Thomas Carlyle Portrait
In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time:the articulate audible voice of the Past,
when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream.
(Thomas Carlyle)
A single-track road on the island of Mull Scotland © 2004 Scotiana
Hi everybody,
Day after day, we’re adding colourful pieces to our great Scottish mosaic and when we aren’t roaming the beautiful roads of Scotland we are browsing one or other volume of our well-furnished Scottish libraries 😉
Today, some of the most ancient representatives of my crowded bookshelves have landed on my desk, inviting me to go back to Hoddom Castle where we’ve already spent some time. The old mansion doesn’t seem to have delivered all its secrets still. No wailing ghost there but a lot of fading images and waning echoes of the past…
Walter Scott Redgauntlet, 'Oeuvres de Walter Scott' traduction A.J.B. Defauconpret, tome dix-septième, Paris, Furne, Charles Gosselin, Perrotin éditeurs
And Sir Walter Scott is never very far…
Walter Scott at his desk in his Abbotsford study © 2006 Scotiana
In my last post, I told you how I was eager to read Redgauntlet, a story which is supposed to have links with Hoddom Castle. So, added to the fact that I have not forgotten my promise to read all Walter Scott’s books, a promise we’ve made with Janice at Abbotsford, in 2006, in front of the sculpted bust of its beloved master, I wanted to know more about these links.
So eager was I to read Redgauntlet that I didn’t wait for the arrival of the Oxford World’s Classics English edition I had ordered just after writing my last post and I decided to read it in my 1835 French edition (Oeuvres de Walter Scott traduites par A.J.B. Defauconpret, tome dix-septième, Paris, Furne, Charles Gosselin, Perrotin éditeurs). I like very much the translation of Sir Walter’s books by Auguste Jean-Baptiste Defauconpret (1767-1843). This French man of letters had been invited by Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford and, with the help of his son, M. Defauconpret did translate all his works. The language may seem old-fashioned today but it was the language of the time and it was in keeping with the writing of Sir Walter.
I soon forgot the musty smell of my book, for I quickly got immersed in the reading of the letters written to each other by Alan Fairford and Darsie Latimer, the two main protagonists of the story. The action takes place in Edinburgh and on the north side of the Solway Firth, in the southwest of Scotland, a place from where you can easily see the nearby coast of England. There is an old map at the end of my book which is very useful to situate the main points of interest in the story. But I will tell you more about Redgauntlet as soon as I’ve finished the book 😉
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe portrait
Last time, I’ve drawn your attention on the friendship between Sir Walter Scott and Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, one of Hoddom Castle’s late owners. This life-long friendship had begun with Sir Sharpe’s contribution to The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border . I was trying to know more about that when I fell upon Sharpe’s copious and very interesting correspondence, more especially on the letters he exchanged with Sir Walter. The first ones date from August 1802. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe was only 21 years old then and he was still studying at Christ Church, Oxford, to become a minister when he wrote them. Walter Scott was 32 years old and he was living partly in Edinburgh and partly at Lasswade at that time. Below is an extract of an article about Sir Walter Scott’s houses. It comes from a very good source of information about Sir Walter: The University of Edinburgh Walter Scott Digital Archive.
On December 24, 1797, Scott married Charlotte Carpenter. The newly-weds initially rented a house at 50 George Street then in autumn 1798 moved to 10 South Castle Street. Here Charlotte would give birth to two children, Charlotte Sophia on October 24, 1799, and Walter on October 28, 1801. Shortly after Walter’s birth, the young family moved into a house that Scott had had built at 39 North Castle Street. A spacious, three-story, gray-stone dwelling, this would remain Scott’s Edinburgh home until financial disaster struck in 1826. It is currently occupied by a firm of solicitors.
Scott’s Edinburgh home was only his winter residence. From 1798 to 1803, he summered in a cottage on the outskirts of Lasswade, a village six miles south-east of Edinburgh on the river Esk. Many of Scott’s friends had country residences in its vicinity, including the novelist Henry Mackenzie, and his old history teacher Alexander Fraser Tytler. As well as exchanging visits with these, Scott entertained a number of literary guests, including, in 1803, William and Dorothy Wordsworth. It was at Lasswade that Scott began his career as an author, translating verse and drama from the German, and writing his own first original ballads, one of which, ‘The Gray Brother’, celebrates the countryside around Lasswade. It was here too that Scott wrote the opening stanzas of his first great poetic success, The Lay of the last Minstrel.
At the beginning of the year 1802, Sir Walter Scott had published the first two volumes of Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border and this book was the object of young Sharpe’s first letter. Here it is, followed by Sir Walter’s answer :
From Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe to Walter Scott, Hoddam Castle, August 5th 1802.
SIR, I hope that the enclosed ballads will plead my excuse for thus addressing you without the pleasure of a personal acquaintance. I received so much delight from the perusal of your Border Minstrelsy that I could not refrain from sending you “The Twa Corbies” and “The Douglas Tragedy”, hoping that they may find a place in a third volume of your charming work, which report hath taught us to expect. From my infancy I have been fond of old ballads, and have sat for days listening to the ” spinsters and the knitters in the sun ” singing many of the songs published in your collection.
Of course I learnt to repeat a great number, and still retain in my memory a few entire, with an immense hoard of scraps. ” The Douglas Tragedy ” was taught me by a nursery -maid, and was so great a favourite that I committed it to paper as soon as I was able to write. I have this copy still, in beau spelling, together with a song of ” Mary Hamilton,” whom I take to be the Queen’s Mary in the ‘ Minstrelsy,’ and the ditty of ” Lady Dysmal,” alias Ghismonda from Boccaccio, with a strange debasement of Guiscard into a kitchen-boy. There is a variation from history in my edition of Mary Hamilton the king himself is her gallant.
He attempts to destroy her child before birth with the leaves of the ” Abby Tree,” and she finally drowns it. I would have sent you this song, and also ” Lady Dysmal,” had I not left the book containing them at Oxford. I expect it, however, in a few days, and, should you wish it, will transcribe them for you. The song of ” The Twa Corbies ” was given to me by Miss Erskine of Alva l (now Mrs Kerr), who I think said that she had written it down from the recitation of an old woman at Alva. I am, sir, your obedient sert, CHAS. KIRKPATRICK SHARPE. I forgot to mention another ballad in my possession, beginning ” Fair Lady Ann sat in her bower,” which, if you please, I will also send you. My direction is Hoddam Castle, Ecclefechan.
From Walter Scott, Esq., to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe
SIR, I beg your acceptance of my very best thanks for your valuable and obliging communication, which I received yesterday, and which will form an interesting addition to the 3d volume of Ballads which I intend shortly to publish. I have been very anxious to open some literary communication with your part of Dumfrieshire, and am truly happy in embracing the opportunity which your politeness has offered me. The wild and beautiful tale of the Corbies resembles in the outline an old English poem published by Ritson, from
an ancient MS., with this important and remarkable difference, that in the English verses the hawk, hound, and lady all remain faithful to the slain warrior, and the moral of the tale runs thus :
” God send every gentleman
Such hawks, such hounds, and such a lemman.”
I had a very corrupted and inferior copy of the ” Douglas Tragedy,” which is doubly acceptable to me, as I had been long desirous of obtaining a good set. Popular tradition has pointed out the scene of this fatal story, and assigned it to Blackhouse in Selkirkshire, where there are ruins of a very ancient castle, said to have belonged to a Lord William Douglas, who sat in a parliament of Malcolm Canmore. The scenery around it is savage and desolate : a stream called the Douglas-Burn is said to have been that where the lovers stoped to drink, and seven huge stones are averred to have been erected in memory of the seven brothers. The Douglas -craig is in the immediate vicinity, and takes its name from the same family. All these circumstances seem to argue that the uniform tradition of the country people has some foundation in fact. I am just going to that part of the country, and shall carry the “Douglas Tragedy” along with me.
The ditty of ” Mary Hamilton ” will be most acceptable to me. I have several fragments of it, but not a compleat copy. I also am greatly indebted to you for your offer of “Lady Dismal,” which I think I have either seen or heard of. To the ballad of ” Lady Anne sate in her bower ” I am a perfect stranger, at least I do not remember any which begins withthat line.
I am to make some excursions through the Borders in the course of this month. It is not impossible but I may have the pleasure of meeting you ; but at any rate, when business or pleasure calls you to Edin r . or its neighbourhood, I shall claim the privilege of returning you my personal thanks for the obligation you have conferred on me. My usual summer residence is at this little retreat, where it would give the greatest pleasure to receive a call from you. Should you write to me in the course of a fortnight, direct to me Sheriff’
Clerk’s Office, Selkirk, as your letter will probably find me wandering in Ettrick forest, after which I return here. I remain, sir, your obliged and faithful [friend],
Walter Scott,
Lasswade Cottage,
Near Edinburgh , 13 Augt. [1802.]
Nota Bene. Every scrap of legendary intelligence, prosaic or poetical, will be most thankfully received.
These letters did mark the beginning of a life-long friendship between Sir Walter Scott and Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, a man who seemed to have more than one string to his bow. I’m quite eager to know what Janice has learned about him, in her mysterious old book…
But before ending my post I would like to introduce succinctly the book I’ve already mentioned a number of times. The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border is certainly well-worth the reading though it doesn’t seem to be easy reading. I’ve only read but a few pages of it yet (with the help of my OED dictionary). I’m particularly fond of the many notes one can find in the old editions of Sir Walter Scott’s books. They prove quite useful to understand the geographical and historical contexts of the songs (the ballads used to be sung in the olden times). We can rely on Walter Scott’s notes for he was an expert in local history and he knew every nook and cranny of his native country for having roamed about it since his childhood.
Walter Scott The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border James Thin 1979 The Mercat Press Edinburgh
Few books can give more delight by the winter’s fire,
when the sea-wind shakes the windows and roars in the chimney ;
few are better to read among the summer woods or the blowing heather;
fewer still can bring a fresher breath of nature
across the minds of those whose windows are only shaken by the traffic of modern cities ;
(The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border – Introduction by Alfred Noyes – Mercat Press edition – 1979)
Just to give you an idea of the titles of the ballads to be found in this interesting but not complete edition of The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, here’s is the book’s contents :
The Wife of Usher’s Well
Clerk Saunders .
Barthram’s Dirge
The Broom of Cowdenknows
The Flowers of the Forest
The Laird of Muirhead .
Hobbie Noble
Graeme and Bewick
The Douglas Tragedy .
The Lament of the Border Widow
Fair Helen
Fause Foodrage .
The Gay Goss-Hawk
The Silly Blind Harper .
Kinmont Willie .
Lord Maxwell’s Good-night
The Battle of Otterbourne
O Tell Me how to Woo Thee
The Queen’s Marie
A Lyke-Wake Dirge
The Lass of Lochroyan .
The Young Tamlane
The Cruel Sister .
Thomas the Rhymer
Armstrong’s Good-night
APPENDIX
Jellon Grame
Rose the Red and White Lilly
O Gin My Love were Yon Red Rose
Annan Water
The Dowie Dens of Yarrow
Archie of Ca’field
Jock o’ the Side .
The Battle of Bothwell Bridge
The Daemon-Lover
Johnie of Breadislee
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12742/12742-h/12742-h.htm
Scotland A7 Borders Historic Route Information pannel © 2006 Scotiana
I would like to conclude this post on a very interesting extract by H.V. Morton, one of our favourite travel writers. This passage underlines the historical importance of the Scottish Border…
“Here at the very gates of Scotland is the first milestone of romance:
It fell about the Lammas-tide,
When the muir-men win their hay,
The doughty earl of Douglas rode
Into England to catch a prey.
He chose the Gordons and the Graemes,
With them the Lindesays, light and gay,
But the Jardines wald not with him ride,
And they rue it to this day.
I remember the words of Sir Philip Sidney; ‘I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart more moved than with a trumpet.’ All the chivalry of ancient warfare flowered in that fight. To read Froissart’s account of it – such a careful, authentic piece of description – is to feel the ache of having been born in an inferior age.”
A very good story follows this short passage but it will be for another day, unless I’ve made you feel like reading H.V Morton’s book In Search of Scotland published in 1929 😉
Bonne lecture!
A bientôt.
Mairiuna
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