffoon.’[30] It must be
admitted, however, that there is strong reason to suspect that many
of the stories were current before the issue of the chap-book, but
it, of course, would help to perpetuate the libels. The conclusion
from what has been said may be thus briefly summarised. Dougal
Graham seems to have been the collector of ridiculous stories about
George Buchanan, the scholar and historian, these stories being,
for the most part, manifestly untrue, but the natural offspring
of the more elaborate libels written and spoken against him
immediately after his death.
Many editions of this chap-book have been published, and it
promises to have the longest life of any of its race, for it is
still being issued. The copy reprinted in this work was published
in Falkirk in 1799. Among the other editions we have seen are the
following:--One issued in Edinburgh bears ‘to be printed in this
present year,’ a somewhat indefinite intimation, consisting of 47
duodecimo pages; and one in two numbers of 24 pp. each, printed
in Newcastle by G. Angus, without date, and apparently complete.
The earliest edition mentioned is one published by A. Robertson,
Coalhill, Leith, in 1765. It was an octavo, in six parts of eight
pages each, with a title-page to each part. Another was printed
by W. R. Walker, Royal Arcade, Newcastle-on-Tyne, but it bears
no date. The Robertsons, of the Saltmarket, Glasgow, also issued
several editions of this chap-book, among the rest of their
‘Standards.’
Having thus gone over, with as much detail as possible, the various
works attributed to Dougal Graham, it will be proper to give the
list of them, with the dates of the editions reprinted in these
volumes:--
1.--The History of the Rebellion, 3rd Edition. Glasgow, 1774.
2.--John Hielandman’s Remarks on Glasgow, n.d.
3.--Turnimspike, n.d.
4.--Tugal M‘Tagger, n.d.
5.--Had awa’ frae me, Donald, n.d.
6.--Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship. Glasgow, 1779.
7.--The Coalman’s Courtship. Glasgow, 1782.
8.--Lothian Tom. Edinburgh, 1775.
9.--John Cheap the Chapman. Falkirk, 1798.
10.--Leper the Taylor. Stirling, 1799.
11.--The Taylor’s Funeral. 1816.
12.--Haverel Wives. Glasgow, 1781.
13.--Janet Clinker’s Oration. Glasgow, 1807.
14.--The Witty Jokes of John Falkirk. Edinburgh, 1777.
15.--John Falkirk’s Cariches. Stirling, n.d.
16.--Pady from Cork. Glasgow, 1807.
17.--Simple John, _alias_ Simple Tam. Glasgow, 1780.
18.--History of Buckhaven. Glasgow, 1806.
19.--George Buchanan. Stirling, 1795.
Such is the catalogue of Graham’s works--works with which it is
believed he had something more or less to do--and which we have
been able to find. Of the others attributed to him, but unfound,
are:--
20.--Verses on Popular Superstitions.
21.--Dialogue between the Pope and the Prince of Darkness.
22.--Epitaph on the Third Command.
23.--Life and Transactions of Alexander Hamwinkle.
24.--Warning to Methodist Preachers.
25.--Second Warning to Methodist Preachers.
26.--Proverbs on the Pride of Women.
27.--Verses on the Pride of Women.
28.--Dying Groans of John Barleycorn.[31]
There are probably others of which even the names have been lost;
but it seems likely that very few, if any, of those classified as
not found, will ever be traced. It is a pity that this should be
so; and every lover of the literary antiquities of Scotland must
fondly hope that in the course of time, by some happy accident, the
lost chap-books of Dougal Graham may again see the light of day.
By way of conclusion, it will be appropriate to discuss the general
character of these works. Such an inquiry involves the weighing of
opinions of several writers who, it must be admitted on all hands,
were in every way qualified to give a judgment in the matter.
The leading opinion must, of course, be that of Sir Walter Scott.
This is the record Strang[32] gives of it:--‘A history of the
vulgar literature of Scotland has been long and is unquestionably
still a desideratum, for certainly nothing could tend to throw
so much light on the manners and tastes of the great body of
the people as such a work. In 1830 it was hoped that Sir Walter
Scott--than whom no man could have so well and so heartily
performed the task--would have undertaken it as a preface to
Dougal Graham’s History of the Rebellion, which, as we have hinted,
he proposed giving to the Maitland Club, but unfortunately he
abandoned the idea; yet, in doing so, Sir Walter, in a letter dated
10th May, 1830, to the writer of this volume, among other things
of Dougal, said--“Neither had I the least idea of his being the
author of so much of our Bibliotheque Bleue as you ascribe to him,
embracing unquestionably several coarse but excessively meritorious
pieces of popular humour. The _Turnamspike_ alone was sufficient
to entitle him to immortality. I had, in my early life, a great
collection of these chap-books, and had six volumes of them bought
before I was ten years old, comprehending most of the more rare and
curious of our popular tracts.”’
Motherwell, again, says that he himself projected--but was unable,
through want of leisure, and the difficulty of obtaining materials,
to carry his intention into effect--a history of vulgar literature,
in which, as a matter of course, Graham must have occupied a
prominent place. Referring to the _History of the Rebellion_, he
says:--‘However slightingly we esteem his metrical powers, we
really believe he has conscientiously and honestly detailed the
events which came under his observation. It is not, however, on the
merits of this work, that Graham’s fame rests. Had he only written
it, we believe he never would have occupied our thoughts for a
moment; but as one who subsequently contributed largely to the
amusement of the lower classes of his countrymen, we love to think
of the facetious bellman. To his rich vein of gross comic humour,
laughable and vulgar description, great shrewdness of observation,
and strong, though immeasurably coarse sense, every one of us,
after getting out of toy books and fairy tales, has owed much. In
truth, it is no exaggeration when we state, that he who desires
to acquire a thorough knowledge of low Scottish life, vulgar
manners, national characteristics, and popular jokes, must devote
his days and nights to the study of John Cheap the Chapman--Leper
the Taylor--Paddy from Cork--The whole proceedings of Jockie and
Maggie’s Courtship--Janet Clinker’s Orations--Simple John, &c.,
all productions of Dougald’s fertile brain, and his unwearied
application to the cultivation of vulgar literature. To refined
taste Dougald had no pretensions. His indelicacy is notorious--his
coarseness an abomination--but they are characteristic of the
class for whom he wrote. He is thoroughly imbued with the national
humours and peculiarities of his countrymen of the humblest
classes, and his pictures of their manners, modes of thinking
and conversation, are always sketched with a strong and faithful
pencil. Indeed, the uncommon popularity the chap-books above noted
have acquired, entitles them, in many a point of view, to the
regard of the moralist, and the literary historian. We meet with
them on every stall, and in every cottage. They are essentially
the Library of Entertaining Knowledge to our peasantry, and
have maintained their ground in the affections of the people,
notwithstanding the attempt of religious, political, or learned
associations, to displace them, by substituting more elegant and
wholesome literature in their stead.’[33]
Dr. Strang’s judgment is similar:--‘Of the vulgar literature to
which we have referred, and of so much of which Dougal Graham was
the author, it is enough to say that it really contributed the
chief literary pabulum enjoyed by the bulk of our countrymen in the
humbler walks of life; and though the jokes therein promulgated
certainly were broad, and sometimes even grossly indecent, they
were not untrue portraitures of Scottish life and Scottish
manners.’[34]
Professor Fraser thus discusses the same matter:--‘He [Graham]
possessed this advantage over the ordinary historian; 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
every-day life and thoughts of the lower classes of last century.
Nothing is hidden from him. He is treated with a familiarity which
shows that his hosts have no wish to hide anything. Then, too, he
made his reader familiar not only with their mode of life, but with
the peculiarities of their dialect, and in this way shed a not
unfrequent light on philology. Add to these virtues that Dougal
is never out of humour, always laughing and gossiping, drinking
and telling old tales. His laughter, also, is contagious; we
cannot contain ourselves. All his stories are full of people who
laugh “like to burst,” and one cannot help but join them in their
cacchinations. Nor are his sketches wanting in dramatic power.
The characters are full of individuality and life, rendered more
significant by a local flavour of demeanor and dialect. More than
one of them might have afforded models for some of the raciest of
Scott’s creations, and all of them are instinct with genuine humour
and vitality.’[35]
Such were the opinions regarding the writings of Dougal Graham,
given expression to by four men who had studied them, and saw their
value. It is difficult, and almost unnecessary, to add anything
further to what they have said; but in bringing this account of
Graham’s works to a close, we may be permitted to supplement the
judgments quoted, by a few additional speculations.
Much has been said about the value these writings possess, because
they are, for the most part, truthful descriptions of the life of
the Scottish people of last century. In what other works, or series
of works--even those professedly dealing with the subject--can
there be obtained such a knowledge of how the common people lived
a century or two ago? We venture to affirm that such cannot be
found. The life of the people is the life of the nation; and if
it be a virtue to write personal biography like Boswell, it is
surely more so to record the inner life of a nation, like Graham.
Both, differing widely in many and important respects, have
attained success by the same means--by placing before their readers
sketches of private life, of the life which is most natural and
least artificial, and which gives the best notion of the feelings
and motives that guided either individuals or nations to success
or failure. To understand thoroughly the history of Scotland in
the eighteenth century, the ordinary historical works, dealing
principally with great movements and events, must be read in the
light, and by the aid, of the popular literature of that period; in
the same way as the resident of the twentieth century, desiring to
know the true history of the present age must, while looking to its
great religious, philanthropic, scientific, commercial, political,
and military achievements, also take into account the criminal
records, the proceedings of the courts, the annals of the poor, and
the ephemeral literature of all kinds.
Another line of thought is suggested by the indelicacy of
expression so frequently to be found in Graham’s works. That such
indelicacy exists in his works must be admitted; but in this
respect they are no worse than, and will compare favourably with,
the writings of many of the most prominent Scottish authors, such
as Sir David Lindsay, and others. Indeed, it is worthy of notice,
that men such as Fielding, Sterne, Swift, and Smollet, highly
educated, and moving in a better circle of society in the same age
with Dougal Graham, have tainted their writings with the grossness
which has been noticed, and which, in their case, is less easily
excused. The fault was in the time when plain speaking took the
place now occupied by inuendo. Notwithstanding this, it cannot
but be noticed that in his writings there is a native manliness
not often discovered in works having greater pretensions; that
there is no mawkish sentiment or sickly prudishness; and that in
the presentation of pictures of life, they have no artificial
draperies more suggestive than nature itself. There is a tendency
on the part of those who have written upon this subject, to deplore
the indelicacy of many passages of Graham’s works. We do not feel
ourselves under any obligation to do so, for had the author toned
down the colouring of some of his chap-books, they would have been
untrue to nature to the extent of the suppression. What should
be regretted was the immorality and coarseness so prevalent among
the lower classes in Scotland during last century; and he who
wishes to further the improvement and condition of the people will
welcome Graham’s chap-books as showing distinctly what required
reformation a century ago. It would hardly be too much to say, that
in some parts of Scotland a state of matters very little different
from what Graham frequently describes, may still be found. Any
one who is at all acquainted with life among the lower classes,
must admit that these descriptions are true to nature, and that
a study of them is necessary before we can know thoroughly upon
what the present superstructure of Scottish civilisation has been
built. Graham, perhaps unintentionally, has held ‘the mirror up to
nature,’ has shown ‘virtue her own feature, scorn her own image,
and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.’
It would be difficult, again, to over-estimate the value of Dougal
Graham’s works as affording illustrations of the folk-lore of
Scotland. Almost all the superstitions that obtained among the
common people of his time he has touched upon either directly or
indirectly; and in many instances he has given information upon
this and kindred subjects which it would be difficult to find
anywhere else. While all his chap-books may be found useful in
this direction, a few of them stand out as perfect storehouses
of folk-lore. Among the most notable of these are _The History
of Buckhaven_, _The History of the Haveral Wives_, _Jockey and
Maggy’s Courtship_, the three parts of _Leper the Taylor_, and
even _Pady from Cork_. In the first-mentioned chap-book there
are some particularly valuable notes about the opinions current
regarding the Arch-enemy and all his supposed representatives on
earth, such as witches, kelpies, fairies, and ‘bogles’ of all
kinds. The folk-lore of the hare, or ‘mauken,’ in this work is
also very full, and has given Mr. William George Black, F.S.A.,
Scot., a valuable illustration for his able article on ‘The Hare in
Folk-Lore,’ in a recent issue of _The Folk-Lore Journal_. Similar
remarks could be made about the other chap-books specially named,
but enough has been said in a general way to indicate their value
in this direction. In the notes to the chap-books themselves some
attempt may be made to show, in a manner more detailed than is
possible here, their worth as throwing light upon the superstitions
prevalent during the eighteenth century.
How far the genius of Dougal Graham would have been affected by an
education superior to that which he obtained, it would be difficult
to say. Possibly greater culture might have raised him to the
rank of a Scott; perhaps it might only have left him in the ranks
of mediocrity. In the one case he would have produced works of
greater literary value; in the other, possibly, none at all. One
thing is evident, however, that a series of writings which discover
the under-currents of Scottish life in a busy century, would have
been lost to literature, and that whatever gain there may have in
one direction, it could hardly counter-balance the loss another
way. Taking Dougal Graham all in all, his uncultured energy, his
‘hameliness,’ and his ready wit, have won for him a place in
Scottish literature it would be difficult to supply, and which no
one but himself was qualified to occupy. What that place was we
shall endeavour to show in the following pages, when dealing with
the chap-literature of Scotland.
III.--THE CHAP-LITERATURE OF SCOTLAND.
Fully half a century ago, William Motherwell, whose name has been
frequently mentioned in these pages, penned this sentence:--‘A
History of Vulgar Literature, from the earliest of the present
times, we believe, would form a valuable acquisition to the
libraries of the curious.’ About thirty years later Dr. Strang
expressed the same idea in terms somewhat similar:--‘A history
of the vulgar literature of Scotland has been long and is
unquestionably still, a desideratum, for certainly nothing could
tend to throw so much light on the manners and tastes of the
great body of the people as such a work.’ Notwithstanding the
lapse of time the work so much desired has yet to be done; though
Professor Fraser within recent years has brought together, in a
concise form, material regarding chap-literature, which, before
his work on the Humorous Chap-Books of Scotland, was only to be
found in fragments in various books and magazines. By his own
confession, however, his work is merely an instalment, and, as
we have indicated, a history of the chap-literature of Scotland
has yet to be written. It is a matter to be regretted that the
popular works of last century--the works which found most favour
with the great mass of the people, and which, with the addition
of the Bible, was the bulk of their reading--should have been
over-looked. No complaint can be made of any neglect of the higher
walks in the profession of letters in the eighteenth century. The
philosophers, poets, novelists, and historians of Scotland in the
last century, have had at least justice done them. But their works,
for the most part, were addressed to the educated, then a small
proportion of the population. Those who wrote for the people--for
the uneducated peasantry--have been ignored, a notable exception
being Burns, whose works were popular with all classes. Their works
were long considered to be unworthy of notice; and out of a very
large issue, there can now only be found a few stray leaflets. With
such material as can be had, a short sketch of that literature is
given in the following pages, for the purpose of showing the place
occupied in it by Dougal Graham.
‘Our fathers have told us,’ could the mediæval Scot say as well as
the ancient Israelite, for the traditions of former days in ballad,
song, and story, were handed down from generation to generation. In
the good old times, the gaberlunzie man would rehearse, by the peat
fire of some remote farm-house, tales of the present and the past;
or the discredited minstrel of the ‘iron time’ would tune--
---- ‘To please a peasant’s ear,
The harp a king had loved to hear.’
From these, celebrated by royal and knightly poets, and encircled
by the halo of romance, we must descend to the more prosaic,
because better known, chapman, who, in a latter age, filled
their places. Travelling over the country with a pack composed
of haberdashery goods of the most varied kind, and with coarsely
printed specimens of the literature to which his profession has
given a name, he retailed at each farm-house the news he had heard
on his journeys; and on a winter’s evening, by the kitchen fire,
he could make the time seem to pass swiftly, as he drew upon his
experience for stories of the most wonderful description, or
recalled the days of chivalry by his old-world tales. He was thus
admitted to the inner circle: he mixed with the people as one of
themselves.
Having thus shown the chapman’s descent, it will be interesting
to notice the origin of the name given to his profession,
if it may be so called. Professor Fraser says ‘the prefix
“chap” originally meant “to cheap or cheapen,” as in the word
“cheapening-place,” meaning a market-place,--hence the English
Cheapside and Eastcheap.’ In addition, 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.’ Another illustration may be found in the name
‘Chepstow,’ a place in Monmouthshire, meaning a market, or place
for chapmen. The general title of ‘chap-books’ was given to small
tracts hawked through the country by these worthies, who, however,
were willing to sell anything upon which they could make a profit.
Their business was a necessity of the times, when roads were bad,
when stage-coaches were hardly known, and when railways would
have been thought an impossibility and absurdity. The people in
the rural districts bought all their smallwares from them; and
the visit of the chapman to a remote Lowland village, or Highland
clachan, was an event to be remembered by the women-folks far and
near.
When and how the chap-literature of Scotland took its origin it
would be difficult to say with anything like precision. There
is, however, good ground for the assumption that it may have
originated about the period of the Covenanting troubles, and
that it probably received its first material impetus from the
Revolution of 1688. As early as 1644, Zachary Boyd, for some time
minister of the Barony Parish of Glasgow, and Vice-Chancellor of
the University, complained to the General Assembly about the ‘idle
books, ... fables, love-songs, baudry ballads, heathen husks,
youth’s poison,’ in circulation. Printing was then in its infancy
in Scotland, and it is interesting to note how, thus early in its
existence, it sought to extend to the people a cheap literature
which, though perhaps not of the most wholesome kind, might hardly
be deserving of the strictures of the stern presbyterian of the
seventeenth century. After the Restoration, a change appears
to have come over the popular literature; a new element was
introduced; and the internal evidence of the chap-books relating to
Peden, Cargill, and other worthies of the ‘killing time,’ indicate
that their first editions were published within a few years at
least of the events recorded in them. The press, apparently,
was made great use of by the preachers who had been ousted from
their pulpits; and many sermons were sent out in the form of
chap-books. In the second portion of the library of the late Dr.
David Laing, which was recently sold off in London, there was an
interesting volume of chap-books relating chiefly to Scottish
religious and ecclesiastical affairs. Among others, it included the
following:--‘Renwick (J.), Man’s Great Concernment, 1687’; ‘Love
(C.), Christ’s Glorious Appearance, _Glasgow_, 1692’; and ‘Row
(J.), Sermon commonly known by the Pockmanty Preaching, _Edin._,
1723.’ From what has been said, there seems to be little doubt that
the chap-literature of Scotland was of somewhat earlier origin than
that of England. A recent writer, referring to English chap-books,
says:--‘The Chap-book proper did not exist 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
penny worths, 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.’[36]
But happier times produced a further change on Scottish
chap-literature, which again included within its borders
productions of a less sober character than sermons and the lives
and opinions of martyrs, though these still held their ground
in public estimation. Among the chaps, the originals or early
reprints of which were published at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, were many of a religious or semi-religious character,
such as the following:--‘Last Words of Christian Kerr, _Edin._,
1708’; ‘Description of Jerusalem, _Edin._, 1727’; and ‘Last Words
of Margaret Abercromby, _Edin._, 1729.’ As for the ‘Pockmanty
Preaching,’ already mentioned as having been issued in 1723, it
was one of a considerable class which has been well represented
in _Scottish Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed_. About this time,
also, Allan Ramsay published many of his earlier poems in chap-book
or broadside form, and to this must be attributed the speedy hold
he took on the favour of the people. Chalmers, in his life of the
poet, says that after the year 1715, Ramsay ‘wrote many petty
poems, which from time to time he published at a proportionate
price. In this form, his poetry was at the time attractive; and
the women of Edinburgh were wont to send out their children, with
a penny, to buy “Ramsay’s last piece.” ... On those principles
he published, about the year 1716, the “Christ’s Kirk on the
Green.”’[37] Though he did not long continue this practice, he had
afterwards to suffer some annoyance by others doing it for him. In
his ‘Address to the Town Council of Edinburgh,’ written in 1721,
he complains that he had ‘suffer’d muckle wrang’ by ‘Lucky Reid
and ballad-singers,’ publishing a trashy edition of his pastoral
on Addison. He bewails the many mistakes in it, and says that
publication kept him from his natural rest.
The ‘Lucky Reid,’ mentioned in Ramsay’s complaint, was the widow
of John Reid, printer, in Bell’s Wynd, Edinburgh. Reid did a large
business in issuing scraps of popular literature. He was the
original publisher of many of the strange productions of William
Mitchell, _alias_ ‘The Tinclarian Doctor;’ an odd being who sought
by his works to spread ‘light’ throughout Scotland. Mitchell 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 chap-books 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.
Great activity in the publication of chap-books is known to have
been displayed by printers in the various cities and towns in
Scotland for the next decade or two; though, as far as can be
judged from the few remnants of their productions still to be
found, there was no author who, in any way, marked the literature
with his individuality. Small collections of songs seem to have
been in great request; old ballads were reprinted, and extracts
were made from the writings of many of the poets; and the chap
literature of England, which by this time had attained to some
maturity, was beginning to make an impression on the Scottish
people. Dream-books, and small works relating to astrology,
palmistry, physiognomy, foreign travel, and such like, had become
common, and were hailed by the people with manifest delight. These
publications, issued at a price which put them within the reach
of all classes, served to keep alive the superstitious beliefs
which to this day are by no means eradicated from the popular
mind, and which occasionally show themselves in most unlooked for
quarters, and under the most extraordinary circumstances. Even
the semi-religious chap-books had a tendency in this direction;
and the so-called prophecies of the leaders in the Covenanting
movement were regarded as certain of fulfilment, each change being
eagerly watched and noticed as having a bearing upon the utterance
of some martyr to the unholy zeal of the persecutors. As the
general prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer, the seer of Ercildoune,
were regarded as finding their fulfilment in the political events
of the time; as the prophecies of Mother Shipton have recently been
scanned, and even caused agitation among a nervous few, on account
of the prediction--
‘The world to an end shall come,
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one’;
so were the sayings of Peden, Cargill, and others, believed to
be finding their realisation in the many actual and supposed
calamities that every now and then occurred within the land for
which they had suffered so much. An interesting notice of the power
of these books is furnished by the Rev. Dr. Alexander Carlyle,
minister of Inveresk, in the middle of last century:--‘In the
month of March or April this year [1744], having gone down [from
Glasgow] with a merchant to visit New Port-Glasgow, as our dinner
was preparing at the inn, we were alarmed with the howling and
weeping of half-a-dozen of women in the kitchen, which was so loud
and lasting that I went to see what was the matter, when, after
some time, I learnt from the calmest among them that a pedlar had
left a copy of Peden’s _Prophecies_ that morning, which having
read part of, they found that he had predicted woes of every kind
to the people of Scotland; and in particular that Clyde would run
with blood in the year 1744, which now being some months advanced,
they believed that their destruction was at hand. I was puzzled
how to pacify them, but calling for the book, I found that the
passage which had terrified them was contained in the forty-fourth
paragraph, without any allusion whatever to the year; and by this
means I quieted their lamentations. Had the intended expedition
of Mareschal Saxe been carried into execution that year, as was
intended, their fears might have been realised.’[38] An instance
of the supposed fulfilment of a prophecy of Thomas the Rhymer,
about this date, may be cited from Dougal Graham’s _History of the
Rebellion_. Referring to Prestonpans, and after describing the
battle fought there on the 21st of September, 1745, between the
clans under Prince Charlie and the troops under Sir John Cope, he
says:--