Fully half a century ago, William Motherwell, whose name has been frequently mentioned in these pages, penned this sentence:—‘A History of Vulgar Literature, from the earliest of the present times, we believe, would form a valuable acquisition to the libraries of the curious.’ About thirty years later Dr. Strang expressed the same idea in terms somewhat similar:—‘A history of the vulgar literature of Scotland has been long and is unquestionably still, a desideratum, for certainly nothing could tend to throw so much light on the manners and tastes of the great body of the people as such a work.’ Notwithstanding the lapse of time the work so much desired has yet to be done; though Professor Fraser within recent years has brought together, in a concise form, material regarding chap-literature, which, before his work on the Humorous Chap-Books of Scotland, was only to be found in fragments in various books and magazines. By his own confession, however, his work is merely an instalment, and, as we have indicated, a history of the chap-literature of Scotland has yet to be written. It is a matter to be regretted that the popular works of last century—the works which found most favour with the great mass of the people, and which, with the addition of the Bible, was the bulk of their reading—should have been over-looked. No complaint can be made of any neglect of the higher walks in the profession of letters in the eighteenth century. The philosophers, poets, novelists, and historians of Scotland in the last century, have had at least justice done them. But their works, for the most part, were addressed to the educated, then a small proportion of the population. Those who wrote for the people—for the uneducated peasantry—have been ignored, a notable exception being Burns, whose works were popular with all classes. Their works were long considered to be unworthy of notice; and out of a very large issue, there can now only be found a few stray leaflets. With such material as can be had, a short sketch of that literature is given in the following pages, for the purpose of showing the place occupied in it by Dougal Graham.
‘Our fathers have told us,’ could the mediæval Scot say as well as the ancient Israelite, for the traditions of former days in ballad, song, and story, were handed down from generation to generation. In the good old times, the gaberlunzie man would rehearse, by the peat fire of some remote farm-house, tales of the present and the past; or the discredited minstrel of the ‘iron time’ would tune—
—— ‘To please a peasant’s ear,
The harp a king had loved to hear.’
From these, celebrated by royal and knightly poets, and encircled by the halo of romance, we must descend to the more prosaic, because better known, chapman, who, in a latter age, filled their places. Travelling over the country with a pack composed of haberdashery goods of the most varied kind, and with coarsely printed specimens of the literature to which his profession has given a name, he retailed at each farm-house the news he had heard on his journeys; and on a winter’s evening, by the kitchen fire, he could make the time seem to pass swiftly, as he drew upon his experience for stories of the most wonderful description, or recalled the days of chivalry by his old-world tales. He was thus admitted to the inner circle: he mixed with the people as one of themselves.
Having thus shown the chapman’s descent, it will be interesting to notice the origin of the name given to his profession, if it may be so called. Professor Fraser says ‘the prefix “chap” originally meant “to cheap or cheapen,” as in the word “cheapening-place,” meaning a market-place,—hence the English Cheapside and Eastcheap.’ In addition, 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.’ Another illustration may be found in the name ‘Chepstow,’ a place in Monmouthshire, meaning a market, or place for chapmen. The general title of ‘chap-books’ was given to small tracts hawked through the country by these worthies, who, however, were willing to sell anything upon which they could make a profit. Their business was a necessity of the times, when roads were bad, when stage-coaches were hardly known, and when railways would have been thought an impossibility and absurdity. The people in the rural districts bought all their smallwares from them; and the visit of the chapman to a remote Lowland village, or Highland clachan, was an event to be remembered by the women-folks far and near.
When and how the chap-literature of Scotland took its origin it would be difficult to say with anything like precision. There is, however, good ground for the assumption that it may have originated about the period of the Covenanting troubles, and that it probably received its first material impetus from the Revolution of 1688. As early as 1644, Zachary Boyd, for some time minister of the Barony Parish of Glasgow, and Vice-Chancellor of the University, complained to the General Assembly about the ‘idle books, ... fables, love-songs, baudry ballads, heathen husks, youth’s poison,’ in circulation. Printing was then in its infancy in Scotland, and it is interesting to note how, thus early in its existence, it sought to extend to the people a cheap literature which, though perhaps not of the most wholesome kind, might hardly be deserving of the strictures of the stern presbyterian of the seventeenth century. After the Restoration, a change appears to have come over the popular literature; a new element was introduced; and the internal evidence of the chap-books relating to Peden, Cargill, and other worthies of the ‘killing time,’ indicate that their first editions were published within a few years at least of the events recorded in them. The press, apparently, was made great use of by the preachers who had been ousted from their pulpits; and many sermons were sent out in the form of chap-books. In the second portion of the library of the late Dr. David Laing, which was recently sold off in London, there was an interesting volume of chap-books relating chiefly to Scottish religious and ecclesiastical affairs. Among others, it included the following:—‘Renwick (J.), Man’s Great Concernment, 1687’; ‘Love (C.), Christ’s Glorious Appearance, Glasgow, 1692’; and ‘Row (J.), Sermon commonly known by the Pockmanty Preaching, Edin., 1723.’ From what has been said, there seems to be little doubt that the chap-literature of Scotland was of somewhat earlier origin than that of England. A recent writer, referring to English chap-books, says:—‘The Chap-book proper did not exist 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 penny worths, 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.’[36]
But happier times produced a further change on Scottish chap-literature, which again included within its borders productions of a less sober character than sermons and the lives and opinions of martyrs, though these still held their ground in public estimation. Among the chaps, the originals or early reprints of which were published at the beginning of the eighteenth century, were many of a religious or semi-religious character, such as the following:—‘Last Words of Christian Kerr, Edin., 1708’; ‘Description of Jerusalem, Edin., 1727’; and ‘Last Words of Margaret Abercromby, Edin., 1729.’ As for the ‘Pockmanty Preaching,’ already mentioned as having been issued in 1723, it was one of a considerable class which has been well represented in Scottish Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed. About this time, also, Allan Ramsay published many of his earlier poems in chap-book or broadside form, and to this must be attributed the speedy hold he took on the favour of the people. Chalmers, in his life of the poet, says that after the year 1715, Ramsay ‘wrote many petty poems, which from time to time he published at a proportionate price. In this form, his poetry was at the time attractive; and the women of Edinburgh were wont to send out their children, with a penny, to buy “Ramsay’s last piece.” ... On those principles he published, about the year 1716, the “Christ’s Kirk on the Green.”’[37] Though he did not long continue this practice, he had afterwards to suffer some annoyance by others doing it for him. In his ‘Address to the Town Council of Edinburgh,’ written in 1721, he complains that he had ‘suffer’d muckle wrang’ by ‘Lucky Reid and ballad-singers,’ publishing a trashy edition of his pastoral on Addison. He bewails the many mistakes in it, and says that publication kept him from his natural rest.
The ‘Lucky Reid,’ mentioned in Ramsay’s complaint, was the widow of John Reid, printer, in Bell’s Wynd, Edinburgh. Reid did a large business in issuing scraps of popular literature. He was the original publisher of many of the strange productions of William Mitchell, alias ‘The Tinclarian Doctor;’ an odd being who sought by his works to spread ‘light’ throughout Scotland. Mitchell was a lamplighter in Edinburgh for twelve years, but, losing this situation, he got, as he says himself, ‘an inward call from the Spirit, to give light to the ministers.’ His works may be classed among the chap-books of Scotland, for, though he sold them himself, and did not allow them to be retailed by the chapmen, they are of the same description.
Great activity in the publication of chap-books is known to have been displayed by printers in the various cities and towns in Scotland for the next decade or two; though, as far as can be judged from the few remnants of their productions still to be found, there was no author who, in any way, marked the literature with his individuality. Small collections of songs seem to have been in great request; old ballads were reprinted, and extracts were made from the writings of many of the poets; and the chap literature of England, which by this time had attained to some maturity, was beginning to make an impression on the Scottish people. Dream-books, and small works relating to astrology, palmistry, physiognomy, foreign travel, and such like, had become common, and were hailed by the people with manifest delight. These publications, issued at a price which put them within the reach of all classes, served to keep alive the superstitious beliefs which to this day are by no means eradicated from the popular mind, and which occasionally show themselves in most unlooked for quarters, and under the most extraordinary circumstances. Even the semi-religious chap-books had a tendency in this direction; and the so-called prophecies of the leaders in the Covenanting movement were regarded as certain of fulfilment, each change being eagerly watched and noticed as having a bearing upon the utterance of some martyr to the unholy zeal of the persecutors. As the general prophecies of Thomas the Rhymer, the seer of Ercildoune, were regarded as finding their fulfilment in the political events of the time; as the prophecies of Mother Shipton have recently been scanned, and even caused agitation among a nervous few, on account of the prediction—
‘The world to an end shall come,
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one’;
so were the sayings of Peden, Cargill, and others, believed to be finding their realisation in the many actual and supposed calamities that every now and then occurred within the land for which they had suffered so much. An interesting notice of the power of these books is furnished by the Rev. Dr. Alexander Carlyle, minister of Inveresk, in the middle of last century:—‘In the month of March or April this year [1744], having gone down [from Glasgow] with a merchant to visit New Port-Glasgow, as our dinner was preparing at the inn, we were alarmed with the howling and weeping of half-a-dozen of women in the kitchen, which was so loud and lasting that I went to see what was the matter, when, after some time, I learnt from the calmest among them that a pedlar had left a copy of Peden’s Prophecies that morning, which having read part of, they found that he had predicted woes of every kind to the people of Scotland; and in particular that Clyde would run with blood in the year 1744, which now being some months advanced, they believed that their destruction was at hand. I was puzzled how to pacify them, but calling for the book, I found that the passage which had terrified them was contained in the forty-fourth paragraph, without any allusion whatever to the year; and by this means I quieted their lamentations. Had the intended expedition of Mareschal Saxe been carried into execution that year, as was intended, their fears might have been realised.’[38] An instance of the supposed fulfilment of a prophecy of Thomas the Rhymer, about this date, may be cited from Dougal Graham’s History of the Rebellion. Referring to Prestonpans, and after describing the battle fought there on the 21st of September, 1745, between the clans under Prince Charlie and the troops under Sir John Cope, he says:—
‘The place old Rhymer told long before,
“That between Seaton and the sea,
“A dreadful morning there should be,
“Meet in the morning lighted by the moon,
“The lion his wound here, heal shall not soon.”
In Thomas’ book of this you’ll read,
Mention’d by both Merlin and Bead.’
The publication, in 1746, of Dougal Graham’s History of the Rebellion, marks the beginning of an important era in the progress of the chap literature of Scotland. Larger than most of the works hitherto issued to the public at a cheap rate and through the medium of pedlars, the living interest it possessed, by dealing with events and aspirations which at that time still had a firm hold on the minds of the people, gave it a popularity hardly less than that attained by the smaller and cheaper productions preceding it. Even yet, it possesses a unique position among its class. But the History is also interesting in its relation to Scottish popular literature in that it was the first known publication of an author whose numerous works afterwards gave to it a distinctive character, and elevated it to a rank certainly not equalled by the kindred literature of England. It is probable that the publication of Graham’s works extended from 1746 until his death in 1779, the poetical pieces being first in order; and, while there is no definite information on the point, it can be fairly assumed that they from the first made a distinct impression. Their predecessors, though they had a strong hold upon the popular favour, treated for the most part either with the theological and superstitious sides of the Scottish nature, or with peculiarities common to every section of the island. Dougal struck out a new line, described Scottish life as he found it and knew it by personal observation and contact. By this means he was able to present to his readers vigorous pictures of the life they themselves lived, the opinions they themselves expressed, the language in which they spoke, and, above all, he could appeal to their likes and dislikes in a way which none of his craft had done before, or was able to do after him. These features in the works of Dougal Graham gave him an unwonted popularity, and the couplet in the preface to a late edition of John Falkirk’s Cariches shows the estimation in which he was held:—
‘The wittiest fellow in his time,
Either for Prose or making Rhyme.’
The varied character of his works gave to the literature of which they were a part a native strength that otherwise would not have belonged to it; and while they may have, to some extent, deepened the taint of coarseness which before found a place within its ranks, they added to its value as illustrating the tastes and manners of the common people. To convince himself of the truth of this statement, all that the reader requires to do is to note carefully the chap-books written by Graham, either in contrast with others, or by themselves. There is enough in them, without considering their relation to others, to prove that statement, for their truthfulness to human nature, and especially Scottish human nature, appeals to the heart and convinces the judgment.
While Dougal Graham was thus actively employed, and with so much effect, other writers were contributing their quota to chapman literature. None of these authors can now be traced, possibly because they kept their identity concealed, but a few of their works still remain. One or two of them may be noticed. In 1764, there were issued in Edinburgh two chap-books which may be regarded as the forerunners of the modern ‘letter-writers.’ One of them, The Art of Courtship, contained ‘Amorous dialogues, love letters, complimental expressions, with a particular description of Courtship, etc.’; while the other bore the title of The Accomplished Courtier, or A New School of Love. In the same city, in 1767, there was published The Comical Notes and Sayings of the Reverend Mr. John Pettegrew, minister in Govan. It contained stories, humorous and sometimes very broad, about the reverend gentleman, but they had probably as little foundation in fact as the extraordinary tales recorded of George Buchanan. There are other chap-books with a popularity almost equal to those named, and to the productions of Dougal Graham, such as—The Wife of Beath, a metrical travesty of Chaucer’s tale; the still highly esteemed Watty and Meg; Thrummy Cap; The Dominie Deposed; Margaret and the Minister; and a host of others.
Nothing that can be said to have given any new feature to chap literature was published after Graham’s death, though it still continued to be very popular. Many printers throughout the country set themselves almost exclusively to its circulation, which, it has been stated, had reached, before the close of the century, a quarter of a million copies annually. The old chap-books were reprinted in almost every town of any note in Scotland, sometimes in full, sometimes abridged; songs and ballads were collected and got up in chap-book and broadside form; and extracts from larger works were made and published in a guise under which their authors would have had difficulty in recognising them. Dougal Graham, of course, had great attention paid to him; and edition after edition of his numerous works was scattered over the country; while Robert Burns, then rising into fame as a poet, had his writings reproduced in many of the collections of songs. For the first twenty years of the present century the chap-books enjoyed an unimpaired popularity, but they gradually began to decline in favour. An impression of their vulgarity got abroad, they were regarded by public moralists as pestilential and therefore deserving extinction; some publishers turned out from their presses ‘New and Improved Series,’ and at last they came to be regarded as belonging to a bygone age, worthy only of the consideration of antiquaries, some utilitarians being doubtful if they even merited that attention. The time had changed, and the popular taste had improved; and, after 1832, Chambers’ Journal took the place among the people formerly occupied by chap-books. As the taste for reading increased, the Journal shared honours with other publications, until now the issue of ephemeral literature has reached an extraordinary development. There are, however, many still living who remember the days of chap-literature, and who can recall the zest with which they first read the adventures of ‘Louden Tam,’ ‘Leper the Tailor,’ ‘John Cheap,’ and all that race.
It would be impossible in this place to give a note of the printers who assisted in the issue of the chap literature of Scotland, though to do so would be highly interesting. Their name is legion. Of the work of the earlier printers very few specimens remain; but towards the end of last century some of the printers in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkirk, and other large towns, attained to quite a celebrity for their efforts in this direction. James and Matthew Robertson, whose shop was in the Saltmarket, between the Cross and what is now known as St. Andrew’s Street, and who were in business at the end of the eighteenth, and beginning of the nineteenth, century, made about £30,000 off them. They published all Dougal Graham’s booklets in their most complete forms, besides everything of the chap-book kind then in circulation. At their death their money went to the only daughter of Matthew, and her reputation for benevolence to the poor long survived her. Two other Saltmarket printers were Thomas Duncan, at No. 159, and R. Hutchison, at No. 10, both of whom flourished in the early years of this century. The headquarters of the chap-book printers in Edinburgh were in Niddery’s Wynd and the Cowgate. Some most valuable pieces were issued from the Wynd about the middle of last century; and, in the Cowgate in the early years of this century, Morren printed all and sundry, scattering chap-books broadcast over the east coast. About 1760, A. Robertson, Coalhill, Leith, did an extensive business in this way. Falkirk, again, occupies a high position in this respect, for during the last few years of the eighteenth, and the early years of the present, century, T. Johnston issued a large number of chap-books, most of them valuable because they do not seem to have been much, if any, abridged. C. and M. Randall, of Stirling, about the same time were engaged in a similar work. Without further detail, this list of these eminent printers may be closed by the mention of the name of George Caldwell, Paisley, who flourished in both centuries, and who is believed to have been the original printer of many of Dougal Graham’s chap-books. Few, if any, of his early productions can now be found.
In concluding this necessarily brief outline of the history of the chap-literature of Scotland, we may be allowed to quote from The Thistle, a Glasgow magazine published in 1847. It was edited by Alexander B. Grosart, the now eminent editor of the Fuller Worthies’ Library, etc., who was at that time in the employment of Dr. John Buchanan, the Glasgow banker and antiquary. Mr. Grosart had in that magazine a quaintly written article on ‘Chap-Beuks and Ballats,’ beginning in this strain:—
‘Chap-Beuks and Ballats
—— “To rede are delectabill.
Suppois that thai be nocht bot fabill;
Then suld ‘auld storyss’ that suthfast were,
Have ‘doubill pleasance.’”
‘So said or sung “Makkar” Barbour in his “Quhair” of the Bruce. Chap-beuks and Ballats occupied a “far-ben corner o’ the heart” of our Fathers and Grandfathers; indeed we have a “doubill pleasaunce” in these “auld storyss” when “tauld in gude manner.”’ Such is a true estimate of their position in the hearts and minds of the Scots of the eighteenth century. The opinions Sir Walter Scott and William Motherwell had of Dougal Graham’s writings have already been shown, and their estimate of the value of the literature for which he wrote has been clearly brought out.
No one need regret that the days of chap-books are gone, but the human mind has a tendency to turn with a loving look to the past, as if life in it had been easier than in the present. It is, however, another illustration of the familiar adage that ‘distance lends enchantment to the view.’ These works, impossible now, must be regarded in the light in which Dean Ramsay prepared his Reminiscences. His object was to ‘depict a phase of national manners which was fast passing away, and thus, in however humble a department, contribute something to the materials of history, by exhibiting social customs and habits of thought which at a particular era were characteristic of a race.’[39] Such is the value of the remnants of the once extensive chap literature of Scotland. With a finer public taste, and a purer, though not more vigorous, popular literature, these old books are now discredited except for antiquarian purposes. Perhaps the change cannot be better shown than in the illustration given by Dean Ramsay, who says in his ‘Conclusion’:—‘In 1821, Mrs. Keith of Ravelstone, grand-aunt of Sir Walter Scott, thus writes, in returning to him the work of a female novelist which she had borrowed from him out of curiosity, and to remind her of “auld lang syne:”—“Is it not a very odd thing that I, an old woman of eighty and upwards, sitting alone, feel myself ashamed to read a book which, sixty years ago, I have heard read aloud for the amusement of large circles, consisting of the first and most creditable society in London!”’[40] It is well that such should be the case; but it is in the interests of the purity of public morals, of the progress of national life, that these old land-marks should be preserved; for by them only can we tell of the manners and customs of our forefathers, or estimate what advancement has been made since their time.
of the
RISE, PROGRESS, and EXTINCTION
of the late
REBELLION
In Britain, in the Years 1745 and 1746.
Giving an ACCOUNT of every Battle, Skirmish, and Siege, from the Time of the PRETENDER’S coming out of France, until he landed in France again; with Plans of the Battles of Preston-pans, Clifton, Falkirk, and Culloden.
With a real DESCRIPTION of his Dangers and Travels through the HIGHLAND Isles, after the Break at CULLODEN.
[The History of the Rebellion, as given in the following pages, is a reprint, verbatim et literatim, of the third edition—the earliest now existent—published in 1774 by John Robertson, Glasgow. It is from a beautiful copy in the possession of Mr. George Gray, Clerk of the Peace, Glasgow, who kindly placed it at the disposal of the editor.]
It is grown customary to introduce New Publications (however trifling) to the Public, with some kind of Oration in their Favour——Some must have their Literary Productions shelter’d under the Protection of the Great, that they may have an Opportunity of showing their Talents in paying flattering Compliments, to gratify their Patron’s Vanity, often at the expence of Truth, and always with the sinister View of Advantage to themselves——Others, take their own Word for it, are prevail’d upon, to publish their Writings at the request of judicious Friends, thereby, laying the Public under a kind of Tribute to their friends, by obliging them to subscribe to their Judgment, or condemn their Taste, and excuse the poor Author, whose Modesty would otherwise have kept his Productions a Secret.——Some have wrote with the momentuous View of instructing and amending the World——A laudable, but arduous Task! and every One alledges some Reason or other for commencing Author.
I too have my Reasons, which I will candidly own: I shall not say they are as weighty as others are; but I will venture to affirm, they are as common, and such as have introduced into the World ten thousand Brats of the Brain, besides mine.
First then, I have an Itch for Scribling, and having wrote the following for my Pleasure, I had an Ambition to have this Child of mine out in the world, expecting, if it should thrive and do well, it might bring Credit or Comfort to the Parent——For it is my firm Opinion, that Parental Affection is as strong towards Children of the Brain, as those produced by natural Generation.
Having thus far shown my Reason for Publishing, allow me in the next Place, to show my Method——I have no dread of any Body’s finding Fault with me for telling the Truth, because Charles has no Sway here; Duke William, once the Idol of the loyal British, is gone to the house of Silence, and I believe, if I should take the Liberty to tell the Truth of him, no Body could blame me—therefore, I have impartially related all that to me seemed worth while, of the Actions of either Party in that confused Fray, from the Writings of the Celebrated Voltaire, from the Author of Ascanius, or from my own Observation, having been an Eye-witness to most of the Movements of the Armies, from the Rebels first crossing the Ford of Frew to their final defeat at Culloden.——The Highlanders Stealt, Raivt, and Sipped the Kirn, I really think, pinching Hunger caused most of their Disorders.——The Red-coats unmercifully houghed the Cows, and burnt the Houses of many poor Folks who were innocent of the Rebellion: By both, the Sakeless suffered.——I have wrote it in Vulgar Rhyme, being what not only pleased my own Fancy, but what I have found acceptable to the most part of my Countrymen, especially to those of common Education like myself. If I have done well, ’tis what I should like: and if I have fail’d, ’tis what Mankind are liable to——Therefore, let Cavillers rather write a better one, than pester themselves and the Public with their Criticisms of my Faults.——To the candid Public, I beg leave to present it, such as it is, and if they applaud, let Zoilus carp his fill——I have gained my End, and am
The Public’s most obedient Servant,
DOUGAL GRAHAM.
THE
HISTORY
OF THE
REBELLION
In Britain in the years 1745 and 1746.