[Illustration: CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
Fourth Series
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS.
NO. 688. SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1877. PRICE 1½_d._]
ROB GRAHAM
A TWEEDSIDE REMINISCENCE, BY W. CHAMBERS, LL.D.
I propose giving one of my early recollections, which lately turned
up in the memory of the past. It refers to an incident which occurred
only a few years after the beginning of the present century, when I
was a boy at the burgh school of Peebles, a small town on the Tweed.
The school in its way had a somewhat superior reputation, and drew to
it pupils from a distance of several miles around. Trudging in all
weathers, the children of farmers and ploughmen came to be educated
along with boys and girls belonging to the town. Whatever they were,
all were treated alike, and the intermingling of classes was never
found to be in any respect disadvantageous; on the contrary, there
sprung up agreeable acquaintanceships between the town and country boys
that were mutually useful and agreeable.
Among the crowd of country lads who thronged in daily, there was one
I have some cause to remember. His name was Rob Graham. I will try to
give a picture of Rob. Imagine a sturdy boy of twelve years of age,
well knit together, barelegged and barefooted in summer, with coarse
red hair surmounting a brow so large that one would say there were
good brains under it. Rob's face was placid like that of an old man,
and I think was slightly marked with small-pox, as was then not at all
unusual. His dress, of a simple kind, consisted of a pair of dingy
corduroy trousers and waistcoat, and a short coat of that coarse fabric
known as Galashiels blue, with two broad metal buttons staring out
behind; which buttons, from their well-worn appearance, had probably
embellished a succession of coats of Rob's father and grandfather; for
in those days buttons were buttons, and went through a good deal of
service before being dismissed. As the fastenings of the dress could
with a rive of the hand be rapidly torn asunder, the wearer could at
any moment throw off clothes and shirt and plunge into the river stark
naked. As Rob's leather cap, stuck on the top of his shock of red hair,
was worth very little, we should deal liberally in estimating his whole
equipment at the value of twenty shillings.
What signifies, however, the outside of boys? Who cares a farthing how
they are dressed? The bodily physique and interior of the skull are the
things really worth caring for. Rob's big square face and prominent
brow shewed there was something in him. Poorly dressed as he appeared
at school, he took the shine out of boys decked out with frills, shoes,
and stockings. There was not a boy who shewed more dexterity at 'duck,'
a game of pitching a heavy stone at a mark, or who ran with greater
vigour at 'shinty,' on the school green. Rob was also a good fighter,
and few boys, as the saying is, 'dared to take him up.' Yet Rob was
a good-humoured and merry fellow, who did not want to quarrel with
anybody. He even condescended to make himself agreeable to the girls in
the school, by hopping on one leg in their game which they called 'the
beds,' and in dexterously throwing up small shells to be caught on the
back of the hand, and locally known as the 'chucks.' Then, he was so
obliging. If he saw a poor woman carrying with difficulty a backful of
clothes to be bleached on the banks of the mill-stream, he would offer
to help her, and did so without any hope of reward. No wonder that
this poor boy made friends, and was respected for his good conduct and
gallantry. By birth a peasant. By nature a hero!
There in memory does Rob Graham stand before me. Miserably attired and
educated, knowing nothing of the world outside the tranquil valley
in which he was born, Rob had the dash and courage of a Crusader.
Nor was he indebted to good feeding for his diligence and activity.
In the morning before quitting home, his mother doubtless supplied
him with a breakfast of oatmeal porridge and milk. That, in a great
measure kept him going for the day. To stay his hunger, however, a
piece of pease-bannock about the size of your hand, and nearly an inch
thick, which his mother had baked on the girdle, was stuffed into his
right-hand pocket--the left one being occupied with his 'peerie' and
'bools'[1]--and so he was provided with dinner; for beyond the lump
of bannock and a drink of water, which he scooped with his hand from
the Tweed, he tasted nothing till he was comforted with a repetition
of porridge and milk for supper. So much for Rob's dress and mode of
living.
By some unaccountable feeling, I felt interested in Rob. I saw him
daily seated in the left-hand corner of the school as you go in,
poring over his lesson, or playing some prank when the master's back
was turned. On one occasion, I pointed out to him how to work out a
question in arithmetic on his slate; and at another time afforded
some little advice as to his style of penmanship in writing 'a piece'
for the public Examination by ministers, magistrates, and other great
people. As for his reading I did not interfere, for it would have been
useless. Like other pupils, he read aloud with a coarse facility,
lessons from Barrie's Collection, and repeated psalms by heart, with
little regard to points or modulation, and so loudly, that if the
windows were open, you might have heard him a hundred yards off--no one
finding fault, not even old Barrie, in his duffle spencer and brown
wig, who had come a long way in his gig to honour the ceremonial, and
dine afterwards according to use and wont with the magnates of the
burgh.
The trifling intercourse I had with Rob led me to make inquiries about
his origin and place of residence. It was a simple story. He was the
son of a small farmer, or at least the occupant of a cottage and a few
acres, known as Kailzie Park Foot. The place was a kind of offshoot of
the park or pleasure-grounds connected with the mansion of Kailzie,
and situated on the south bank of the Tweed, at the distance of about
three miles eastward from Peebles. Possibly, Rob's father had a charge
of the pleasure-grounds, or he looked after the hedges and ditches on
the property, or did some other work for the laird, for which he was
allowed the cottage, a cow's grass, and certain money perquisites; by
all which a decent appearance was kept up. The family was not large.
Rob had a sister, Jenny, two years younger than himself, who got a
little schooling, but only in summer, as she was unable to undergo the
severity of winter travel to and fro. She was a pretty and interesting
girl Jenny, with flaxen ringlets and bright intelligent eyes. Though
meagrely dressed in a gingham frock, and barefooted, she had a certain
lady-like appearance. And that is what may be occasionally seen among
school-girls of a humble class. However poor be their dress, we see in
their graceful figure, their gentle manner, their flowing hair, their
sparkling intelligent eyes, that they are ladies by nature, and would,
if polished up, do credit to any society in the kingdom. Such was
Jenny Graham, who, unconscious of her girlish beauty, was an object of
general admiration. With good taste, as a bit of decoration, she often
had a rose or a spink, or sprig of honeysuckle, stuck in the breast of
her dress. The boys at the school called her 'The Flower of Kailzie.'
As children together, Rob and Jenny grew up with brotherly and
sisterly affection. In autumn, Rob visited and climbed the gean-trees
at Haystoun Burn, to bring home a capful of geans or wild-cherries
for Jenny. Sometimes ascending the hills he would spend hours in
seeking for and gathering 'craw-croups,' a kind of wild bilberries,
from the lofty ridges which overlook the valley of The Glen--all to
be a posie or offering to sister Jenny. Requiting these attentions,
she accompanied him to the Torwood when he went to scale the tall
pine-trees in quest of young rooks. And the two had often rambles along
the river-bank from Cardrona to Kingsmeadows, on which occasions it was
no unusual thing to see them seated on the green margin of a little
peninsula which diagonally juts into the water. It is a pleasant spot,
nearly opposite the ruins of Horsbrugh Castle, which picturesquely
crown the height on the northern side of the river. Here, on the
edge of the peninsula grew quantities of tall rushes, with which Rob
cleverly plaited head ornaments and necklaces for Jenny, who, proud
of her rustic decorations, scampered home with them in the glee of
innocent childhood.
There was but one drawback in the pleasure derived by Jenny from
these river-side rambles. She felt pretty safe as far as the small
peninsula. Beyond that, westward along the green haugh towards Scott's
Mill, she apprehended danger. On the opposite bank was the farm of
Eshiels, laid out in handsomely shaped fields, and environed with some
young plantations. In one or other of these spacious fields there was
ordinarily a herd of cows grazing, attended by a formidable bull, of
which little Jenny Graham could not help being afraid. She had some
reason to be so. One day, being sent by her mother on an errand to
the family at Scott's Mill, she was tripping merrily along the green
haugh, when to her dismay the Eshiely bull, as it was familiarly
termed, left the herd and at a smart trot made for the river, as if to
cross and attack her. The bull had possibly been roused by seeing a
scarlet tippet on the neck of the young maiden. Be that as it may, the
animal, bellowing with rage, plunged into the stream at a spot where
it could be easily forded, and would inevitably have carried out its
malicious intention of tossing and goring, perhaps killing, Jenny, but
for her presence of mind. She got out of reach of the ferocious beast
by hastily scrambling over a wall that bounded Kailzie Park, and
taking refuge in the policy was safe from pursuit. Being for the time
circumvented, the bull looked glaringly over the wall, and with a growl
which sounded like a threat of taking its revenge some other day, it
slowly retreated to its pastures on the other side of the Tweed.
Jenny never forgot her fright on the occasion. As soon as her brother
Rob came home from school in the afternoon, she told him of the affair,
and that after this she did not dare to go with him in his rambles
along the river-bank, at least not so far as the ground opposite
Eshiels. Rob heard his sister's story, and from that moment resolved to
punish the Eshiely bull for running after and frightening Jenny. He had
indeed for some time been pondering on a plan for quelling this torment
of the neighbourhood.
'Keep yoursel' easy, Jenny, lass,' said Rob; 'I'll mak' the Eshiely
bull pay for chasing you. He'll no try that again.'
'But, Rob,' replied his sister, 'what can you do to the bull? You're
only a laddie, and you may get into trouble. He's an awfu' beast the
Eshiely bull. Let him alane. Dinna gang near him, Rob; dinna gang near
him!'
'I tell you to keep yoursel' easy about me, Jenny. I ken fine what to
do. It will be capital fun, and I'll be as safe as if I were at hame.'
Jenny knew Rob's resolute character, and having also some confidence
in his discretion, let the matter drop. Still she felt uneasy about
what might prove a serious misadventure. It is not surprising that
the affectionate girl was uneasy. Here was a poor lad unprovided with
firearms or any lethal weapon by which he could inflict an injury on
an animal so jealous of approach, so dangerous when threatened with
attack, and yet he was confident that he would successfully, and with
little or no hazard to himself, impose a heavy vengeance on the bull.
He would not do it skulkingly or unfairly. He would go to work with
the spirit of a sportsman. If the bull came to grief, it would have
itself to blame. Brave lad! Like Harry Bluff, 'though rated a boy, he'd
the soul of a man!' In the depths of his consciousness, Rob had made
up his mind what he should do, without consulting any one as to his
extraordinary project.
It was necessary, however, in order to carry out the campaign, that
Rob should have two or three confederates of his own age. These he
was not long in securing, for the Eshiely bull was a public nuisance,
and the youths all round about would gladly take part in any scheme
that promised to give the monster a suitable chastisement for its
audacity. The lads whom he enlisted in the adventure were three school
companions who lived in the neighbourhood. They were Tam Jackson, son
of a ploughman at Laverlaw; Willie Ramage, a son of the farmer at
Whitehaugh; and Sandy Clapperton, son of the grieve at Cardrona Mains.
All entered cordially into the proposed scheme. It was explained to
them that they were to be mere helpers or onlookers. Rob was to take
upon himself the heavy end of the business. The prospect opened out to
them was perfectly charming. It would be the nicest thing they had ever
had all their days.
Like the stage-manager of a theatre in superintending a morning
rehearsal, Rob schooled the three boys in their several and collective
duties. To speak in the language of the Spanish Bullring, they were
to act as _chulos_, whose duty consists in waving flags and otherwise
distracting the attention of the bull, while the _matador_ has the
responsibility of despatching the animal. Rob was to be the _matador_,
only he had no intention of killing the bull. All he proposed to do was
to inflict a punishment that would teach him better behaviour. It was
agreed that next Saturday, if the weather kept fair, the play should
come off, and all were to be at their post under a tree at Scott's
Mill at a specified hour. Meanwhile nothing on any account was to be
whispered on the subject.
It was a well-devised drama. All depended on its proper performance.
Rob was fortunately well acquainted with the scene of operations. Born
and reared within a stone's throw of the Tweed, on its south bank, he
knew every rapid and pool within a stretch of three or four miles.
From Kailzie Park Foot for a certain distance westward, the water was
comparatively shallow, and it was hereabouts that the Eshiely bull had
forded the stream in pursuit of little Jenny Graham. Farther up, the
water deepens until it becomes an unusually deep and broad pool, just
where the river makes a sudden bend at Scott's Mill. Boy as he was, and
with a miserable apparatus, Rob had fished every inch of the water with
fly as well as worm bait, and had now and then brought home a few small
trouts to his mother. One thing he was set upon. It was to try to catch
a large lamprey, or 'ramper eel,' as the Peebles boys called it, which,
considered to be a dangerous water-snake, was a terror to juveniles
wading the river. The lamprey was known to lurk somewhere in the deep
pool at Scott's Mill.
Rob considered it would be of no use trying to lure the dreaded
creature with an ordinary line and bait. He constructed a round
wicker-basket, with a hole in the side, in the manner of a mousetrap,
which would allow the eel to get in, but not to get out. Inclosing a
bait of garbage and a stone to sink it, the wicker trap was tethered
to the shore by a strong cord to a stake, and pitched into the middle
of the river. Rob's foresight and skill were rewarded. Next morning,
he had the satisfaction of hauling in the trap with the lamprey in a
rampagious humour inside. It was, as I recollect--for I went to see
it, stretched on the sward below Scott's Mill--a huge creature, four
to five feet long, with seven holes or gills whereby to breathe on
each side of its head, while it firmly sucks itself to any object with
its mouth. Among all the youngsters of the district from Howford to
Peebles, Rob rendered himself famous by having caught the ramper eel,
and of having skinned it too. As a trophy, he came one morning to
school with the skin of the eel wound round his ankle like a garter. We
mention the circumstance as an instance of Rob's pluck, and that he was
not unqualified to face the Eshiely bull.
Saturday, on which was to be the proposed diversion with the bull, at
length arrived. It was a delightful day. The air serene, the fields
and trees around in their best verdant array. Shielgreen Kips on the
one hand, and the Lee Pen on the other, stood out as prominent peaks
against the bright blue sky. A more charming scene is not found in
Peeblesshire. The Eshiels herd of cows, with the bull a little apart,
were composedly grazing in the field immediately adjoining the pool at
the mill. There had been heavy rain up the country the previous day,
which had swollen and deepened the river, which, without being greatly
discoloured, flowed majestically between its green banks. Its increased
depth was favourable for Rob's purpose. The pool with a swirl here and
there on its surface, was in capital order. All circumstances conspired
to promise success for the intended exploit.
At the appointed hour, the three lads, Jackson, Ramage, and Clapperton,
who were to act as assistants, were at their post. There they were
seated on the grass under an old ash-tree, on the bank of the river
at Scott's Mill. Rob also kept tryst, for his companions had hardly
seated themselves when he appeared on the scene, carrying a short but
very effective oak walking-stick. The stick was a kind of heirloom. It
had belonged to Rob's grandfather, a stirring fellow in his time, and
likely enough the stick had figured as a weapon in brawls at Beltane
fair. The stick was a remarkable stick. At the upper end was a round
knob fashionably carved, near which there was a hole for a cord, which
could be wound round the hand or wrist. The lower end of the stick was
shod with what looked like a pike, that would take a good grip of the
frozen ground in winter, and be formidable in any defensive struggle.
Rob had appropriated the stick for the day, and we shall immediately
see the use he made of it.
Well, here were the four boys met. There were but few words spoken.
The business of the three auxiliaries was to do all in their power to
enrage the bull by shaking handkerchiefs of different colours they
had brought with them; and particularly when Rob was engaged with the
animal, they were to run hither and thither, and by derisive shouts
draw it away in any required direction. This and other measures being
understood, the play commenced.
There was a united shout, the handkerchiefs were wildly waved. Next, a
provoking cry of 'Bull, bull, bull!' assailed the object of attack. It
was like a trumpet summons to battle.
The bull being unacquainted with the programme, was apparently unable
to comprehend the meaning of the sudden uproar. Lifting his head
inquiringly, he viewed the force which invited his attention. 'Only
four boys; I shall soon settle them.' If the Eshiely bull had any
mind at all, that is what he probably thought of them. They were only
worthy of his contempt. Still there came the provoking cry of 'Bull,
bull, bull!' uttered with offensive reiteration. The challenge was to
the last degree insulting. There was an impertinence in it that was
unendurable. Coming to this conclusion, up went the bull's tail, as if
shaking out a banner of defiance, and with a mighty roar he moved at a
trot which gradually increased in speed.
He was a grand sight. There he came frenziedly on with his surly white
face, his generally dun colour, his black muzzle, and short pointed
horns. Well shaped, he would have taken a prize at Islington, even
in these days of advanced culture. At a bound he cleared a low dike
near the river, to which he went as direct as an arrow, with a view to
attack the foe on their own ground. What did he care for the Tweed. He
had forded it dozens of times. He had stood in it up to the middle in
hot days with all the cows about him, cooling their legs and whisking
their tails to keep off the flies. He would at once cross the river.
In his eagerness to get at the enemy, the Eshiely bull with all his
accomplishments failed to remember that at this point fording was
impossible, and that he must inevitably take to swimming, which was
not exactly within his experience. In his sober moments he might have
thought of this. Now, his blood was up, and on he drove right into the
pool.
Like a general at the head of an army, Rob steadily watched the motions
of his antagonist as he came headlong on to the attack. His attitude
was worthy of being pictured by an artist. With delight he saw the
bull advance right onward, instead of making a circuit to a lower and
shallower part of the river--in which case the game would have been up.
When the monster, snorting and bellowing, with flashing eyes, and with
his tail up, plunged into the pool, Rob's time was come. Now or never
he must act.
It was a trying moment, but with teeth clenched, Rob never quailed.
Like a good soldier going into action, he had but one feeling, and
that was to do his duty. Now, then, for it. To throw off his clothes
till he stood stark naked, was the work of an instant. Seizing the old
oak stick and firmly attaching it by the cord to his wrist, he dashed
down the bank into the water. He was a capital swimmer, could dive
and turn with a sort of amphibious instinct, as most river-side boys
can. Courageously he struck out, heading a little to get up stream
and bear down on the enemy. About and about he swam, ever with the
stick dangling from his wrist. The bull saw his approach, and with a
fierce glare turned abruptly towards him. Rob eluded the encounter by
diving out of sight. This sudden and strange disappearance considerably
disconcerted the bull. He could not imagine what had become of Rob, and
in his perplexity determined to proceed towards the bank, on which the
boys kept shouting and defying him; so onward he went, more enraged
than ever, but somewhat confused in mind from the novelty of the
proceedings.
During this by-play Rob had, underneath the water, got skilfully to the
rear of the bull. This is what he had all along wanted. He now felt
that the day was his own. Approaching the bull stealthily, he got hold
of his tail, which was floating conveniently in the water, and with a
degree of dexterity worthy of an acrobat, he leaped at a bound upon
his back. It was a singularly well-managed feat. A terrible fix this
for the Eshiely bull. He never expected to have been made the victim
of such a trick. The superior brain of a schoolboy had out-manœuvred
him. When Rob got fairly astride on the bull, and loosening the cord,
flourished the stick in his hand, his boy-companions, in their mirth,
set up a roar of laughter. It was a pity there was not a larger body of
spectators. The scene would have brought down the house at Astley's.
The bull was of course prodigiously annoyed, besides being enraged
to madness at finding a boy seated on his back, as if he had been a
riding-horse let out for hire. No bull in the universe had ever been
treated with such atrocious indignity. Moved by these heart-rending
considerations, he wriggled, in the hope of getting Rob off his back.
As jockeys would say, Rob was firm in the saddle. A horse may plunge
and rear and throw his rider, but he does so by having good footing.
The bull had no footing at all. He had no _point d'appui_. He was
swimming for bare life, and had enough to do in keeping his head above
water. He had no fins wherewith to propel himself in any required
direction. No webbed feet. His cloven hoofs could make little way in
the water. In short, do as he liked, he could not throw his rider. Rob
had him at his mercy.
As has been said, Rob had no wish to kill the bull, nor did he wish to
maim or seriously injure him. As he used to avow, he wanted to give
him 'a drilling.' He now began operations. With a swing of the arm,
he brought down the knob of the cudgel with a smart blow on the head
of the animal, saying at the same time: 'Tak' that for frightening
our Jenny.' And so on he went, raining down blows on the head and
shoulders, always repeating: 'Tak' that, and that, for frightening our
Jenny. I'll learn you no to be sae ready crossing the river and running
after people.' The bull perhaps did not understand the full force of
Rob's meaning; but he knew he was overpowered in a way to bring down
his pride.
'Hit him on the horns, Rob,' cried Sandy Clapperton. 'He'll no like
that.'
Rob was not a cruel boy. He had true courage and generosity, and would
not take a mean advantage of his enemy. He accordingly did not feel
inclined to strike the bull on the horns, for he might have broken or
dislodged one of these appendages, and damaged the beast past recovery.
So he continued to beat him in a manner to be painful and mortifying
without being absolutely injurious. It was amazing how this untutored
country lad knew the exact length he might reasonably go. There was
in it no small degree of intuitive common-sense. Swimming about in a
lumbering way, the Eshiely bull was for the first time made amenable
to discipline. By the persuasive agency of the walking-stick, he was
constrained to swim in a kind of circle, as if performing in a piece of
horsemanship at a circus. It was important never to let him get so near
the land on either side as to find a footing. He was kept as nearly as
possible in the middle of the pool, round about and round about, beaten
with the oak stick all the way, and told by Rob that he was punished as
a mean-spirited wretch for running after and frightening little girls.
The whole thing was a pretty piece of rude play. Rob was a moral
disciplinarian. Out of his own conceptions of rectitude, he did that
which the public at large ought long since to have done in a regular
and legal manner. The Eshiely bull ought to have been suppressed as
being a nuisance, almost as dangerous to the community as a wild beast.
Nobody interfered to any good effect. The proprietor of the animal was
one of those miserably selfish individuals who, minding only their
own interest, are indifferent to the rights of others. He had been
frequently told of the alarm caused in the neighbourhood by the bull,
but treated the matter as of small consequence. If the bull annoyed or
killed anybody, what did he care? People should keep out of its way.
As a self-constituted minister of justice, Rob Graham, after a droll
fashion, settled the business. By dint of his grandfather's stick he
brought the bull to its senses, forced it to see the error of its ways.
The play lasted about half-an-hour. During that time, in its
gyrations in the water, Rob gave the bull what he considered a proper
chastisement. Reduced to extremity, it had no heart to prosecute
the war. It was fain to get back to its own side of the water. Rob
indulged it in this laudable desire, for he thought he had humiliated
it sufficiently. He let it make for the north side of the river. Just
as its fore-feet touched the ground, he gave it a parting thwack which
it was likely to remember. And dropping off at the tail, he bade the
bull good-morning. The beast staggered away in an exhausted and dazed
condition to whence it came, with its tail between its legs, and cowed
in a way that never bull was before. Having done his duty, Rob swam
across to the southern bank, with his grandfather's stick in his teeth,
and was congratulated on his gallantry by his juvenile companions,
as also by the miller in his dusty garments, and two or three other
spectators who had collected at the spot.
From that day forward the Eshiely bull never crossed the river, nor
did he run impetuously to attack strangers passing on the highway.
The nonsense was taken out of him. As the Peebles folk said, in their
old-fashioned vernacular, he had got 'a staw'--meaning an effectual
surfeit. The proprietor of the bull affected to be angry at the way the
animal had been treated; but was only laughed at. The thing was too
ludicrous to be taken up seriously.
Were this a romance, we should describe Rob Graham as going abroad,
and like another Clive, distinguishing himself in the public service.
But all we have to relate is a simple country story, as events are
recalled by memory. Rob's extraordinary feat in taming the Eshiely
bull, and adroitly suppressing a gross local evil, met with no public
acknowledgment. He moved in too obscure a sphere to be complimented.
Rob, however, never boasted of his exploit, nor did he care for its
being mentioned. The incident is long since forgotten; perhaps not
remembered by a single person alive but the present narrator. As far
as we have heard, Rob Graham, who might be designated the 'gallant
Graham,' dropped into the position of a ploughman, from which he rose
by his industry and intelligence, to be a grieve or land-steward in the
neighbourhood. Unlearned, yet sagacious; valiant, yet docile; humble,
yet manly and independent, Rob might be accepted as a specimen of
those 'hardy sons of toil' spoken of feelingly by Burns in melodious
verse, and of whom the poet himself is recognised as having been an
illustrious example.
'Bonny Jenny Graham,' Rob's sister, is said to have been married to a
farmer in the west country, and this is all we can tell of the gem of
the old burgh school, the 'Flower of Kailzie.'
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Peg-top and marbles.
PHOTOGRAPHIC PROGRESS.
It is doubtful whether any industrial art has made such rapid strides
within the last thirty years as that of Photography. Founded upon
the simple discovery that a certain chemical salt--the chloride of
silver--becomes blackened upon exposure to light, the art has grown
step by step into an important national industry. It would be next
to impossible to estimate the number of persons who, directly and
indirectly, owe their daily bread to King Sol in his character of
Artist. A glance at the advertisement columns of one of the journals
devoted to this interest will give us some idea of the busy number of
camp-followers running in the wake of the huge army of photographic
artists of Great Britain alone. Opticians, paper-makers, chemical
manufacturers, glass-makers, cabinet-makers, besides a host of others
who supply the _et-cæteras_ of the business, vie with each other in
the adaptability of their goods. Other countries can no doubt shew a
similar list--notably France, whose paper is used by photographers
throughout the world.
Although the peculiar affinity of silver chloride for light was
discovered by Scheele just one hundred years ago, its application to
art was not recognised until the year 1839, when Daguerre in France
and Talbot in England almost simultaneously hit upon the method of
rendering permanent the pictures which had been before obtained, but
which had faded away into darkness as quickly as the daylight which
had given them birth. This discovery of _fixing_ the image, as it is
technically called, was really the starting-point of an art, samples
of which, good, bad, and indifferent, are now to be found in every
homestead in the kingdom.
The mysterious power which could seize almost instantaneously the
fleeting appearances of moving life, could not fail to take a strong
hold on the public attention. Other art-pursuits had of course
previously had numerous aspirants, but they came and went as fashions
do, without leaving any permanent good behind them. Not so photography,
which is perhaps unique in owing its present state of perfection to
the exertions and patient investigations of mere amateurs. The reason
of this unusual state of things is probably due to the fact that
photography has required a large expenditure of both time and money to
bring it to maturity; both which commodities are more plentiful with
those who have not to work for daily bread.
The earliest sun-pictures, as produced by Daguerre, and named after
him, were formed on silver plates treated with iodine. After exposure
in the camera, they were developed by the action of mercury vapour,
which attached itself to those portions of the plate which had received
the greatest amount of light. Such pictures were necessarily difficult
of multiplication, each impression requiring a separate exposure and
development. Examples of this early method of photography may still
be seen in many houses, where they have been carefully treasured as
mementoes of friends who have passed away. These pictures are by no
means of a permanent nature, the action of the air contributing with
other causes to tarnish the silver plate, and so gradually to destroy
the image thereon.
The discovery of the collodion process by Archer in 1851, quite
supplanted the previous method, and gave photography an impetus which
has carried it rapidly forward to the present date. Numerous substances
have been tried at different times to support mechanically the delicate
sun-printed image, but nothing has as yet been found to equal collodion
upon glass.
Photographic art has now become such a thing of our every-day life,
that perhaps there is scarcely an intelligent person who does not know
the difference between a negative and a positive. Every one nowadays
has his or her portrait taken at least once, and can well remember the
nervousness incidental to a first visit to the photographic studio.
Usually the photographer is kind enough to allow his anxious client a
glimpse of the picture in its earliest stage, when the lights are where
the shades ought to be, and _vice versâ_. Such is the negative, from
which any number of positives may be printed by the action of sunlight
on prepared paper placed underneath it. These silver prints (for
although the silver _plate_ is banished with the old method, chloride
of silver contained in the pores of the paper still holds its own) have
unfortunately the character of not being as permanent as they might be.
This fault is commonly attributed to carelessness in not thoroughly
eliminating the salt used in fixing the pictures; so that, by a strange
anomaly, the discovery which claimed to make our photographs permanent
is now charged with the sin of causing their ultimate deterioration.
Photographers complain that the great competition, which has led to
the adoption of low-priced work, will not permit them to give to the
washing of the prints the time and attention which permanence demands.
There are no doubt other causes at work in our heavily charged town
atmospheres which have a destructive effect on our photographs. At
anyrate, be the cause what it may, it is the rule and not the exception
to find a paper print of, say ten years old, sadly faded and generally
disfigured. Such a great disadvantage as this has met with an antidote
in the shape of a discovery which has to a certain extent superseded
the practice of silver printing. We allude to the carbon process,
which is dependent upon the curious fact that bichromatised gelatine,
after exposure to light, becomes insoluble. That is to say, a mixture
of gelatine with the bichromate of an alkali--such as the bichromate
of potash--will remain soluble so long as it is excluded from light.
Carbon in the form of lampblack, or indeed any pigment, is mixed with
this bichromatised gelatine, and paper coated therewith is exposed
under a negative in the same way as in the case of a silver print, warm
water being afterwards used to wash out those portions of the prepared
surface which the sunlight has not rendered immovable.
Such, briefly, is the mode of producing the so-called carbon pictures,
which without doubt are, as they claim to be, as lasting as the paper
on which they are printed. They are not equal, in point of brilliancy,
to the better known silver pictures, but this disadvantage is more
than counterbalanced by their good keeping qualities. The word carbon
as here used is a misnomer, for as we have already indicated, other
pigments, most of which have a metallic origin, may be used in the
process.
Photography as now practised may be classed under two general
heads--the wet process and the dry process: the first being solely
dependent upon the use of collodion and the silver bath; the other
dispensing with either or both. Hitherto, the great obstacle to the
landscape photographer has been the cumbrous nature of the impedimenta
necessary to the production of pictures at a distance from home. It
is by no means an easy matter to transport a dark tent containing a
chemical laboratory, together with a camera and the necessary supply of
water, from one place to another. Moreover, the scenes which naturally
tempt the artist lie in unfrequented, and oftentimes in almost
inaccessible places. The use of dry plates, by which the necessity of
a tent is altogether obviated, has rendered the art far more easy of
accomplishment, and has thus placed outdoor photography amongst those
pastimes which a non-professional can successfully pursue. In the wet
process the sensitive collodion plate must be exposed to the air within
a very few minutes of its removal from the silver bath, otherwise it
becomes quite useless; the object of the various dry processes being
to preserve the film in a sensitive state, so that it can be exposed
as occasion may require, and developed in the studio at a future time.
It is needless to point out that this method of photography dispenses
at once with any travelling gear except the camera and lens, and a
convenient light-tight receptacle for the sensitive plates. Many
ingenious contrivances are now used in the form of changing boxes--as
they are called--by which plates may easily be transferred to the
camera without danger of exposing them to any accidental gleam of
light. The jealousy with which a tourist naturally guards his treasured
dry plates has more than once roused the suspicions of the acute
Custom-house officer, who, in his zeal for the welfare of the revenue,
has unwittingly spoilt the produce of many days' careful work, by
insisting upon opening the strange-looking box!
Although it would be beyond the scope of this paper to enter into
detailed explanation of the manner in which dry plates are prepared,
the importance of the subject must claim some attention at our
hands. In order to render a collodion plate capable of being kept
indefinitely in a dried and sensitive condition, it is found that a
solution of some organic substance must be washed over it, and dried
with it. To enumerate all the various agents that have been employed
for this purpose, would be impossible. Tea, coffee, sugar, tannin,
gum, gelatine, with many other compounds, have each found favour with
different experimenters, and with varying success; but the last-named
substance, gelatine, is perhaps likely to supersede all the others, as
giving more satisfactory and constant results. Plates thus prepared,
although almost wholly disregarded by the professional artist, have,
on account of their portable nature, a large sale among the amateur
members of the photographic world. They are also almost exclusively
used in astronomical photography, a branch of the art to which we will
now direct the reader's attention.
It will be remembered that on the occasion of the last eclipse of
the sun, expeditions to observe it were sent out from nearly every
country of the civilised world; each expedition depending largely
upon photography as a means of recording its labours. Although the
state of the weather at many of the selected stations rendered
the apparatus useless, a great number of pictures were actually
obtained, a comparison of which set at rest certain theories relating
to appearances which had up to this time been the subject of much
discussion and speculation. No human hand could have correctly depicted
such an ever-varying object as the sun presented at this time, to say
nothing of the well-known fact that the power of correctly estimating
appearances varies so much with individuals, that a comparison of mere
drawings would be quite useless for the purpose in view. The cause of
the periodical changes in the sun's spots yet remains to be discovered;
and it is probable that the photographs which are being almost hourly
taken (having for their object the solution of this problem) will
ultimately lead to a satisfactory result.
The transit of Venus represents another important field of inquiry
in which photography has done useful work. The expeditions fitted
out two years ago, with their splendid array of modern instruments,
would compare strangely with the preparations for the investigation of
1761, when Captain Cook started on his ill-fated voyage to Otaheite.
Still more vivid does the progress of scientific research become when
we remember that the very first observation of the transit of Venus
was made one hundred years earlier, with no better apparatus than a
bit of smoked glass. When we consider that the main value of such an
observation rests upon the appearances recorded at the moments of
ingress and egress of the planet upon the sun's face, the importance
of a means for securing _instantaneous_ pictures will be appreciated.
It is true that certain optical defects exist in these pictures which
prevent their use for the purpose of reliable measurement; but these
obstacles, we trust, may be overcome by 1882, when the next transit
will be due.
The practice of micro-photography--that is, a combination of the
camera with the microscope--has lately met with some attention among
scientific men, and there are now many workers who are trying to
bring it into the prominence which it deserves. Formerly, drawings of
microscopic preparations could only be secured by means of a prism
(or camera lucida, as it is called), fitted on to the eyepiece of the
microscope, by which means an enlarged spectral image of the object
became apparent on a sheet of paper placed near the instrument; the
lines thus exhibited being rendered serviceable by the careful use
of the lead-pencil. It is obvious that such means afforded a very
imperfect representation of the image as it really appeared in the
field of the microscope, even if the operator possessed some amount of
artistic skill; but now, by the aid of the camera, a picture of the
most unfailing accuracy can be secured in a fraction of a second. Such
rapidity is only required, however, where the object is of a fluid or
animated nature, as in the case of moving organisms. We venture to
think that there is a great future in store for micro-photography.
One of the most recent applications of photography to scientific uses
is exemplified in its adaptation to the spectroscope, by which we are
furnished with evidence of the composition of the heavenly bodies.
Any account of this marvellous device we must, however, leave for a
future paper. In the fine and useful arts, photography now plays an
important part. Portraits, life size, executed in oil, are successfully
painted from small photographic likenesses, at a comparatively small
cost; and with this important advantage, that the likeness in every
case is unchallengeable. This may be considered a great triumph in the
photographic art.
This power of enlargement to any reasonable dimensions is a great
addition to the resources of the photographer; and it is not alone
confined to portraiture, as the numerous large-sized landscapes
constantly exhibited will testify. In former times, when the lenses
then in use were capable of including but a small portion of a view,
the only way to secure large pictures was to take them in sections,
and afterwards to join the paper prints. The lines of junction were
naturally a great disfigurement to the finished result, to say nothing
of the extra labour which such mode of proceeding involved. The
impossibility of preserving the exact tone of colour in these different
sections through all the vicissitudes of printing, toning, and fixing,
was also enough to condemn the process. These difficulties have been
altogether obviated by the construction of lenses which will include
any amount of the view before which they are placed, and which moreover
give a picture so perfect in detail as to admit of being greatly
magnified without injury to its beauty. The enlargement is now carried
out by a copying camera of the form of the well-known magic lantern,
and lighted by an oxy-hydrogen or magnesium burner. The negative takes
the place of the ordinary painted slide, and the enlarged image is
projected upon a sensitive surface.
Perhaps the greatest problem which the photographer has to solve is
the production of landscapes with their natural canopy of clouds. This
difficulty will be understood when we explain that the sky being such
a brilliant object, requires but a very small fraction of the exposure
which is demanded by the grass and trees beneath it. The plan generally
adopted is to secure a separate negative for each of these component
parts of the picture, and to join them mechanically previous to the
operation of printing. The beautiful instantaneous marine studies which
we all admire--and which represent the clouds in every variety of
form--are produced without this double exposure; for it is obvious that
the reflective property of water confers equal brightness on all parts
of the view.
The production of photographic pictures in printing-ink by means of the
press is now receiving a great deal of attention. Most of the processes
adopted owe their origin to the effective mixture of gelatine and
bichromate of potash. It will be necessary to explain that the gelatine
so treated is not only--after exposure to light--rendered insoluble,
but it becomes quite non-absorbent of water. This property is taken
advantage of in the following manner. A thick plate of glass or metal
coated with the mixture is exposed under a negative, and afterwards
placed for a time in cold water. It is then found that those parts
of the plate which represent the lights of the picture remain flat;
whilst the other portions which have been protected from the light
swell up into high-relief. The plate can then be rolled with ordinary
printing-ink, and impressions taken to any reasonable amount.
Space will not permit us to detail the various modifications of this
process which exist under different designations. Metal plates can
now, by a very similar treatment, be made ready for the etching acid.
Wood-blocks which no artist but the sun has touched, can be given
to the engraver ready to his hand. The lithographic printer is also
independent of the draughtsman, for absolutely perfect fac-similes
of maps, plans, &c.; line-subjects can also be produced in endless
quantity.
The applications of this wonderful art are already legion, and are so
continually receiving additions, that we may hope that its sphere of
usefulness will be extended beyond all present calculation. As a means
of livelihood for thousands, its importance in a commercial sense is
invaluable, while as the handmaid of the philosopher, it fulfils a
higher duty, in helping us by sure and certain steps to the attainment
of scientific truth.
THE LAST OF THE HADDONS.
CHAPTER XI.--CROSS-PURPOSES.
Our journey back to Fairview was a very silent one. Under the plea of
being tired, Lilian lay back in the railway carriage with her eyes
closed and veil down. I did not disturb her, and for the best of
reasons: I could think of nothing very cheering which could be honestly
said. Marian Reed was an unpleasant fact, which could not be argued out
of existence, nor even smoothed over by all the words in the dictionary
combined. The carriage was waiting for us at the railway station; and
only just as we arrived at Fairview did I venture to speak: 'Are you
going to tell Mrs Tipper to-night, Lilian?'
'Yes. And you will help me, will you not, Mary? I shall depend upon
that;' clinging closer to me, and feeling, I knew, terribly in need of
help.
'Of course I will, if you wish it, Lilian. But I must stipulate that
you first come to my room and rest for an hour.'
She obeyed me like a child--utterly worn out in spirit, holding my
hand fast in hers as she lay on the couch, and murmuring every now and
again: 'Help me, Mary; don't leave me.'
'Since I have promised, I suppose I must, my dear,' I replied in a
rallying tone. 'But I do not generally care much about helping people
who do not help themselves.'
She yielded to a burst of tears.
'That's better, dear--far more sensible,' I remarked, wiping my own
eyes: 'one generally gets on more comfortably after availing one's self
of that privilege.'
'Privilege?'