Preface

SIR WALTER SCOTT
! Guy
ame Mannering
a ii
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EVERYMAN, 1 will go with thee, and be thy guide,
In thy most need to go by thy side
SIR WALTER SCOTT
Born at Edinburgh in 1771. Called to the Bar, 1792; Sheriff-depute of Selkirk, 1799; Prin- cipal Clerk of Session, 1812. Moved to Abbots- ford in 1812, and died there on 21st September 1832. Ruined in 1826 by the failure of Messrs Constable & Ballantyne, but he worked off the greater part of his indebtedness and his execu- tors were able to settle the balance after his death. Created a baronet in 1820.
Sin Wal LER (SCOTT
Guy Mannering
PREFACE AND GLOSSARY BY W. M. PARKER
M.B.E., HON. M.A. (EDINBURGH)
DENT: LONDON FVERYMAN’S LIBRARY DUTTON: NEW YORK
All rights reserved Made in Great Britain at the Aldine Press + Letchworth + Herts for J. M. DENT & SONS ie Aldine House - Bedford Street - London First included in Everyman’s Library 1906 Last reprinted 1968
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PREPACE
It is remarkable that Guy Mannering, the second of the Waverley Novels, should ever have emerged from the super- abundant literary activities in which Scott was immersed in 1814-15. More surprising is the fact that when it did emerge it proved to be a novel into which Scott distilled many of his distinctive features as a novelist. During 1814 he had written the greater part of the Life of Swift, most of Waverley and The Lord of the Isles, had contributed essays to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and had edited The Memorie of the Somerviiles. Before The Lord of the Isles was published on 18th January 1815 two volumes of Guy Mannering were in print, and on 23rd December 1814 Scott had written to his lawyer friend, John Richardson: ‘You will see a new work advertized by the Author of Waverley. I am told it is from materials put into his hand by a friend—this entre nous.’ He was more explicit when writing to J. B. S. Morritt on 19th January 1815: ‘I want to shake myself free of Waverley and accordingly have made a considerable exertion to finish an odd little tale within such time as will mystify the public I trust unless they suppose me to be Briareus. Two volumes are already printed.... It is a tale of private life and only varied by the perilous exploits of smugglers and excisemen.’ Referring to the novel two years later he confessed to John Ballantyne: ‘That work is one of the best of the kind.’ According to Lockhart’s report of what Scott himself had said more than once, Guy Mannering ‘was the work of six weeks at a Christmas.’ Published anonymously in three volumes on 24th February 1815, the first edition of 2,000 copies was sold out the day after publica- tion, and 3,000 more were disposed of in three months.
In this romance Scott forsook purely historical fiction and essayed, as he said, ‘a tale of private life.’ The reader’s interest is held at the very beginning of the narrative by an immediate directness. Indeed, none of the Waverleys opens so felicitously or so clearly. It is also worthy of remark that Scott anticipated Thomas Hardy’s well-known opening formula of placing a solitary figure in the landscape. In G. P. R. James’s romances, too, the openings always have the familiar feature of ‘a solitary horseman.’
The early scenes take place during the first five years of Harry Bertram’s life, 1760-5. The main incidents occur sixteen years later when Colonel Mannering and Vanbeest
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Brown return from India, occupying a few months of 1781-2. The scene is chiefly laid in Galloway and the coast of the Solway Firth, but episodes also occur in Westmorland, Lid- desdale, and Edinburgh. The period is the middle of the eighteenth century.
Guy Mannering is a young Englishman travelling on horse- back through Scotland. Belated one night, he is hospitably received at New Place, the home of the Laird of Ellangowan. When Ellangowan learns that the young man has studied astrology he begs him to cast the horoscope of his son, born that very night. The young man, fulfilling his promise, is dismayed to find two possible catastrophes overhanging the boy: one at his fifth, the other at his twenty-first, year. He tells the father, however, what he has discovered in order that he\may have due warning, and later proceeds on his way.
The fortunes of the Laird of Ellangowan, Godfrey Bertram, are now on the ebb, and he has hardly got enough money to keep up his estate. His troubles are increased when his son Harry, at the age of five, is spirited away. No one knows whether the child is dead or alive, and the shock kills Mrs Bertram. After some years the father himself dies, leaving his penniless daughter Lucy to the care of Dominie Sampson, an old teacher and a devoted friend of the family.
When things are at their worst for Lucy, Guy Mannering, returning to England after many years’ military service in India, hears accidentally of the straits to which she is reduced. He at once invites her and Dominie Sampson to make their home with him and his daughter Julia. He has leased a fine estate, and Dominie Sampson rejoices in the great collection of books to which Colonel Mannering gives him free access. Sampson’s joy at the sight of the volumes was expressed in the word he so often used to convey astonishment: ‘Pro-di-gi-ous!’
In India Julia had formed an attachment for Vanbeest Brown, a young officer, against whom her father feels a strong prejudice. Captain Brown has followed the Mannerings to England, and, to make a long story short, is proved in the end to be the long-lost Harry Bertram, and Lucy’s brother. The abduction had been accomplished with the connivance of Meg Merrilies, a gipsy of striking aspect and six feet tall; of Frank Kennedy, a smuggler; Dirk Hatteraick, a Dutch sea- captain also concerned in smuggling; and of Gilbert Glossin, once agent for the Laird of Ellangowan. Glossin had aimed to get possession of the Laird’s property, and finally succeeded; but after the discovery of his crime, he dies a violent death in prison.
The material for Guy Mannering was gathered by Scott from various quarters. To Mrs Russell, the wife of James Russell, Professor of Clinical Surgery in Edinburgh University,
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and the daughter of William Oliver of Dinlabyre, near Castle- ton, Liddesdale, he often went for information about Liddes- dale local customs. Joseph Train supplied him with the Galloway tale of the wandering astrologer and several gipsy traditions. Scott had heard a similar story from John MacKinlay, his father’s Highland servant. But the Duvham Garland, with which Scott became acquainted in boyhood, afforded more of the main subject of Gwy Mannering than either Train’s or MacKinlay’s narratives.
More than one source formed the basis for the tale of the long-lost heir. There was the Dormont case, which Scott had recently heard in court where he attended as Clerk of Session. One Carruthers of Dormont suspected his wife’s fidelity. During divorce proceedings Mrs Carruthers bore a daughter of whom Carruthers was legally the father. He would not see the child, however, and sent her to be brought up in the secluded Cheviot Hills. Somehow she learned the secret of her story. Marrying a Mr Rutledge, and becoming embar- rassed financially, she compounded her rights for ready money to old Dormont. After bearing a son, the parents died in poverty. The boy was sent to India and was given a bundle of papers which he left unopened at a lawyer’s. In India he made a fortune, and then, retiring to Scotland, he took a shooting-lodge in Dumfriesshire near Dormont, his ancestral home. Ata village inn, in which he lodged, the landlady told him his family history. He knew nothing of the facts dis- closed, but, impressed by her tale, he sent for, and examined, his neglected packet of papers, Seeking legal opinion, he was advised by President Blair, then Solicitor-General, that he had a claim on the Dormont estate worth presenting to the court. The decision was favourable, and the true heir celebrated his victory by a dinner party at which his friends saluted him as ‘Dormont.’ Next morning he was found dead, having broken a blood vessel during the night. It is not impossible that this case was the germ from which grew Scott’s story of the missing heir.
But perhaps the nearest approach to an original foundation for the novel was the famous Annesley case, in which claim was made to the title and estates of the earldom of Anglesey. When Lockhart was at work on his Life of Scott he received a manuscript account of the case from Gilbert James French, the miscellaneous writer. The chronicle stated that James Annesley was the heir and only son of Lord and Lady Altham. The child was entrusted to the care of a woman of an in- different character named Joan or Juggy Landy in a cabin. Afterwards this woman incurred the displeasure of Lord Altham, who ordered her to be horsewhipped whenever she appeared near his house of Dunmain.
Lord Altham was loose, profligate, and in debt. He now
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associated with an abandoned woman named Gregory whom he ultimately acknowledged as his wife. Very reduced in circumstances, he was eventually induced to sell part of his reversionary interest in the property of the Earl of Anglesey (to whom he was next heir). The son being a minor was a legal obstacle to this sale, but with the aid of Gregory and his brother Captain Annesley, the boy was abandoned and an account of his death circulated.
The boy was driven to the streets of Dublin and there he associated with the poorest. As an outcast he saw from a distance his father’s funeral. Captain Annesley was refused the title of Baron Altham because the son was reported alive, but he soon found means to have the title registered. The boy was then placed under the protection of one Purcell, a butcher. However, he was ultimately, at twelve years of age, sent to America, where he was sold as a plantation slave and kept at hard labour for thirteen years. During the boy’s absence the uncle, Captain Annesley, succeeded to the title and estates of the Earl of Anglesey. Meanwhile, the boy experienced hard times and nearly lost his life several times.
At the end of thirteen years, at the age of twenty-five, young Annesley escaped to Jamaica. There he volunteered as a private sailor under Admiral Vernon. On recounting his career, he was identified by several officers. The admiral wrote an account of the case to the Duke of Newcastle and supplied him with clothes and money. The uncle now en- gaged lawyers to defend his usurped possessions and a cause, the prosecution of which was not as yet even threatened. When the boy arrived in Dublin he was recognized by old servants. The Earl of Anglesey became so seriously alarmed that he had thoughts of a compromise, but an occurrence took place which made him change his tactics.
Young Annesley, soon after his arrival in England, occa- sioned the death of a man from the accidental discharge of a fowling-piece. The uncle tried to obtain his conviction, but he failed, and Annesley was honourably acquitted.
The great trial between James Annesley and Richard, Earl of Anglesey, took place in Dublin on r1th November 1743, and lasted thirteen days. The jury returned a verdict in favour of the plaintiff. Yet the earl by his influence procured a writ of error and the verdict was set aside. The remainder of James Annesley’s life was spent in fruitless efforts to establish his claim. ‘He died in 1760 and left two daughters and a son, the latter of whom died in his seventh year in 1763.’ The earldom continued with the uncle, who was now undisputed heir.
G. J. French adds: ‘I have endeavoured to give the shortest possible account of this singular story, and the points of resemblance to the chief incidents in the life of Bertram in
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Guy Mannering appear so obvious and so striking as to require neither enumeration nor comment. Besides the general resemblance of the plot of Guy Mannering to the adventures of Annesley, it is curious to observe that Sir Walter Scott has made use of the names of many of the witnesses at the trial for the characters introduced in the romance,’ e.g. Henry Brown in the history and Henry Bertram and Vanbeest Brown the real and assumed names of the hero in Guy Mannering. Again, there are the names of Barnes and Kennedy in both. One of the witnesses was a priest named Abel Builer, hence Abel Sampson in Guy Mannering and Reuben Builer in The Heart of Midlothian are both clergymen. Gifford, the rascally attorney, is nearly allied in character and name to Glossin, and Jans is a confederate and friend of Gifford, while Jans Janson is the assumed name of Glossin’s friend and confederate, Dirk Hatteraick. Moreover, there are Avthuy Lord Altham and Mr McMullan, corresponding with Arthur Melville, Esq., and Mr McMorlan.
During the trial a witness used a remarkable expression. ‘In reference to Annesley, he asserted that “‘he was the right hety if vight might take place.’’ The motto of the Bertram family, “our vight makes our might,’’ though different in sense, is curiously similar in sound.’ Several other similar resemblances seem to hint that Sir Walter must have been indebted to this ‘true history.’
French’s own view is, that Scott heard or read an account in early years and that the incidents remained dormant in his mind until he commenced writing the romance. In the 1829 Introduction Scott mentions an astrological story communi- cated by his father’s old servant, John MacKinlay, and states that ‘in the progress of the work the production ceased to have any, even the most distantresemblance’ toit. The story given above may have floated confusedly in his memory. ‘When the train of recollection was once fired the incidents would probably rush upon his mind with the force and impetuosity of a mountain stream after a mountain storm. It is easy to imagine the physical exertion necessary to keep pace with a mind so acted upon and which his biographer has described with so happy and graphic a pen.’
As authorities for the statement he made, French mentions The Gentleman’s Magazine, the 14th volume containing the numbers for the year 1747, for a very full report of the ‘Great Trial,’ and the preceding or 13th volume for extracts from ‘The Life of an unfortunate young nobleman,’ a book published about that period which appears to have excited considerable interest. The subject is also noticed in Sharpe’s and probably in other peerages under the article ‘Mountnorris.’ Tobias Smollett introduces the story as an episode in his Peregvine Pickle, but ‘for very evident reasons suppresses the names of
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the parties, but gives the initial and terminal letters.’1 In addition to French’s citations, it may be mentioned that the subject is discussed thoroughly in the Introduction to The Annesley Case, edited by Andrew Lang, in the Notable English Trials Series (1912), pp. 1-79. Another reputed groundwork of the novel is the story of the missing heir of Orcharton in Miss Goldie’s Family Recollections.
All told, there are fewer than twoscore characters in Guy Mannering. The most compelling of them are the quartet of subordinates: Dandie Dinmont,, Dominie Sampson, Meg Merrilies, and Paulus Pleydell. (according to Scott in his letter to Daniel Terry on 18th April 1816, it was at a law circuit that he was introduced to one who might well have been Dandie’s prototype, ‘a man whom I never saw in my life before, namely, the proprietor of all the Pepper and Mustard ? family—in other words, the genuine Dandie Dinmont} Dandie is himself modest, and says “‘he b’lives it’s only dougs that is in the buik, and no himsel’.’”... In truth, I knew nothing of the man except his odd humour of having only two names for twenty dogs.... Jamie Davidson of Hyndlea certainly looks Dandie Dinmont remarkably well. He is much flattered with the compliment, and goes uniformly by the name among his comrades, but has never read the book. Ailie used to read it to him, but it set him to sleep.’ ®
Scott’s friend, Robert Shortreed, who accompanied him in his Liddesdale raids, thought that Willie Elliot of Millburn- holm was the great original of Dandie Dinmont. Lockhart’s comment on Shortreed’s claim was: ‘There can be little doubt that he sat for some parts of the portrait.’ Lockhart himself thought that Dandie’s ménage was suggested by Scott’s friends, the Laidlaws of Blackhouse in Yarrow. Other claims advanced by Robert Chambers and others were for Mungo Park’s brother Archie of Lewinshope on the Yarrow, and John Thorburn of Juniper Bank near Walkerburn, Peeblesshire. But, even when all these conjectures have been considered, Dandie remains a composite portrait of many a Border farmer common at the time. Indeed, in a note to the novel Scott declared explicitly that the character was drawn from no particular person.
Robert Chambers found the prototype of Dominie Sampson, that uncouth, honest pedant, who has traits akin to those of Fielding’s Parson Adams, in a James Sanson, tutor in the house of Thomas Scott, Sir Walter’s uncle. But a more plausible claimant is George Thomson, a dominie with the
1 French’s communication is MS. 934, No. 78, in the National Library of Scotland.
2 The generic names of Dandie’s breed of terriers. Scott’s own terriers received the names of Mustard, Pepper, Spice, etc.
3 Letters of Sir Walter Scott, vol. iv (1933), pp. 216-17.
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same kindliness, absent-mindedness, and eccentricities as Abel Sampson possessed. Thomson tutored Scott’s sons for some years at Abbotsford. But he and Sampson differed in certain characteristics. It was not so much in appearance as in disposition that Scott drew upon Thomson for the odd scholar of Guy Mannering. At all events, the Dominie’s figure has made an immeasurable contribution to the immortality of the romance.
No doubt can be entertained regarding the original of Meg Merrilies, the gipsy eccentric with similarities to Madge Wildfire in the Heart of Midlothian. In a letter to J. W. Croker in 1826 Scott alludes to ‘Jean Gordon, the prototype of Meg Merrilies.’1 Jean Gordon was a gipsy native of Kirk- Yetholm, Roxburghshire. The claims made for Flora Marshall, a Galloway gipsy, and Margaret Euston, the wife of Matthew Baillie, to be Meg’s originals can be dismissed as unlikely. The laying of Meg’s curse upon the house of Ellan- gowan (chap. viii), beginning with ‘Ride your ways, ride your ways, Laird of Ellangowan,’ has become a passage of classic prose.
For Paulus Pleydell, the Edinburgh advocate of the novel, Scott admitted that ‘my old friend Adam Rolland... was in the external circumstances, but not in frolick or fancy, my prototype for Paul Pleydell.’? Apart from the fact that Rolland was an Edinburgh lawyer, there is little resemblance between him and ‘High Jinks’ Pleydell. Rolland’s nephew, of the same name, was Scott’s colleague in the Court of Session. Another original put forward was Andrew Crosbie, an advocate, and a patron of ‘High Jinks,’ but as Crosbie had been dead thirty years before Gwy Mannering was published, Scott cannot have known him personally. Crosbie knew both Dr Johnson and James Boswell. He was a most convivial man who frequented several Edinburgh taverns. Scott modelled Julia Mannering on his wife, Charlotte Carpenter. To Lockhart is due the information that Tod Gabbie was studied from Tod Willie, the huntsman of the hills above Loch Skene, Dum- friesshire.
On the whole, the localities of Guy Mannering are less identifiable than is usual in the Waverleys. The monastic ruins described in the opening chapter may have been suggested by Sweetheart Abbey, or Lincluden, both in Kirkcud- brightshire. Caerlaverock Castle, Dumfriesshire, is con- sidered the original of Ellangowan Auld Place, the ancestral home of the Bertrams, though the castle’s surroundings do not correspond with the environment of Ellangowan. The coastline near Glencaple approximates roughly to Portanferry.
1 Letters of Sir Walter Scott, vol. ix (1935), P. 474. 2Scott’s Journal (1950), p. 679.
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A notch in a hill, near Wigtown Bay, called ‘Nick of the Doon,’ has been assigned by local tradition as the place where Meg Merrilies pronounced her malediction upon the Laird of Ellangowan. Not far off is the supposed locality in which Scott placed Dirk Hatteraick’s Cave. When Scott returned from the English Lakes to Scotland in 1797 he passed through Cumberland to Gilsland. This is the route by which Harry Bertram makes his return to Scotland. Not far from the remains of Amboglanna, in Gilsland village, there was formerly a small alehouse which used to be pointed out as Mump’s Ha’. The inn was kept by Margaret Carrick and then by her granddaughter, Margaret Teasdale, both of them haying been buried at Over-Denton, a mile away.
None of Scott’s novels shows better constructive skill than Guy Mannering, and two features impress the reader: the dewy freshness as of a fine spring morning and the idyllic nature descriptions. As an example of the last-named, the reader should turn to the word picture of the groves of Warroch (chap. liii).
There have been various stage versions of the novel. The first was an adaptation by Daniel Terry, the earliest of what Scott called ‘Terry-fying,’ which was produced at Covent Garden in 1816. Bishop composed the music, of which the most familiar item was the medley overture. One of the songs was Scott’s ‘Lullaby of An Infant Chief.’ The same drama- tization was played at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, in 1817, with later Edinburgh revivals in 1842, 1847, 1849, 1852; 1856, 1859, and 1867. It continued to be given intermittently in London until 1883, and was also produced in New York in 1818. Another adaptation by J. R. Planché, entitled The Witch of Derncleugh, was performed at the English Opera House in 1821, in which year, also, Douglas Jerrold’s version, The Gipsy of Derncleugh, was produced at Sadler’s Wells. Two operas, based on the novel, were familiar in the reper- toires of French operatic productions. One was La Sorciéve; ou, VOrphelin Ecossats by Victor and Frédéric at the Gaieté, Paris, in 1821, and, one of the greatest successes of French opéva-comique, ‘La Dame Blanche, the text by Eugéne Scribe and the music by A. F. Boieldieu, first produced in Rouen in 1826; it was revived at the Opéra- Comique, Paris, in 1926.
The manuscript of Guy Mannering passed through several hands before it found a home in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Scott gave the manuscript to Constable in 1823, and in 1831 it was bought for {27 tos. by Thorpe, the bookseller, on commission for Richard Heber, the famous book-collector. At the Heber sale in 1836 it was sold for £63. It was supposed to have been bought for the Duke of Devon- shire. The Earl of Clare, however, may have been the pur- chaser, as R. R. V. Cavendish, to whom the Earl of Clare
Select Bibliography Xili
bequeathed it in 1863, suggested. Cavendish sold the manu- script when he came of age in 1881, and Henry Stevens bought it for Junius Spencer Morgan, the American international banker, who, in 1882, presented it to his son, John Pierpont Morgan.
W. M. ParKErR.
1957-
SELECT. BIBLIOGRAPHY
POETRY. Collected editions: The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, ed. J. G. Lockhart, in any edition.
Separate Works: The Chase, and William and Helen (from the German of G. A. Burger), 1796; Goetz of Berlichingen (from the German of Goethe), 1799; The Eve of St John, 1800; The Lay of the Last Minstrel, 1805; Ballads and Lyrical Pieces, 1806; Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, 1808; The Lady of the Lake; a Poem, 1810; The Vision of Don Roderick, 1811; Rokeby ; a Poem, 1813; The Bridal of Triermain, or The Vale of St John, 1813; The Lord of the Isles; a Poem, 1815; The Field of Waterloo; a Poem, 1815; Harold the Dauntless ; a Poem, 1817; Halidon Hill; a Dramatic Sketch, 1822; The Doom of Devorgoil, A Melodrama, 1830; Auchindrane, or, The Ayrshire Tragedy, 1830; New Love Poems by Sir Walter Scoit, ed. D. Cook, 1932.
NOVELS AND TALES. Collected editions: Waverley Novels (Everyman’s Library), 25 vols., 1906, etc.; Oxford edition, 24 vols., 1914, etc.
Separate Works: Waverley, or ’Tis Sixty Years Since, 1814; Guy Man- nering, or The Astrologer, 1815; The Antiquary, 1816; Tales of My Landlord (first series, The Black Dwarf and Old Mortahty), 1816; Tales of My Land- lord (second series, Heart of Midlothian), 1818; Rob Roy, 1817; Tales of My Landlord (third series, The Bride of Lammermoor and A Legend of Montrose), 1819; Ivanhoe, a Romance, 1820; The Monastery, a Romance, 1820; The Abbot, 1820; Kenilworth, a Romance, 1821; The Pirate, 1822; The Fortunes of Nigel, 1822; Peveril of the Peak, 1822; Quentin Durward, 1823; St Ronan’s Well, 1824; Redgauntlet; a tale of the eighteenth century, 1824; Tales of the Crusaders (The Betrothed and The Talisman), 1825; Woodstock: or, The Cavalier, 1826; Chronicles of the Canongate (first series, The Highland Widow, The Two Drovers, and The Surgeon’s Daughter), 1827; My Aunt Margaret’s Mirror, The Tapestried Chamber, and The Laird’s Jock (in The Keepsake), 1828; Chronicles of the Cannongate (second series, St Valentine’s Day: or The Faw Maid of Perth), 1828; Anne of Geierstein: or The Maiden of the Mist, 1829; Tales of My Landlord (fourth series, Count Robert of Paris and Castle Dangerous), 1832.
MISCELLANEOUS PROSE WORKS. Collected edition: The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, 28 vols., 1834-6.
Separate Works: Contributions to Edinburgh Review, Quarterly Review, and Foreign Quarterly Review (details in Lockhart’s Life); Biographical Memoir of John Leyden, M.D. (Edinburgh Annual Register for 1811); The Eyrbiggia Saga (in Illustrations of Northern Antiquities), 1814; articles ‘Chivalry’ and ‘Drama’ in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1814; review of Jane Austen’s Emma (Quarterly Review, Oct. 1815); Historical Sketches (Edin- burgh Annual Register) 1814-15; Paul’s Letters to his Kinsfolk, 1816; Provincial Antiquities of Scotland, 1819-26; Description of the Regalia of
XIV Select Bibliography
Scotland, 1819; Account of the Coronation of George IV, 1821; Lives of the Novelists (prefixed to Ballantyne’s Novelists’ Library), 1821-4; (Every- man’s Library) 1910; article ‘Romance’ in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1822; Character of the late Lord Byron (in The Pamphleteer, vol. xxiv), 1824; Thoughts on the Proposed Change of Currency from Malachi Malagrowther, 1826; Character of Frederick, Duke of York (subjoined to An Account of The Death of Frederick, Duke of York, by J. Sykes), 1827; The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, 9 vols., 1827; Religious Discourses, By a Layman, 1828; Tales of a Grandfather (four series, 1828-31); History of Scotland (in Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia), 1829-30; Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, 1830; Essays on Chivalry, Romance, and the Drama, 1868.
LETTERS. Edited by H. J. C. Grierson, W. M. Parker, and others, 12 vols., 1932-7.
JOURNAL. Edited by D. Douglas, 2 vols., 1890; re-edited by J. G. Tait and W. M. Parker, 3 vols., 1939-46; 1 vol., 1950.
Besides editing Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802-3; ed. T. Hen- derson, 1931), and many other works, Sir Walter Scott contributed Lives to the Works of John Dryden (18 vols., 1808) and to the Works of Jonathan Swift (19 vols., 1814); also an edition of Somers’s Tracts, 13 vols., 1809-15.
BIOGRAPHY. J. Hogg: Domestic Manners and Private Life of Sir W. Scott, 1834; 3rd ed., 1909; J. G. Lockhart: Memoirs of The Life of Sir Walter Scott, 7 vols., 1837-8; 10 vols., 1839; Everyman’s Library, 1906; G. Saints- bury: Sir Walter Scott, 1897; John Buchan: Sir Walter Scott, 1932; E. A. Baker: History of the English Novel, V1, 1935; H. J. C. Grierson: Sir Walter Scott, anew Life, 1938; Dame Una Pope Hennessy: The Laird of Abbotsford, 1932; H. J.C. Grierson: Sir Walter Scott, a new Life, 1938; Hesketh Pearson:
Walter Scott, His Life and Personality, 1954; D. Davie: The Heyday of Sir Walter Scott, 1961; C. Kerth: Author of Waverley: Sir Walter Scott, 1964.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. W. Ruff: A Bibliography of the Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, 1796-1832, 1938; J. C. Corson: Bibliography of Sir Walter Scott, 1943.
INTRODUCTION
Tue Novel or Romance of WAVERLEY made its way to the public slowly, of course, at first, but afterwards with such accumulating popularity as to encourage the author to a second attempt. He looked about for a name and a subject ; and the manner in which the novels were composed cannot be better illustrated than by reciting the simple narrative on which ‘‘Guy Mannering” was originally founded; but to which, in the progress of the work, the production ceased to bear any, even the most distant resemblance. The tale was originally told me by an old servant of my father’s, an excellent old Highlander, without a fault, unless a preference to mountain-dew over less potent liquors be accounted one. He believed as firmly in the story, as in any part of his creed.
A grave and elderly person, according to old John MacKinlay’s account, while travelling in the wilder parts of Galloway, was benighted. With difficulty he found his way to a country-seat, where, with the hospitality of the time and country, he was readily admitted. The owner of the house, a gentleman of good fortune, was much struck by the reverend appearance of his guest, and apologised to him for a certain degree of confusion which must unavoidably attend his recep- tion, and could not escape his eye. The lady of the house was, he said, confined to her apartment, and on the point of making her husband a father for the first time, though they had been ten years married. At such an emergency, the Laird said, he feared his guest might meet with some apparent neglect.
“Not so, sir,” said the stranger; ‘‘my wants are few, and easily supplied, and I trust the present circumstances may even afford an opportunity of showing my gratitude for your hospitality. Let me only request that I may be informed of the exact minute of the birth; and I hope to be able to put you in possession of some particulars, which may influence, in an important manner, the future prospects of the child now about to come into this busy and changeful world. I
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4 Introduction
will not conceal from you that I am skilful in understanding and interpreting the movements of those planetary bodies which exert their influences on the destiny of mortals. It is a science which I do not practise, like others who call them- selves astrologers, for hire or reward ; for I have a competent estate, and only use the knowledge I possess for the benefit of those in whom I feel an interest.” The Laird bowed in respect and gratitude, and the stranger was accommodated with an apartment which commanded an ample view of the astral regions.
The guest spent a part of the night in ascertaining the position of the heavenly bodies, and calculating their prob- able influence; until at length the result of his observations induced him to send for the father, and conjure him, in the most solemn manner, to cause the assistants to retard the birth, if practicable, were it but for five minutes. The answer declared this to be impossible; and almost in the instant that the message was returned, the father and his guest were made acquainted with the birth of a boy.
The Astrologer on the morrow met the party who gathered around the breakfast table, with looks so grave and ominous, as to alarm the fears of the father, who had hitherto exulted in the prospects held out by the birth of an heir to his ancient property, failing which event it must haye passed to a distant branch of the family. He hastened to draw the stranger into a private room.
‘“‘T fear from your looks,” said the father, “that you have bad tidings to tell me of my young stranger; perhaps God will resume the blessing He has bestowed ere he attains the age of manhood, or perhaps he is destined to be unworthy of the affection which we are naturally disposed to devote to our offspring.”
“Neither the one nor the other,” answered the stranger ; “unless my judgment greatly err, the infant will survive the years of minority, and in temper and disposition will prove all that his parents can wish. But with much in his horoscope which promises many blessings, there is one evil influence strongly predominant, which threatens to subject him to an unhallowed and unhappy temptation about the time when he shall attain the age of twenty-one, which period, the constella- tions intimate, will be the crisis of his fate. In what shape, or with what peculiar urgency, this temptation may beset him, my art cannot discover.”
Introduction 5
“Your knowledge, then, can afford us no defence,” said the anxious father, ‘‘against the threatened evil?”
‘*Pardon me,” answered the stranger, “it can. The in- fluence of the constellations is powerful: but He, who made the heavens, is more powerful than all, if His aid be invoked in sincerity and truth. You ought to dedicate this boy to the immediate service of his Maker, with as much sincerity as Samuel was devoted to the worship in the Temple by his parents. You must regard him as a being separated from the rest of the world. In childhood, in boyhood, you must surround him with the pious and virtuous, and protect him, to the utmost of your power, from the sight or hearing of any crime, in word or action. He must be educated in religious and moral principles of the strictest description. Let him not enter the world, lest he learn to partake of its follies, or perhaps of its vices. In short, preserve him as far as possible from all sin, save that of which too great a portion belongs to all the fallen race of Adam. With the approach of his twenty-first birthday comes the crisis of his fate. If he survive it, he will be happy and prosperous on earth, and a chosen vessel among those elected for heaven. But if it be otherwise ”——The Astrologer stopped, and sighed deeply.
“Sir,” replied the parent, still more alarmed than before, ‘your words are so kind, your advice so serious, that I will pay the deepest attention to your behests; but can you not aid me further in this most important concern? Believe me, I will not be ungrateful.”
‘*T require and deserve no gratitude for doing a good action,” said the stranger, “in especial for contributing all that lies in my power to save from an abhorred fate the harmless infant to whom, under a singular conjunction of planets, last night gave life. There is my address; you may write to me from time to time concerning the progress of the boy in religious knowledge. If he be bred up as I advise, I think it will be best that he come to my house at the time when the fatal and decisive period approaches, that is, before he has attained his twenty-first year complete. If you send him such as I desire, I humbly trust that God will protect His own, through whatever strong temptation his fate may subject him to.” He then gave his host his address, which was a country-seat near a post town in the south of England, and bid him an affectionate farewell.
The mysterious stranger departed, but his words remained
6 Introduction
impressed upon the mind of the anxious parent. He lost his lady while his boy was still in infancy. This calamity, I think had been predicted by the Astrologer; and thus his confi- dence, which, like most people of the period, he had freely given to the science, was riveted and confirmed. The utmost care, therefore, was taken to carry into effect the severe and almost ascetic plan of education which the sage had enjoined. A tutor of the strictest principles was employed to superintend the youth’s education ; he was surrounded by domestics of the most established character, and closely watched and looked after by the anxious father himself.
The years of infancy, childhood, and boyhood, passed as the.father could have wished. A young Nazarene could not have been bred up with more rigour. All that was evil was withheld from his observation—he only heard what was pure in precept—he only witnessed what was worthy in practice.
But when the boy began to be lost in the youth, the atten- tive father saw cause for alarm. Shades of sadness, which gradually assumed a darker character, began to overcloud the young man’s temper. Tears, which seemed involuntary, broken sleep, moonlight wanderings, and a melancholy for which he could assign no reason, seemed to threaten at once his bodily health, and the stability of his mind. The Astro- loger was consulted by letter, and returned for answer, that this fitful state of mind was but the commencement of his trial, and that the poor youth must undergo more and more desperate struggles with the evil that assailed him. There was no hope of remedy, save that he showed steadiness of mind in the study of the Scriptures. ‘He suffers,” continued the letter of the sage, ‘from the awakening of those harpies, the passions, which have slept with him as with others, till the period of life' which he has now attained. Better, far better, that they torment him by ungrateful cravings, than that he should have to repent having satiated them by criminal indulgence.”
The dispositions of the young man were so excellent, that he combated, by reason and religion, the fits of gloom which at times overcast his mind, and it was not till he attained the commencement of his twenty-first year, that they assumed a character which made his father tremble for the consequences. It seemed as if the gloomiest and most hideous of mental maladies was taking the form of religious despair. Still the
Introduction Vy:
youth was gentle, courteous, affectionate, and submissive to his father’s will, and resisted with all his power the dark suggestions which were breathed into his mind, as it seemed, by some emanation of the Evil Principle, exhorting him, like the wicked wife of Job, to curse God and die.
The time at length arrived when he was to perform what was then thought a long and somewhat perilous journey, to the mansion of the early friend who had calculated his nativity. His road lay through several places of interest, and he enjoyed the amusement of travelling, more than he himself thought would have been possible. Thus he did not reach the place of his destination till noon, on the day preceding his birth- day. It seemed as if he had been carried away with an unwonted tide of pleasurable sensation, so as to forget, in some degree, what his father had communicated concerning the purpose of his journey. He halted at length before a respectable but solitary old mansion, to which he was directed as the abode of his father’s friend.
The servants who came to take his horse, told him he had been expected for two days. He was led into a study, where the stranger, now a venerable old man, who had been his father’s guest, met him with a shade of displeasure, as well as gravity, on his brow. ‘Young man,” he said, ‘‘ wherefore so slow on a journey of such importance?”—‘TI thought,” replied the guest, blushing and looking downward, ‘‘that there was no harm in travelling slowly, and satisfying my curiosity, providing I could reach your residence by this day; for such was my father’s charge.”—‘‘ You were to blame,” replied the sage, “in lingering, considering that the avenger of blood was pressing on your footsteps. But you are come at last, and we will hope for the best, though the conflict in which you are to be engaged will be found more dreadful, the longer it is postponed. But first, accept of such refreshments as nature requires, to satisfy, but not to pamper, the appetite.”
The old man led the way into a summer parlour, where a frugal meal was placed on the table. As they sat down to the board, they were joined by a young lady about eighteen years of age, and so lovely, that the sight of her carried off the feelings of the young stranger from the peculiarity and mystery of his own lot, and riveted his attention to everything she did or said. She spoke little, and it was on the most serious subjects. She played on the harpsichord at her father’s com- mand, but it was hymns with which she accompanied the
8 Introduction
instrument. At length, on a sign from the sage, she left the room, turning on the young stranger, as she departed, a look of inexpressible anxiety and interest.
The old man then conducted the youth to his study, and conversed with him upon the most important points of religion, to satisfy himself that he could render a reason for the faith that was in him. During the examination, the youth, in spite of himself, felt his mind occasionally wander, and his recol- lections go in quest of the beautiful vision who had shared their meal at noon. On such occasions, the Astrologer looked grave, and shook his head at this relaxation of atten- tion; yet, upon the whole, he was pleased with the youth’s replies.
At sunset the young man was made to take the bath; and, having done so, he was directed to attire himself in a robe, somewhat like that worn by Armenians, having his long hair combed down on his shoulders, and his neck, hands, and feet bare. In this guise, he was conducted into a remote chamber totally devoid of furniture, excepting a lamp, a chair, and a table, on which lay a Bible. ‘‘ Here,” said the Astrologer, “I must leave you alone, to pass the most critical period of your life. If you can, by recollection of the great truths of which we have spoken, repel the attacks which will be made on your courage and your principles, you have nothing to apprehend. But the trial will be severe and arduous.” His features then assumed a pathetic solemnity, the tears stood in his eyes and his voice faltered with emotion as he said, “‘ Dear child, at whose coming into the world I foresaw this fatal trial, may God give thee grace te support it with firmness !”
The young man was left alone; and hardly did he find him- self so, when, like a swarm of demons, the recollection of all his sins of omission and commission, rendered even more terrible by the scrupulousness with which he had been educated, rushed on his mind, and, like furies armed with fiery scourges, seemed determined to drive him to despair. As he combated these horrible recollections with distracted feelings, but with a resolved mind, he became aware that his arguments were answered by the sophistry of another, and that the dispute was no longer confined to his own thoughts. The Author of Evil was present in the room with him in bodily shape, and, potent with spirits of a melancholy cast, was impressing upon him the desperation of his state, and urging suicide as the readiest mode to put an end to his sinful career. Amid his
{Introduction 9
errors, the pleasure he had taken in prolonging his journey unnecessarily, and the attention which he had bestowed on the beauty of the fair female, when his thoughts ought to have been dedicated to the religious discourse of her father, were set before him in the darkest colours; and he was treated as one who, having sinned against light, was, therefore, deservedly left a prey to the Prince of Darkness.
As the fated and influential hour rolled on, the terrors of the hateful Presence grew more confounding to the mortal senses of the victim, and the knot of the accursed sophistry became more inextricable in appearance, at least to the prey whom its meshes surrounded. He had not power to explain the assur- ance of pardon which he continued to assert, or to name the victorious name in which he trusted. But his faith did not abandon him, though he lacked for a time the power of ex- pressing it. “Say what you will,” was his answer to the Tempter; ‘I know there is as much betwixt the two boards of this Book as can insure me forgiveness for my transgressions, and safety for my soul.” As he spoke, the clock, which an- nounced the lapse of the fatal hour, was heard to strike. The speech and intellectual powers of the youth were instantly and fully restored; he burst forth into prayer, and expressed, in the most glowing terms, his reliance on the truth, and on the Author, of the gospel. The demon retired, yelling and discomfited, and the old man, entering the apartment, with tears congratulated his guest on his victory in the fated struggle.
The young man was afterwards married to the beautiful maiden, the first sight of whom had made such an impression on him, and they were consigned over at the close of the story to domestic happiness.—So ended John MacKinlay’s legend.
The author of Waverley had imagined a possibility of framing an interesting, and perhaps not an unedifying, tale, out of the incidents of the life of a doomed individual, whose efforts at good and virtuous conduct were to be for ever disappointed by the intervention, as it were, of some malevolent being, and who was at last to come off victorious from the fearful struggle. In short, something was meditated upon a plan resembling the imaginative tale of Sintram and his Companions, by Mons. Le Baron de la Motte Fouqué, although, if it then existed, the author had not seen it.
The scheme projected may be traced in the three or four
10 : Introduction
first chapters of the work, but further consideration induced the author to lay his purpose aside. It appeared, on mature consideration, that Astrology, though its influence was once received and admitted by Bacon himself, does not now retain influence over the general mind sufficient even to constitute the mainspring of a romance. Besides, it occurred, that to do justice to such a subject would have required not only more talent than the author could be conscious of possessing, but also involved doctrines and discussions of a nature too serious for his purpose, and for the character of the narrative. In changing his plan, however, which was done in the course of printing, the early sheets retained the vestiges of the original tenor of the story, although they now hang upon it as an un- necessary and unnatural incumbrance. The cause of such vestiges occurring is now explained, and apologised for.
It is here worthy of observation, that while the astrological doctrines have fallen into general contempt, and been sup- planted by superstitions of a more gross and far less beautiful character, they have, even in modern days, retained some votaries.
One of the most remarkable believers in that forgotten and despised science, was a late eminent professor of the art of legerdemain. One would have thought that a person of this description ought, from his knowledge of the thousand ways in which human eyes could be deceived, to have been less than others subject to the fantasies of superstition. Perhaps the habitual use of those abstruse calculations, by which, in a manner surprising to the artist himself, many tricks upon cards, &c., are performed, induced this gentleman to study the combination of the stars and planets, with the expectation of obtaining prophetic communications.
He constructed a scheme of his own nativity, calculated according to such rules of art as he could collect from the best astrological authors. The result of the past he found agreeable to what had hitherto befallen him, but in the im- portant prospect of the future a singular difficulty occurred. There were two years, during the course of which he could by no means obtain any exact knowledge, whether the subject of the scheme would be dead or alive. Anxious concerning so remarkable a circumstance, he gave the scheme to a brother Astrologer, who was also baffled in the same manner. At one period he found the native, or subject, was certainly alive ; at another, that he was unquestionably dead; but a space of
Introduction II
two years extended between these two terms, during which he could find no certainty as to his death or existence.
The Astrologer marked the remarkable circumstance in his Diary, and continued his exhibitions in various parts of the empire until the period was about to expire, during which his existence had been warranted as actually ascertained. At last, while he was exhibiting to a numerous audience his usual tricks of legerdemain, the hands, whose activity had so often baffled the closest observer, suddenly lost their power, the cards dropped from them, and he sunk down a disabled paralytic. In this state the artist languished for two years, when he was at length removed by death. It is said that the Diary of this modern Astrologer will soon be given to ‘the public.
The fact, if truly reported, is one of those singular coin- cidences which occasionally appear, differing so widely from ordinary calculation, yet without which irregularities, human life would not present to mortals, looking into futurity, the abyss of impenetrable darkness, which it is the pleasure of the Creator it should offer to them. Were everything to happen in the ordinary train of events, the future would be subject to the rules of arithmetic, like the chances of gaming. But extraordinary events, and wonderful runs of luck, defy the calculations of mankind, and throw impenetrable darkness on future contingencies.
To the above anecdote, another, still more recent, may be here added. The author was lately honoured with a letter from a gentleman deeply skilled in these mysteries, who kindly undertook to calculate the nativity of the writer of ‘Guy Mannering,” who might be supposed to be friendly to the divine art which he professed. But it was impossible to supply data for the construction of a horoscope, had the native been otherwise desirous of it, since all those who could supply the minutize of day, hour, and minute have been long removed from the mortal sphere.
Having thus given some account of the first idea, or rude sketch, of the story, which was soon departed from, the author, in following out the plan of the present edition, has to mention the prototypes of the principal characters in “ Guy Mannering.”
Some circumstances of local situation gave the author, in his youth, an opportunity of seeing a little, and hearing a great deal, about that degraded class who are called gipsies; who are in most cases a mixed race, between the ancient Egyptians
12 Introduction
who arrived in Europe about the beginning of the fifteenth century, and vagrants of European descent.
The individual gipsy, upon whom the character of Meg Merrilies was founded, was well known about the middle of the last century, by the name of Jean Gordon, an inhabitant of the village of Kirk Yetholm, in the Cheviot hills, adjoining to the English Border. The author gave the public some account of this remarkable person, in one of the early numbers. of Blackwood’s Magazine, to the following purpose :—
‘My father remembered old Jean Gordon of Yetholm, who had great sway among her tribe. She was quite a Meg Merri- lies, and possessed the savage virtue of fidelity in the same perfection. Having been often hospitably received at the farm-house of Lochside, near Yetholm, she had carefully abstained from committing any depredations on the farmer’s property. But her sons (nine in number) had not, it seems, the same delicacy, and stole a brood-sow from their kind entertainer. Jean was mortified at this ungrateful conduct, and so much ashamed of it, that she absented herself from Lochside for several years.
“Tt happened, in course of time, that in consequence of some temporary pecuniary necessity, the Goodman of Loch- side was obliged to go to Newcastle to raise some money to pay his rent. He succeeded in his purpose, but returning through the mountains of Cheviot, he was benighted and lost nis way.
“‘A light, glimmering through the window of a large waste barn, which had survived the farm-house to which it had once belonged, guided him to a place of shelter; and when he knocked at the door, it was opened by Jean Gordon. Her very remarkable figure, for she was nearly six feet high, and her equally remarkable features and dress, rendered it im- possible to mistake her for a moment, though he had not seen her for years; and to meet with such a character i in so solitary a place, and probably at no great distance from her clan, was a grievous surprise to the poor man, whose rent (to lose which would have been ruin) was about his person.
“ Jean set up a loud shout of joyful recognition—‘ Eh, sirs! the winsome Gudeman of Lochside! Light down, light down ; for ye maunna gang farther the night, and a friend’s house sae near.’ The farmer was obliged to dismount, and accept of the gipsy’s offer of supper and a bed. There was plenty of meat in the barn, however it might be come by, and preparations
Introduction 12
were going on for a plentiful repast, which the farmer, to the great increase of his anxiety, observed, was calculated for ten or twelve guests, of the same description, probably, with his landlady.
‘Jean left him in no doubt on the subject. She brought to his recollection the story of the stolen sow, and mentioned how much pain and vexation it had given her. Like other philosophers, she remarked that the world grew worse daily ; and, like other parents, that the bairns got out of her guiding, and neglected the old gipsy regulations, which commanded them to respect, in their depredations, the property of their benefactors. The end of all this was, an inquiry what money the farmer had about him; and an urgent request, or com- mand, that he would make her his purse-keeper, since the bairns, as she called her sons, would be soon home. The poor farmer made a virtue of necessity, told his story, and surrendered his gold to Jean’s custody. She made him put a few shillings in his pocket, observing it would excite suspicion should he be found travelling altogether penniless.
“This arrangement being made, the farmer lay down on a sort of shake-down, as the Scotch call it, or bed-clothes dis- posed upon some straw, but, as will easily be believed, slept not.
** About midnight the gang returned, with various articles of plunder, and talked over their exploits in language which made the farmer tremble. They were not long in discovering they had a guest, and demanded of Jean whom she had got there.
“¢ Hen the winsome Gudeman of Lochside, poor body,’ replied Jean; ‘he’s been at Newcastle seeking siller to pay his rent, honest man, but deil-be-lickit he’s been able to gather in, and sae he’s gaun e’en hame wi’ a toom purse and a sair heart.’
«That may be, Jean,’ replied one of the banditti, ‘but we maun ripe his pouches a bit, and see if the tale be true or no.’ Jean set up her throat in exclamations against this breach of hospitality, but without producing any change in their deter- mination. The farmer soon heard their stifled whispers and light steps by his bedside, and understood they were rummag- ing his clothes. When they found the money which the providence of Jean Gordon had made him retain, they held a consultation if they should take it or no; but the smallness of the booty, and the vehemence of Jean’s remonstrances, de- termined them in the negative. They caroused and went to
14 Introduction
rest. As soon as day dawned, Jean roused her guest, produced his horse, which she had accommodated behind the a//an, and guided him for some miles, till he was on the high-road to Lochside She then restored his whole property; nor could his earnest entreaties prevail on her to accept so much as a single guinea.
‘*T have heard the old people at Jedburgh say, that all Jean’s sons were condemned to die there on the same day. It is said the jury were equally divided, but that a friend to justice, who had slept during the whole discussion, waked suddenly, and gave his vote for condemnation, in the emphatic words, ‘Hang them @/’ Unanimity is not required in a Scottish jury, so the verdict of guilty was returned. Jean was present, and only said, ‘The Lord help the innocent in a day like this!’ Her own death was accompanied with circumstances of brutal outrage, of which poor Jean was in many respects wholly un- deserving. She had, among other demerits, or merits, as the reader may choose to rank it, that of being a stanch Jacobite. She chanced to be at Carlisle upon a fair or market-day, soon after the year 1746, where she gave vent to her political partiality, to the great offence of the rabble of that city. Being zealous in their loyalty, when there was no danger, in propor- tion to the tameness with which they had surrendered to the Highlanders in 1745, the mob inflicted upon poor Jean Gordon no slighter penalty than that of ducking her to death in the Eden. It was an operation of some time, for Jean was a stout woman, and, struggling with her murderers, often got her head above water; and, while she had voice left, continued to ex- claim at such intervals, ‘ Charlte yet/ Charlie yet/’ When a child, and among the scenes which she frequented, I have often heard these stories, and cried piteously for poor Jean Gordon.
“Before quitting the Border gipsies, I may mention, that my grandfather, while riding over Charterhouse moor, then a very extensive common, fell suddenly among a large band of them, who were carousing in a hollow of the moor, surrounded by bushes. They instantly seized on his horse’s bridle with many shouts of welcome, exclaiming (for he was well known to most of them) that they had often dined at his expense, and he must now stay and share their good cheer. My ancestor was a little alarmed, for, like the Goodman of Lochside, he had more money about his person than he cared to risk in such society. However, being naturally a bold lively-spirited man,
Introduction 15
he entered into the humour of the thing, and sate down to the feast, which consisted of all the varieties of game, poultry, pigs, and so forth, that could be collected by a wide and indis- criminate system of plunder. The dinner was a very merry one; but my relative got a hint from some of the older gipsies to retire just when—
‘The mirth and fun grew fast and furious,’
and, mounting his horse accordingly, he took a French leave of his entertainers, but without experiencing the least breach of hospitality. I believe Jean Gordon was at this festival.”— (Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. i. p. 54.)
Notwithstanding the failure of Jean’s issue, for which,
Weary fa’ the waefu’ wuddie,
a grand-daughter survived her whom I remember to have seen. That is, as Dr. Johnson had a shadowy recollection of Queen Anne, as a stately lady in black, adorned with diamonds, so my memory is haunted by a solemn remembrance of a woman of more than female height, dressed in a long red cloak, who com- menced acquaintance by giving me an apple, but whom, never- theless, I looked on with as much awe, as the future Doctor, High Church and Tory as he was doomed to be, could look upon the Queen. I conceive this woman to have been Madge Gordon, of whom an impressive account is given in the same article in which her mother Jean is mentioned, but not by the present writer :—
“The late Madge Gordon was at this time accounted the Queen of the Yetholm clans. She was, we believe, a grand- daughter of the celebrated Jean Gordon, and was said to have much resembled her in appearance. The following account of her is extracted from the letter of a friend, who for many years enjoyed frequent and favourable opportunities of observ- ing the characteristic peculiarities of the Yetholm tribes.— ‘Madge Gordon was descended from the Faas by the mother’s side, and was married to a Young. She was a remarkable personage—of a very commanding presence, and high stature, being nearly six feet high. She had a large aquiline nose— penetrating eyes, even in her old age—bushy hair, that hung around her shoulders from beneath a gipsy bonnet of straw— a short cloak of a peculiar fashion, and a long staff nearly as tall as herself. I remember her well ;—every week she paid my father a visit for her azwmous, when I was a little boy, and J
16 Introduction
looked upon Madge with no common degree of awe and terror. When she spoke vehemently (for she made loud complaints), she used to strike her staff upon the floor, and throw herself into an attitude which it was impossible to regard with indif- ference. She used to say that she could bring from the remotest parts of the island, friends to revenge her quarrel, while she sat motionless in her cottage; and she frequently boasted that there was a time when she was of still more considerable im- portance, for there were at her wedding fifty saddled asses, and unsaddled asses without number. If Jean Gordon was the prototype of the character of Meg Merrilies, I imagine Madge must have sat to the unknown author as the representative of her person.’” —(Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. i. p. 56.)
How far Blackwood’s ingenious correspondent was right, how far mistaken in his conjecture, the reader has been informed.
To pass to a character of a very different description, Dominie Sampson, the reader may easily suppose that a poor modest humble scholar, who has won his way through the classics, yet has fallen to leeward in the voyage of life, is no uncommon personage in a country, where a certain portion of learning is easily attained by those who are willing to suffer hunger and thirst in exchange for acquiring Greek and Latin. But there is a far more exact prototype of the worthy Dominie, upon which is founded the part which he performs in the romance, and which, for certain particular reasons, must be expressed very generally.
Such a preceptor as Mr. Sampson is supposed to have been, was actually tutor in the family of a gentleman of considerable property. The young lads, his pupils, grew up and went out in the world, but the tutor continued to reside in the family, no uncommon circumstance in Scotland (in former days), where food and shelter were readily afforded to humble friends and dependants. The Laird’s predecessors had been im- prudent, he himself was passive and unfortunate. Death swept away his sons, whose success in life might have balanced his own bad luck and incapacity. Debts increased and funds diminished, until ruin came. The estate was sold; and the old man was about to remove from the house of his fathers, to go he knew not whither, when, like an old piece of furniture, which, left alone in its wonted corner, may hold together for a long while, but breaks to pieces on an attempt to move it, he fell down on his own threshold under a paralytic affection.
Introduction ‘7
The tutor awakened as froma dream. He saw his patron dead, and that his patron’s only remaining child, an elderly woman, now neither graceful nor beautiful, if she had ever been either the one or the other, had by this calamity become a homeless and penniless orphan. He addressed her nearly in the words which Dominie Sampson uses to Miss Bertram, and professed his determination not to leave her. Accordingly, roused to the exercise of talents which had long slumbered, he opened a little school, and supported his patron’s child for the rest of her life, treating her with the same humble observance and devoted attention which he had used towards her in the days of her prosperity.
Such is the outline of Dominie Sampson’s real story, in which there is neither romantic incident nor sentimental passion; but which, perhaps, from the rectitude and sim- plicity of character which it displays, may interest the heart and fill the eye of the reader as irresistibly as if. it respected distresses of a more dignified or refined character.
These preliminary notices concerning the tale of ‘Guy Mannering,” and some of the characters introduced, may save the author and reader, in the present instance, the trouble of writing and perusing a long string of detached notes.
ABBOTSFORD, January 1829,
GUY MANNERING
Or, THE ASTROLOGER
’Tis said that words and signs have power O’er sprites in planetary hour ; But scarce I praise their venturous part, Who tamper with such dangerous art, Lay of the Last Minstrei.