The transport ship brought home other invalids besides Alan Cameron, one
of whom, Colonel Mostyn, and himself came to be on terms of warm
friendship. This gentleman, descended from one of the best families in
Wales, and having many relatives resident in London, was of considerable
service to Alan in the matter of introductions to the society of these
relations and other friends. "American officers," as those returned from
the war, were termed, were welcomed wherever met with. Among them Alan was
not the least distinguished, perhaps the more so on account of his
unfortunate adventure with his Lochaber adversary in the duel; and his
subsequent distinguished career in America.
At the house of one of Colonel Mostyn's relatives, Alan met a young lady
who was destined not many months after to become his wife. This was the
only child of Nathaniel Philips of Sleebeich Hall, Pembrokeshire. The
heiress of a wealthy squire was beyond Alan's expectations; besides he
understood there were more than one aspirant for her hand, who were
themselves possessors of many broad acres, therefore it could scarcely
occur to the mind of the "provincial officer" to enter the lists against
such influential competitors. However that may be, Alan's success with
the lady may have been much the same as that of another with Desdemona:
"Her father bade me tell the story of my life, the battles, sieges, and
fortunes I had passed. I ran it through, even from my boyish days; of
the moving accidents by flood and field; of the hair-breadth 'scapes and
the imminent deadly breach; and of being taken by the insolent foe. To
these things would Desdemona seriously incline, and devour up my
discourse. When I did speak of some distressful stroke, that I had
suffered, she gave me a world of sighs. She wished she had not heard it;
but bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, I should teach him how to
tell my story, and _that_ would woo her." Duke--"I think this tale would
win my daughter too."
Alan Cameron became the favoured suitor of Miss Philips, but both felt
the barrier of the Squire's consent to be insurmountable. Nor was there
any circumstance likely to arise in favour of Alan's worldly position to
make him acceptable to Mr Philips as his son-in-law. Honourable conduct
acted on Alan's feelings, and directed the proper course to be pursued.
He made his visits to the house of their mutual friend less often and at
greater intervals. Squire Philips was at the time, and had for some few
years, been a widower; and it was reported and believed that he was
contemplating a second marriage. Moreover, the intended spouse was
scarcely yet out of her teens, while he was past middle age, and his
daughter was also her senior. Her father's intentions created
disappointment, if not dissatisfaction in Miss Philips' mind, which, it
is alleged, was one of the causes that moved her not to view elopement
with serious objection. There is no record of the occurrence to guide
further reference than that Alan Cameron and Miss Philips had betaken
themselves to Gretna Green without the knowledge or consent of her
father, where marriages were solemnised without the preliminary
formalities necessary at Hanover Square. Notwithstanding that a pursuit
ensued either by the parent or other friends, it was not successful in
interrupting the marriage of the runaway pair.
Instead of returning to London with his bride, Alan went towards the
capital of his native country, where he and his wife remained for
several months. It now, however, became almost a necessity that he would
get into some office, the emoluments of which would add to his slender
income. After some delay he was fortunate in getting an appointment
through the intercession of a friend with whom he had served in America.
This appointment was on the militia staff of one of the English
counties. Alan retained it until the fortune of events reduced the
displeasure of the father-in-law to that state when mutual friends
thought they could do something to induce the Squire to forgive and
forget. These friends did not fail to take advantage of this state of
feeling, and embraced the opportunity to obtain for Alan an interview
with his wife's father, which resulted, as desired by all, in full
forgiveness to both son and daughter. This reconciliation, like the
wooing of Miss Philips, was also somewhat after the manner of that of
Desdemona's father, who replied, "I had rather adopt a child than get
it. Come hither. I do give thee that with all my heart, which--but thou
hast already--with all my heart, I would keep from thee. For your sake I
am glad I have no other child, thy escape would teach me tyranny." This
act of grace was important to Alan, as the allowance to his wife, which
followed, enabled them to live in affluence in comparison with their
past state.
Squire Philips had not married at the time rumour had formerly assigned,
but he did enter into that state, and that after he had become a
sexagenarian. By the second marriage the Squire--unlike the father in
the play--"had another child." This child is yet living, in the person
of the venerable Dowager Countess of Lichfield, herself the mother of a
numerous family of sons and daughters, including the present peer, as
also the wife of the noble lord the member for the county of Haddington.
_(To be Continued)._
HIGHLAND MELODIES.--The Gaelic Society of London finding that regret
has been frequently expressed that the plaintive melodies of the
Highlands should be allowed to pass away, have, we are glad to
learn, taken steps to preserve them in a permanent form, and are now
preparing for publication a selection of the best and most popular
airs. The verses will be given in Gaelic and English, and the
pianoforte accompaniments are arranged with special attention to
their distinctive characteristics by Herr Louis Honig, Professor of
Music, London; while slight variations are introduced to render the
melodies more acceptable to the general taste. Editions of the Dance
Tunes of our country are numerous, but the Gaelic vocal airs, set to
music, have not hitherto been attainable. The issue is limited to
250 copies, which the Society are patriotically supplying at cost
price--namely, 10s 6d per copy; or free by post to the Colonies for
12s. We feel assured that this want has only to be known to secure
the necessary number of subscribers for the few remaining copies.
_LITERATURE._
_THE "ARYAN ORIGIN OF THE CELTIC RACE AND LANGUAGE."_
The above is the title on the outside of a book by the Rev. Canon
Bourke, president of St Jarlath's College, Tuam, Ireland. The book is in
every respect a wonderful and interesting one to the Celt, at home and
abroad, whether he be Scotch or Irish. Time was when the Scottish Celt
looked with great suspicion on his Irish cousin, while the Irishman had
no great love for his Scottish neighbour. Even yet a good deal of this
feeling prevails, particularly among the uneducated.
Our own experience, however, has been that the Irish Celt is not behind
the Scotch Gael in generosity and all the other virtues which are the
special characteristics of the race. The book before us is in several
respects calculated to strengthen the friendship which is being rapidly
formed, and which ought to subsist among the intelligent of each of the
two great branches of the Celtic family--Scotch and Irish. Frequent
references of an appreciating and commendable kind are made in this work
to the labours of Scotchmen in the field of Celtic literature. Canon
Bourke, like a true-hearted son of Ireland, with that magnanimity
characteristic of the race, holds out his right hand to every Scottish
scholar in the field of Celtic or Keltic research, and says in
effect--_Cia mar a tha thu? Buaidh gu'n robh air d'obair!_
Although the "Aryan Origin of the Celtic Races and Language" is all the
title on the cover, inside the book, the title is much more comprehensive,
consisting, as it does, altogether of 27 lines. But even this large and
comprehensive title-page does not give anything like an adequate idea of
the extent and variety of the contents of the book. Taking it up with the
expectation of finding a learned treatise on the Aryan origin of the
Celtic race and Celtic languages one will be disappointed; but no one will
be disappointed with the work as a whole, for though its contents do not
bear throughout on the above subject, they are all thoroughly Celtic; and
as a collection of Celtic gleanings, will well repay a perusal. It is,
indeed, a sort of Celtic repository--the writer's Celtic reading for many
years being apparently thrown into a crucible, and having undergone a
certain process there, are forged out into the handsome and bulky volume
before us. It has, however, all the appearance of having been very hastily
got up. Indeed, in the preface, which is dated, "Feast of the Nativity of
the B.V.M., 1875," we are told that a mere accident has given the first
impulse to the composition of the work, and that accident appears to have
been that at a social meeting of Irish clergymen in 1874 the subject of
conversation turned on the language and antiquities of Ireland.
After doing justice to the "Four Masters," of whom Irishmen are, with
good reason, so very proud, the decay of the Gaelic language in Ireland
is alluded to, and the cause of that decay described at some length, and
it is pointed out that, in consequence of this neglect, when an Irish
patriot appeals to the sentiment of his race, the appeal must be made,
not in the language of old Ireland, but in the language of the
conquering Saxon. Father Mullens in his lament for the Celtic language
of his countrymen "must wail his plaint in Saxon words and Saxon idiom,
lest his lamentation should fall meaningless on the ears of Ireland."
And this decay Father Mullens pathetically describes:--
It is fading! it is fading! like the leaves upon the trees,
It is dying! it is dying! like the Western Ocean breeze,
It is fastly disappearing as the footsteps on the shore,
Where the Barrow and the Erne, and Loch Swilly's waters roar;
Where the parting sunbeam kisses the Corrib in the west,
And the ocean like a mother clasps the Shannon to its breast:
The language of old Eire, of her history and name,
Of her monarchs and her heroes, of her glory and her fame;
The sacred shrine where rested through her sunshine and her gloom
The spirit of her martyrs as their bodies in the tomb!
The time-wrought shell, where murmured through centuries of wrong
The secret shrine of freedom in annal and in song,
Is surely fastly sinking into silent death at last,
To live but in the memory and relics of the past!
In Ireland as in some other countries (perhaps we may say with some
degree of truth in our own Highlands of Scotland) the simple uneducated
peasants are, in the law courts, treated with the greatest display of
harshness because they cannot give evidence in the English tongue. Canon
Bourke refers to a case of this nature that occurred during the last
year in Tuam. A witness, Sally Ryan, who appeared to have understood
English, but could not speak it, and consequently would not give her
evidence in that language, was removed as an incompetent witness! Is
that justice? We know that in the courts in Scotland a good deal of
harshness is occasionally used towards witnesses who cannot speak
English.
The fact remains, that in the Highlands there are many whose only
language is Gaelic, and if their Saxon rulers have a desire to
administer the law justly they must learn to deal more gently with such
as are ignorant of the English language. We also know from personal
observation that Gaelic witnesses frequently give evidence by means of
very incompetent interpreters, thoroughly ignorant of the idiom of the
language, and are thus very often misrepresented. A bungling interpreter
bungles a witness, and nothing is more calculated to invalidate evidence
than being given in a loose incoherent manner. On this point we are at
one with the learned Canon Bourke.
Considerable space is devoted to the pronunciation of the word
Celtic--the question being whether it should be pronounced Keltic or
Seltic. Professor Bourke argues, and gives good reasons, that it should
be written Keltic and pronounced Keltic. He is unquestionably right in
his contention for the pronunciation, but as we have no K in the Scotch
or Irish Gaelic alphabet it is difficult to agree with him as to the
spelling, but the fact remains that it is almost universally pronounced
Seltic and written Celtic, and has in that form taken such a root that
it can scarcely be ever altered. What then is the use of fighting over
it? In the compass of this necessarily short review it is quite
impossible to give an adequate idea of the work before us. While the
work exhibits great learning and research, we think the rev. author
might have bestowed more care on such a valuable work. Several
typographical errors present themselves, and in many cases the
Professor's composition exhibits clear evidence of undue haste in the
writing and arrangement. But _humanum est errare_. Nothing is perfect,
and the book before us is no exception to the general rule. The Celtic
student will, however, find it invaluable, and no one who takes an
interest in Celtic philology, antiquity, manners, and customs (indeed
everything and anything Celtic), should be without a copy; for it is a
perfect store of Celtic learning.
_THE SCOTTISH GAEL, OR CELTIC MANNERS AS PRESERVED AMONG THE
HIGHLANDERS. By the LATE JAMES LOGAN, F.S.A.S. Edited with Memoir
and Notes by the_ REV. ALEX. STEWART, "Nether Lochaber." _Issued in 12
Parts at 2s each. Inverness: Hugh Mackenzie, Bank Lane. Edinburgh:
Maclachlan & Stewart. Glasgow:_ John Tweed.
We have before us the first and second parts of this valuable work. The
Frontispiece is a coloured plate of two Highland Chiefs dressed in the
Stewart and Gordon tartans; and the other engravings, which are well got
up, are in every case _fac-similes_ of those in the original Edition,
which had become so scarce that it was difficult to procure it even at a
very high price. Logan's _Scottish Gael_ has long been held as the best
authority on the antiquities and national peculiarities of Scotland,
especially on those of the Northern or Gaelic parts of the country where
some of the peculiar habits of the aboriginal race have been most
tenaciously retained.
The valuable superintendence and learned notes of "Nether-Lochaber,"
one of our best Celtic scholars and antiquarians, will very materially
enhance the value of the work, which is well printed in clear bold
type, altogether creditable to the printer and to the editor, but,
particularly so, to the public-spirited publisher. We have no hesitation
in recommending the work to all who take an interest in the Literature of
the Gael.