They adopted and educated her with a care and kindliness that has rarely been matched. She says herself:-"No child ever spent so happy a life, nor have I ever met with anything at all resembling our way of living, except the description given by Rousseau of Wolmar's farm and vintage." At an early age she manifested a keen taste for literature., and wrote many copies of verses. For many years, in the latter part of her life, she lived in Edinburgh, where she was much respected. Her chief works are:-(1) The Letters of a Hindoo Rajah, which appeared in 1796; (2) The Modern Philosophers, published in 1800, in three volumes; (3) Letters on Education; (4) Memoirs of Agrippina; (5) The Cottagers of Glenburnie, in 1808; (6) Popular Essays on the Human Mind; (7) Hints to the Directors of Public Schools. The Cottagers of Glenburnie was the most popular of her efforts. It is a tale of cottage life, of which the scene is laid in a small, scattered Scottish village; and it presents well realised pictures of Scottish rural life in the later part of the last century. She died in 1816. Mrs. Mary Brunton was born on the 1st of November, 1778, in Burray, a small island of the Orkney group. In this remote region, her father, Colonel Balfour of Elwick, and her mother, an accomplished woman, held a leading position in society. Mary was carefully educated, and her mother taught her French and German; and she was also sent to Edinburgh for some time to complete her education. In 1798 she married the Rev. Mr. Brunton, minister of Bolton, Haddingtonshire; and in 1803 he was appointed to one of the churches in Edinburgh, where Mrs. Brunton had greater facilities for cultivating her mind. Her novel Self-Control was published anonymously in 1811, and proved a success. The first edition was sold in a month, and a second and a third were soon issued. Her next novel, entitled Discipline, appeared in 1814, and was well received. She was engaged on another story, which she did not live to finish, having died on the 7th of December, 1818. The unfinished tale and a memoir of the lamented authoress were issued by her husband in one volume. The chief merit of her two completed novels appears in the elevated moral sentiment and purity of tone which pervade them; and in her keen observation and art in the development of traits of character, which give a semblance of reality to her charming stories. Sir Walter Scott was a wonderful genius, and a man of exceptional industry. The quantity and variety of his writings are amazing. In the field of the historic novel-pictures of the life, manners, and superstitions of the Scottish people, he is unrivalled. The greater number of his long series of novels have their scenes laid in Scotland, and are characteristically Scottish; although a few of them have their scenes laid in England, the Continent, and the East, even in some of these Scottish characters appear. Scott usually worked in periods pretty near his own time, for considerably more than one half of his novels belong to the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries, and only one of those relating to Scotland go farther back than the fifteenth century. He was not a great thinker, his analytic faculty was not at all remarkable; but he was a keen observer, and had a retentive memory. He had also a pretty wide knowledge of history. But his strength mainly lay in his unrivalled powers of description, a fine sense of the picturesque in scenery, in his vivid and rapid narrative, and varied characterisation of external action; whatever was visible and palpable, lay within his compass. In many of his novels he shows a fine appreciation of the humorous and comic features of human life. He has an instinctive perception of fitness of touch in the delineation of character, and many of his characters are admirably presented. He often introduces supernatural features, visions, prophecies, and superstitions, and there are incidents in his novels which seem to indicate that he himself had some belief in superstition. Most of his novels contain some hints of agencies beyond the general laws of nature; and in his handling of the supernatural he usually left popular prediction and second sight in a haze. Scott was not an idealist, so the agency which worked marvels was not an invisible spirit, but rather something tangible—a sorcerer or a soothsayer, of which the national records and traditional superstition presented an ample store. From these and many other sources he wove wonderful creations, stirring narratives, striking and charming scenes. Scott's novels have had a wide influence, stretching far beyond the limits of Britain. The sale and circulation of them has been enormous, not only in this country, but also on the Continent of Europe and the United States of America. After the abolition of the paper duty, they were published in very cheap forms; and millions of the sixpenny edition have been sold. In general the moral tone of his novels is manly and wholesome; and they have been a source of amusement and enjoyment to several generations and many millions of people. Personally, Scott was a humane and very amiable man, and much beloved by all who knew him. In the evening of his days, when adversity overtook him, then the real greatness of his spirit appeared. He manfully faced the difficulties before him, and struggled to discharge his debts with a hope and fortitude worthy of the greatest hero.4 John Galt, a contemporary of Scott, was born at Irvine in 1779. When a boy of eleven years, his parents removed to Greenock; and there he manifested a bent for poetry and music. After finishing his school days, he was employed in the custom-house at Greenock till 1804, when he went to London to push his fortune. There, and in many other quarters of the globe he entered into various schemes with little success; and in the end he chiefly devoted his energies to literature. He was a man of great energy and genius; but unfortunate in most of his undertakings. His life was one of hard struggles, in which, however, his heart and spirit never faltered. He is the author of a long list of novels, tales, dramatic pieces, and other writings. His original powers were excellent. In his best efforts, within the circle of his cognition, in the perception of motive and character, he was supreme. But his taste was defective, while the untoward circumstances with which he had to struggle, greatly crippled his genius. His fertility, versatility, and industry were very remarkable; but the merits of his novels are unequal. The scenes of most of his novels were laid in Scotland, and dealt with Scottish life and character. The most popular of his novels were the Ayrshire Legatees, which appeared in 1820; and the Annals of the Parish, written in 1810, but not published till 1821. The Annals of the Parish is an excellent tale; and it presents many amusing, striking, and pathetic incidents, and touches of quaint humour. Galt returned to Scotland in 1835, greatly enfeebled by repeated attacks of paralysis. Yet he wrote several articles for periodicals, and edited the works of others. After severe and long suffering, borne with great fortitude, he died at Greenock, on the 11th of April, 1839. Mrs. Johnstone 5 is the author of a tale called Clan Albyn, which 4 A valuable and interesting Life of Scott was written by his son-in-law, Mr. John G. Lockhart, which was published in 1837; and in 1843 he published his Life of Scott in an abridged form. Scott's own interesting Journal was recently published. 5 Born 1781, died 1857. appeared in 1815. It throws a romantic glow over Highland scenery and character; her descriptions are vivid and picturesque. In 1827 her novel, Elizabeth de Bruce, was published. She also wrote several attractive tales for children, and was a large contributor to the periodical literature of the time. She was for several years editor of Tait's Magazine. Her style is smooth and elegant, and her writings characterised by a varied culture and sound judgment. Susan E. Ferrier was a daughter of James Ferrier, one of the clerks of the Court of Session. She is the authoress of three novels, all of them in three volumes. The first one, entitled Marriage, appeared in 1818. She evinces considerable talents and wit, writes in a rather caustic style, and exerts her fine comic humour on the foibles and oddities of mankind. Many artful sarcastic touches occur in the novel, and keen insight of human nature is manifested. Her next novel, The Inheritance, was published in 1824. It is more elaborate and better developed than the preceding one; some of her characters are well delineated. Her third novel, Destiny: or, The Chief's Daughter, appeared in 1831. Its scene is in the Highlands, and the authoress deals with Highland scenery and Highland manners, but it is not a romantic tale, though in some passages strong passion and feeling appears. John Wilson was born on the 18th of May, 1785, in Paisley, where his father was a successful manufacturer. He was educated at the University of Glasgow and at Oxford. After leaving Oxford, he purchased the small estate of Elleray, on the banks of the Lake Windermere, in England, where he built a house. He married, kept a yacht, and enjoyed himself amid the fine scenery of the lakes, and wrote poetry. But some reverses overtook him, and, as stated in a preceding chapter, he obtained the chair of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh in 1820, which he held until his death in 1854. He was not a philosopher, but he was a cultured, amiable, and kind-hearted man. His poetical efforts consist of the Isle of Palms, published in 1812; the City of the Plague, in 1816, and some other short pieces. His poetry is sweet and soft, but lacking in strength and passion, and it has been eclipsed by his own prose writings. Wilson was one of the leading contributors to Blackwood's Magazine in its palmy days, and in it some of his tales first appeared. In 6 Born in 1782, died in 1854. 1822 his volume entitled Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life was issued. It consists of twenty-four short tales, which relate to Scottish rural and pastoral life. The tales are simple, homely, and pathetic. In 1823 his work entitled The Trials of Margaret Lyndsay was published. This tale has many touching scenes, pictures, and incidents. In 1824 his story, The Foresters, was issued. The most important of his contributions to Blackwood's Magazine were collected and published, under the title of The Recreations of Christopher North, in 1842, in three volumes. They consist of a miscellany of papers and criticisms on a wide variety of subjects. His criticisms on poetry are often discriminative and elegant, and his series of articles on Spenser and Homer have been much admired. A complete collected edition of his writings was published by his sonin-law, Professor Ferrier, in 1855-58, in twelve volumes, and a memoir of his life by his daughter, Mrs. Gordon, was issued in 1862. Sir Thomas D. Lauder is the author of two interesting novels of the historic class relating to Scottish life-Lochanduh, published in 1825, and the Wolf of Badenoch in 1827. The Wolf of Badenoch was Alexander Stuart, a son of Robert II., and Earl of Buchan and Lord of Badenoch. He was one of the most turbulent men of the period. In 1830 Sir Thomas published a very interesting account of the great floods in Morayshire, which happened in 1829. He has described the effects of this inundation with great picturesqueness, and presented many pathetic episodes of the suffering of the people. He is the author of a series of Highland Rambles, in which there are many striking descriptions of natural scenery. He was commissioned to write a Memorial of Her Majesty Queen Victoria's Visit to Scotland in 1842. He was engaged on a work, A Descriptive Account of Scottish Rivers, the Tweed and other streams, which he left unfinished, but an edition of it, with a preface by Dr. John Brown, was published in 1874. Andrew Picken, a son of a manufacturer, was born in Paisley in 1788. He was for some time engaged in business in the West Indies, and afterwards in Ireland and Glasgow. Subsequently he settled as a bookseller in Liverpool, but was not successful, and proceeded to London and engaged in literature. His first effort, Tales and Sketches of the West of Scotland, was much esteemed for its local descriptions. His novel entitled The Sectarian: or, The Church and 7 Born in 1784, died in 1848. |