V.

SONGS AND BALLADS.

For number and variety, the song chapbook occupies first place. Considerable notice has already been taken of the broadside which flourished during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and is, indeed, far from being extinct even at the present date, and little further need be said here. Of the song chapbook, however, a more detailed account may be given.

[Illustration: _The Trial of Sir John Barleycorn—from “The Whole Trial and Indictment of Sir John Barleycorn, Knt., A Person of noble Birth and Extraction and well known by Rich and Poor throughout the Kingdom of Great Britain; Being accused of several Misdemeanours, by him committed against His Majesty’s Liege People; by killing some, wounding others, and bringing Thousands to Beggary, and ruins many a poor family.”_]

It was ordinarily the single sheet broadside folded so as to form a book of 8 pages, and, like the other productions vended by the chapman, was usually badly printed on execrable paper. As is the case with the song-sheets which are still issued from “Poets’ Boxes” and other similar adjuncts of Parnassus, all sorts and conditions of verse were admitted to its pages. The choicest lyrics of Burns and Tannahill, Lady Nairne and Susanna Blamire are found in company with doggerel stanzas by the veriest tyro in rhyme; and verses dealing with local events of momentary importance are sandwiched between songs written for all time. Unholy hands are laid on sacred lines, and poems are sometimes parodied and altered out of all recognition. “Scots Wha Hae” in a common chapbook version was spun out to four verses more than its normal length. The extra stanzas were hardly an improvement, and it is possible that it was this version that came under the notice of the “southron loon” who characterized the war-song as “swaggering rant.”[49] A parody of Burns’s “Ode” was published under the title of “Wellington’s Address,” and the opening stanza may be quoted as a sample:—

“Britons bauld though Britons few, On the plains o’ Waterloo; Britons, heroes always true To rights and liberty. Fire your blood my vet’ran boys, Usurpation’s yoke despise; Slavery fa’s and slavery dies, Before brave British play.”

If the “Iron Duke” had been as indifferent a soldier as he is a poet in this “Address” put into his mouth, Napoleon might never have learned that little lesson about “striking his medals at London;” or, if Wellington had met the bard, he would probably have told him what he told an ultra-obsequious hero-worshipper who doffed his hat to the great soldier, and remarked how pleased he was to do so—“Don’t be a damned fool!” The author of _The Gentle Shepherd_ waxed wroth with Lucky Reid over the liberties she took with his text, and one wonders what he would have said had he seen the later version of “Lochaber No More.” Borrowing Ramsay’s title, some minstrel who “rhymed in [odd] numbers” composed a Jacobite song, of which the following are the closing stanzas:—

“Defeating of Johnny Coup at Prestonpans Enliven’d our hearts and encouraged our clans; Being flush’d with success, we to England did steer, But valiant Duke William put us all in great fear.

“He fought us, he beat us, he ruin’d us quite, And now we are all in a sorrowful plight! May Heaven its blessing upon thee, love, pour, For thee nor Lochaber I ne’er shall see more.”

If the Jacobite lines were as broken as these, they were in a sorrowful plight indeed.

It is only fair, however, to say that these doggerel effusions formed a small percentage of the songs which were issued in chapbook form. The best of our national minstrelsy was put in circulation in this way, although acknowledgments of authorship were seldom made. Publishers apparently believed that the song, not the singer, deserved to survive. Burns had a chapbook devoted to himself, and a fairly good selection of his songs is given in it; and he and other bards—Tannahill, Hogg, Scott, Lady Nairne, Susanna Blamire, Jean Elliot, Ramsay, Sempill, Macneill—are represented in many publications.

It is not improbable that, so far as Scottish song is concerned, the chapbook in one way did a distinct disservice to the cause. Rude productions such as those cited were committed to print and stereotyped for all time, or as much of it as they might survive. In this way their crudities were perpetuated. Had topical ballads such as “The Lamentation for Mr. M’Kay” and “Wellington’s Address,” and lyrics of love like “The True Lovers’ Farewell” and “The Sailor’s Journal,” been cast upon the world after the manner of our early ballad minstrelsy, and made to depend for existence on oral tradition, they, in passing from mouth to mouth, might have been shorn of their faulty rhymes and infelicitous expressions as the poly-sided stone is smoothed of its angularities by the ebb and flow of many tides. The means taken for their preservation may have proved their undoing!

CONCLUSION.

The foregoing survey, brief though it is, may be sufficient to indicate the varied nature, as well as the poverty and riches, of the productions that went to the formation of our chapbook literature. Every one of the five divisions was supplemented by publications from beyond the Border; and even though Professor Fraser’s opinion, that the English chapbook was inferior to the Scottish, be true, no student of the subject can fail to be struck with the variety which the English compositions gave to the publications of the north. We have nothing, for example, to take the place of _The Comical History of the King and the Cobbler_; and there is no doubt that the Scot would laugh as hilariously as the Englishman over the “entertaining and merry tricks” that were enacted in the Strand in the early hours of the morning, when the King of all England discussed a pot of ale with the poor follower of St. Crispin. The wonder is that we have nothing. These tales of King Henry the Eighth are in line with the adventures of King James the Fifth, and it does seem strange that _Harry Tudor_ never suggested _The Gudeman of Ballengeich_ to a Scottish author as a subject for chapbook treatment. Again, our romances and fairy tales would make a poor show were it not for the classics imported from south of Tweed; and our sermons and religious verse would lose much in bulk at least if we expunged the tractates of English ministers and the simple rhymes of Isaac Watts. Mother Bunch and Mrs. Shipton were not native born. The adventures of Dick Turpin, George Barnwell, and James Allan the Northumberland Piper, were pleasing variants to those of Rob Roy, Paul Jones the Pirate, and Gilderoy.

It has been said that the chapbook existed in all its vigour down to the early years of the nineteenth century, and George Mac Gregor, clearly confounding a part with the whole, says: “An impression of their vulgarity got abroad, they were regarded by public moralists as pestilential, and therefore deserving extinction.”[50] Such a remark can only apply to the broadly humorous effusions of Graham and productions of a similar kind, and we must look elsewhere for an explanation of the passing away of the distinctive chapbook. The introduction of periodical literature had as much to do with the matter as anything. A notable printer and publisher of chapbooks in Haddington was Mr. G. Miller, who sought to impart something new to the cheap literature in existence by the starting of a penny literary paper. This he entitled _The Cheap Magazine_, and readers of _A Window in Thrums_ will remember that it was in the pages of that periodical that Tammas Haggart read the account of the origin of cock-fighting. But the natives of Thrums and other places appreciated the old familiar booklets better than _The Cheapy_, and, after a short existence, it expired. Other publishers endeavoured to succeed where Miller had failed, but they, too, were unsuccessful, until the Messrs. Chambers took the matter in hand. The first number of _Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal_ was produced on 4th February, 1832. From the beginning its success was phenomenal. Fifty thousand copies of the first issue were put in circulation, and, so heartily was the new venture taken up, that the third number totalled the remarkable figure of eighty thousand. _Chambers’s Journal_ was followed by other publications of a similar kind, such as _Hogg’s Instructor_ and the _Scottish Reader_, which have collapsed, and _The People’s Friend_, which was founded in 1869, and still flourishes vigorously.

To keep pace with this newer form of cheap literature, some of the chapbook firms began the issue of “New and Improved Series.” Reference has already been made to the “Caledonian Classics of the Common People.” Another series, “illustrated with fine wood-cuts,” was issued by James Watt, Montrose; and publishers in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and elsewhere, hoping to gratify popular taste, set about the preparation of emasculated versions of Graham’s works. But the public that might have gone on enjoying the realistic pictures of Scottish life which amused their fathers would not tolerate the colourless outlines, and ere long they ceased to sell in any great quantity.

The work of destruction begun by _Chambers’s Journal_ and other similar periodicals was assisted by the increase of daily and weekly newspapers. The abolition of the duty on this form of literature gave an impetus to journalism, and soon organs of all kinds began to issue from all parts of the country. The bi-weekly of the city became a daily, sometimes with several editions; and soon every town with a few thousand inhabitants could boast as many rival newspapers as churches. The circulation of these sheets demanded the institution of the newsagent, who soon made his (or her) appearance in town and village and hamlet.[51] The _Advertiser_, or the _Journal_, or the _Gazette_, penetrated with the mail-coach into rural parts, and was displayed in the window of the local post-office beside ginger-bread horses and double-strong peppermints. By and by the local newsagent found that she could sell song-sheets and dream-books, almanacs and penny-histories as well as newspapers; and then the “Flying Stationer” awoke to find his occupation gone. The business of vending popular literature was silently transferred from one agency to another, and the chapman became the occasional character he is to-day. He could still push his trade at farm-towns remote from hamlets, and follow his vocation at fairs and centres of interest, but as a permanent and general means of supply he had outlived his time.

Something has already been said of the nature and character of the literary chapman, and, in taking leave of him here, a few notes may be added. Like his great prototype, John Cheap, he was seldom a respectable being, and not unfrequently turned pedlar when he had failed in a higher line of merchandise. The able-bodied man who makes Saturday night hideous in our busy streets with his raucous rendering of “the newest and popular songs of the day,” and spends his profits in the nearest tavern, is not an unworthy successor to, as he certainly maintains the inglorious traditions of, the “Flying Stationer” of a century ago. Hawkie describes two of them as being “as ‘kittle’ neighbours as Glasgow could produce,” and the description might apply to many, including Cameron himself. Of course, in the city, amid the excitement of fairs and hangings, the pedlar was seen at his worst, and to those who may incline to the opinion that the outline here given is lurid rather than just, the following sketch of the chapman as he appeared in rural places will be more acceptable. It is taken from a volume of Scottish sketches, which was published in 1872, under title, _Round the Grange Farm; or, Good Old Times_.

“Old Dauvit was a middle-sized, broad-shouldered man, with a keen, pawky eye, and a very sleek, worldly face. He was always clad in a blue coat like a large surtout, with big metal buttons, homespun grey vest and trousers, while his head was surmounted by a huge broad bonnet with a red top; round his neck he wore a green and yellow Indian neckerchief, which encircled his unbleached shirt collar. The lappels of his coat and vest pockets were the only fanciful parts of his dress; his pack was tied in a linen table-cover and slung over his shoulders, but Dauvit strode on as if he felt no burden, planting his staff firmly on the ground, and keeping a sharp eye on business. His stock consisted, perhaps, of hardware goods, comprising _five-bawbee_ knives, needles, pins of all sizes, from the small ‘mannikin’ to the large ‘Willie Cossar;’ thimbles, scissors, bone-combs, specks; also ballads such as ‘Gill Morice’ and ‘Sir James the Rose,’ or four and eight page pamphlets generally comprehending among the number ‘John Cheap the Chapman,’ ‘The King and the Cobbler,’ and ‘Ali Baba or the Forty Thieves.’ Dauvit had his regular ‘rounds,’ which he traversed twice, or it might be many times a year, usually contriving at nightfall to reach some friendly farmhouse, where the cog of porridge and bed of straw were cheerfully given in return for his budget of news, his packet of chapbooks, or small parcel of tea and sugar, bespoken on his last visit. Every person, from the peer to the peasant, welcomed and encouraged Dauvit to castle and cot. When he entered a house he had always a suitable remark to set off his rustic bow and confident familiar smile. ‘Uncommon fine weather, mistress,’ was his favourite salutation, varying the ‘fine’ with ‘coarse,’ ‘cauld,’ ‘dry,’ ‘wat,’ or ‘changeable,’ to suit the weather. Then followed some complimentary remark, such as, ‘I needna ask if ye’re weel the day, for ye’re the very picture o’ health;’ or some decidedly pleasant observation, especially to the young lasses, as ‘fair fa’ your bonny face, I haena seen your match in a’ the borders;’ or, ‘Eh, now! but a sight of you’s a gude thing, I wonder if I hae ony nice ribbon in my pack for you the day,’ with, it might be, ‘Ye’re a comely lassie; I wish he saw you the noo that likes ye best.’ Of course, after such flattering speeches Dauvit was asked to lay down his pack and give them his news; and then he, nothing loath, opened up his budget of information, told the mistress when he last saw her married daughter, and how she was looking; delivered the message to Jenny the kitchen-maid, received from some far-away brother; or told the master all about the various ‘craps’ upon the different farms he passed through, generally ending with—‘I hae seen nae pasture to compare wi’ your ain,’ or, ‘Ye’ve braw corn, maister, in the park down there.’ He was generally asked to join the family of the small farmer at meals; but he was a very moderate eater and well bred in his own fashion, handing all the plates of bread to the company at table till told again and again ‘that he was eatin’ nane his sel’ but only watchin’ other folk.’ Dauvit learned about all the marriages likely to take place, and, throwing himself in the way of the bridegroom or bride, would make him or her a present of a ribbon or neckerchief; then, after a joke and an encomium on the absent one, expressing his certainty that two such ‘weel-doin’ industrious young folk couldna but be happy,’ he would inform them that he ‘was aye at hame frae the last Monday o’ the ae month to the first Monday o’ the other; or, if they wad either write what they wanted or come owre, he wad gie them some grand bargains,’ adding ‘that he wad tak’ the siller as they could gie him it?’ But Geordie Johnston o’ the Shaw remarked, after doing, as he termed it, a ‘gude stroke wi’ Dauvit,’ that ‘he wasna sae accommodatin’ as he made believe.’ When business was over, if he could reach another farm-town before dark, he would roll up the pack, and, wishing them all ‘a gude afternoon,’ speed on his way; but, if it was near nightfall, he remained and spent the evening, sitting with the assembled household round the fire, retailing his news, or it might be slyly, but faithfully, delivering a message or letter to some lad or lass amongst the company from an absent sweetheart. The _fore supper_ was the best time for gossip, and this, during winter, was from _lowsin’_ time, about five o’clock, until eight, when the cows were milked and the horses _suppered_. All eagerly listened to Dauvit’s summary of news, as well they might, for his budget was varied, extending from Parliamentary discussion to domestic cookery, the _bairns_ listening so intently and so quietly that they generally fell asleep on their stools, while the older part of the audience, unwilling to break the thread of his narrative, scarcely interrupted him with a single question.”

This picture is more pleasing than that of the drunken crew with whom Hawkie and the Glasgow police hob-nobbed, and it presents what is the most favourable sketch that could be drawn of the travelling pedlar. But it is not essentially different from the coarser portrait to be found in _John Cheap the Chapman_. Both characters are wily merchants, ever ready to watch the main chance, and to further their interests by a word in season or a remark that is flattering rather than complimentary. The life they live is the same, and when one is a little more decently clad—in tongue and manner—than the other, it is due to the fact that the portrait came from a feminine pen. Dauvit doubtless broke as many commandments as John Cheap, and it was well for him that his author, being a woman, had not, presumably, so intimate a knowledge of her subject and his sins as had Dougal Graham of “John Cheap” and his shortcomings.

It is to be feared—perhaps regretted—that the “Flying Stationer” seldom acquired wealth. If he had watched his business, it could have made him a man of money. There were large profits on his wares. William Cameron tells us that he could buy eight-page ballads at twopence a dozen, and states that, out of a capital of twopence, he made six shillings in about three hours. On another occasion, he bought tracts at three half-pence a dozen and sold them so well that by night he had nine shillings, and was drunk into the bargain. Sometimes, when there was a ready purchase, the price of the chapbook went up a hundred per cent., and, notwithstanding the increase, sold by the ream.

The chapman had various ways of going to work. A great deal of his success lay in his being able to “patter” well. If he could give an attractive rendering of the song or ballad he was selling, he was sure to draw a crowd of customers. Sometimes recourse was had to the practice of vending straw. The “Flying Stationer,” pretending that the books he carried were of a particularly interesting nature, informed his audience that he dared not “call” them, but that he would sell them a straw for a penny and give them a copy of the book to the bargain. This “catch” seldom failed. The selling of the straw was more or less a piece of imposition, but sometimes the unscrupulous chapman descended to even greater fraud. When the worst came to the worst, he did not hesitate to “patter” one thing and sell another. Cameron, in his interesting reminiscences of a pedlar’s life, affords an illustration of this, and the good folks of Paisley were his victims.

“Paisley,” he writes, “was the first town that ever I imposed on, by selling useless paper for books. One Saturday night I could get no books to buy, as there was only one bookseller in Paisley who sold them, George Caldwell, residing in Dyer’s Wynd, Moss Street, who had retired from business; and in a room of his dwelling-house was selling off the remainder of his stock.

“That night he was out, and had taken the key of the room along with him; I wearied waiting for him, and seeing a number of papers lying on the kitchen table, I bargained for them with Mrs. Caldwell; and she, honest woman, not knowing the purpose for which I wanted them, sold them to me. I went out into the street, told a long tale, and sold the papers. Times were good then. I drew upwards of four shillings. None challenged me that night, but on the Monday following, when I was at the ‘Cross,’ a young woman came to me and said, ‘You rascal, you cheated me on Saturday night; you sold me a newspaper instead of a book.’ I asked her, ‘What she gave for it?’ She said, ‘A halfpenny.’ And I told her ‘She could never be cheated with a newspaper for a halfpenny.’”[52]

John Milne, a poet-pedlar of Aberdeenshire, who sold his own effusions over a wide tract of the East of Scotland, always pleaded his cause in a verse of doggerel. He was one of the later-day chapmen. His poems frequently dealt with incidents connected with the great religious struggle that culminated in the Disruption of 1843, and these he recited at fairs and markets, always concluding with the following lines:—

“I, Jock Milne of the Glen, Wrote this poem wi’ my ain pen; And I’m sure I couldna sell it cheaper, For it’ll hardly pay the price o’ the paper.”[53]

The chapman was not always dealt with in life in a kindly fashion, and it is to be feared that he frequently found himself deserted and alone in the hour of death. Sometimes in the gloaming of his days he found “a hained rig” in the shelter of a city hospital, but it is likely that more often he died,

“a cadger-powny’s death At some dyke-side.”

Mr. Alan Reid, writing of John Burness, the author of _Thrummy Cap_, says his end was unutterably sad. “His occupation was anything but lucrative; his spirit was broken, and his physique impaired through struggles and disappointments; and at Portlethen, in 1826, the toiling wayfarer was overtaken in a snowstorm and literally ‘driven to the wall’ by the conqueror Death.”[54] The shroud of many, like that of Burness, was woven by the snowy flakes of a wintry blast.

The flying-stationer did not lack his elegist. Part of a lament for Dougal Graham has been preserved, but it is more in relation to the bellman than the pedlar side of his character, and a few lines from the “Elegy on Peter Duthie”[55] may be quoted in preference to it. Duthie, who flourished from 1721 to 1812, was a flying-stationer for “upwards of eighty years,” and when at length he passed away his memory was embalmed in elegaic verse, from which the following is an extract:—

“Lament ye people, ane an’ a’, For Peter Duthie’s e’en awa’; Nae mair will Pate e’er travel round The circle o’ his native ground; Nae mair shall he last speeches cry, Nor in the barns will ever lie; Nae mair shall he again appear To usher in the infant year With _Almanacks_ frae Aberdeen, The best and truest ever seen; Nae mair shall he again proclaim The prophecies in _Rhymer’s_ name; Nor sell again the great commands, Nor praise the book ca’d _Meally Hands_; Nor _Arry’s_ ware for lads and lasses, Which for the highest wisdom passes; Nor shall he _Jock and Maggie’s_ tale Again expose to view or sale; Nae mair shall he e’er gain a dram Upon the tricks o’ _Louden Tam_; _Buchanan’s_ wit he cannot praise, As aft he did in former days; Nor tell how _Leper_ threw the cat Into auld Janet’s boiling pat. ... [Death’s] sov’reign will nae doubt it was, Altho’ we canna tell the cause, To drive poor Peter from the earth, An’ cause sic mourning into Perth, Where lang the honest body dwelt, Where mony a hunder beuk he selt, An’ where ten thousand wad defend him, And sae wad ilk ane done that kend him. Alas! poor Pate! nae mair will ye Tell tales again wi’ mirth and glee; Lang will the country lasses weary, To see that face was ay sae cheery, A face weel kent o’er Britain’s Isle, A face ay painted with a smile.

O, wha will now fill up thy place, And fill it with so good a grace? There’s only one that I do ken, Among the mortal sons o’ men, An’ that is Jackey, ance thy friend, The fittest fellow e’er I kend; Thy customers he knew right well, An’ can a canty story tell, On winter nights, while round the ingle, The wheels an’ reels an’ plates do jingle, So let him now tak’ up thy trade, An’ then I’m sure his fortune’s made.”

If “Jackey” took up the business where Peter Duthie left it, and lived to anything like the age of his predecessor, the chances are that his elegist—if he had one—would not be under the necessity of looking for somebody to succeed him. By that time, the newsagent would be supplanting the “Flying Stationer.”

The chapbook was issued from many towns in Scotland, and Dr. Robert Chambers—though his figure is believed to be well within the mark—put the annual circulation at 200,000. The leading presses were those of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Stirling, and Paisley. Many of the chapbooks were issued without printer’s name, and cannot therefore be assigned to any particular office. In Edinburgh, the great places of publication were Niddery’s Wynd and Cowgate, and the most notable printers were J. Morren and Alexander Robertson. In Glasgow, the firm of James and Matthew Robertson did an extensive business, and are understood to have realised £30,000 from the work. Their premises were situated in the historic Saltmarket. Other printers of the same locality were R. Hutchison and Thomas Duncan. Francis Orr, who started business in 1790, was a notable Glasgow printer. In 1825, he assumed his three sons as partners, and his firm has since been known as that of Francis Orr & Sons. James, the last of the three sons, died so recently as 1899, leaving wealth to the value of about a million sterling. Paisley and Falkirk had two outstanding publishers. In the former town, George Caldwell carried on business, and was the original printer of many of Dougal Graham’s productions; in the latter place, T. Johnston issued a numerous collection of chapbooks. Stirling had no fewer than four printers engaged in the business. There were the two separate firms of C. Randall and M. Randall, and J. Fraser and W. Macnie, one or another of whose imprints appear on many publications. A number of other towns throughout Scotland—Leith, Dundee, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Irvine, Newton-Stewart, Haddington, Montrose, Airdrie—contributed to the general stock, and endeavoured to meet the demands of the “Flying Stationer.”

In criticising our chapbook literature, the prevailing tone has been either—as in the case of George MacGregor—to say that “no one need regret that the days of chapbooks are gone[56];” or—as in the case of Professor Fraser—to say that they “should be read in the light of the age that gave them birth.”[57] Neither position is quite just to the literature itself. In the mass that circulated over Scotland there was a considerable leaven of indecency, just as there is more than a suggestion of filth in the literature of to-day. Writing of what was virtually the chapbook era, Mr. Henley described Scotland, out of the fulness of his ignorance and epigram, as a land of “fornication and theology.” To the Southron mind, therefore, it will not appear strange that Erskine’s Sermons were sandwiched between _The Comical Adventures of Lothian Tom_ and _Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship_, or that Isaac Watts’s _Divine Songs_ lay cheek for jowl with _The Coalman’s Courtship of the Creelwife’s Daughter_. There were many tastes to be suited, and in this direction we are probably as diverse as our fathers were. Any bookseller will supply you with Newman’s _Apologia_ and _Jude the Obscure_.

The distinctive chapbook—that is, the broadly humorous production of which Dougal Graham was author-in-chief—affords a faithful reflex of life as it really was. Graham was an early “kailyairder,” who reared his plants from a stronger and more strictly Scottish soil than Barrie or Maclaren or Crockett. These later workers in the same field met uncommon Scots who knew more about Hell than the sins that fit a man for it, and who were religious to the point of extravagance. Their narrowness of view and their feeling for sanctity are insisted on, and only a glimpse of their normal condition is given here and there by way of comedy or burlesque. The weavers of Thrums, and the villagers of Drumtochty, and the rustics around Cairn Edward lived in the time when, as the old Scotswoman said, swearing was regarded as “a grand set-aff to the conversation,” and yet not one of them could say “Damn it!” to save his life. It may be that the exigencies of modern taste, or the sympathies of the authors, demanded that their mouths be closed against the “aith that wad relieve” them, but to that extent many readers may think them less truthfully Scottish in their walk and conversation. The authors of some of the chapbooks felt no such scruples; and in their desire to paint life as they saw it, had no inclination to tone down that forceful beauty of our native tongue which is not taught at school. Their wish was like that of old Oliver—to have warts and all. It may be also, so far as Graham at least is concerned, that the old author was more intimately acquainted than the new with the life portrayed. The modern “kailyairder” writes from his study—it may be in London or in Liverpool—of a life he only knows by hearsay or from observation in long past years; Dougal Graham condescended on scenes and manners, customs and traits which he himself had witnessed or experienced—he was neither a son of the soil nor a chapman for nothing. What Fraser says of him, in comparison with the historian, is true of him as compared with J. M. Barrie or Ian Maclaren.

“He possessed this advantage over the ordinary historian,” writes Fraser, “that the latter, from his superior height and position, seldom condescended to enter the huts of the poor; and when he did enter, the inmates were frightened into their ‘Sunday clothes and manners’ by his stately and majestic presence. But Dougal, being himself one of the poorest, introduces us into the most secret, domestic, and everyday life and thoughts of the lower classes of the last [the eighteenth] century. Nothing is hidden from him. He is treated with a familiarity which shows that his hosts have no wish to hide anything.”[58]

But if the recent “kailyairder” has not repeated the expressive Scots of the Skellat Bellman and his compeers, it cannot be said that the modern novelist has forgotten the incidents which bulk in the chapbook pages. The dominie, or the minister, is still occasionally “deposed” for the old lechery to help out an attractive plot, and even the prim, semi-religious authoress can insinuate a good deal about the nameless “Pleasures of Matrimony.” And although it is sometimes embellished with art and occasionally obscured with indifferent grammar, the incident round which much of _Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship_ circles is so frequently turned to account that one wonders what the average novelist would do if it were an impossibility for children to be born out of wedlock. The newspaper, too, often provides all the naked realism of the chapbook; and the generation which supports the journal supplying the longest account of the obscenities of the Breach of Promise and Divorce Courts, is hardly entitled to pronounce a very strong judgment against the indecencies of the antiquated chapbook. If there must be filth, the vulgar frankness of Graham is preferable to the insinuated suggestiveness of the present-day romancist.

Mention has already been made of the suppression of the chapbook by the literary periodical and of the abolition of the flying-stationer by the resident newsagent. Alongside these factors, there was a third, which had much to do with altering the tone of the compositions which circulated among the working classes. This was the wide distribution of religious tracts. Many of these—issued by the Religious Tract Society which was instituted in 1799—came from south the Border. Others were of Scottish production. During the forties of last century the land was deluged with pamphlets and tracts, many of which had reference to the Morisonian controversy. Series were issued at different towns, such as Perth, Edinburgh, Kelso, and Falkirk, and in 1848 Stirling revived the position it held in the dissemination of the older chapbooks by the establishment of a Tract Depot. This organisation, which is now known as “The Stirling Tract Enterprise,” originated in the hobby and Free Church leanings of a Stirling seed merchant. It began in a very casual way—its inception was almost unconscious—but when it attained its jubilee, in October, 1898, the trustees were able to state that they had circulated something like four hundred and seventy millions of publications during the fifty years. These productions are distributed over all the world, and, so far as Scotland is concerned, they must have largely taken the place of the old religious chapbook.

In its other departments, chapbook literature has equally developed. The old romances were followed by a succession of lurid penny and twopenny dreadfuls issued at Glasgow, but chiefly dealing with American life. An attempt was made to counteract the influence of these by the issue of a series of religious tales under title, “The Stirling Stories.” A more recent Scottish publication with a similar aim, though not ostensibly religious, is the series of “People’s Penny Stories,” issued by Messrs. John Leng & Co., Dundee. In addition to these Scottish issues, there is a bewildering plethora of productions of English growth. Penny romances abound, and weekly miscellanies of the _Tit-Bits_ order are legion. The advertising fiend, too, does much towards this multiplication of books. Enterprising soap-boilers now add literature to their business, and a man may shave himself into possession of a library of shabby editions of famous authors. The free distribution of almanacs and dream-books is carried on wholesale by pushing patent-medicine vendors. Mother Shipton and Mother Bunch have given place to Mother Seigel, and Dr. Williams and his pink pills have superseded Dr. Faustus and Major Weir. When this gratis circulation and the gorgeous array of cheap literature are compared with the chapbooks of an earlier time, one may be inclined to commiserate the old-world reader. And yet he had compensating advantages. If he did not have the newest discoveries in photography or the latest achievements in colour-printing, neither was he invited to buy soap that wouldn’t wash clothes, or tempted to gorge himself on pills worth a guinea a box.

[Illustration: _The Last Day—from “The New Pictorial Bible.”_]

FOOTNOTES

[1] _The Humorous Chapbooks of Scotland._ By John Fraser. New York: Henry L. Hinton, publisher, 744 Broadway. 1873.

[2] _The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham, “Skellat” Bellman of Glasgow._ Edited, with notes, by George Mac Gregor. Glasgow. 1883. 2 vols.

[3] Robert Lindsay, Queen Street, Glasgow, printed several volumes (reprints) of representative chapbooks.

[4] _Amusing Prose Chapbooks Chiefly of Last Century._ Edited by Robert Hays Cunningham. Glasgow. 1889.

[5] “The prefix ‘chap,’” says Professor Fraser, “originally meant ‘to cheap or cheapen,’ as in the word ‘cheapening-place,’ meaning a market-place,—hence the English Cheapside and Eastcheap.” The word “chap,” meaning “a fellow,” is a mere shortening of the name. “In addition,” writes George Mac Gregor, “it may be stated that the word ‘chapman’ is derived from the Anglo-Saxon ‘ceap-man,’ _ceap_ meaning ‘a sale, or bargain’; and it is related to the Suio-Gothic or Swedish _keop-a_, whence is derived the Scottish ‘coup’ or ‘cowp,’ now confined to horse-selling, colloquially spoken of as ‘horse-cowping.’” The chapman, like his successor of to-day, had to procure a licence, and in old byelaws and proclamations he is classed among “Hawkers, Vendors, Pedlars, petty Chapmen, and _unruly people_.” There are occasional references in English literature to these itinerant merchants. Chaucer speaks of the commercial travellers of the age of the “Canterbury Tales” as

“A compane of chapmen riche;”

and in “The Winter’s Tale” there is a description of them on their literary side. The servant (act iv. scene 3) gives the following account of the wares of Autolycus:—“He hath songs for man, and woman, of all sizes; no milliner can so fit his customers with gloves; he has the prettiest love-songs for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with such delicate burdens of _dildos_ and _fadings_.” Thus introduced, Autolycus describes his wares. He has one ballad, “to a very doleful tune, How a usurer’s wife was brought to bed of twenty money-bags at a burden; and how she longed to eat adders’ heads and toads carbonadoed:” and another, “of a fish that appeared upon the coast, on Wednesday, the fourscore of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and sung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids:” and yet another, of “two maids wooing a man.” Readers of “Tam o’ Shanter” will remember that Burns there speaks of “chapman billies.” In his _Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues_, which was published at London in 1611, Cotgrave defines the chapman thus:—“Bissoüart, m. A paultrie Pedlar, who in a long packe or maunde (which he carries for the most part open, and hanging from his necke before him) hath Almanacks, Bookes of News, or other trifling wares to sell.” In “Troilus and Cressida,” and also in “Love’s Labour Lost,” Shakespeare refers to the chapman in the sense of a general dealer. In the former (act iv. scene 1) Paris says—

“Fair Diomed, you do as _Chapmen_ do, Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy;”

and in the latter (Act ii, scene 1), the Princess of France exclaims—

“Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, Not uttered by base sale of _Chapmen’s_ tongues.”

[6] _Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century, with Facsimiles, Notes, and Introduction._ By John Ashton. London. 1882.

[7] Two earlier works than the chapbooks here mentioned, viz., _Expositio Sequentiarum_, dated 1505, and _The Interpretation of Many Ambiguous Words_, by Master John Garland, also dated 1505, appear to have been printed by Androw Myllar, but it is conjectured that they were printed at Rouen, where Myllar may have gained instruction in the art of typography.

[8] “That patchwork of blasphemy, absurdity, and gross obscenity, which the zeal of an early Reformer spawned under the captivating title of _Ane Compendvious Booke of Godlie and Spiritvall Songs_”—_vide_ Motherwell’s _Minstrelsy, Ancient and Modern_: Glasgow, 1827—Introduction, p. lix. Motherwell’s criticism is neither accurate nor just. There were more than one Reformer at the making of the “Gude and Godlie Ballates,” and probably many readers will prefer the words of another writer who says the hymns “quickened and refreshed the little companies of evangelical Christians that struggled for religious reform.” Blasphemy, absurdity, and obscenity were, doubtless, far removed from the minds of many early readers of these quaint broadsides.

[9] _Scottish Vernacular Literature: a Succinct History._ By T. F. Henderson. London. 1898.

[10] _The Poems of Allan Ramsay._ Paisley: Alexander Gardner. 1877. Vol. I., p. xvi.

[11] “The Chap-Book proper did not exist [in England] before the former date [1700], unless the Civil War and political tracts can be so termed. Doubtless these were hawked by the pedlars, but they were not those pennyworths, suitable to everybody’s taste, and within the reach of anybody’s purse, owing to their extremely low price, which must, or ought to have, extracted every available copper in the village, when the Chapman opened his budget of brand new books.”—_Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century_, p. vii.

[12] _The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham._ Vol. I., p. 71.

[13] _Auld Licht Idylls_, p. 249. London. 1892.

[14] Another of these was _The Paisley Repository_, which was published in occasional numbers, which varied from 4 to 12 pages. The parts were printed locally, sometimes at one press and sometimes at another.

[15] Leaving Stirlingshire, Graham migrated to Glasgow where, it is said, he learned printing, and thereafter set up a press in the Saltmarket. He became a familiar figure in the Second City, the more so after his appointment, about 1770, to the post of “Skellat” Bellman. This office brought him a salary of £10 a year and a picturesque uniform. Dougal was one of two civic functionaries. There were in his time the advertising or “skellat” bellman, and the mort or death bellman. The “skellat” bellman, at a time when newspapers were unknown, was almost the only advertising medium in existence, and the post must therefore have been one of considerable monetary value. In addition to his salary, the official had a graded scale of fees for his proclamations. The word _skellat_, according to Jamieson, is of Norse origin, and is traced to the same root as our word _squeal_. It was applied to the bells of monasteries, and also to bells worn by persons of distinction to keep their inferiors out of the way. Dougal continued in office till his death, which took place in July, 1779.

[16] This is the date suggested by Professor Fraser, but it is purely conjectural. Sheriff Strathern, in a paper on “Chapman Literature,” read to the Glasgow Archæological Society on 6th April, 1865, regards this production as the earliest of Graham’s prose publications, and says “it was published in 1783.” This, too, would seem to be conjectural. Graham was in his grave four years before that date, and it is hardly likely that this, the most important of his prose writings, was not in print during his lifetime. The year suggested by Fraser is probably nearer the truth.

[17] The “creepy,” or “cock-stool,” or “black-stool,” or—to give it its more dignified name—“the stool of repentance,” was erected in front of the pulpit, and the delinquent who had to sit thereon was, in consequence, in full view of the congregation. No mercy—in the way of screening from sight—was extended to victims, indeed the rule in some parishes was that the offenders had to stand during the service, that they might be the better seen and the more humiliated.

[18] There were men in other parts of Scotland, besides Gretna Green, who were willing to tie the nuptial knot without question and for a small consideration. Ministers who had been deposed, or who had found it convenient to leave their parishes, were always ready to assist when invited. These men, of course, were not recognised in any way by the Church. The “Cheap Priest” of Graham’s pages is doubtless typical of his class, and no injustice is done to him by the portrait which is drawn.

[19] The day referred to as “the mirk Munanday” was Monday, the 25th of March, 1652. In consequence of an eclipse of the sun there was total darkness for eight minutes. Great fear possessed the people, and there is an entry in the Records of the Burgh of Peebles which sets forth that the inhabitants of that place began to pray to God. There is a reference to the occasion in Law’s _Memorials_. He says: “The like, as thought by astrologers, was not since the darkness at our Lord’s Passion. The country people, tilling, loosed their ploughs, and thought it had been the latter day.... The birds clapped to the ground.”

[20] A prevalent opinion among the common people of a by-gone day seems to have been that witches, brownies, and other “unco bodies,” were inhabitants of foreign countries. Here we have a reference to them as being domiciled in Italy, and in _The History of John Cheap the Chapman_, there is a remark about London being their home. John Cheap explains to a woman at Tweedside that he had been at Temple-bar, in London, when she answers—“Yea, yea, lad, an ye be cum’d frae London ye’re no muckle worth, for the folks there awa’ is a’ witches and warlocks, deils, brownies, and fairies.”

[21] The subject of Sabbath observance and regular attendance at worship has long received the attention of the Scottish Church. In every part of the kingdom the Sabbath-breaker was found. The evil was to a certain extent a local one, arising from local causes, and consequently each Kirk Session framed enactments to suit its own needs. Occasionally—as _Leper the Taylor_ sets forth—the Church called in the assistance of the civic authorities. In the records of the Guildry and Trade Incorporations of Dundee there are various references to church attendance and Sabbath observance. The Bonnetmaker Craft considered the question of the keeping of the Lord’s Day in 1665. Finding that it was not observed as it ought to have been, they passed an act rendering the brethren liable in a penalty of forty shillings for transgression of the Sabbath in any manner of way, but especially if the transgression took the form of drinking in a tavern, or of abstention from divine service. This enactment was deemed sufficient to meet the cases of brethren in ordinary, as they were called, but if the defaulter was a member of the Trade Council his sin was punishable by deposition from office. Despite these penalties, the evil continued, and eighteen years later, the same Corporation was forced to pass more stringent acts. At that time—1683—they declared it an offence to hang out bonnets, clothes, or fish to dry. Each of these articles had its own penalty. In the case of bonnets, the fine was 6/8; clothes, 4/-; and fish, 3/-. Here again attendance at church is introduced, although in an indirect way. Certain practices are declared to be punishable if they are indulged in “in time of sermon.” If water was carried from a well in time of sermon, the penalty was 8/-; gathering kail during the same period was apparently less offensive, as the fine was only 5/-. The kindly call of one neighbour on another was censured by the Craft if the visit were made “in time of sermon;” and, unless there was a good excuse, such as illness, a penalty was imposed. A first offender was mulct in a sum of 12/-; if the offence were repeated, the amount was doubled and a “rebuke before the Craft” added to it; and if the practice were indulged in a third time, the delinquent was haled before the Kirk Session, and thereafter rebuked in presence of the congregation. The civic and church authorities in Aberdeen fought the evil of Sabbath journeying by means which would appear strangely ludicrous if adopted in these days. Watchers were stationed at the various places by which citizens could pass out of the town, to take the names of those who sought to escape the sermon. Apparently the enquiries of these watchers were sometimes met with the excuse that the persons were journeying to a neighbouring church to attend service there, for we find the Session circumventing this by ordaining “that na inhabitant within the burgh sall ... go to sermons in Futtie Kirk on the Sabbath,” but resort to “their ain parish kirks” within the burgh, and hear sermons there “both before and after noone.” If they bowed to this order, it cost them the usual collection; if they preferred Futtie, they had to contribute a collection plus 6/8 of a fine, “for the use of the poor.” The penalties imposed at Stirling were more severe. In 1649 the Kirk Session of that place took into consideration the case of a citizen who bore the honourable name of “Johne Smythe.” They found him guilty of “vaiging through the fields unnecessarlie in time of sermon.” On a previous occasion Smythe had been admonished, and as the admonition had not proved a sufficient deterrent, the Session ordained him to make public repentance before the congregation for his fault, “and to stand before the pulpit all the tyme of sermon.” The Rev. George S. Tyack, B.A., in his article entitled “Discipline in the Kirk,” which appears in Mr. William Andrew’s work on _By-gone Church Life in Scotland_, mentions several instances of Sabbath breaking in different parts of the country. “In 1627,” he writes, “nine millers at Stow, in Midlothian, had to do public penance and pay forty shillings for that ‘their milnes did gang on the Sabbath;’ and in 1644, another miller, in Fifeshire, was sentenced to a fine of thirty shillings, with the same addition, for a similar offence. The uncertainty of the weather was not admitted as any excuse for Sunday harvesting, as is shown by a fine inflicted (together with the usual penance) upon one Alexander Russell and his servant, for ‘leading corn on the Sabbath evening,’ at Wester Balrymont. There are records of the stool of repentance being called into use for the correction of fishermen who mended their nets, of sundry people who gathered nuts, of a woman who ‘watered her kail,’ and of another who ‘seethed bark’ on a Sunday. The last named had to stand in the jagg for three Sundays as well.” An interesting case, and one with a deal of humanity in it, came before the Fraserburgh Kirk Session. A woman, the wife of one William Whyte, was accused of breaking the Sabbath by grinding corn. She admitted the charge, but pleaded that having got the “roche corn giffen her the same morning,” she ground it to satisfy the “hunger of herself and her young anes.” Even in those days of rigid observance and drastic punishment of offences, this particular Session was not wholly unfeeling. They found her guilty of the charge, but overlooked her “repentance upon ye alledgit necessitie.” Had Mrs. Whyte lived further south, she might have fared worse. The Kirk Session of Stow have an inglorious immortality in a record which states that they compelled one, William Howatson, to do public penance on account of his having walked on a Sunday “a short distance to see his seik mother.” These are but a few instances, but they show the rigour with which Sabbath observance was enforced, and prove that Graham’s statements are not exaggerated.

[22] Cameron’s life-story is told in _Hawkie: the Autobiography of a Gangrel_, edited by John Strathesk (Glasgow: David Robertson & Co.). He was born in 1781 at Plean, in the parish of St. Ninians, Stirlingshire, was educated at a school in the adjoining village of Milton, and thereafter apprenticed to a tailor in Stirling. He was of a roving, reckless disposition, and was, by turns, tailor, schoolmaster, actor, mender-of-broken-china, field-preacher, flying-stationer and street-orator. The last years of his life were spent in Glasgow, where he died in 1851.

[23] David MacBeth Moir, better known as “Delta,” was born at Musselburgh in 1798. He studied for the medical profession, qualified early, and from his eighteenth year was a practitioner in his native town. Amid the cares of his profession he found time to cultivate literature. He contributed to the _Edinburgh Magazine_ from its commencement, and for many years was a frequent writer to _Blackwood_. His contributions to the latter of these miscellanies were occasionally signed with the Greek Δ (Delta), and in time he came to be better known by the initial than by his name. He died at Dumfries in 1851.

[24] The author of this notable chapbook was born at Paisley on 6th July, 1776. He was apprenticed to the craft of weaving, and worked for some time at this calling in Paisley, Lochwinnoch, and Queensferry. Subsequently he became a pedlar, and, in company with his brother-in-law, travelled about in this capacity for three years. In 1790 he published a collection of his poems which, however, did not meet with great success. Four years later he emigrated to America, where the remainder of his days were passed. At first he travelled as a pedlar over a large part of the State of New Jersey, but afterwards he took up teaching. He devoted much time to ornithology, and by many he has been recognised as a naturalist rather than as a poet. He died—to some extent a martyr to ornithology—on the 23rd of August, 1813, and was interred at Southwark, Philadelphia.

[25] John Burness was (according to the sketch of his life which he prefixed to his volume of _Plays, Poems, and Metrical Tales_, published in 1819 at Montrose), the youngest son of William Burness, farmer, Bogjorgan, in the parish of Bervie. He was born on the 23rd of May, 1771, learned the trade of baker in Brechin, and followed his calling for some years in different places in Forfarshire. In 1794 he enlisted in the Angus Fencible Volunteer Corps of Infantry. He was with this regiment when it was stationed in Dumfries in 1796, and while there made the acquaintance of his relative, Robert Burns, who perused _Thrummy Cap_, and—according to another authority—told him “it was the best ‘ghaist’ story he had ever seen in the Scottish dialect.” The Angus Fencibles were disbanded at Peterhead in 1799. Burness proceeded to Stonehaven, where he set up in business as a baker, and continued in that place for nearly four years. Later he joined the Forfar Militia, in which he served till 1815, when he was discharged. He then took up the calling of a book-canvasser, which he pursued until his death, which occurred at Portlethen in 1826.

[26] A lesser-known poetical chapbook was “_The Magic Pill; or, Davie and Bess_. A Tale. Relating Davie’s Courtship to Bess, and how he Forsook her—How Nanse, Bessie’s Mother, went to the Doctor for a Pill, which she got, with Directions how to Use it—How it had the desired effect, by being put into Davie’s Pouch by Bess, at a Wedding, which Discover’d Davie’s Love to Bess, and they were Married. Likewise, how Nanse, being a Widow, went to the Doctor with Twa Fat Hens, to return thanks for the Pill, and how she wanted to buy a Pill for herself, to gain a Neighbour Carle she liked; with an Account of what the Doctor said to her, and a Receipt how to make up this Pill, and an Advice to all young women how to Use it. EDINBURGH: Printed for the Booksellers in Town and Country. _By R. Menzies, Lawnmarket._ (Price One Penny).” 8 pp.

[27] _The Art of Courtship_, containing _An Interesting Dialogue_ that passed between William Lawson and his sweetheart Bessy Gibb. _Also two Love-Letters which he sent to his Sweetheart, and her Answers_: Very beneficial for such blate wooers, or young beginners, as have not gotten the art of courtship. And two receipts: _The one for young Men how to wale a good wife, and the other for young Women how to wale a good husband...._ Stirling: printed and sold by M. Randall, 12mo, N.D. “Hawkie,” in his Autobiography, refers to this chapbook. At page 92, he says, in relating his adventures as a flying-stationer:—“An old copy of an eight-page book entitled _Willie Lawson’s Courtship of Bess Gibb_, was the first that I tried, It was a peck of ill-put-together nonsense, but I afterwards found that _nonsense_ was the article that ‘took’ best in the street. Of this piece I sold a number of reams, and cleaned out the shop; I have never seen it since, and it is a small loss to the public.” There were other chapbooks very similar in title to this in circulation. _The Accomplished Courtier; or, A New School of Love_, published at Edinburgh in 1764, was not unlike the _Letter Writers_ of a later date. Another, also published in Edinburgh in 1764, was entitled _The Art of Courtship_, and contained “Amorous dialogues, love letters, complimental expressions, with a particular description of Courtship,” etc., etc. A more pretentious work was _A New Academy of Compliments; or, the Complete English Secretary_, which was published at Glasgow in 1783. It is a duodecimo of 132 pages, and has the appearance of being made up of the contents of a number of smaller books. There are sections dealing with letter-writing and the art of good-breeding; and chapters which treat of moles and their meanings and the interpretations of dreams. Then there are “dialogues very witty and pleasing,” and “the Comical Humours of Jovial London Gossips, in a Dialogue between a Maid, Wife, and Widow, over a Cup of the Creature.” To all this is added “A Collection of the newest Play-House Songs.”

[28] “An Account of a diverting Courtship that lately happened in this Neighbourhood between a Woman of four-score and a Youth of eighteen, whom she married. Likewise an Account of the great and most wonderful Concessions this fond old Woman made, during the Courtship, in order to secure this young Man for a Husband.

“1. She solemnly promised, under the penalty of keeping separate Beds, which would break her Heart, to be blind to all his Faults,—never to scold or be jealous, even if she should catch him toying with a young Lass.

“2. To support and cherish Him, suppose he got sick or lazy; and to be ready, at all times, to light and help him Home from the Alehouse, drunk or sober.

“3. That, even if he should get a Child or two by the bye, she would nourish and cherish them as if they were her own.

“But, sorrowful to relate, poor Granny could not keep her word; for the third week after Marriage, she detected him kissing yellow Meg in her own bed-chamber, broke his head with the tatoe beetle, and scolded most furiously—on which he ran off with Meg to Edinburgh, after robbing the old Wife of seventy pounds sterling.” 8 pp. N.D.

[29] _The Pleasures of Matrimony, interwoven with Sundry Comical and Delightful Stories_, with the charming Delights and ravishing Sweets of Wooing and Wedlock, in all its diverting Enjoyments. By Author Reid, Glasgow. Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers.

[30] _The Comical Notes and Sayings of the Rev. Mr. John Pettigrew, Minister in Govan._ Glasgow: 1767.

[31] _The Scotch Haggis: a Selection of Choice Bon-Mots, Irish Blunders, Repartees, Anecdotes, etc._

Care to our coffin adds a nail no doubt, While every laugh so merry draws one out.

Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers. 12mo. 24 pp. N.D.

[32] _Odds and Ends; or, a Groat’s-worth of Fun for a Penny._ Being a Collection of the Best Jokes, Comic Stories, Anecdotes, Bon-Mots, etc. Printed for the Booksellers. 12mo, 24 pp. N.D.

[33] _Grinning Made Easy; or, Funny Dick’s Unrivalled Collection of Jests, Jokes, Bulls, Epigrams, etc., with many other descriptions of Wit and Humour._ Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers. 12mo. 24 pp. N.D.

[34] Elizabeth Isabella Spence (George MacGregor calls her _Mr._ E. J. Spence), an observant tourist if somewhat inaccurate author, writes as follows concerning Graham in her work, _Sketches of the Present Manners, Customs, and Scenery of Scotland_. (2 Vols. London, 1811.) Vol. I., p. 147. “On the side of the hill, above the old village of Campsie, are to be seen the traces of a turf cottage, the birthplace and early residence of Dougal Graham, who, about the year 1750, wrote a rhyming history of the rebellion of 1745. He was lame from his infancy; but, having an inherent propensity to wander, he, with many others of his countrymen, joined the Pretender on his arrival at Doune, and continued in his train until his departure from Scotland, but in what capacity is unknown. He was afterwards reduced to great poverty, and _hawked_ ballads about the streets of Glasgow, till the magistrates, in reward of his services, gave him the charge of the music-bells, which situation he retained till his death near sixty years ago. He had little imagination; in his compositions he adhered to a bare recital of facts in doggrel rhyme; and, as he says, is likely to please only those who, like himself, had no other than a common education. The volume, however, contains some curious anecdotes not noticed by historians of events at that particular period; and though it possesses otherwise little merit, it serves to illustrate the propensity to literary pursuits amongst the lowest of the Scotch.” This somewhat amusing note is chiefly interesting for the statement that Graham was a native of Campsie. The author was either misinformed or misled. Dougal narrates some biography in the first edition of his metrical _History_, and among other things states that he was born at Raploch.

[35] _Hawkie: the Autobiography of a Gangrel_, p. 93.

[36] A notable chapbook of this order, and one that would find a ready sale all over Scotland is the following:—“_West Port Murders!_ A Full and Correct Account of the Trial of William Burke and Helen M’Dougal, before the High Court of Justiciary, on Wednesday, the 24th Dec., 1828, for the wilful murder of Mary Campbell or Docherty, with the felonious intent of selling her body to a Surgeon, as a subject for Dissection, and of the Sentence, Confession, and Execution of Burke. Falkirk: Printed by T. Johnston.” 24 pp. N.D. This particular edition is embellished with a crude illustration, which is doubtless intended as a portrait of Burke.

[37] J. Ross, in _The Book of Scottish Poems, Ancient and Modern_, p. 13, says this chapbook is “very likely from the pen of Dougal Graham.” Ross gives no authority or reason for his statement, and “very likely” it is not a production of “the metrical historian of the Rebellion.”

[38] Ebenezer Erskine.

[39] _The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham._ Vol. I., p. 73.

[40] The illustration referred to is in _The New Pictorial Bible_. There are, as stated in the text, no pictures in _Jonah’s Mission to the Ninevites_.

[41] Hector Macneill, who was born at Roslin in 1746, was the son of a retired Captain of the 42nd Highlanders. Shortly after his birth, the family removed to the west of Stirlingshire, and in due time Macneill entered the Stirling Grammar School, which was then under the capable management of Dr. David Doig. When a young man, he emigrated to the West Indies, where he was engaged for a short time in a counting-house. He returned to Scotland in 1795, when he published _Scotland’s Skaith_. A year later he went out again to Jamaica, coming back to Scotland in 1800. He died at Edinburgh on March 15, 1818, aged seventy-two.

[42] See _ante_, page 68, note 1.

[43] _The Life and Works of Robert Burns_, edited by Robert Chambers, revised by William Wallace. Edinburgh, 1896. Vol. II., p. 17.

[44] James Hogg, born 1770. Died 1835.

[45] _The Tales of James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd._ London. 1880.

[46] John Wilson, born 1785. Died 1854.

[47] George Sinclair, who was born in 1630, was appointed to the Chair of Philosophy in Glasgow University in 1654, but eight years later—in 1662—was ejected from office on account of his non-compliance with Episcopacy. He thereafter devoted his time and energies to the business of mineral surveying and engineering, and in 1670 he superintended the introduction of water into Edinburgh. In addition to the above contribution to the literature of witchcraft, he wrote various works on astronomy, hydrostatics, and mathematics.

[48] Major Weir, who has been called the prince of Scottish wizards, was the son of a farmer in Clydesdale. He entered the army, held a commission as Lieutenant for some time, and took part in the quelling of the insurgents in Ireland in 1641. Later, he settled in Edinburgh, joined the Town Guard, and in time was promoted to the position of Major of that body. In that credulous age when Satan, forgetting his Bible, went about, not as a “roaring lion,” but as a docile cat or timid hare, or took upon himself some more lovely form of passion, and made compacts with many people, he found a ready recruit in the Major. Gradually it was voiced abroad that Weir was in league with the Devil. He was put on trial on April 9, 1670, when he “confessed himself guilty of a life of wretched hypocrisy and vice—guilty, in fact, of crimes possible and impossible. He felt some relief in the idea that the Devil had the larger share in his misdeeds.” He was sentenced to be burned, and five days later the doom was carried out “between Edinburgh and Leith, at a place called Gallowlee.” The memory of the wizard of the West Bow was long held in dread, and for more than a century his house remained tenantless. At length a person foolhardy enough to occupy the place was found in William Patullo, an old soldier, and this is what happened:—

“On the very first evening after Patullo and his spouse had taken up their abode in the house,” says the author of _Reekiana_, “a circumstance took place which effectually deterred them and all others from ever again inhabiting it. About one o’clock in the morning, as the worthy couple were lying awake in their bed, a dim, uncertain light proceeded from the gathered embers of their fire, and all being silent around them, they suddenly saw a form like a calf, but without the head, come through the lower panel of the door and enter the room: a spectre more horrible, or more spectre-like conduct, could scarcely have been conceived. The phantom immediately came forward to the bed, and setting its forefeet on the stock, looked steadfastly in all its awful headlessness at the unfortunate pair, who were of course, almost ready to die with fright. When it had contemplated them thus for a few minutes, to their great relief it took itself away, and slowly retiring, vanished from their sight. As might be expected, they deserted the house next morning, and for another half century no other attempt was made to embank this part of the world of light from the aggressions of the world of darkness.” There is something amusing in the expression “looked steadfastly in all its awful headlessness.” How a headless object without eyes could look at all is known only to the Patullos and the author of _Reekiana_.

[49] “Scots Wha Hae” in one chapbook version began as follows:—

“Near Bannockburn King Edward lay, The Scots they were not far away; Each eye bent on the break of day, Glimm’ring frae the east.

“At last the sun shone o’er the heath, Which lighted up the field of death, While Bruce, with soul-inspiring breath, His heroes thus addressed.”

Then followed the version, according to Burns, to which these stanzas were added by way of finish:—

“Now fury kindled every eye, ‘Forward! forward!’ was the cry; ‘Forward, Scotland, do or die!’ And where’s the knave shall turn?

“At last they all run to the fray, Which gave to Scotland liberty; And long did Edward rue the day He came to Bannockburn.”

Thomson’s monstrous interpolations are kindly, compared with these verses.

[50] _The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham._ Vol. I., p. 77.

[51] In the early years of the nineteenth century there were no newsagents in the Scottish towns, and the sale of the few newspapers in existence was undertaken by the regular booksellers and by law-agents. The latter have ceased to regard this as part of their duty, but many booksellers still have a newspaper counter.

[52] _“Hawkie”: the Autobiography of a Gangrel_, p. 35.

[53] It is due to Milne’s memory to say that as a man he was distinctly more respectable than the average pedlar.

[54] _The Bards of the Angus and Mearns_, p. 75. By Alan Reid. Paisley.

[55] _Memoirs of the late John Kippen, Cooper in Methven, near Perth_, to which is added an Elegy on Peter Duthie, who was upwards of eighty years a flying-stationer. Stirling: Printed by C. Randall. 12mo. 24 pp.

[56] _The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham._ Vol. I., p. 79.

[57] _The Humorous Chapbooks of Scotland._ By John Fraser. Part I., p. 114.

[58] _The Humorous Chapbooks of Scotland._ By John Fraser. Part II., p. 215.

LIST OF CHAPBOOKS REFERRED TO IN THE PRECEDING PAGES.

Aberdeen Almanac, 101

Accomplished Courtier; or, a New School of Love, 68, 100

Account, an Interesting, of Robert Burns, 87

Account of the Last Words of Christian Kerr, 96

Account of the Massacre of Captain Porteous, 79

Address to the Town Council of Edinburgh, 30

Akenstaff, 25

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, 106, 127

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, 106

Allan Barclay, 106

Ancient King Crispin, 79

Art of Courtship, 68, 100

Auld Lang Syne, 21

Baron Munchausen, 106

Battle of Bothwell Bridge, the, 72, 73

Battle of Drumclog, the, 72, 73

Battle of Killiecrankie, 72

Battle of Otterburn, the, 72

Beauty and the Beast, 106

Blind Allan, 106

Blithesome Bridal, the, 15

Blue Beard, 33

Brief Memoir of Urcilla Gebbie, 96

Broken Heart, the, a Tale of the Rebellion of 1745, 106

Brownie of Badenoch, the, 25

Buchanan’s Almanac, 101

Caledonian Classics of the Common People, 26

Choice Drop of Honey, a, 89

Christ’s Glorious Appearance to Judgment, 89

Coalman’s Courtship to the Creelwife’s Daughter, 43, 139

Collection of Scotch Proverbs, 27, 98, 101

Comical History of the King and the Cobbler, 33, 106, 122, 127

Comical Notes and Sayings of Mr. John Pettigrew, 70

Comical Sayings of Paddy from Cork, 33, 56, 70

Comical Transactions of Lothian Tom, 56, 139

Comical Tale of Margaret and the Minister, 67

Devil upon Two Sticks, the, 25

Dialogue between John and Thomas, 98

Dick Whittington and his Cat, 33, 106

Diverting Courtship, a, 69

Divine Songs for the Use of Children, 90, 139

Dominie, the, Deposed, with a Sequel, 67

Duncan Campbell and his Dog Oscar, 103, 105

Edinburgh, 72

Edinbury (_sic_) Gleaner, the, 31

Elegy in Memory of Sir Robert Grierson of Lag, 111

Entertaining Exploits of George Buchanan, 56, 57, 70

Evan’s Sketch of All Religions, 95

Executions in Scotland from the year 1600, 72

Expiring Groans, Death, and Funeral Procession of the _Beacon_ Newspaper, 79

Fables of Æsop, 99

Fishwives of Buckhaven, the, 25

Gauger’s, the, Journey to the Land of Darkness, 64

Gentle Shepherd, the, 22, 119

Ghaist of Firenden, the, 25

Ghost of my Uncle, 106

Gilderoy, 25

Glasgow and the High Church, 72

God’s Little Remnant Keeping their Garments Clean, 86

Golden Dreamer, the, or Dreams Realised, 114

Grannie M’Nab’s Lecture on the Women, 64

Grave, the, 95

Grinning made easy, 70

Grones of Believers Under their Burdens, 89

Gude and Godlie Ballates, 19

Gulliver’s Travels, 106

Hero and Leander, 106

History of the Rebellion of 1745, 25, 36, 37, 51, 74, 78

History of Sir William Wallace, the Renowned Scottish Champion, 24, 84

History of the Haverel Wives, 48, 57

History of James Allan, 29

History of the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, 33

History of the Great Warrior, Robert Bruce, 84

History of the Black Douglas, 85

History of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, 85

History of the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland, 86

History of Paul Jones the Pirate, 87

History of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 90, 93, 96

History of Joseph and His Brethren, 91, 93, 100

History of Moses, 92, 93

History of Witches, Ghosts, and Highland Seers, 111

Housekeeper, the, 100

Housewife’s Cookery Book, 99

Jack the Giant Killer, 33, 104, 106

Janet Clinker’s Oration, 63

Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship, 38, 41, 43, 57, 139, 141

John Cheap the Chapman, 35, 53, 57, 127, 130

John Falkirk, the Merry Piper, 56

Jonah’s Mission to the Ninevites, 93

John Hetherington’s Dream, 106

Leper the Taylor, 35, 57, 58

Life and Astonishing Adventures of Peter Williamson, 33

Life and Death of Judas Iscariot, 94

Life and History of Mary Queen of Scots, 85

Life and Meritorious Transactions of John Knox, 85

Life and Transactions with the Trial of Maggie Lang, 111

Life and Transactions with the Trial of Maggie Osborne, 111

Life, Journeyings, and Death of the Apostle Paul, 94

Loss of the Pack, the, 14

Long Pack, the, or the Robber Discovered, 29, 103, 105

Maggie Lauder, 21

Magic Pill, the, or Davie and Bess, 67

Mansie Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith, 33, 64, 103

Man’s Great Concernment, 89

Massacre of Glencoe, the, 72

Memoirs of the late John Kippen, 134

Mother Bunch’s Closet Newly Broke Open, 33

Mother Bunch’s Golden Fortune Teller, 114

Murder Hole, the, 106

Napoleon Bonaparte’s Book of Fate, 114

New Academy of Compliments; or, the Complete English Secretary, 68, 100

New Pictorial Bible, 89, 93, 94, 95, 102, 144

New Fortune Book, or the Conjuror’s Guide, 114

Night frae Hame, 98

Odds and Ends, or a Groat’s Worth of Fun for a Penny, 29, 70

Oration on Teetotalization, 98

Orr’s Scottish Almanac, 102

Paisley Repository, the, 32

Particular Account of the Great Mob at Glasgow, 79

Penny Budget of Wit, the, 33

Pilgrim’s Progress, the, 95

Pleasures of Matrimony, the, 69

Plant of Renown, 89

Poor Robin’s Almanac, 101

Prayer-Book, a, for Families and Private Persons, 91

Protest Against Whisky, 98

Prophecies of “Hawkie,” a Cow, 64

Rob Roy, the celebrated Highland Freebooter, 87

Rebellion of 1745-46, 72

Reprieve, a, from the Punishment of Death, 80

Satan’s Invisible World Discover’d, 107, 108

Scotch Haggis, the, 29, 70

Scotland, 72

Scotland’s Skaith, 97

Select Collection, 31

Siege of Troy, the, 106

Simple John, 56

Simple Simon, 33

Sinbad the Sailor, 106

Sins and Sorrows Spread before God, 90

Sir James the Rose, 25, 127

Spaewife, the; or, Universal Fortune Teller, 114

Stone, the, rejected by the Builders, 90

Strange Adventures of Tam Merrilees, 106

Surprising Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 88, 106

Tam o’ Shanter, 13, 111

Thrummy Cap and the Ghost, 25, 66

Trial of Sir John Barleycorn, Knt., the, 117

True Fortune Teller, the; or, the Universal Book of Fate, 114

Valentine Writer, the, 100

Watty and Meg; or, The Wife Reformed, 66

Willie Lawson’s Courtship of Bess Gibb, 68

Wedding Ring fit for the Finger, 89

West Port Murders! a Full Account of the Trial of William Burke, etc., 84

Witchcraft Detected and Prevented, 111

Witchcraft Proven, Arraign’d, and Condemned, 141

Wonderful Advantages of Drunkenness, 96

GLOSSARY.

Aboon, above.

A deed, indeed.

Ae, one.

Aft, oft, often.

Ain, own.

Ance, once.

Aneugh, enough.

Bare-fit, barefooted.

Baudy, evil.

Bawk, crossbeam in roof of house.

Bin nor ha’d, bind nor hold.

Boul-horned, obstinate.

Braid, broad.

Braw, beautiful.

Brogit, pierced.

Canker’d, ill-natured.

Canty, happy.

Chappin, knocking.

Chirtin, pressing.

Clap, pat.

Clung, empty.

Cog, basin.

Contrair, contrary.

Coupt, emptied.

Cow’d, trimmed.

Creesh, grease.

Creims, stalls.

Cumstrarie, perverse.

Curits, curates.

Dauts, fondles.

Dwal, dwell.

Elshinirons, shoemakers’ tools.

Fallow, fellow.

Flaes, fleas.

Forjeskit, disreputable.

Forfaughten, exhausted.

Fow, full.

Frae, from.

Gade, went.

Gar, make.

Gin, if.

Girning, grumbling.

Gude, good.

Gudis, goods.

Graithed, clothed.

Gule-fitted, yellow-footed.

Halesome, wholesome.

Hantle, lot.

Harled, pulled.

Haud, hold.

Heckle, a weaver’s comb.

Hizey, a girl, a huzzy.

Hoddle, waddle.

Hoiting, following, running after.

Ilk, every.

Keek, glance slyly.

Kend, knew.

Kirnan-rung, “That long staff with a circular frame on the head of it, used anciently for agitating the cream, when upstanding kirns were fashionable.”—_Gall. Encycl._

Kist, chest.

Lufe, hand.

Maist, most.

Mair, more.

Makar, poet.

Maumier, sweeter, pleasanter.

Maun, must.

Mou, mouth.

Muckle, much.

Munanday, Monday.

Murgully’d, mismanaged, abused.

Nayther, neither.

Neb, nose.

Neist, next.

Neits, nits.

Ouk, week.

Outhir, either.

Paepery, Popery.

Preed, tasted.

Prent, printing-press.

Prins, pins.

Redd, separate.

Ripples, a weakness in the back.

Rive, burst.

Rumple, the rump.

Saep, soap.

Saut, salt.

Sen, since.

Shaws, shows.

Shune, shoes.

Sic, such.

Siccan, such-like.

Skaith, harm.

Snites, wipes.

Socht, sought.

Sowp, sup.

Stap, put.

Staw, stole.

Steer, stir.

Stively, stoutly, firmly.

Sumf, a blockhead.

Supple, the part of a flail that strikes the grain.

Sykin, sighing.

Tane, tuther, one, other.

Tangs, tongs.

Tod-lowrie, a name given to the fox.

Toom, empty.

Trykle, treacle.

Unco, very.

Wab, web.

Waefu’, woful.

Wames, bellies.

Wan, got.

Wat, wet.

Weir-men, war-men.

Whang, piece.

Wheens, lots.

Whilly’d, cheated.

Wud, mad, distracted.

Yeal, old, barren.

Ye’se, you will.

GENERAL INDEX.

Aberdeen, 60, 101, 138

Airdrie, 138

_Amusing Prose Chapbooks chiefly of last Century_, 10, 32

Ashton, John, 16, 22, 34

_Auld Licht Idylls_, 24, 25

Barrie, J. M., 24, 140

Blamire, Susanna, 114, 120

Blue, Jamie, 80

_Book of Scottish Poems_, 87

Boyd, Zachary, 23

Brechin, 66

_Brownie of Bodsbeck_, 103

Bruce, King Robert, 11, 86

Buchanan, George, 19, 63

Bunyan, John, 101

Burne, Nicol, 19

Burness, John, 66, 133

Burns, Robert, 21, 66, 85, 87, 101, 111, 116, 118, 120

Caldwell, G., of Paisley, 27, 73, 138

_Caledonian Mercury_, 74

Cameron, William, 63, 68, 79, 80, 126, 130

Cargill, Donald, 28, 85, 86, 113

Chambers, Robert, 78, 122, 137

_Chambers’s Encyclopedia_, 11

_Chambers’s Journal_, 124, 125

Chepman, Walter, 17

_Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century_, 16, 22, 23

Charles, Prince, 74, 76

Chaucer, 12

Clackmannan, 36

Claverhouse, 52

Corelli, Marie, 95

Cunningham, Robert Hays, 10, 32, 34

Davidson, John, 19

_Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues_, 13

Duncan, James, 74, 82

Duncan, Thomas, 137

Dundee, 17, 59, 138

Edinburgh, 17, 30, 67, 69, 101, 108, 137, 142

Elliot, Jean, 120

Erskine, Ebenezer, 11, 28, 89

Falkirk, 137, 138, 142

Forbes, William, 67

Fraser, J., 138

Fraser, Professor, 10, 12, 33, 34, 38, 69, 72, 139, 141

Fraserburgh, 61

Glasgow, 10, 17, 38, 58, 68, 69, 74, 76, 80, 102, 114, 126, 130, 137

_Glasgow Courant_, 74

Glasgow Green, 47

Glencairn, Earl of, 19

Graham, Dougal, 10, 14, 25, 36, 47, 52, 55, 56, 58, 65, 68, 69, 74, 75, 87, 103, 123, 131, 139, 141

Greenock, 83

Haddington, 47, 123, 138

Hamilton, Gavin, 101

Hawkie (_see_ Cameron, William).

Henderson, T. F., 21

Henley, W. E., 67, 87, 104, 139

Hogg, James, 103, 105, 120

_Hogg’s Instructor_, 124

Howie, John, 73

_Humorous Prose Chapbooks of Scotland_, 10, 12, 33, 34, 35, 69, 72, 139, 141

Hutchison, R., 137

Irvine, 138

Johnston, T., 138

Jones, Paul, 85

Kelso, 142

Kempis, Thomas à, 101

Kilmarnock, 138

Kirkcaldy of Grange, William, 19

Knox, John, 19, 86

Leith, 138

Lekprevick, Robert, 18

_Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life_, 106

Lindsay, Robert, 10

Lindsay, Sir David, 75

Lithgow, William, 85

_Love’s Labour Lost_, 13

Mac Gregor, George, 10, 12, 24, 78, 92, 123, 139

Macnie, William, 48, 138

Macneill, Hector, 97, 120

Maxwell, Sir Herbert, 86

Maitland, Sir John, 19

Maitland, Sir Robert, 18

Menzies, R., 67

Miller, G., 123

Milne, John, 133

Mitchell, William, 92

Moir, David MacBeth, 65

Montrose, 66, 124, 138

Morren, J., 137

Mortality, Old, 73

_Mortality, Old_, 103

Motherwell, William, 9, 19, 98

Muir, John, 82

Myllar, Androw, 17

Nairne, Lady, 116, 120

_National Gazette_, 73

Newton-Stewart, 138

North, Christopher, 106

O’Donnell, 29

_On the Malice of Poets_, 18

Orr, Francis & Son, 102, 138

Paisley, 27, 65, 73, 82, 132, 137, 138

Paterson, Robert, 73

Peden, Alexander, 85, 86, 113

Perth, 90, 142

Peterhead, 66

_People’s Friend, The_, 124

_People’s Penny Stories, The_, 143

Raban, Edward, 101

Ramsay, Allan, 21, 22, 27, 30, 92, 98, 119, 120

Ramsay, Dean, 71

Randall, C., 107, 134, 138

Randall, M., 68, 138

Raploch, 36

Reid, Alan, 132

Reid, Author, 69

Reid, John, 30, 92, 108

Reid, “Lucky”, 30, 92, 119

Religious Tract Society, 142

Renwick, James, 89

Rhymer, Thomas the, 85, 87, 113

Rob Roy, 85

Robertson, Alexander, 137

Robertson, J. & M., 137

Ross, J., 87

_Round the Grange Farm_, 127

Sabbath Observance, 58

Scott, Sir Walter, 9, 120

Scott, Michael, 85

_Scottish Vernacular Literature_, 21

_Scots Worthies_, 73

_Scottish Reader, The_, 114

Secker, William, 28

Sempill, Robert, 18, 21, 22, 120

Shakespeare, 13

Sharp, Archbishop, 52

Simpson, Habbie, 21

Sinclair, George, 108

Smith, W., 31

Spence, E. J., 78

_Stirling Stories_, 143

Stirling, 36, 48, 60, 63, 68, 107, 134, 137, 138

Stow, 62

Stonehaven, 66

Strathern, Sheriff, 38

Strathesk, John, 63

Stirling Tract Enterprise, 142

Tannahill, Robert, 116

_The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham_, 10, 24

_The Winter’s Tale_, 12

_The Cries and Habits of the City of London_, 16

Thirlestane, Lord, 19

_Troilus and Cressida_, 13

Turpin, Dick, 29

Wallace, Sir William, 11, 86

Wallace, Dr. William, 101

Watt, James, 124

Watts, Isaac, 28, 91, 123

_Waverley_, 9, 73

Webster & Son, D., of Edinburgh, 26

Wedderburn (the brothers) of Dundee, 19

Weir, Major, 107, 108, 109, 144

Welch, John, 28, 85, 86

Wellington, Duke of, 118, 119

Wilcocks, Thomas, 28

Williamson, Peter, 85

Wilson, Alexander, 65

Wilson, John, 106

_Window in Thrums, A_, 124

THE END.

ERRATA.

Transcriber’s Note: The errata have been corrected.

Page 27, line 10, _for_ “characters” _read_ “capitals.”

Page 37, note 1, line 4, _for_ “1700” _read_ “1770.”