TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

This book was limited to a printing of 250 copies; this etext is derived from copy #187 (the number in the book is handwritten).

Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have been placed at the end of the book.

The four battle-plan illustrations have each been moved to the end of the Chapter in which they appear.

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

Some other minor changes to the text are noted at the [end of the book.]

COLLECTED WRITINGS
OF
DOUGAL GRAHAM.

Impression strictly limited to 250 copies, of
which this copy is No. 187

Types taken down.

Portrait of Dougal Graham
From Woodcut in 1774 (3rd) Edition of ‘History of the Rebellion.’

Frontispiece to Vol. I.

THE

COLLECTED WRITINGS

OF

Dougal Graham

‘Skellat’ Bellman of Glasgow

EDITED WITH NOTES

Together with a Biographical and Bibliographical Introduction, and a Sketch
of the Chap Literature of Scotland

BY

GEORGE MAC GREGOR

Author of ‘The History of Glasgow’ and Member of the Glasgow
Archæological Society

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I.

For Subscribers and Private Circulation

GLASGOW: THOMAS D. MORISON

MDCCCLXXXIII

[PREFACE.]

Sir Walter Scott and William Motherwell, it has been recorded, both intended to do something towards the preservation of the works and fame of the literary pedlar and bellman of Glasgow: the former by reprinting the first edition of The History of the Rebellion, and the latter by a history of the Chap Literature of Scotland, in which, of course, Dougal Graham should have been a prominent figure. Neither of these eminent Scotsmen, however, found fitting opportunity to carry their intentions into effect. This is all the more to be regretted when it is considered that few men were better able to undertake the task they had proposed for themselves. In the fifty years that have elapsed since Scott and Motherwell made the world acquainted with their abandoned projects, no serious attempt has been made to preserve the writings of Dougal Graham. These works have been floating about the country in unconsidered fragments, and, notwithstanding the efforts of a few gentlemen of the past and present generations, have ever been in danger of utter destruction.

The Editor of these volumes has endeavoured to combine the intentions of Scott and Motherwell. After long and careful search, he has been able to bring together extremely rare and unique editions of Graham’s chap-books. Many of these works are rich in illustration of the manners and customs of the people during the period of their first publication; and the Editor, by foot-notes, and otherwise, has tried to explain obscurities, or trace the origin and development of peculiar customs. He has also noted many passages containing valuable contributions to the folk-lore literature of Scotland. The various editions that have come under his notice have been carefully collated; and while the oldest editions are here given, any important differences between them and subsequent issues have been marked. The Editor considered it no part of his duty to ‘improve’ his author, for he believed that to the extent he sought to effect such so-called ‘improvements,’ the work would cease to be that of Graham. Every production has been given, as far as could be found, in the condition in which it proceeded from his pen; and by doing this the Editor thought he would best perform his duty to his author and to the public. A glossary of obsolete, or imperfectly understood, words, has been given at the end of the second volume.

In the prosecution of his labours, the Editor laid himself under obligation to George Gray, Esq., Clerk of the Peace, Glasgow, whose unequalled collection of the popular literature of Scotland (many of the most valuable specimens having once been in the possession of the late Dr. David Laing) has been laid under heavy contribution; to Alex. Macdonald, Esq., Lynedoch Street; Matthew Shields, Esq., Secretary of the Stock Exchange, Glasgow; John Wordie, Esq., Buckingham Terrace; Prof. George Stephens, LL.D., F.S.A., Copenhagen; Thomas Gray, Esq., Ashton Terrace; and John Alexander, Esq., West Regent Street. His thanks are also due to J. Whiteford Mackenzie, Esq., W. S., Edinburgh; J. T. Clark, Esq., Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh; Bailie William Wilson, Glasgow; George W. Clark, Esq., Dumbreck; and James Richardson, Esq., Queen Street, Glasgow.

Glasgow, June, 1883.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

[EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION.]

[I.—BIOGRAPHY OF DOUGAL GRAHAM.]

The negligence of contemporaries by failing to appreciate the real worth of the great men of their time has often been a subject of remark. No special case need be cited to give point to the recurrence of the proposition here, for many such instances will readily suggest themselves to the mind. The reasons for this fact are many, and of divergent natures. Though it is beyond the scope of the present inquiry to discuss the general question, it may be observed, however, that some of the more potent causes which in the past have led to this unfortunate result are being rapidly removed through the spread of knowledge among the great mass of the people, and through the remarkable activity of the press in its various branches. Personal gossip regarding the hereditarily and individually great is now and then served up to the public, and it is always received with unmistakable relish. Autobiography, also, has become fashionable, and this, within recent years, has often shed light upon opinions and actions about which some doubts had formerly existed. These and other circumstances, in themselves perhaps not unmixed good, will tend to keep the biographers of the great men of this and the last generation from being placed in the awkward position in which almost all who attempt to record the lives of men who have achieved local or universal fame prior to the present century must at times find themselves placed. Insufficient data is the great obstacle in the way of the latter class. Traditions difficult to credit and as difficult to refute; suggestions more or less probable; and many obscurities, all incline to make their work perplexing, and, to a certain extent, unsatisfactory. Yet the task must be undertaken, and the earlier the better, in order that such scraps of information as have come down from the past to the present may be preserved.

Dougal Graham, the literary pedlar and bellman of Glasgow, like many a greater man, has suffered unmerited neglect, and the value of his work was not discovered, or appreciated, until it was almost too late to retrieve the loss involved by the remissness of his contemporaries and immediate successors. Motherwell, lamenting this fact, says very truly, ‘That a man who, in his day and generation, was so famous, should have left no dear recollections behind him; some Boswell to record his life, actions, and conversation, need be subject of admiration to no one who has reflected on the contemptuous neglect with which Time often treats the most illustrious dead.’[1] Graham was first noticed as having done something for the literature of his country by Mr. E. J. Spence, of London, who in 1811 published Sketches of the Manners, Customs, and Scenery of Scotland. Motherwell, in the short-lived Paisley Magazine, next set forth fully Graham’s title to the regard of his compatriots, and rescued a few recollections concerning him which, in the course of a year or two more, would have been lost. M‘Vean, in the appendix to his edition of M‘Ure’s History of Glasgow, issued in 1830, added a few additional particulars. Then Dr. Strang, through the medium of his work on Glasgow and its Clubs, contributed his mite to the small collection of knowledge concerning our author. Graham has provided only one or two details about himself; an advertisement in a Glasgow newspaper fixes the date of one of the most important events of his life; and Dr. Strang has preserved some stanzas of an elegy on his death, written by some unknown poetaster. There, practically, our knowledge ceases. All beyond what is to be gained from these sources is tradition or inference, and not a little of what has thus been put on record has been questioned. A ‘metrical account of the author,’ according to an existing tradition, was prefixed to an early issue of Graham’s History of the Rebellion of 1745–46, but owing to the disappearance of the first and second, and some of the subsequent editions, this account, if it ever existed, can now afford no assistance, nor can the tradition itself be traced to its source. Sir Walter Scott felt interested in Dougal’s work, but unfortunately he has contributed nothing to his biography, though it is believed to have been his intention to have done so. Such being the state of matters, it is only fair at this stage to assume that comparatively few of the events in the life of Dougal Graham have been ascertained beyond doubt, and that much that is related about him might be overturned even by some minute discovery. The probabilities, however, are against such a happy occurrence at so remote a period. His career, in so far as it is known, is not without a touch of romance, and it furnishes the key to a proper acquaintance with his works.

Graham, according to all accounts, was born in the village of Raploch, near Stirling, in or about the year 1724. If, as has been supposed, his History of John Cheap the Chapman is autobiographical, this is his own story of that important event—‘I, John Cheap by chance, at some certain time, doubtless against my will, was born at the Hottom, near Habertehoy Mill. My father was a Scots Highlandman, and my mother a Yorkshire wench, but honest, which causes me to be of a mongrel kind.’ Should this account be accurate, the names of the places seem to be veiled; but the uncertainty as to its application to Graham himself makes it of comparatively little value. Unfortunately, Nature endowed him with a deformed body, and his physical defects developed with his growth. His parents, from their humble position in life, were unable to give him anything beyond the common education of the time, which was of a very scant description, but he seems to have learned more by his native wit than by the instructions of the schoolmaster. Taught no trade, his youth would probably be spent at farm work, or at such odd employment as he could find, it may have been in the weaver’s shop, or in the saw-pit, much the same, in all likelihood, as his father had done before him, and as we may still find men doing in remote country hamlets. Leaving the old home under the shadow of Stirling Castle, Graham went in his early youth as a servant to a small farmer in the neighbourhood of the quaint little village of Campsie. A tradition regarding his residence there lingered about the place for nearly a century, for Spence saw traces of a turf cottage said to be the birth-place and early residence of Dougal Graham.[2] As there are no good grounds for questioning the statement that Graham’s birth-place was Raploch, may it not be considered a feasible idea, in view of Spence’s remark, that our author’s parents removed to Campsie, and that he went with them? How long Dougal remained with the farmer is unknown. Of an unsettled disposition, he, like his creation John Cheap, made himself a chapman when very young, in great hopes of being rich when he became old; and for some years he wandered over the country in the exercise of his craft. The political events of the time, however, effected another and more important change in his career, and rapidly developed in him the mental capabilities with which nature had, by way of compensation, endowed him.

The outbreak of the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745 found Graham ready to follow the Young Chevalier. When the Highland army was on its southward march, he joined it on the 13th of September of that year, at the Ford of Frew, on the Forth. At that time he was probably about twenty-one years of age. The capacity in which he became attached to the Prince’s forces has been matter for conjecture. His physical deformities are assumed to have unfitted him for active service, and everything points to the conclusion that he was not a soldier, but rather a sutler, or camp-follower, blending, probably, his political aspirations with commercial pursuits. In the preface to his History of the Rebellion, he avoids saying he participated actively in the events he records, but plainly states that he had ‘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.’ Throughout the whole course of the seven months’ campaign, Graham accompanied the rebel army, and while he has carefully recorded its movements, he has given no indication of how he himself was occupied, or of any adventures that may have fallen to his share. There can be little doubt that, to a man of his temperament, the march to Derby and the retreat upon Inverness, would be highly educative in its effects, by showing him life in various parts of the country he had in all likelihood never visited before, and by bringing him into contact with men of all ranks. In this short period his knowledge of men and manners would be largely increased, and the experience thus gained would greatly facilitate the production of those graphic and truthful descriptions which sometimes adorn—sometimes, it must also be admitted, tarnish—the literary efforts of his later years.

Until this time, Graham is not known to have made any effort in the direction of literature, though, in view of the magnitude of the task he set before himself on the conclusion of the rebellion, it is not improbable he may have courted the Muses from afar, and indulged in poetical, or rhythmical, fancies for the amusement of his customers and entertainers in his youthful chapman days. However that may be, Dougal, immediately after the disaster at Culloden, rapidly made his way homewards, and set about committing to verse a narrative of the expedition of Prince Charles. The self-imposed duty was great, but he was equal to it. The battle of Culloden was fought on the 16th of April, 1746, and five months later Graham’s work was announced. In the Glasgow Courant, of the 29th September, the following advertisement appeared:—

‘That there is to be sold by James Duncan, Printer in Glasgow, in the Saltmercat, the 2nd Shop below Gibson’s Wynd, a Book intituled A full, particular, and true Account of the late Rebellion in the Year 1745 and 1746, beginning with the Pretender’s Embarking for Scotland, and then an Account of every Battle, Siege, and Skirmish that has happened in either Scotland or England.

‘To which is added, several Addresses and Epistles to the Pope, Pagans, Poets, and the Pretender: all in Metre. Price Four Pence. But any Booksellers or Packmen may have them easier from the said James Duncan, or the Author, D. Grahame.

‘The like has not been done in Scotland since the Days of Sir David Lindsay.’

There is every reason to believe that this work became popular immediately on its publication. Scattered broadcast over Scotland by chapmen and others, while the events of which it treated were still agitating the minds of the people, Graham’s name by it would be brought boldly to the front, and there would be opened up for him the possibilities of a career wider than any he could have contemplated under ordinary circumstances. In every way the work appears to have been a success, and the judgment pronounced upon it by Dr. Robert Chambers has been concurred in by all who have read the production—‘The poetry is, of course, in some cases a little grotesque, but the matter of the work is in many instances valuable. It contains, and in this consists the chief value of all such productions, many minute facts which a work of more pretension would not admit.’[3] Sir Walter Scott’s estimate of it was not less favourable, for, writing to Dr. Strang in 1830, he said—‘It really contained some traits and circumstances of manners worth preserving.’[4]

Although the issue of the History of the Rebellion was probably large, it is remarkable that now, and for many years past, no copy of the first edition has been known to exist. It would be difficult to explain the cause of such a total disappearance. The fact must be regretted both from literary and bibliographical points of view, for a copy of it, besides being of interest in itself, would clear up several obscurities and differences of opinion that have arisen in relation to it and subsequent editions.

Prior to the publication of the History of the Rebellion, Graham was not a resident in Glasgow, though it is probable he would be known to many there, for he must have had frequent occasion to visit the city for the purpose of purchasing his stock-in-trade. These visits would bring him into contact with booksellers, and the numerous tradesmen whose wares would be represented in his miscellaneous pack. The title-page of his work is said to have contained these lines:—

‘Composed by the poet, D. Graham,

In Stirlingshire he lives at hame.’

It would be useless to say whether the wide term ‘Stirlingshire’ bore reference to Raploch, or to Campsie, as has been suggested; but the verse may fairly be considered, by the prefix ‘poet’ to the author’s name, to give countenance to the inference that Graham was not quite a tyro in the art of verse-making, and that previous to the publication of his History he was regarded by his intimate friends, at least, as having qualified for the title. However that may be, Dougal seems now to have made Glasgow his home. Possibly he still continued to ply his calling as a pedlar; but he added to this a profession for which his natural capabilities specially adapted him. In Glasgow, he became the poet of passing events. Little of local importance seemed to have escaped him, and the few metrical pieces now extant, and attributed to him by various authorities, can only be regarded as the representatives of an extensive issue of facetious broadsides and chap-book ballads. Among those believed to be referable to this period of his life, are John Hielandman’s Remarks on Glasgow, and Turnimspike. Although these have never been acknowledged by Graham himself, in the formal way that he has acknowledged the authorship of the History of the Rebellion, there is a consensus of opinion that these two poems are undoubtedly his production. In them the acquaintance he made with Highland modes of thought and expression during the progress of the Jacobite campaign, served him in good stead. M‘Vean attributes a humorous piece, entitled Tugal M‘Tagger, to Graham, but this has been questioned on several grounds, perhaps the most forcible suggestion being, that its style and rhythm are liker the work of Alexander Rodger than of Graham. Personally, we feel inclined to support M‘Vean, and that for a variety of reasons, which may be better explained when dealing with the bibliography of our author’s works; while other metrical compositions of a similar character will also fall to be considered under the same head.

Dougal was now a man of some note, and, in addition, he is believed to have gradually worked himself into a position of comparative freedom from pecuniary troubles. In the time of his poverty he vented his ill nature on his Roman Catholic fellow-subjects in verse far from elegant, charging them with having brought about, for reasons best known to himself, the unsatisfactory state of his exchequer:—

‘You Papists are a cursed race,

And this I tell you to your face;

And your images of gold so fine,

Their curses come on me and mine.

Likewise themselves at any rate,

For money now is ill to get.

I have run my money to an en’,

And have nouther paper nor pen

To write thir lines the way you see me,

And there’s none for to supplie me.’

Like many another man, Graham becomes incoherent when indulging in strong language. But matters did not always remain in this sad state, and when he published the second edition of his History of the Rebellion he was able to call himself ‘Dougal Graham, merchant,’ showing he had advanced a step in his commercial position. There is no reason to suppose he had a place of business, such as a shop or warehouse, but the probability is that he had become one of the better class of chapmen, whose packs contained a large variety of finer goods than were usually hawked through the country.

The second edition of the History of the Rebellion was published in 1752, probably with additions to include the adventures of Prince Charles after the defeat at Culloden. This edition, like the first, has disappeared, and at present no copy is known to exist. The re-issue of his work would assist Graham in his pecuniary affairs, and it is said that he was able to begin a business which, even in these early days, would require some little capital. According to M‘Vean, Graham, after 1752, became a printer, and, like Buchan, the chronicler of Peterhead, he composed his works and set them up at the case without committing them to writing; or, as Strang puts it, he was in the habit of at once spinning thought into typography. Beyond that there is no information as to Dougal’s experience at the printing trade, though it must suggest itself as strange that so many of his chap-books should be issued by other parties, by Mr. Caldwell of Paisley, for instance, who is reported by Motherwell to have said:—‘We were aye fain to get a haud of some new piece frae him.’

Like Sir Walter Scott, who took a great interest in him and his works, Graham after a time appears to have turned his attention more particularly to prose composition, indulging rarely in verse. The period during which most of his prose chap-books were written and issued was probably between 1752 and 1774, the latter being the date of the publication of the third edition of his History of the Rebellion; though one or two are known to have appeared subsequent to that date. These works would greatly add to his credit with the people, and there can be no doubt that they had a most extensive circulation. ‘A’ his works took weel,’ says Mr. Caldwell, Motherwell’s informant, ‘they were level to the meanest capacity, and had plenty o’ coarse jokes to season them. I never kent a history of Dougal’s that stuck in the sale yet.’ Better testimony as to their popularity could scarcely be desired; and that the author was awarded a share of the favour his works received cannot be doubted. It has sometimes been thought that several of his chap-books were to a certain extent autobiographical—such, for instance, as John Cheap the Chapman—but the absolute impossibility of separating fact from fiction makes them of no value in this direction. Whether printed by himself or others the number of his works still known to exist prove him to have been a most prolific writer, and it can be fairly assumed that, in a pecuniary sense, they were successful. None of them appear to have been published under Graham’s own name, but were either issued anonymously or under a cognomen which would probably be well understood in his own time as referring to him, such as ‘The Scots’ Piper,’ ‘John Falkirk,’ and ‘Merry Andrew at Tamtallon.’

An advertisement which appeared in the Glasgow Journal of 14th June, 1764, has raised the question of Graham’s domestic relations. Everything known points to the conclusion that he never entered into the conjugal yoke. The announcement spoken of ran thus:—

‘Notice.—Whereas, Jean Stark, spouse to Dougal Graham, ale-seller, above the Cross, Glasgow, has parted from her husband, he thinks it proper to inform the public that she be inhibit by him from contracting debt in his name, or yet receiving any debt due to him, after this present date.’

It has been usual to assume that this advertisement had no reference to our author, and, even though the names are the same, we see no reason to dissent from the general verdict. There is neither direct information nor obscure indication of Graham having at any time been an ‘ale-seller.’ The incident, however, has given Professor Fraser an opportunity of pointing out a failing of Dougal’s—‘In one sense, he was always a large dealer in spirits, but it is not so certain that he was actually a publican.’[5] Judging from his works, and if the few traditions concerning him are to be accepted as evidence on this point, he was not a teetotaller, but that in itself was no remarkable circumstance in the times in which he lived.

An event of the first importance in Graham’s life was his appointment to the post of skellat bellman of the city of Glasgow. One would naturally have thought that in this matter at least there would have been no room for any dubiety concerning the various circumstances of the appointment, especially as it was to a post of some credit under one of the most ancient municipal corporations in Scotland, but that is not so. The ‘skellat’ bell, it may be explained, was the one used for ordinary announcements by the town-crier, as the ‘mort’ bell was in use on the intimation of death. In former times the crier, on obtaining possession of the two bells, had, according to the Burgh Records, ‘to cum bund for the soume of thrie scoir pundis’ Scots, or £5 sterling; and in addition to the importance of the office, it was always regarded as being of some pecuniary value. As the appointment was in the gift of the magistrates, it is surprising that no notice is taken in the Town Council Records of Graham’s incumbency. Motherwell put himself to some trouble in this matter, and wrote to Dr. Cleland, author of the Annals of Glasgow, then Superintendent of Public Works in the city, requesting information. In October, 1828, he received this reply—‘With regard to Dougal Graham, I may safely say there is nothing in the Records concerning him. This, from my own knowledge, corroborated by Mr. Thomson, one of our Town-clerks, who lately made an index of everything in the books for 150 years back.’ In order to satisfy himself on this point, the editor of these volumes took advantage of the opportunity kindly afforded him of going over the Burgh Records in the Town Clerk’s Office, and a careful search over the Council Minutes for a period of fully forty years was unproductive of any result other than that recorded by Dr. Cleland. As to the date of the appointment, therefore, some doubt exists. Turner, a town officer of fully eighty years, told Cleland that when he was a boy of about ten years of age, he remembered Graham as bellman, and Motherwell infers from this statement that our author was enjoying the whole emoluments of office about 1750. M‘Vean, however, is of a different opinion, and says Graham could not have been bellman earlier than 1770, ‘as an old gentleman remembers other four bellmen, who held office before Dougal, and after the year 1764.’ Possibly Turner’s memory may have been failing him in his old age, and he may not have been accurate by ten or fifteen years. M‘Vean was certainly in as good a position as any one to ascertain the true version, and there seems no reason why his statement should not be accepted in preference to the haphazard guess by Motherwell.

Tradition has it that Graham did not obtain the office of bellman without some little difficulty, because of his connection with the Jacobite movement. Here is the story as given by Mr. Caldwell, the Paisley publisher:—‘In his youth he was in the Pretender’s service, and on that account had a sair faught to get the place o’ bellman, for the Glasgow bailies had an illbrew o’ the Hielanders, and were just doun-richt wicked against onybody that had melled wi’ the rebels; but Dougie was a pawkey chield, and managed to wyse them ower to his ain interests, pretending that he was a staunch King’s man, and pressed into the Prince’s service sair against his will, and when he was naithing mair than a hafflins callant, that scarcely kent his left hand frae his richt, or a B frae a bull’s fit.’ In addition to this subtle reasoning with the magistrates, Dougal is said by some writers to have effected very material alterations on the third edition of his History of the Rebellion, published in 1774, in order to please the Whig patrons of the office to which he aspired. Here is a difficulty not easily overcome. Caldwell’s information was likely to be correct, and it is further supported by the knowledge that during the Jacobite risings the Glasgow bailies, and the citizens generally, were staunch supporters of the House of Hanover. The first thought that must suggest itself to the mind is, that it was not at all likely that Graham would seek to publish in Glasgow a Jacobite history of the Rebellion, at a time when the city authorities were applying to Parliament for an indemnification for the money and supplies levied on them by the Prince and his army. But assuming that Graham did publish a history of this complexion, we have M‘Vean’s statement, to all appearance founded upon a personal knowledge of the second edition—though he seems to regard it as the first—in these words:—‘In 1752 Dougal talks of the rebels with a great deal of virulence; in 1774 he softens his tone, and occasionally introduces apologies for their conduct.’ Possibly no one of the present generation, or of the one immediately preceding it, has ever seen a copy of this second edition; and in the absence of other and more conclusive evidence, the ipse dixit of M‘Vean must be accepted, and it goes directly against the assumption that Graham changed the political colouring of the third edition of his history to please the Glasgow bailies. If his appointment as bellman took place in 1750, as Motherwell, on what have been considered too slender grounds, has suggested, there might be some reason for entertaining the idea; but taking the date given by M‘Vean as approximately accurate it seems altogether out of the question. Caldwell, with his admitted knowledge of the incident, does not even hint at such an action on Graham’s part, but only supplies a very feasible account of the explanation afforded to the magistrates. Then, again, it could not be the case surely, if the bailies were ‘wicked against onybody that had melled wi’ the rebels,’ that the best way to appease them would be to introduce into the History of the Rebellion apologies for the conduct of those whom they regarded with such detestation. Dr. David Laing, writing, apparently, with a personal acquaintance of the second edition, says:—‘The second edition, 1752, bears, “Printed for and sold by Dougal Graham, merchant in Glasgow.” In the third edition, 1774, the work was entirely re-written, and not improved.... The first edition is so extremely rare, that only one copy is known to be preserved, and, as a literary curiosity, it might be worth reprinting; although it demolishes the fine story of the author’s difficulty in obtaining the bellman’s place from the Glasgow bailies, on account of his being a Jacobite, and having joined the Pretender’s army.’[6] But more than that, there are in the third edition itself some lines which go against the notion of alterations in respect of the colouring of the events recorded. In ‘The Author’s Address to all in General’ there is this verse:—

‘Now, gentle readers, I have let ye ken,

My very thoughts, from heart and pen,

’Tis needless now for to conten’,

Or yet controule,

For there’s not a word o’t I can men’,

So ye must thole.’

He then proceeds to describe barbarities on both sides, of which he had been witness. In the preface also he says:—‘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.’ The contention here is not that Graham was not sufficiently worldly to stoop to trimming, but rather that the undoubted alterations made on the third edition were not of the character many have imagined them to be. M‘Vean says that many ‘curious passages’ in the 1752 edition were suppressed in the one of 1774, but he makes that statement with reference to the toning down of the virulence against the rebels. Of course the disappearance of the first and second editions precludes the final and decided settlement of this not unimportant question, but the arguments and citations now brought forward can only lead to the impression that Graham made no alterations on the political tone of the third edition of his history in order to win the Glasgow bailies over to his cause. There were alterations and amendments, but these, it may be surmised, would be more of a literary than political character. The suggestion that they were of a different nature appears to have arisen from a mistaken notion of M‘Vean’s statement, which notion, by some means or other, became connected with the difficulty Graham had in obtaining the office of bellman. The two together make a most probable story, but it is a story which seems to be founded upon insufficient premises. It is curious that a somewhat similar misunderstanding arose with regard to Chambers’s History of the Rebellion of 1745–6, and that in order to put the public right, the author had to pen such words as these, as a preface to his seventh edition:—‘It has been customary to call it [this history] a Jacobite history. To this let me demur. Of the whole attempt of 1745 I disapprove as most men do.... But, on the other hand, those who followed Charles Edward in his hazardous enterprise, acted according to their lights, with heroic self-devotion.... Knowing how these men did all in honour, I deem it but just that their adventures should be detailed with impartiality, and their unavoidable misfortunes be spoken of with humane feeling. There is no other Jacobitism in the book that I am aware of.’

But leaving the region of debate, it will be refreshing to turn to a humorous story on record, as to the competition Graham had to face before he became bellman. There were many applicants for the situation, and the magistrates decided that the merits of each should be put to a practical test. Accordingly all the candidates were instructed to be present on a certain day in the back-yard of the old Town’s Hospital, then situated in what is now known as Great Clyde Street. The magistrates were present as judges, and there were with them, no doubt, many of the leading citizens to witness the interesting spectacle. All the other competitors having shown their skill with the bell, and demonstrated the quality of their vocal powers, Dougal’s turn came. He entered into the spirit of the contest, and his physical peculiarities would greatly assist him. He rang the bell in a surprising manner, and called out in stentorian tones—

‘Caller herring at the Broomielaw,

Three a penny, three a penny!’

adding, pawkily—

‘Indeed, my friends,

But it’s a’ a blewflum,

For the herring’s no catch’d,

And the boat’s no come.’

The victory was his, and the other competitors were out of the reckoning. He had shown himself every way suited for the office—to be endowed with that ready wit which has always been a characteristic of the true Scottish bellman—and he was accordingly invested with the official garments, and with the magisterial authority to exercise his new calling. In the year 1774, probably two or three years after the events just related, the third edition of Graham’s History of the Rebellion, with amendments, was published. This edition, like its predecessors, was successful, and it is understood to be the last edition issued during the author’s lifetime. Dougal, as an official of the Corporation of Glasgow, had now become a personage of no little importance in the community. These were not the days of cheap advertisements, reaching half-a-million readers in a few hours, or of posters and handbills apprising the lieges of meetings and sales, or of the lost, stolen, and strayed. All this Graham, with the aid of his bell, had to intimate to the public. The ‘trial scene’ affords a specimen of the kind of work he had to perform. He had also, to a certain extent, to act as attendant on the magistracy. The story goes that Dougal was on one occasion passing along the Gallowgate, making some intimation or another. Several officers of the 42nd Highlanders, then returned from the American War of Independence, where their regiment had been severely handled by the colonists, were dining in the Saracen’s Head Inn, situated at the foot of the Dovehill. They knew Dougal of old, and they thought to have a joke at his expense. One of them put his head out of the window, and called to the bellman—‘What’s that you’ve got on your back, Dougal?’ This was rather a personal reference, for Dougal had the misfortune to be ‘humphie backit.’ But he was not put out by the question, for he at once silenced his interrogator by answering—‘It’s Bunker’s Hill; do you choose to mount?’ The good stories about Graham are said to have been legion, but they have, unfortunately, been allowed to die out; otherwise, a collection of his jokes and bons mots might have been a formidable rival to the now classical Joe Miller.

But death put an end to Dougal’s happy-go-lucky existence while he was still in the prime of life. He died on the 20th of July, 1779, at the age of fifty-five or fifty-six, in what circumstances, or of what trouble, cannot now be discovered. These were not the days of newspaper obituaries, or he would certainly have been awarded a half-column notice. This, of itself, is unfortunate, for then many biographical details could have been obtained, and subsequent writers of Graham’s life would have been able to produce a record of his career more satisfactory to themselves and their readers. That Dougal did not die unregretted, is witnessed by an elegy of twelve stanzas, written at the time of his death by some unknown poetaster. This lament has, unfortunately, only come down to the present generation in a fragmentary form, Dr. Strang[7] having preserved seven of the verses:—

‘Ye mothers fond! O be not blate

To mourn poor Dougal’s hapless fate,

Ofttimes you know he did you get

Your wander’d weans;

To find them out, both soon and late,

He spared no pains.

‘Our footmen now sad tune may sing,

For none like him the streets made ring,

Nor quick intelligence could bring

Of caller fish,

Of salmon, herring, cod, or ling,

Just to their wish.

‘The Bull Inn and the Saracen,

Were both well served with him at e’en,

As ofttimes we have heard and seen

Him call retour,

For Edinburgh, Greenock, and Irvine,

At any hour.

‘The honest wives he pleased right well,

When he did cry braw new cheap meal,

Cheap butter, barley, cheese, and veal

Was selling fast.

They often call’d him “lucky chiel,”

As he went past.

‘Had any rambler in the night,

Broken a lamp and then ta’en flight,

Dougal would bring the same to light

’Gainst the next day,

Which made the drunk, mischievous wight

Right dearly pay.

‘It is well known unto his praise,

He well deserved the poet’s bays,

So sweet was his harmonious lays;

Loud-sounding fame

Alone can tell, how all his days

He bore that name.

‘Of witty jokes he had such store,

Johnson could not have pleased you more;

Or with loud laughter made you roar

As he could do:

He had still something ne’er before

Exposed to view.’

In concluding this biographical notice of Dougal Graham, it will be appropriate to make one or two quotations which will give a full and just idea of his personality. Our author seems to have taken a portrait of himself—and through his modesty it is not too flattering—when he thus delineates John Cheap, the Chapman:—‘John Cheap the chapman, was a very comical short thick fellow, with a broad face and a long nose; both lame and lazy, and something leacherous among the lasses; he chused rather to sit idle than work at any time, as he was a hater of hard labour. No man needed to offer him cheese and bread after he cursed he would not have it; for he would blush at bread and milk, when hungry, as a beggar doth at a bawbee. He got the name of John Cheap the chapman, by his selling twenty needles for a penny, and twa leather laces for a farthing.’ Mr. Caldwell, of Paisley, told Motherwell that ‘Dougald was an unco glib body at the pen, and could screed aff a bit penny history in less than nae time. A’ his warks took weel—they were level to the meanest capacity, and had plenty o’ coarse jokes to season them. I never kent a history of Dougald’s that stack in the sale yet, and we were aye fain to get a haud of some new piece frae him.’ Dr. Cleland, on the information of Turner, an old Glasgow town-officer, was able to supply Motherwell with this notice:—‘When Turner was a boy of about ten years of age, Dougald was bellman, and being very poetical, he collected a crowd of boys round him at every corner where he rang the bell. Turner says that Dougald was “a bit wee gash bodie under five feet.”’ ‘John Falkirk’ is believed to have been a nickname assumed by, or applied to, Graham upon various occasions, and this description of him is prefixed to one of the editions of John Falkirk’s Cariches, published soon after his death:—‘John Falkirk, commonly called the Scots Piper, was a curious little witty fellow, with a round face and a broad nose. None of his companions could answer the many witty questions he proposed to them, therefore he became the wonder of the age in which he lived.... In a word, he was

‘“The wittiest fellow in his time,

Either for Prose or making Rhyme.”’

M‘Vean says:—‘Dougal was lame of one leg, and had a large hunch on his back, and another protuberance on his breast.’ Strang, referring to the portrait prefixed to the third edition of the History of the Rebellion, and reproduced in this volume, thus pictures Graham: ‘Only fancy a little man scarcely five feet in height, with a Punch-like nose, with a hump on his back, a protuberance on his breast, and a halt in his gait, donned in a long scarlet coat nearly reaching the ground, blue breeches, white stockings, shoes with large buckles, and a cocked hat perched on his head, and you have before you the comic author, the witty bellman, the Rabelais of Scottish ploughmen, herds, and handicraftsmen!’ But here is an even more graphic pen and ink portrait, some of the details, no doubt, filled in from imagination, but with the tout ensemble admirably preserved, and true to life:—‘It must have been a goodly sight to see Dougal in his official robes, the cynosure of every eye in the busy Trongate, or the life and soul of the company in Mrs. M‘Larty’s “wee bit public,” where he and his cronies were wont to quench their native thirst. He must, indeed, have been a grotesque figure. “A wee bit gash body under five feet high;” with a round, broad, red and much-seamed face; a prominent nose, truncated à la Punch; an Æsopian hump on one shoulder, and a large protuberance on one breast; legs of unequal length and peculiar shape; a long scarlet coat hanging down from the shoulders to the ground; blue breeches set off by white stockings, and large brilliantly buckled shoes: with an imposing cocked hat perched fiercely on one side of the massive head.’[8]

These word paintings, together with the two portraits given in this work, will afford the reader a most vivid conception of the appearance of the king of Scottish chapmen.

[II.—THE WRITINGS OF DOUGAL GRAHAM.]

It must be manifest, from all that has been stated in the preceding pages, that anything like a complete bibliography of the works of Dougal Graham is now impossible. This is the case for many reasons, kindred in their nature to those that have rendered an absolutely satisfactory biography unattainable; but more especially because, with the exception of the History of the Rebellion, Graham did not formally, on title-pages or elsewhere, acknowledge the authorship of the ballads and prose chap-books attributed to him on more or less trustworthy authority. Another important point is that he did not seem to have interfered in any way with their re-issue after their first publication, for there is evidence that in his life-time editions were published in various places, other than Glasgow and Paisley, to all appearance independent of the author.

Motherwell, in this as in other matters relating to Graham, acting under the inspiration of information given him by Mr. George Caldwell, the Paisley publisher, ascribes the following works to Dougal, adding the dates of the earliest editions he had in his possession when he wrote his article for the Paisley Magazine:—

The Whole Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy. In five parts. Carefully corrected and revised by the Author. Glasgow: printed for, and sold by, the Booksellers in Town and Country. 1783.

The Comical Sayings of Pady from Cork, with his Coat button’d behind. In all its parts. Carefully corrected by the Author. Glasgow: printed for George Caldwell, Bookseller in Paisley. 1784.

The History and Comical Transactions of Lothian Tom. In six parts. Glasgow: printed by J. & M. Robertson. 1793.

The History of John Cheap the Chapman. In three parts. Glasgow: printed and sold by J. & M. Robertson. 1786.

The Comical and Witty Jokes of John Falkirk the Merry Piper. Glasgow: printed in the year 1779.

The Scots Piper’s Queries, or John Falkirk’s Cariches for the trial of Dull Wits. (n.d.)

Janet Clinker’s Orations on the Virtues of Old Women and the Pride of the Young. (n.d.)

Leper the Tailor. Two parts. Glasgow, 1779.

The Comical History of Simple John and his Twelve Misfortunes.

Motherwell adds that ‘John Falkirk’s Jokes and Cariches’ and ‘Janet Clinker’s Orations’ were frequently found printed together, and that the last named was sometimes issued as a separate publication, with the title—‘Grannie M‘Nab’s Lecture in the Society of Clashing Wives, Glasgow, on Witless Mithers and Dandy Daughters, who bring them up to hoodwink the men, and deceive them with their braw dresses, when they can neither wash a sark, mak’ parritch, or gang to the well.’ In addition to the works already enumerated, Motherwell mentions the following, regarding which he says that though he had no authority for ascribing them to Graham he would not be surprised to find that he was the author of them:—

Merry Exploits of George Buchanan.
The Creelman’s [Coalman’s] Courtship.
The History of Buckhaven.

This concludes Motherwell’s testimony; and here is that given by Mr. M‘Vean, the antiquarian bookseller, whose authority can be scarcely less valid than that of the Paisley Poet. Dr. Strang says:—‘In a manuscript of the late Mr. M‘Vean, the antiquarian bibliopole of the High Street, we find the following list of the Opera Dugaldi, so far as he had met with them, keeping out of view his lyrical productions, which were very numerous. Perhaps no man ever devoted more time to ferret out bibliographical curiosities connected with Scotland than Mr. M‘Vean....’:—

1. George Buchanan, six parts.

2. Paddy from Cork, three parts.

3. Leper the Tailor, two parts.

4. John Falkirk the Merry Piper.

5. Janet Clinker’s Oration on the Virtues of the Old, and the Pride of Young, Women.

6. John Falkirk’s Curiosities [Cariches], five parts.

7. John Cheap the Chapman, three parts.

8. Lothian Tom, six parts.

9. The History of Buckhaven, with cuts.

10. Jocky and Maggy’s Courtship, five parts.

11. The Follower [Follies] of Witless Women; or, the History of Haveral Wives.

12. The Young Creelman’s [Coalman’s] Courtship to a Creelwife’s Daughter, two parts.

13. Simple John and his Twelve Misfortunes.

14. The Grand Solemnity of the Tailor’s Funeral, who lay nine days in state on his own Shop-board; together with his last Will.

15. The Remarkable Life and Transactions of Alexander Hamwinkle, Heckler, Dancing-master, and Ale-seller in Glasgow, now banished for Coining.

16. The Dying Groans of Sir John Barleycorn, being his grievous Complaint against the Brewers of bad Ale; to which is added, Donald Drouth’s Reply, with a large Description of his Drunken Wife.

17. A Warning to the Methodist Preachers.

18. A Second Warning to the Methodist Preachers.

Strang himself, who, in some respects, must be regarded as an authority upon matters relating to Graham, does not condescend upon bibliographical details; and the lists now given consequently include the testimony of the only two writers whose opinions or suggestions bear with anything like direct authority on the subject.

Two poems entitled John Hielandman’s Remarks on Glasgow and Turnimspike have been unhesitatingly attributed to Graham by all authorities; Tugal M‘Tagger, another metrical production, was believed by M‘Vean to be his composition, though there has been some subsequent questioning in the matter; while the following have been claimed or suggested as his work by M‘Vean, in a note to his edition of M‘Ure’s History of Glasgow:—Verses on the Pride of Women, a poem on the Popular Superstitions of Scotland, a Dialogue between the Pope and the Prince of Darkness, and an epitaph on the Third Command. Professor Fraser, in his list, inserts Proverbs on the Pride of Women, in addition to the verses on the same subject; but he gives no authority for the addition.

Having thus traced the results of the labours of those who have already written concerning Graham’s miscellaneous works, something must now be said about his History of the Rebellion. The total disappearance of the first and second editions of that curious publication renders, as has already been hinted, any statements or opinions regarding them of doubtful value, with the exception, of course, of the date of their issue to the public. The advertisement announcing the intended issue of the first edition in 1746, has been quoted, and is undeniably authentic; but whether the work was published immediately after, or some time later, is a moot point. That it was published in that year is indicated by what follows, which is believed to be the contents of the title-page of the editio princeps:—

‘A full, particular, and true Account of the Rebellion, in the years 1745–6.

Composed by the Poet D. Graham,

In Stirlingshire he lives at hame.

To the Tune of The Gallant Grahams. To which is added, Several other Poems by the same Author. Glasgow, Printed and Sold by James Duncan, &c., 1746. Price fourpence halfpenny.’

This edition was a duodecimo consisting of 84 pp. Probably the matter it contained, assuming no alterations of this portion, would end with the ninth chapter of later issues, the last lines of which form an appropriate conclusion to the fatal adventure of Prince Charles:—

‘This was a day of lamentation,

Made many brave men leave their nation.

Their eyes were open’d, all was vain,

Now grief and sorrow was their gain.’

It may be interesting to note that the published price of this edition, was, if the title-page quoted is authentic, a halfpenny more than that at which it was announced; but that is a trivial affair compared with what is suggested by the words—‘To the Tune of The Gallant Grahams.’ This may be taken as indicating that the matter of the first edition was not altogether got up in the purely historical method, but that it was to a certain extent what might be called either an historic drama, or a dramatic history. This idea may not be accurate, but the apparent impossibility of referring to the first edition itself precludes any definite knowledge on the subject. Fraser, speaking of the disappearance of this edition, remarks:—‘Yet, at least a few copies of the original history must be hidden somewhere. So late as 1830, the author of “Waverley” had one in his possession, a fac-simile of which he intended to publish, with the view of presenting it to the Maitland Club, but sickness intervened to derange his plans, and two years later, death stepped in and snatched the pen from the great magician.’[9] Again, Dr. David Laing says:—‘The first edition is so extremely rare that only one copy is known to be preserved, and, as a literary curiosity, it might be worth reprinting.’[10] It is to be regretted that Dr. Laing’s statement was not more explicit. As for the assumption made by Professor Fraser, it is only natural to imagine that the whole edition cannot have altogether disappeared, and that a copy or two should still be in existence. But he takes for granted regarding Sir Walter Scott’s intentions, and his preparedness to carry them into effect, rather more than the words of Dr. Strang, on which he seems to have founded, will legitimately bear. This is what Strang says:—‘So late as the year 1830, Sir Walter Scott even “entertained the idea of printing a correct copy of the original edition,” with the view of presenting it to the Maitland Club as his contribution, stating, as he did in a letter addressed to the writer, that he thought “it really contained some traits and circumstances of manners worth preserving.”’[11] Scott’s intention is here evident, but it in no way bears that he was in possession of a first edition. In point of fact, he had no copy of it at the time of his death, two years after this letter was written, as a reference to the catalogue of the Abbotsford Library will show. That catalogue contains this reference to Graham’s History:—‘Graham’s (Dougal, Bellman of Glasgow) Impartial History of the Rise, Progress, and Extinction of the late Rebellion, &c. (in doggrel verse). 3rd edit. 18mo. Glasgow: 1774.’ So far for the first edition.

As for the second edition of the History of the Rebellion, published in 1752, it has also disappeared. There is no reason to believe that, beyond a slight enlargement and some few alterations, there was any material change in the work. Its tone is indicated by the remark made by M‘Vean:—‘The History of the Rebellion, published by Dougal in 1752, differs very much from the third edition, published in 1774. This last appears to have been greatly altered and enlarged, and many curious passages in the early edition are suppressed in this. In 1752 Dougal talks of the rebels with a great deal of virulence, in 1774 he softens his tone, and occasionally introduces apologies for their conduct. In 1752 Dougal styles himself “merchant in Glasgow;” a rhyming merchant could not be expected to be rich, and he says—

“You Papists are a cursed race,”’ &c.

The lines, of which the one quoted is the first, have already been given in the biography, and there is no need for their repetition here. But it is worthy of note that M‘Vean states, to a certain extent indirectly, that they formed part of the matter in the second edition, and if that is the case they, it must be admitted, fully confirm his statement as to that edition containing passages in which Graham talked of the rebels with a great deal of virulence; and, possibly, they may be taken as specimens of many others of a like nature. Some writers have suggested that Graham may have learned the printing trade while this edition was passing through the press, and it has been suspected that he may have had something to do with the printing of it himself. That is not likely, or M‘Vean, who appears to have had a somewhat intimate acquaintance with the work, would have mentioned it.

No such doubts, however, exist as to the third edition of the History of the Rebellion, which, though rare, may be seen occasionally. It was published in 1774, and bears on the title-page this lengthy statement of its contents:—‘An Impartial History 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 Prestonpans, Clifton, Falkirk, and Culloden, with a real Description of his Dangers and Travels through the Highland Isles, after the Break at Culloden. By D. Graham. The Third Edition, with Amendments. Glasgow: Printed by John Robertson. MDCCLXXIV.’ The narrative in this edition occupies 174 pp. It consists of fifteen chapters, containing in all 5562 lines, and is preceded by a preface of two pages, the title-page, and a full-page woodcut of the author, bearing underneath it this couplet:—

‘From brain and pen, O virtue drope,

Vice fly as Charlie, and John Cope.’

At the conclusion of the narrative are—‘A Quaker’s Address to Prince Charles, shewing what was the Cause and Ground of his Misfortunes,’ of 146 lines; a copy of ‘The Rebels’ Orders before the Battle of Culloden’; ‘Miss Flora’s Lament—A Song,’ of ten four-line stanzas; ‘The Author’s Address to all in general,’ of fourteen six-line stanzas; and two pages of contents—making a total of 192 pages. The text of the third edition has been used in the reprinting of the History of the Rebellion for this volume.

The subsequent editions, so far as they have been discovered, need only be mentioned. No trace has been found of the fourth edition, though it must have been published soon after Graham’s death. The fifth edition received this notice from a writer of last century:—‘In 1787, “An impartial history of the rebellion in Britain, in the years 1745 and 1746, by Douglas Graham” (the fifth edition), was printed at Glasgow by J. & M. Robertson. This history is in Hudibrastic metre. This is a sorry performance.’[12] The seventh edition was published in Glasgow by J. & M. Robertson, Saltmarket, in 1803; the eighth by the same firm in 1808; the ninth in Falkirk, by T. Johnston, 1812; while the last, what its number it would be difficult to say, was published in Aberdeen, in 1850, conjointly by Alexander Watson and Alexander Murdoch. The Aberdeen edition does not bear Graham’s name on the title-page, and instead of the author’s preface, it contains a ‘Genealogical and Historical Introduction,’ taken from the introduction to Chambers’s History of the Rebellion. It is remarkable that the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh, should only possess an eighth edition.

Something must now be said about the miscellaneous poetical works of Dougal Graham. The best known of these may be said to be John Hielandman’s Remarks on Glasgow, a humorous sketch of considerable power, valuable also, because of the information it affords regarding the leading features of the City of St. Mungo in the middle of last century. M‘Vean has put it on record that this poem had long been popular, although it was not generally known that it was by Graham that Glasgow had been ‘married to immortal verse.’[13] The date of its first publication is unknown, but it has been generally supposed to have been written in the decade subsequent to Dougal’s settlement in Glasgow in 1746. The earliest copy that has been seen by any writer was in one of the early penny broadsides issued by J. & M. Robertson, of the Saltmarket, Glasgow, who long occupied a prominent position as publishers of popular literature. As a literary production John Hielandman has not attracted so much notice as might have been expected from writers on Scottish literature, but even a casual glance will show that it is a composition of great merit, abounding in graphic touches and humorous situations. It must be admitted, however, that the interest attaching to it has been almost entirely local, and to that circumstance may be attributed the fact that its merits have been frequently overlooked.

Turnimspike has received more attention than any other of Graham’s poems, with the exception, perhaps, of his History of the Rebellion; and it has obtained the unqualified approval of all the literary antiquaries who have had occasion to speak of it. Sir Walter Scott said the Turnimspike alone was sufficient to entitle Graham to immortality.[14] Dr. Charles Mackay has taken advantage of a note upon it, to tell a story which has considerable bearing upon the state of feeling exhibited in the poem itself. ‘Turnimspike, or Turnpike,’ he says, ‘is ludicrously descriptive of the agonies of a real Highlander at the introduction of toll gates, and other paraphernalia of modern civilisation, into the remote mountain fastnesses of his native land. Long after the suppression of the Rebellion, great consternation was excited in Ross-shire, by the fact that a sheriff’s officer had actually served a writ in Tain. “Lord, preserve us!” said an Highlandman to his neighbour, “What’ll come next? The law has reached Tain.”’[15] Burns, in his Strictures on Scottish Song, expressed admiration for Turnimspike, on account of its local humour, but he did not seem to have known the author; though Motherwell, in his edition of the works of the Ayrshire bard, supplies a few notes concerning Graham, to whom he attributes the poem. Stenhouse, in his illustrative notes to Johnson’s Museum, says—‘This truly comic ballad, beginning Hersell be Highland Shentleman, by an anonymous author, does not appear either in the Tea-Table Miscellany, or the Orpheus Caledonius. It is preserved, however, in Herd’s Collection of 1769.... From its excellent broad humour, and the ludicrous specimen of a Highlander’s broken English, it has long been a popular favourite in the lower districts of Scotland. It is adapted to the ancient air of “Clout the Caldron”.’ No writer has yet ventured to fix the date of the publication of this poem. It may, however, be pointed out that the first General Turnpike Act for Scotland was 7 Geo. III., c. 42 (1766–7), and it is not improbable the passing of this Act may have been the occasion of the verses which, it has been seen, obtained a place in Herd’s Collection in 1769. They were, in all likelihood, issued in broadside or chap-book form previous to that date.

The two songs already discussed, are now without quibble regarded as the work of Dougal Graham; but there are two others probably from his pen, which bear the mark of his genius, were published in his time, but which have not yet been generally regarded as his by literary antiquaries. The first of these is Tugal M‘Tagger, unhesitatingly ascribed to Dougal by the venerable M‘Vean. It has been suggested that this work has traces of Alexander Rodger, on the ground that the rhythm has a flow similar to that characteristic of Rodger’s poems; but this reason of itself cannot be taken as evidence in favour of the suggestion, in view of the fact that Graham’s style was itself very uneven, and, probably on account of carelessness, some of his pieces are as bad as others are good. M‘Vean’s statement, also, must be allowed to go a considerable length in a matter of this kind. The song is in Dougal’s best vein, and may be regarded as a worthy counterpart to Turnimspike. The following extract, by pointing to the occasion and probable date of the composition, helps towards the conclusion that it was the work of Graham:—‘The Court of Session, in 1754, made an Act of Sederunt, establishing an equality of ranking among all arrestors and poinders within a certain period of bankruptcy. But this was a mere experiment; and upon the expiration of the Act, which was in force for only four years, it was not renewed. The law fell back into its old state of imperfection; priority gave preference, and, on the slightest alarm, creditors poured in with diligence against the unhappy debtor, and the most unjust preferences took place among the creditors. In this position it continued until 1772, when the first Sequestration Act, 12 Geo. III., c. 72, was passed. It enacted that, on a debtor’s bankruptcy, and upon a petition to the Court of Session by any creditor, a sequestration of his personal estate should be awarded, which should have the effect of equalising all arrestments and poindings used within thirty days of the date of petition; that the estate should be vested in a factor proposed by the creditors, and be distributed by him according to the directions of Court; or, if it should seem more eligible to the creditors, extrajudicially by a trustee elected by them, as under a private trust deed. When, in 1783, this statute came to be renewed, the alarm occasioned by the novelty of the arrangements had given way to a conviction that bankruptcies were much more beneficially administered under the new system, imperfect as it was, than under the Common Law.’[16] Such a radical alteration on the law would afford excellent opportunity for a popular ballad, and as there is no good reason for doubting M‘Vean’s statement that Graham was the author of Tugal M‘Tagger, it must in the meantime be accepted as his production. The Act being passed in 1772, the ballad would probably be published in the same year. That it retained its popularity for a long time, is attested by a note written upon it in 1869:—‘Tugal M‘Tagger was a very popular song in Glasgow about forty years ago. It used to be sung by Mr. Livingstone at the Theatre Royal there.’[17] Even yet, it is not unknown to the people, and may be found in some penny collections.

Another song, believed to be by Graham, but which has not yet met with general approval, is an old version of Had awa frae me, Donald. Stenhouse has indirectly suggested it as Dougal’s work, by saying that it was probably by the same hand that produced Turnimspike, and he mentions it as appearing in Herd’s Collection in 1769. This song appears also in The Blackbird, a collection of songs, ‘few of which,’ according to the title-page, ‘are to be found in any collection,’ published in Edinburgh in 1764. The likeness which struck Stenhouse must also force upon every reader of the piece the same suspicion; and without being dogmatic upon the point, the editor of these sheets sees no reason why the version of Had awa frae me, Donald, given in this volume, should not be admitted into the list of works ‘probably’ written by Graham.

This includes, so far as can be discovered, the metrical works, still existing, which have been attributed to Graham. There are others, M‘Vean mentions, but none of them appear to have been seen since his time; and in the hope that they may be ultimately discovered, their names, or, perhaps it may be more proper to say, the subjects of which they treat, are here given:—Verses on the Popular Superstitions of Scotland, Rhythmical Dialogue between the Pope and the Prince of Darkness, An Epitaph on the Third Command, and Verses on the Pride of Women. As for the second of these pieces, it may be interesting to note that a twelve-page pamphlet was issued in 1792, bearing a similar title—Dialogue between the Pope and Devil, on the present political state of Europe. This, however, refers to the events immediately preceding the French Revolution, and cannot, therefore, be looked upon as the work of Graham. A passing reference is made by the Devil to the beginnings of the Reform movement in Glasgow, in these words:—

‘In Glasgow freedom sounds in every mouth;

And if I could but deign to tell the truth,

Not since the day I first saw Paradise,

Did earth maintain such a respectful race.’

But the works upon which the fame of Dougal Graham chiefly rests, are his chap-books. On this matter Motherwell said that if Graham had only written the History of the Rebellion, ‘we believe he never would have occupied our thoughts for a moment; but as one who subsequently contributed largely to the amusement of the lower classes of his countrymen, we love to think of the facetious bellman.’[18] It has already been stated that the period during which the most of these chap-books were written and published, was probably between 1752 and 1774, although the first editions of several are known to have appeared subsequent to the latter date. On a subject in which he took so much fruitful interest, no apology is needed for again quoting Motherwell, who says:—‘Of some of Graham’s penny histories we had a fair assortment at one time, principally printed by J. & M. Robertson, Saltmarket, Glasgow, which we believe might well be esteemed first editions, but some unprincipled scoundrel has bereaved us of that treasure. There are a number of infamous creatures, who acquire large libraries of curious things, by borrowing books they never mean to return, and some not unfrequently slide a volume into their pocket, at the very moment you are fool enough to busy yourself in showing them some nice typographic gem, or bibliographic rarity. These dishonest and heartless villains, ought to be cut above the breath whenever they cross the threshold. They deserve no more courtesy than was of old vouchsafed to witches, under bond and indenture to the Devil.’[19] Out of the ‘scanty wreck’ left him, Motherwell was able to furnish the list given in a previous page.[20] This was probably the nearest that any collector ever attained to having a collection of first or very early editions of Graham’s chap-books; but even in 1828 it was hardly possible to state when the first editions were issued. It would be worse than useless to endeavour to trace the chronological order of their publication, or to fix definitely dates for one or all of them. The fact seems to be that the first editions have either all disappeared, or else bear in their title-page the vague, but not uncommon intimation—‘Printed in this present year.’ The danger of attempting such an arrangement may be best shown by a statement made by the late Sheriff Strathern, a learned local antiquary, in a paper on ‘Chapman Literature,’ delivered before the Glasgow Archæological Society, on the 6th April, 1863. Mr. Strathern, in the course of a somewhat exhaustive sketch, says:—‘It is difficult to give them in the order of publication; but I have, at some little trouble, collected a few of the editions, and, as near as I can reach it, this is the order in which the works appeared. His earliest was “The Whole Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy,” in five parts. It was published in 1783.... “The Comical Sayings of Paddy from Cork” followed, and was printed for George Caldwell, Paisley, in 1784,’ etc. Then follows a long list of chaps by Graham, which, according to Sheriff Strathern, were published subsequent to 1784. The learned Sheriff may possibly have been correct in his surmise that the works he had enumerated were published in the order he had given them, but surely not on the understanding that Graham’s ‘earliest’ was issued in 1783? It is not at all likely that Graham left his works for publication after his death. Indeed, there is positive evidence that they were in the market long before 1783, and any edition of that date must be a reprint. This incident of itself shows the danger of attempting to fix dates for Dougal’s ‘penny histories,’ or even the order of their publication, without the absolute evidence of the books themselves, if they bear any, or the testimony of any one who, like Mr. Caldwell, actively took part in their issue to the public. Even Caldwell offers no information on the matter. The only statement in this direction, upon which any reliance can be placed, is one by Motherwell, when he states that the editio princeps of the second part of Leper the Taylor was published in 1779. Sheriff Strathern may have fallen into error by trusting the date, 1787, at which Motherwell fixed Graham’s death. That date, however, was only a surmise; and the true date was supplied by Strang.

It is a matter of some interest to notice that while many of Graham’s most popular chap-books have been issued to the public subsequent to the period to which literature of this class is assumed to belong, these modern editions, if they may be so called, have for the most part been greatly mutilated. Nearly all of them have been cut down, not apparently because of a desire to keep out the indelicate allusions which most of them contain—for comparatively few of these have been taken out—but on account of the exigencies of printing. In some cases a chap-book, originally of twenty-four or thirty-six closely printed pages, has been compressed into twenty-five, sixteen, or even eight pages of much larger print. The consequence is, that most of the modern editions are utterly useless for all practical purposes, and, like most other abridgments, the souls of their originals have been driven from them. The truth of this remark will be indicated in the following pages; but it will be borne out to its fullest extent by a comparison between the early editions the editor has been able to reprint in these volumes, and those now in circulation.

The Whole Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy, admitted by all authorities to have been written by Graham, may be noticed first, as being one of his ablest and most characteristic works. It is written with great dramatic power, and affords many curious insights into manners and customs about the middle of last century. In respect of language, also, it possesses considerable value. Professor Fraser suggests that the first edition was in all likelihood published as early as 1755, but, as has already been seen, it would be inadvisable to fix any date, in the absence of either evidence or reasonable suspicion. In the work itself there is nothing but what might have been written at any time during the whole period of Dougal’s life. The edition, reprinted in this collection, bears the imprint:—‘Glasgow: Printed and Sold by J. & J. Robertson. MDCCLXXIX’—and is the earliest of which any mention has yet been made. It was thus published in the year of Graham’s death, and as the title-page states that it was ‘Carefully Corrected and Revised by the Author,’ it was probably one of the latest works upon which he was engaged. While most certainly not a first edition, it has the advantage of being, to a certain extent, fresh from the author, and on that account possesses a special value and interest. Motherwell’s copy was dated 1783, and also bore to have undergone the author’s revision. These editions both occupy thirty-six pages, and are in five parts; but in 1793 an edition, consisting only of three parts, was published. Since then, the three-part edition has been the one most commonly issued to the public, and it may still be found for sale. In 1823, however, the complete edition was reprinted, and a few copies of it may be seen occasionally. The abridgment, it must be noted, has seriously marred Graham’s production. In it the first two parts are so far almost literal transcripts of the earlier editions, but parts three, four, and five, are omitted, a short and very imperfect summary of part five being inserted for part three. In addition, an epitaph and elegy on Jockey’s mother, whose death and burial are graphically described in the last part, are consistently left out.

Of a somewhat similar character to the chap-book just noticed is The Coalman’s Courtship of the Creelwife’s Daughter, though it is by no means so valuable as an exhibition of manners and superstitions. It contains, nevertheless, many interesting references, and it gives a vigorous description of real life among the lower classes in and around Edinburgh. Motherwell, it has been seen, only hesitatingly ascribed this work to Graham; but M‘Vean inserts it in his bibliography without any reservation, though it is curious that both these writers should make a mistake in naming it The Creelman’s Courtship. There is no good reason to doubt that Graham was the author of it, for the broad treatment of the subject, the animated dialogue, and the graphic descriptions, are all in Dougal’s best style. The edition reproduced in these volumes is the earliest to which any reference has yet been made, having been issued by Messrs. J. & J. Robertson, from their Saltmarket press, in 1782, though it bears on the title-page to be the tenth edition of the work. M‘Vean stated that the chap contained only two parts, but he had fallen into a mistake, for it really consists of three parts. The modern editions, with the exception of a few typographical alterations, are exact reprints of the one of 1782. Among those we have seen are two undated editions, bearing the following imprints—‘Glasgow: Printed for M‘Kenzie & Hutchison, Booksellers, 16, Saltmarket’; ‘Edinburgh: Printed by J. Morren, Cowgate.’

Very different in its design from the two works already mentioned is Lothian Tom, a narrative of the ‘comical transactions’ of a roguish fellow while sowing his wild oats. Many of the stories told of the hero of the work are far from being new, but they have been given a local colouring which imparts an appearance of consistency to the book; and, incidentally, little circumstances of life and character are brought in, giving additional value to it as illustrating the home life of the Scottish peasantry of last century. In the chap-literature of England and Scotland, there are many other productions of a similar kind, in which the heroes rejoice in the name of Tom; a circumstance that has given point to a suggestion that the word ‘tomfoolery’ may owe its origin to the mad pranks of the Toms of popular story. South of the Tweed the great favourites were—Wanton Tom, or the Merry History of Tom Stitch the Taylor; The Merry Conceits of Long Tom the Carrier; The Mad Pranks of Tom Tram; and another one with the euphonious title of Swalpo. All these, like Lothian Tom, are but collections of jokes of which their respective Toms are made the central figures. There is no reason to believe that any of them were in the slightest degree really biographical. The modern reprints of Lothian Tom consist only of five parts, and in this and several minor details they differ from the earlier editions, in which there are six parts. Messrs. J. & M. Robertson, of the Saltmarket, Glasgow, in 1793 and 1807, published editions of the work; and in 1816 another was issued in Edinburgh, while there are several editions still to be found without any date. A six-part edition, without the song to be referred to further on, was issued by C. Randall, Stirling, in 1801. The edition which has been used by the editor of these volumes, was published in Edinburgh, in three numbers—including all the six parts—the title-page of each being embellished with a rough woodcut of a chapman full stride on the road-way. The first number bears the imprint—‘Printed and Sold in Niddery’s Wynd, 1775’; the second is dated 1777; while the third has no date, though it appears to be quite as old as the others. This, the earliest edition of which mention has yet been made, is a most unique copy. Each number occupies eight pages. No attention is paid to the breaking off in the middle of a part, or even of a sentence, and the folios run right through. A large portion of the third number is taken up by ‘Pady’s New Catechism,’ properly belonging to another of Graham’s chap-books, entitled, Pady from Cork, and on that account it has been left out here.

At the close of the third number of this edition of Lothian Tom, and reproduced in the second volume, is ‘The Plowman’s Glory; or, Tom’s Song,’ a doggrel description of the pleasures of country life; but it is a piece which requires more than passing reference. The first eight lines are as follow:—

‘As I was a walking one morning in the spring,

I heard a young plowman so sweetly to sing,

And as he was singing, these words he did say,

No life is like the plowman’s in the month of May.

The lark in the morning rises from her nest,

And mounts in the air with the dew on her breast,

And with the jolly plowman she’ll whistle and she’ll sing,

And at night she’ll return to her nest back again.’

It is interesting to notice that Cromek has attributed lines almost identical with these to Robert Burns,[21] and the most eminent editors of the works of the Ayrshire Bard have followed him. The lines as given by Cromek read thus:—

‘As I was a wand’ring ae morning in spring,

I heard a young ploughman sae sweetly to sing,

And as he was singin’ thir words he did say,

There’s nae life like the Ploughman in the month o’ sweet May—

The lav’rock in the morning she’ll rise frae her nest,

And mount to the air wi’ the dew on her breast,

And wi’ the merry Ploughman she’ll whistle and sing,

And at night she’ll return to her nest back again.’

In a foot-note Cromek remarks—‘It is pleasing to mark those touches of sympathy which shew the sons of genius to be of one kindred.—In the following passage from the poem of his countryman, the same figure is illustrated with characteristic simplicity; and never were the tender and the sublime in poetry more happily united, nor a more affectionate tribute paid to the memory of Burns.

—— “Thou simple bird,

Of all the vocal quire, dwell’st in a home

The humblest; yet thy morning song ascends

Nearest to Heaven;—sweet emblem of his[22] song,

Who sung thee wakening by the daisy’s side!”’

It can only be inferred from the nature of this foot-note that Cromek believed the verses to have been written by Burns, notwithstanding the fact that he had Gilbert Burns’s statement that his brother was not their author. The subsequent editorial history of the lines is still more interesting. In the Kilmarnock edition of the poet’s works, they are given with this note:—‘Although this double stanza exists in Burns’s own writing, his brother, Gilbert, assured Cromek that the little song was sung by every ploughman and ploughman’s mistress in Ayrshire, before the poet was born.’[23] The Rev. Dr. P. Hately Waddel, and the Rev. George Gilfillan, in their editions of the works of Burns, both insert the verses without any comment. Mr. William Scott Douglas, one of the latest and most competent editors of Burns, has this note upon the ‘Ploughman’s Song’:—‘Gilbert Burns expressed to Cromek a strong doubt regarding his brother’s authorship of these lines, as also of some other pieces found in his handwriting, and included in the Reliques of the poet; but as the authorship of the “Bonie Muirhen”—one of the pieces referred to—has been clearly traced to Burns, we do not feel at liberty to reject the lines in the text.’[24] Mr. Douglas inserts the verses under the date 1780, when Burns was twenty-two years of age; and in this connection it is worthy of notice that another editor has put it under the year 1794, when the poet was thirty-six years of age.

The obvious suggestion from what has been said is, that Burns was not the author of the ‘Lines on a Merry Ploughman,’ which his editors, after the dogmatic statement of Gilbert Burns, have more or less insisted upon attributing to him; and, as a corollary, that the verses having been found among others at the end of one of Dougal Graham’s chap-books, as a consistent finish to the exploits of his hero, Lothian Tom, in an edition published when Burns was a youth, their authorship may be more clearly traced to Graham. With a due admiration for the talents of Graham, we must submit that the character of the verse, even as given in a slightly polished state by Cromek, was not worthy of Burns, who said himself that his work was all the result of careful revisal. Graham’s verses often display false quantity; his rhyme is often far from true; and his grammar is frequently lame: but these are faults which the greatest detractor of the genius of Robert Burns would find it difficult to lay to his charge. It might be urged, of course, that this may have been a youthful production of Burns’s pen; but it is more probable, from his known habit of noting down any remnant of song he found among the people, that he wrote out what he had heard sung from his infancy. In support of this idea, there is Gilbert Burns’s assurance ‘that the little song was sung by every ploughman and ploughman’s mistress in Ayrshire before the poet was born.’ To us it seems conclusive that Burns was not its author, and that, from its position in an early—not by any means the first—edition of one of Graham’s most popular chap-books, to Graham must be attributed its composition, with all the praise or blame that may attach to it.

The History of John Cheap the Chapman belongs to the same class of chap-books as Lothian Tom, though it has been usual to believe that, unlike the latter, it was to a certain extent autobiographical, and that in it Graham related some of his own experiences. It has been already seen that its value in this respect, if it has any, cannot be estimated on account of the doubt as to whether it is autobiography or fiction. There can be no question, however, that it contains a most valuable account of the real life of the Scottish Chapman, with many vivid glimpses of home life in Scotland in the middle of last century. Like all the others, its indelicacy is sometimes notorious, but like them its truthfulness must be its apology. The earliest dated edition we have seen is one published in 1798 by Johnston of Falkirk; but another, in some slight details more complete, was issued by J. Morren, of the Cowgate, Edinburgh, about the beginning of this, or the closing year of the eighteenth, century. The modern editions are almost identical with the ones mentioned.

The plan of another of Graham’s chap-books, Fun upon Fun, or the Comical Tricks of Leper the Taylor, is very similar to that which has been pointed out as characteristic of Lothian Tom and John Cheap. Leper is a madcap whose impudent doings bear a strong resemblance to stories told of similar beings in this and other countries; and the design of the author seems to have been to lay before his readers a collection of tales grouped round one central figure, rather than to give a record of the life of any real person. This, however, has been done so skilfully—by local colouring, and the introduction of little incidents which must have had their counterparts in the every-day life of the people—that the work has always been most deservedly popular. In point of time, this seems to have been one of the latest, if not the latest, of Graham’s publications, for Motherwell was able to give the title and date of what he believed to be the first edition of the second part as follows:—‘Fun upon Fun; or the Comical Tricks of Leper the Taylor. Part II. Glasgow: Printed for the Company of Flying Stationers in Town and Country. 1779.’ As the work is in two parts, it is probable that the first would be published a short time before the date mentioned. Motherwell also records that there was this nota bene to the second part—‘The Third Part will contain a variety of his Witty Tricks in the different periods of his Life.’ It is a question whether Graham was ever able to fulfil his promise; for his death occurred, as has been seen, in the July of the year in which the second part was issued. The fact that, in later editions of Leper the Taylor, there is added to the two original parts one giving an account of The Grand Solemnity of the Taylor’s Funeral, quite in the same style, and a consistent conclusion to the life of the Sartorian worthy, affords reasonable presumption that he did so, and without any hesitation the third part has, like the others, been accepted as the work of Graham. This chap-book is in many respects akin to several booklets which found a place in the popular literature of England; but possibly its counterpart may be found in Joaks upon Joaks, or No Joak like a True Joak, being the Diverting Humours of Mr. John Ogle, a Life Guard Man. As for the modern editions, they differ in many respects from the early ones, though not materially, except that they leave out the third part. The earliest dated edition that we have seen was printed by C. Randall, Stirling, in 1799. It is without the third part, and is of sixteen pages. The next was ‘Printed in the year 1816’; but the title-page does not state the town of publication. It contains all the three parts, and occupies twenty-four pages duodecimo. Another edition, almost identical with the one mentioned, was ‘Printed in the year 1820,’ and in this case also the town of issue is not stated. In what appears to be a chap-book of English manufacture, without date or place of publication, there is appended the Grand Solemnity of the Taylor’s Funeral, on which some slight alterations have been made, notably in the way of Anglicising the names of the characters. On the title-page of the work mentioned is a rough woodcut, representing the lowering of a body into the grave, while in the back-ground stands a primitive-looking hearse, drawn by two horses.

The two chap-books that now fall to be spoken of are very different in their nature from any to which reference has yet been made, and, indeed, they may be said to form a class by themselves, for they are unique in the popular literature of either Scotland or England. The History of Haverel Wives, ‘written,’ as the title-page states, ‘by Humphrey Clinker, the Clashing Wives’ Clerk,’ one of the many cognomens adopted by Graham, is a ‘comical’ and exceedingly interesting conference between two old women, on their experiences of the past. The object of the author seems to have been to bring together in small compass as much folk-lore as possible, and this he prefaces by the remark, that he had ‘furnished the public with a small collection of old wives’ noted sayings and wonders, which, they relate, happened in their own time; also, what has been told them by their forefathers.’ The intention is thus shown to have been to hold the old wives up to a little gentle satire, though this generation must regard the result as being a most valuable contribution to the antiquities of Scotland. The language used is frequently very old, and ancient superstitions and beliefs are given expression to in the words of those who more or less put faith in them. This chap-book, also, must be esteemed because of the descriptions given in it of the doings of an age long before the period usually dealt with by works of a similar nature—an age, the great events of which have been duly recorded by historians who have paid but little attention to the lives of the peasantry, or to the motives of their actions. It would not be too much to say that not within the whole range of Scottish literature could a more graphic account be obtained of the manner of observing the first day of the week in Scotland in pre-reformation and prelatic times, than is to be found in this unconsidered booklet The second chap-book of this class is Janet Clinker’s Oration on the Virtues of the Old Women, and the Pride of the Young. It is put forward as having been dictated by Janet Clinker, one of the Haverel Wives, to ‘Humphrey Clinker,’ and it consists of a comparison between the women of her young days and those of the days in which she then lived. The whole tone of the work is satirical, and the young women are made to undergo a severe reprimand for their proud and upsetting behaviour. These chap-books were frequently printed together, though a 1781 edition of the Haverel Wives concludes with the simple intimation—‘Humphrey’s Aunt Janet is yet alive, and has made an oration in praise of the old women, and on the pride of the young.’ Another edition, undated, published by Morren of Edinburgh, is also without Janet’s Oration, but it concludes by stating that the two old women went and ‘birl’d their bawbees,’ and made an agreement

‘Never to drink ae drop of tea,

But stout brown ale and whisky bare’—

a conclusion quite different from what is given in the edition of 1781, for in it Maggy, Janet’s gossip, dies ‘keeping her purse in her hand.’ An edition was published in Glasgow, in 1807, by J. & J. Robertson. This is the first in which we have seen the two chap-books printed together, and it is also the earliest copy of Janet Clinker’s Oration that has come under our notice. The Haverel Wives, in this case, is reprinted from the 1781 edition, and only in one or two slight matters, apparently typographical, differs from it. The Oration was printed alone in 1824, with the title—‘Grannie M‘Nab’s Lecture in the Society of Clashing Wives, Glasgow, on Witless Mothers and their Dandy Daughters, who bring them up to hood-wink the men, and deceive them with their braw dresses, when they can neither wash a sark, mak’ parritch, or gang to the well. Printed for the Booksellers.’ A chap-book bearing the title of The Art of Courtship,[25] an Undated edition of which was published by M. Randall, of Stirling, contains matter somewhat similar to much that is contained in Janet Clinker’s Oration, and the part that relates to the choosing of a wife is quoted almost verbatim et literatim. It is somewhat remarkable that no editions of these works were, so far as we have been able to discover, issued subsequent to 1824.

The Comical and Witty Jokes of John Falkirk, the Merry Piper, one of the least known of Graham’s chap-books, is, as its name indicates, merely a collection of facetiæ. Many of the tales in it are cleverly told, while a few have nothing to recommend them to the reader. Motherwell, on the authority of Caldwell, attributes the work to Graham, and all other writers on the subject have concurred with him. We have only seen one edition of John Falkirk, and it was published in Edinburgh in 1777; but Motherwell notes one issued in Glasgow two years later. No modern edition of it has been published. The Scots Piper’s Queries, or John Falkirk’s Cariches, is regarded as a sequel to the Jokes of the same worthy. The Cariches are well known, and have long been popular, though it cannot be said there is anything particularly original about them. Many of the jokes in them were venerable in Graham’s time, but he has touched them up to suit the tastes of the age in which he wrote. Not a few of the questions and answers have a distinct flavour of the proverbs of Solomon; and while the expressions used are sometimes far from delicate, a good deal of worldly wisdom is to be found in them. The intention of the author, however, seems to have been amusement purely and simply, for in the title-page of an undated edition, published by C. Randall, of Stirling, there are these lines, which, it may be assumed belong to the original work:—

‘’Twill please the bairns and keep them laughing,

And mind the goodwife o’ her daffing.’

‘John Falkirk,’ it has already been mentioned, was a cognomen used by Graham; and Motherwell has noted that, in an edition of the Cariches published after Graham’s death, there was prefixed an ‘Account of John Falkirk, the Scots Piper.’ The only early edition we have seen is one printed by C. Randall, Stirling. It is undated, but was probably printed about 1807, and consists of eight pages. So far as it goes it does not materially differ from the modern editions, but it is without forty questions and answers which appear in them. It is probable that, out of the general rule, the modern editions are more complete than the one published by Randall. On the title-page of the Stirling chap-book is a rough wood-cut of a blind beggar led by a dog, presumably designed as a frontispiece for an English chap, entitled, ‘The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green,’ very popular south of the Tweed, and occasionally printed in Scotland. Motherwell’s edition of John Falkirk was published in Glasgow in 1779, but his copy of the Cariches was undated.

The Comical Sayings of Pady from Cork is the title of a chap-book attributed to Graham by Motherwell and all his successors. Unlike the bellman’s other works it does not deal with any phase of Scottish life, but rather with the vagaries popularly believed for many generations to be characteristic of the Irish mind. It is, in fact, a collection of the proverbial Irish ‘bulls,’ some of them ‘comical’ and spontaneous, but others studied and consequently stupid. In many respects the dialogue between Pady and his English interlocutor, Tom, is clever, but frequently it is evident that the author was out of his element. It must be confessed that there is a good deal of force in Professor Fraser’s argument, so far as Pady from Cork is concerned, that there was not a single sentence in it which might not have been written by any one other than Graham, and that most of the incidents narrated in it were to be found in the facetiæ of almost every country in Europe long before Graham carried a pack or rang the skellat bell of Glasgow.[26] Mr. Fraser refers in these remarks in the first instance to George Buchanan and The History of Buckhaven, but he applies them to Pady from Cork, with the modification that it was less of a compilation and had more local colouring than the chap-books he had been discussing. But while all that may be true enough, Motherwell’s authority in attributing the authorship of Pady from Cork to Dougal Graham cannot well be impugned, for on this point he apparently writes under the inspiration of his friend Mr. Caldwell; and it is notable that the copy in the possession of Motherwell was published by Caldwell in 1784. The edition reprinted from in this collection was published in Glasgow by J. & M. Robertson in 1807, and on the title-page there is a wood-cut showing a military looking gentleman standing beside a small cannon. The modern editions are considerably mutilated, and, among other things, want the ‘Creed for Romish Believers,’ to be found in earlier copies. ‘Pady’s New Catechism’ and his ‘Creed’ have been mentioned in a preceding page as being in the third number of a very rare edition of Lothian Tom, to all appearance only as padding.

Motherwell and M‘Vean both attributed the authorship of Simple John and his Twelve Misfortunes to Dougal Graham; but Professor Fraser, on the other hand, has brought a distinct charge of plagiarism against the poetical bellman. ‘The original hero of the “Misfortunes,”’ he says, ‘is Simple Simon; a history of whose life and misadventures was common in England in the seventeenth century. This, or a similar version—most likely one of the many editions issued from Newcastle—Graham most certainly stole, and, having changed the hero’s name to John, and written a racy introduction to the work in broad Scotch, gave it to the world as an original production. The prefatory matter is quite in Graham’s style, and could not have been written by an Englishman. It is frequently to be found published separately under the title of Silly Tam.’[27] But before going into the question here raised, it may be as well to state that the edition from which Simple John has been reprinted in this collection, is one published in Glasgow in 1780, and ‘Printed for the Company of Flying Stationers in Town and Country.’ The original is a duodecimo, and consists of eight closely printed pages, with a wood-cut on the title-page, representing the unfortunate husband running from his wife, who pursues him with outstretched arms, while his haste is emphasised by his hat and wig being shown as falling from his head to the ground. The other editions now lying before the editor are—1st, one printed in Edinburgh, in 1821, ‘for the booksellers,’ of twenty-four pages duodecimo; and another almost identical in every way, the print being nearly line for line the same, bearing the imprint—‘Edinburgh: Printed for the Booksellers, 1823.’ Both these editions have, as a frontispiece, the picture of a hook-nosed termagant, giving a simple looking fellow, with a beer-mug in his hand, a severe shaking. The matter in the modern undated edition, ‘printed for the booksellers’ in Glasgow, is the same, with one or two slight differences, as what is to be found in the older ones already enumerated. But, in addition to these, there also lies before us a copy of The Miseries of Poor Simple Innocent Tam, which, like one mentioned by Professor Fraser, is of eight pages duodecimo, without covers, and gives no indication of date or place of issue. With the exception of the alteration of the name of the hero from ‘John’ to ‘Tam,’ the text is exactly the same as that contained in the introduction to Simple John. An undated edition, of eight pages, of Simple John was printed by William Cameron, in Edinburgh. It only contains the introductory matter, and concludes with the addition of John’s lament on the death of his mother, without making further reference to his misfortunes. Having thus detailed the several editions of what has generally been regarded as Graham’s chap-book, in its two-fold form of Simple John and Simple Tam, some attention may now be paid to Professor Fraser’s allegations against the literary morality of the reputed author. After a careful comparison of the English chap-book, Simple Simon, with Simple John, we cannot but admit the statement that ‘the prefatory matter is quite in Graham’s style, and could not have been written by an Englishman;’ but we are not prepared to admit that Graham ‘most certainly stole’ the main body of the work. What Professor Fraser assumes to have been stolen must have been, though he does not explicitly say so, the ‘Twelve Misfortunes,’ for he admits that the preface is original and Scotch. This conclusion seems to have been come to without careful collation. Any one who has the opportunity, and will take the trouble to collate the two works, will find that only in two instances do the misfortunes in the Scotch chap-book bear any resemblance to those described in its English counterpart. These two instances are the fourth and seventh misfortunes in Simple John; but though the general features are the same, there is a great difference in the mode of treatment. As for the other misfortunes that befell Simple John, they have not even counterparts in Simple Simon, and, indeed, they could not well have, for they are almost entirely Scotch in their nature. Again, the conclusions arrived at in the two books are different. Simple Simon endeavours to poison himself, but by mistake he takes a draught from his wife’s bottle of sack, becomes drunk, and is cudgelled in consequence, but he and his wife afterwards lead a happy life. No such good fortune attends Simple John, for he laments his unhappy fate, and ‘appeals to a Jedburgh jury, if it be not easier to deal wi’ fools than headstrong, fashious fouks; owns he has but an empty scull, but his wicked wife wants wit to pour judgment into it, never tells him o’ danger till it comes upon him, for his mither said he was a bidable bairn, if onybody had been to learn him wit.’ We cannot, therefore, concur in Mr. Fraser’s statement that Graham ‘stole’ this chap-book, ‘and gave it to the world as an original production.’ For the reasons shown, we believe Graham only took the idea—and it may be gravely questioned if he did so much, for it has yet to be proved that Simple Simon was ‘common in England in the seventeenth century,’[28]—from the English chap-book, and worked it out in a manner peculiarly his own, and, it must also be added, distinctively Scotch.

In the case of another chap-book usually believed to owe its existence to Dougal Graham, Professor Fraser has seen fit to go against the general verdict, without, as it seems to us, giving a sufficient reason for the position he has taken up. He considers it extremely improbable, judging from internal evidence, that Graham ever composed the History of Buckhaven; and, further on, referring to it and The Witty Exploits of George Buchanan, he says, ‘There is not a single sentence in either of them that might not have been written by any one else.’ The latter remark may be all very true, but the former one must involve a serious difference of opinion. It would indeed be difficult to say what internal evidence is to be found in the History of Buckhaven that gave good reason for the assumption that Graham was not its author. Motherwell, judging apparently on this ‘internal evidence,’ says that, although he had not authority for ascribing any popular chap-books to Graham other than those he had mentioned, he would not be surprised to find that Graham was also the author of this history. M‘Vean, without comment, gives the work a place in his bibliography of Graham’s works, and it is to be presumed that a man of his undoubted attainments as a literary antiquary would not have done so without some reason satisfactory at least to himself. For our own part, we see nothing in the work itself at all inconsistent with the idea that Graham may have been the author of it. On the contrary, there seem to be some points in the course of the narrative which strongly support the commonly accepted tradition. That Graham possessed an undoubted acquaintance with the western district of Fifeshire, in which the respectable town of Buckhaven is situated, is evident from Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship, the scene of which is laid in the vicinity of Torryburn; and his intimate knowledge of Fifeshire modes of speech is further shown by an amusing character he introduced into The Coalman’s Courtship—‘auld Mattie, the Fife wife ... the wife it says, Be-go laddie.’ The language used in the History of Buckhaven, the style of treatment, and the burlesque humour, all bespeak Dougal as its author, for they are similar in all important points to what are to be found in works which even Mr. Fraser has without hesitation assented to being ascribed to Graham. The history, of course, is a burlesque, after the style of a well-known English chap-book, The Wise Men of Gotham, which it far outstrips for cleverness and racy humour. It has, however, the taint common to so many of Dougal’s works. The whole motive may be summed up in a short quotation from one of the many defunct Glasgow magazines:—‘The Buckhaven people, originally foreign colonists, were a people on the Fife side of the Forth, who lived much by themselves, had singular manners, and were of uncouth speech. All kinds of absurdities could thus be safely palmed upon them.’[29] Messrs. J. & M. Robertson, Saltmarket, issued a 24 pp. edition of the History of Buckhaven in 1806, illustrated by some very rude woodcuts, most of them having done duty in other chap-books. This edition is in three parts; and the title-page bears that the work was written by ‘Merry Andrew at Tamtallon.’ The more modern issues only contain the first two parts, and even these are considerably abridged.

The last work attributed to Dougal Graham, and calling for any detailed notice in this place, is the one entitled The History and Entertaining Exploits of George Buchanan, who was commonly called the King’s Fool. It is a chap-book which has been long popular, and one which has given rise to a variety of speculations, not only as to its authorship but also as to who was really the person whose ‘exploits’ are professedly recorded in its pages. As to the first of these points, Motherwell said he would not be surprised if Graham were its author; and M‘Vean heads his list of Dougal’s works with it. Fraser, on the other hand, argues against it being the composition of Graham, the ground he takes up being the same as that already quoted in relation to The History of Buckhaven and Simple John. In this instance, however, we think he has a stronger case than he had against Graham’s authorship of the two other publications. The internal evidence of the work itself—the time at which George Buchanan is shown to have lived—is sufficient proof that in it Graham could not in any sense lay claim to originality. But at the same time it is more than probable that he brought together the stories told about the country regarding his hero, and for the first time gave them forth to the world in a collected form. Until some additional light can be shed upon this matter, dogmatism either on the one side or the other would be imprudent; but, while sympathising to some extent with the position taken up by Professor Fraser, we do not see our way clear to dissent from the tradition of Graham’s connection with the chap-book. The idea that he may have been its editor, or compiler, appears to be quite reasonable.

The next question, as to the identity of the hero of The Merry Exploits of George Buchanan, is one upon which a more definite opinion can be expressed, though it has given rise to several curious notions. The idea most common at the present day among the mass of the Scottish people is that there were two Scotsmen who bore the name of George Buchanan, one of them being the King’s fool, and the other the eminent Latinist, historian, and poet. This theory, it must be confessed, is the one which does the most credit to the scholar, but we are afraid it does not do justice to the fact. There can be no doubt, from many of the stories given in the chap-book, that George Buchanan, the scholar, is the person pointed at; and a careful consideration of his life and opinions, viewed in the light in which these were regarded by many of his contemporaries and immediate successors, will readily furnish the origin of the extraordinary actions attributed to him. We must not, however, be understood to give countenance to another impression, by no means uncommon among a certain class, that George Buchanan acted as the King’s buffoon or fool. The life of the historian of Scotland was cast in a troublous age. Born in the year 1506, he was an active participant in the turmoil of the Reformation period, and had a large share in the proceedings against the unfortunate Queen Mary. Like most of the reformers his nature was stiff and unbending, but he possessed a dry and caustic wit which made him valuable to his friends and more and more hated by his enemies. His opponents took every opportunity to vilify his character, and spread abroad by means of books and conversations, after his death, even by Acts of the Scottish Estates, aspersions on his life and opinions. To show how this was done, one or two instances may be given. A French priest named Garasse, in a work entitled Doctrine Curieuse,—an edition of which was published in 1590, a few years after Buchanan’s death—speaks of that illustrious man as a ‘hard drinker.’ After endeavouring to show how his whole life had been one of continual debauchery, Garasse proceeds with his shameless libel, and makes Buchanan say on his death-bed, in answer to the remonstrances of his doctors:—‘“Go along with you, you and your prescriptions and dietaries! I would far rather live only three jolly weeks, getting comfortably drunk every day, than live six dreary wineless years.” ... He died in brief space, however; his chamber being then rarely littered with glasses and wine-measures.’ In his native country, also, his memory was abused. His death in 1582 was little noticed, but it was soon followed by an outburst against his writings. His works have long been regarded as valuable in spite of the many defects they admittedly have; but the Scottish Estates, in 1584, issued an order for their purgation because they contained ‘sundrie offensive matters, worthie to be detecte,’ because of their ‘steiring up his hienes subjectes theirby to misliking sedition unquietness, and to cast off their due obedience to his Majestie.’ Heylin, in his Cosmographie, said Buchanan’s History of Scotland and De Jure Regni had ‘wrought more mischief in the world than all Machiavel’s works’; and the authorities of the University of Oxford, in 1683, publicly burned the political works of George Buchanan, along with others equally obnoxious to them. These few incidents, among many, are sufficient to indicate how the extraordinary stories told in the chap-book came to be attached to George Buchanan, one of the most learned and cultured men of his time. There is good ground for the remark that the Merry Exploits of George Buchanan ‘is a terrible libel on an eminent man; never was mental greatness so “let down” in the popular estimation as by this vulgar performance; by and through which Buchanan’s humble countrymen were taught, not to look up to him, but down upon him as a coarse buffoon.’[30] It must be admitted, however, that there is strong reason to suspect that many of the stories were current before the issue of the chap-book, but it, of course, would help to perpetuate the libels. The conclusion from what has been said may be thus briefly summarised. Dougal Graham seems to have been the collector of ridiculous stories about George Buchanan, the scholar and historian, these stories being, for the most part, manifestly untrue, but the natural offspring of the more elaborate libels written and spoken against him immediately after his death.

Many editions of this chap-book have been published, and it promises to have the longest life of any of its race, for it is still being issued. The copy reprinted in this work was published in Falkirk in 1799. Among the other editions we have seen are the following:—One issued in Edinburgh bears ‘to be printed in this present year,’ a somewhat indefinite intimation, consisting of 47 duodecimo pages; and one in two numbers of 24 pp. each, printed in Newcastle by G. Angus, without date, and apparently complete. The earliest edition mentioned is one published by A. Robertson, Coalhill, Leith, in 1765. It was an octavo, in six parts of eight pages each, with a title-page to each part. Another was printed by W. R. Walker, Royal Arcade, Newcastle-on-Tyne, but it bears no date. The Robertsons, of the Saltmarket, Glasgow, also issued several editions of this chap-book, among the rest of their ‘Standards.’

Having thus gone over, with as much detail as possible, the various works attributed to Dougal Graham, it will be proper to give the list of them, with the dates of the editions reprinted in these volumes:—

1.—The History of the Rebellion, 3rd Edition. Glasgow, 1774.
2.—John Hielandman’s Remarks on Glasgow, n.d.
3.—Turnimspike, n.d.
4.—Tugal M‘Tagger, n.d.
5.—Had awa’ frae me, Donald, n.d.
6.—Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship. Glasgow, 1779.
7.—The Coalman’s Courtship. Glasgow, 1782.
8.—Lothian Tom. Edinburgh, 1775.
9.—John Cheap the Chapman. Falkirk, 1798.
10.—Leper the Taylor. Stirling, 1799.
11.—The Taylor’s Funeral. 1816.
12.—Haverel Wives. Glasgow, 1781.
13.—Janet Clinker’s Oration. Glasgow, 1807.
14.—The Witty Jokes of John Falkirk. Edinburgh, 1777.
15.—John Falkirk’s Cariches. Stirling, n.d.
16.—Pady from Cork. Glasgow, 1807.
17.—Simple John, alias Simple Tam. Glasgow, 1780.
18.—History of Buckhaven. Glasgow, 1806.
19.—George Buchanan. Stirling, 1795.

Such is the catalogue of Graham’s works—works with which it is believed he had something more or less to do—and which we have been able to find. Of the others attributed to him, but unfound, are:—

20.—Verses on Popular Superstitions.
21.—Dialogue between the Pope and the Prince of Darkness.
22.—Epitaph on the Third Command.
23.—Life and Transactions of Alexander Hamwinkle.
24.—Warning to Methodist Preachers.
25.—Second Warning to Methodist Preachers.
26.—Proverbs on the Pride of Women.
27.—Verses on the Pride of Women.
28.—Dying Groans of John Barleycorn.[31]

There are probably others of which even the names have been lost; but it seems likely that very few, if any, of those classified as not found, will ever be traced. It is a pity that this should be so; and every lover of the literary antiquities of Scotland must fondly hope that in the course of time, by some happy accident, the lost chap-books of Dougal Graham may again see the light of day.

By way of conclusion, it will be appropriate to discuss the general character of these works. Such an inquiry involves the weighing of opinions of several writers who, it must be admitted on all hands, were in every way qualified to give a judgment in the matter.

The leading opinion must, of course, be that of Sir Walter Scott. This is the record Strang[32] gives of it:—‘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. In 1830 it was hoped that Sir Walter Scott—than whom no man could have so well and so heartily performed the task—would have undertaken it as a preface to Dougal Graham’s History of the Rebellion, which, as we have hinted, he proposed giving to the Maitland Club, but unfortunately he abandoned the idea; yet, in doing so, Sir Walter, in a letter dated 10th May, 1830, to the writer of this volume, among other things of Dougal, said—“Neither had I the least idea of his being the author of so much of our Bibliotheque Bleue as you ascribe to him, embracing unquestionably several coarse but excessively meritorious pieces of popular humour. The Turnamspike alone was sufficient to entitle him to immortality. I had, in my early life, a great collection of these chap-books, and had six volumes of them bought before I was ten years old, comprehending most of the more rare and curious of our popular tracts.”’

Motherwell, again, says that he himself projected—but was unable, through want of leisure, and the difficulty of obtaining materials, to carry his intention into effect—a history of vulgar literature, in which, as a matter of course, Graham must have occupied a prominent place. Referring to the History of the Rebellion, he says:—‘However slightingly we esteem his metrical powers, we really believe he has conscientiously and honestly detailed the events which came under his observation. It is not, however, on the merits of this work, that Graham’s fame rests. Had he only written it, we believe he never would have occupied our thoughts for a moment; but as one who subsequently contributed largely to the amusement of the lower classes of his countrymen, we love to think of the facetious bellman. To his rich vein of gross comic humour, laughable and vulgar description, great shrewdness of observation, and strong, though immeasurably coarse sense, every one of us, after getting out of toy books and fairy tales, has owed much. In truth, it is no exaggeration when we state, that he who desires to acquire a thorough knowledge of low Scottish life, vulgar manners, national characteristics, and popular jokes, must devote his days and nights to the study of John Cheap the Chapman—Leper the Taylor—Paddy from Cork—The whole proceedings of Jockie and Maggie’s Courtship—Janet Clinker’s Orations—Simple John, &c., all productions of Dougald’s fertile brain, and his unwearied application to the cultivation of vulgar literature. To refined taste Dougald had no pretensions. His indelicacy is notorious—his coarseness an abomination—but they are characteristic of the class for whom he wrote. He is thoroughly imbued with the national humours and peculiarities of his countrymen of the humblest classes, and his pictures of their manners, modes of thinking and conversation, are always sketched with a strong and faithful pencil. Indeed, the uncommon popularity the chap-books above noted have acquired, entitles them, in many a point of view, to the regard of the moralist, and the literary historian. We meet with them on every stall, and in every cottage. They are essentially the Library of Entertaining Knowledge to our peasantry, and have maintained their ground in the affections of the people, notwithstanding the attempt of religious, political, or learned associations, to displace them, by substituting more elegant and wholesome literature in their stead.’[33]

Dr. Strang’s judgment is similar:—‘Of the vulgar literature to which we have referred, and of so much of which Dougal Graham was the author, it is enough to say that it really contributed the chief literary pabulum enjoyed by the bulk of our countrymen in the humbler walks of life; and though the jokes therein promulgated certainly were broad, and sometimes even grossly indecent, they were not untrue portraitures of Scottish life and Scottish manners.’[34]

Professor Fraser thus discusses the same matter:—‘He [Graham] possessed this advantage over the ordinary historian; 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 every-day life and thoughts of the lower classes of last century. Nothing is hidden from him. He is treated with a familiarity which shows that his hosts have no wish to hide anything. Then, too, he made his reader familiar not only with their mode of life, but with the peculiarities of their dialect, and in this way shed a not unfrequent light on philology. Add to these virtues that Dougal is never out of humour, always laughing and gossiping, drinking and telling old tales. His laughter, also, is contagious; we cannot contain ourselves. All his stories are full of people who laugh “like to burst,” and one cannot help but join them in their cacchinations. Nor are his sketches wanting in dramatic power. The characters are full of individuality and life, rendered more significant by a local flavour of demeanor and dialect. More than one of them might have afforded models for some of the raciest of Scott’s creations, and all of them are instinct with genuine humour and vitality.’[35]

Such were the opinions regarding the writings of Dougal Graham, given expression to by four men who had studied them, and saw their value. It is difficult, and almost unnecessary, to add anything further to what they have said; but in bringing this account of Graham’s works to a close, we may be permitted to supplement the judgments quoted, by a few additional speculations.

Much has been said about the value these writings possess, because they are, for the most part, truthful descriptions of the life of the Scottish people of last century. In what other works, or series of works—even those professedly dealing with the subject—can there be obtained such a knowledge of how the common people lived a century or two ago? We venture to affirm that such cannot be found. The life of the people is the life of the nation; and if it be a virtue to write personal biography like Boswell, it is surely more so to record the inner life of a nation, like Graham. Both, differing widely in many and important respects, have attained success by the same means—by placing before their readers sketches of private life, of the life which is most natural and least artificial, and which gives the best notion of the feelings and motives that guided either individuals or nations to success or failure. To understand thoroughly the history of Scotland in the eighteenth century, the ordinary historical works, dealing principally with great movements and events, must be read in the light, and by the aid, of the popular literature of that period; in the same way as the resident of the twentieth century, desiring to know the true history of the present age must, while looking to its great religious, philanthropic, scientific, commercial, political, and military achievements, also take into account the criminal records, the proceedings of the courts, the annals of the poor, and the ephemeral literature of all kinds.

Another line of thought is suggested by the indelicacy of expression so frequently to be found in Graham’s works. That such indelicacy exists in his works must be admitted; but in this respect they are no worse than, and will compare favourably with, the writings of many of the most prominent Scottish authors, such as Sir David Lindsay, and others. Indeed, it is worthy of notice, that men such as Fielding, Sterne, Swift, and Smollet, highly educated, and moving in a better circle of society in the same age with Dougal Graham, have tainted their writings with the grossness which has been noticed, and which, in their case, is less easily excused. The fault was in the time when plain speaking took the place now occupied by inuendo. Notwithstanding this, it cannot but be noticed that in his writings there is a native manliness not often discovered in works having greater pretensions; that there is no mawkish sentiment or sickly prudishness; and that in the presentation of pictures of life, they have no artificial draperies more suggestive than nature itself. There is a tendency on the part of those who have written upon this subject, to deplore the indelicacy of many passages of Graham’s works. We do not feel ourselves under any obligation to do so, for had the author toned down the colouring of some of his chap-books, they would have been untrue to nature to the extent of the suppression. What should be regretted was the immorality and coarseness so prevalent among the lower classes in Scotland during last century; and he who wishes to further the improvement and condition of the people will welcome Graham’s chap-books as showing distinctly what required reformation a century ago. It would hardly be too much to say, that in some parts of Scotland a state of matters very little different from what Graham frequently describes, may still be found. Any one who is at all acquainted with life among the lower classes, must admit that these descriptions are true to nature, and that a study of them is necessary before we can know thoroughly upon what the present superstructure of Scottish civilisation has been built. Graham, perhaps unintentionally, has held ‘the mirror up to nature,’ has shown ‘virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.’

It would be difficult, again, to over-estimate the value of Dougal Graham’s works as affording illustrations of the folk-lore of Scotland. Almost all the superstitions that obtained among the common people of his time he has touched upon either directly or indirectly; and in many instances he has given information upon this and kindred subjects which it would be difficult to find anywhere else. While all his chap-books may be found useful in this direction, a few of them stand out as perfect storehouses of folk-lore. Among the most notable of these are The History of Buckhaven, The History of the Haveral Wives, Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship, the three parts of Leper the Taylor, and even Pady from Cork. In the first-mentioned chap-book there are some particularly valuable notes about the opinions current regarding the Arch-enemy and all his supposed representatives on earth, such as witches, kelpies, fairies, and ‘bogles’ of all kinds. The folk-lore of the hare, or ‘mauken,’ in this work is also very full, and has given Mr. William George Black, F.S.A., Scot., a valuable illustration for his able article on ‘The Hare in Folk-Lore,’ in a recent issue of The Folk-Lore Journal. Similar remarks could be made about the other chap-books specially named, but enough has been said in a general way to indicate their value in this direction. In the notes to the chap-books themselves some attempt may be made to show, in a manner more detailed than is possible here, their worth as throwing light upon the superstitions prevalent during the eighteenth century.

How far the genius of Dougal Graham would have been affected by an education superior to that which he obtained, it would be difficult to say. Possibly greater culture might have raised him to the rank of a Scott; perhaps it might only have left him in the ranks of mediocrity. In the one case he would have produced works of greater literary value; in the other, possibly, none at all. One thing is evident, however, that a series of writings which discover the under-currents of Scottish life in a busy century, would have been lost to literature, and that whatever gain there may have in one direction, it could hardly counter-balance the loss another way. Taking Dougal Graham all in all, his uncultured energy, his ‘hameliness,’ and his ready wit, have won for him a place in Scottish literature it would be difficult to supply, and which no one but himself was qualified to occupy. What that place was we shall endeavour to show in the following pages, when dealing with the chap-literature of Scotland.

[III.—THE CHAP-LITERATURE OF SCOTLAND.]

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,