Proposed monument to Galt in Greenock Cemetery 1863

In March 1863 an interesting article appeared in the Greenock Advertiser - 

“We are glad to learn that a subscription has just been opened for the erection of a handsome monument in memory of the distinguished and thoroughly Scotch novelist, John Galt author of The Entail, Annals of the Parish, Ayrshire Legatees etc.  Mr Galt spent the last years of his life and died here, and his dust reposes amongst his relatives in Inverkip Street ground."

The article went on to suggest that the monument would be placed in Greenock Cemetery.  George Mossman was to be the sculptor and it was to contain a bronze profile and “two or three reliefs illustrative of Galt’s works, and a reference to the spot where his ashes lie.”  When a cost of £50 was suggested, half was contributed by a group of "gentlemen” of the town along with the Provost, James Johnston Grieve.  It was proposed that a public subscription be opened to make up the rest.

Allan Park Paton was the man responsible for the brilliant idea of having a public monument to Galt in Greenock Cemetery.  An article in November 1864 stated that significant donations had also been received from Lord and Lady Willoughby de Eresby, as well as several others, and that the sum collected then amounted to £105.

However, by October 1867 it would appear that all thoughts of a monument in Greenock Cemetery had been abandoned and instead translated into a drinking fountain on the Esplanade, costing 100 guineas and consisting of a “very ornamental” design by Allan Park Paton.

Over the next few years there were various plans submitted for approval by the Council who seem to have "dithered" over the project.  In October 1870 Allan Park Paton officially submitted a petition to the Council for approval of the fountain.  It was noted that “they were in nowise to be held responsible for, or as concurring in the architectural style of the proposed memorial.”

In December 1870 Councillor Brymner brought to the attention of the Council that funds for a monument to Galt had been deposited in the City of Glasgow Bank.  A sum had been paid for plans of a fountain which included a “pretty medallion bust by Woolner”.  According to Philip Webb (1831-1915), the architect in charge of the project, it appeared that the cost of erecting the fountain was going to be more than had been collected by subscription.  Fortunately the cost was made up by contributions from various local people.

The medallion by sculptor and poet Thomas Wooler (1825-1892) arrived in Greenock and work on the fountain got underway.  (The picture shows the original head by Wooler it was stolen and later replaced.)

By March 1871 the fountain was complete. Local contractors employed on the project were Devlin, builder and McJannet & Park, plumbers.  The project was supervised by Walter Buchanan Rodger.  It was described - 

“The design is that of a pointed arch, resembling the door of a cathedral.  The arch and its volutes are of freestone, and under the apex is a bronze profile in bas relief (an excellent likeness) of the great novelist in whose memory (he having been for many years a dweller among us), it has been erected.  This beautiful work of art is by the eminent sculptor Mr Woolner.  The jets of the fountain – three in number, and provided with drinking cups – empty the flow of water into a large granite basin intended for the convenience of passers by to cool or wash their hands, and beneath this there is a basin for the use of animals.”

In 1878 it would appear that there were a few problems.  The Greenock Telegraph received a letter from a reader complaining about the lack of water in the fountain.

Fortunately the Galt Memorial Fountain is still to be found on Greenock Esplanade at the junction with Roseneath Street, just in front of the former home of Allan Park Paton, the man responsible for its construction.

There is one final interesting piece of information.  In The History of Greenock by Robert Murray Smith published in 1921 there is an curious detail.  The original 1863 monument was to include a work by sculptor George Mossman, Murray Smith writes -

“At a Town Council meeting in February 1915, a letter was submitted from Messrs Laurie & Fleming with reference to the purchase of a miniature statue of Galt by George Mossman RSA which had originally been intended for a monument to his memory in Greenock Cemetery.  The price was £20 and on taking a month to consider the offer the Council agreed that the statue was not quite suitable for the Municipal Buildings, and declined to purchase.”

Laurie & Fleming were carvers, gilders and fine art dealers in Greenock.  In an article about George Mossman it was reported that at the time of his death in 1863 he had been working on a commission, a monument to John Galt for Greenock Cemetery.  The question remains, was Mossman working on a profile picture or a miniature statue?  That leaves an interesting puzzle - what happened to the miniature statue of Galt acquired by Laurie & Fleming?

Galt Memorial Fountain, Greenock

The Galt Fountain on Greenock Esplanade has been given a bit of a "glow-up" recently.

The stonework around the fountain has been cleaned and is looking great!

The lion head decorative piece, which was missing earlier this year has been replaced.

How the fountain looked earlier this year

Galt's fountain can be found on Greenock Esplanade at Roseneath Street.  Allan Park Paton (1818-1905) was the person responsible for having the fountain put in place.  He lived at Home Cottage which is on the Esplanade just up from the fountain.  Read more about Allan Park Paton here.

Galt's invitation to James Hogg

Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country was first published in London in January1830.  John Galt was a regular contributor.  In February Galt wrote to another Scottish writer James Hogg, known as the Ettrick Shepherd, asking him if he would contribute to Fraser's.  

James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd

Explanations of the various terms used by Galt in the letter are given below.  Click on the links for more information. The letter reads -

23 Downing Street, 6th February, 1830

My Dear Damon [1], or Patie or Roger, [2]

Or by whatever name thou answerest, as at this season you have nothing to do but to blow your nails like Shakespeare's “Dick the shepherd” [3], I am commissioned by the editor of Fraser’s new Town and County Magazine to beg something in verse or prose, and to express a wish that you would become a contributor.  Their intentions are to do the handsome thing by their contributors, and anything and pathetical will be duly appreciated.  I have promised an occasional article, and others of Ebony’s [4] friends have done the same.  Do write me and that early anent this.

I have come forth lately with another Scottish brat [5].  I wish I could have sent you a copy.  On this occasion my publishers are Colburn and Co [6], whom not knowing very intimately, I do not like to trouble much for copies.  Tis a terrible pity that you have never seen a Canadian forest.  I foregathered with some of your kith and kin in Canada – decent folk.  One remarkable thing in the American woods is their entire freedom from fairies and all sorts of hobgoblins.  If you could create yourself, by your wonted necromancy, into a settler in the backwoods, and do Theocritus [7] for the new magazine, you might add a few millions of years to your fame.  To be sure, there is some difficulty in the inhabitant of a treeless forest conceiving a forest of trees, but you can make woods as well as my friend Martin [8] makes mountains.

When he has occasion to delineate such a thing as a world scattered to pieces by a deluge, he takes a ‘bakey’ [9] full of coals, as many lumps as possible, and with a little fancy, magnifies them into fragments of the great globe itself.  I would therefore advise you to collect all the mops, besoms, brushes, and kirn staffs [10], and stick them in your midden, in an inverted position, and then sit down and draw from the models, supplying from your poetical lumber-room bark branches and leaves, taking care not to show on the trunks anything like a twig, till you have made them each and all severally as high as the Melville monument [11].

The aggregates and colour of the midden will suggest cradle heaps, alias the graves of ancient trees, and the weathered leaves which cover them.  Then think of a man with an axe on his shoulder, followed by as many children as Jacob [12], and a wife with a bundle on her back entering the leafy caverns; then make all manner of afflictions befall them, - this you will, I am persuaded, do as truly as if your experiences had been as manifold as mine.

I saw Lockhart [13] the other day.  He is very well and in good spirits, but Mrs Lockhart is, I am sorry to say, still a great invalid, but she bears the afflictions with great equanimity.

My family are still in Canada, but I expect them in the course of the summer.  Can’t you put your foot on the James Watt [14], and make your debut in London while I am a bachelor?  If you do, we shall get up a public dinner for you; think of that! and give my compliments to Mrs Hogg, and say that ladies are not admitted on such occasions.

Yours truly, John Galt

[1]    "Damon" - Damon is a character in Robert Fergusson’s (1750-1774) poem “Pastoral 1, Morning.”

[2]    Patie or Roger - Patie and Roger are two young shepherds in Allan Ramsay’s (1684-1858) pastoral work, The Gentle Shepherd.  (Damon is also a character in Ramsay's “The Morning Interview”. )  Allan Ramsay was the father of artist also named Allan Ramsay.

Allan Ramsay, poet

[3]    Shakespeare's "Dick the shepherd" - a character in William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labours Lost Act 5, Scene 2, Winter – 

"When icicles hang by the wall,

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,

And Tom bears logs into the hall,

And milk comes frozen home in pail;”

[4]    "Ebony" - nickname for Blackwoods' Edinburgh Magazine.  Both Galt and Hogg were regular contributors.

[5]    "Scottish brat" - (perhaps) Galt's novel Southennan was published in 1830.

[6]    "Colburn & Co" - publisher Henry Colburn (1784-1855) had known John Galt for some time.  He was the publisher of the New Monthly Magazine.  He had also published The Rejected Theatre (later the New British Theatre), suggested by Galt publishing plays which had been turned down by theatre managers.  It was not a success.  In 1829, because of his financial troubles, Galt had applied to Colburn for an advance of money in lieu of a novel to be published by Colburn.  Colburn advanced £300.  The promised novel Lawrie Todd or the Settlers in the Woods was published in 1830.  Colburn and his partner Richard Bentley (1794-1871) encouraged Galt to publish his biography of Lord Byron in 1830.

[7]   "Theocritus" - ancient Greek poet from Sicily known as the father of pastoral or bucolic poetry.

[8]    "Martin"- John Martin (1789-1854) painter, engraver and illustrator who had worked with Galt, illustrating his work Ouranoulogos (read more in a previous blog post).  Martin was known for his large, dramatic works.

[9]      "bakey" - (also bakie) Scots word for a square wooden bucket used for coal.

[10]    "kirn-staffs" - large wooden stick used to stir the milk when making butter.

[11]    "Melville Monument"- situated in St Andrew's Square, Edinburgh, it is a large column commemorating Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville.  Completed in 1827.

Melville's Monument, Edinburgh

[12]    "Jacob" - Biblical character who had twelve sons whose descendants became the twelve tribes of Israel.

[13]   "Lockhart"- John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) Scottish writer.  Son in law and biographer of Sir Walter Scott.  In 1820 he married Scott's eldest daughter Charlotte Sophia (1799-1837).  Lockhart contributed articles to different publications including Blackwood's.

John Gibson Lockhart

[14]    "the James Watt" -  steamboat plying between Edinburgh and London.  Named after Greenockian engineer James Watt.

James Hogg did become a contributor to Fraser's Magazine along with Galt.  William Maginn (1794-1842) was the first editor.  The first edition, published in January 1830 was a success. 

James Hogg did visit London in 1832 to arrange for the issue of a collected edition of his work.  He and Galt attended the annual dinner celebrating poet Robert Burns on 25 January at the Freemasons Tavern in Great Queen Street.  The first volume of Hogg’s collected work, the Altrive Tales, was a great success, unfortunately the publisher, James Cochrane, was declared bankrupt.  Hogg continued to write for Blackwood's, Fraser's and other publications.  He died just three years later in 1835 and was buried in Ettrick churchyard.

Galt and Hogg first met in Greenock in 1804 when he was invited to an evening event at the Tontine Hotel in Greenock.  You can read more about that visit and how Hogg described the young John Galt in a previous blog post - How the Ettrick Shepherd described John Galt.

Goderich by Galt

In June 2027 the town of Goderich on the shores of Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada will be celebrating its 200th birthday.  Founded by John Galt and Dr William "Tiger" Dunlop on behalf of the Canada Company, it became the permanent home of Dunlop and his brother.  Dr Dunlop was born in Greenock, Scotland in 1792.  You can read more about his interesting family on The Greenockian Blog.

After founding Guelph in April 1827, Galt writes that the the Directors of the Canada Company disapproved of its name and – 

“I was ordered to change the name from Guelph to Goderich.  In reply, I endeavoured to justify what had been done, and as the name could not be altered, I called another town, founded about this time at Lake Huron, by the name of his Lordship.”

“His Lordship” was Frederick John Robertson, 1^st Earl of Ripon (1782-1859) and, given a peerage, known between 1827 and 1833 as Viscount Goderich.  He was Prime Minister of Britain from 1827-1828 after the death of George Canning.  Goderich had held various political positions throughout his career including Secretary of State for the Colonies.  You can read more about Viscount Goderich on the website Museum of the Prime Minister.

In a letter from Guelph dated 25 November 1828 to his friend the Edinburgh publisher William Blackwood Galt writes - 

“I am not sure that when I last wrote I mentioned the founding of another city – a sea-port, Goderich, on the lovely shores of Lake Huron.  In the course of the summer, under the directions of the Doctor [Dunlop] we began the settlement and I opened a road through the forest upwards of seventy miles in length thus rendering it practicable to pass from Lake Ontario to Goderich.”

Galt, along with Dunlop and Charles Prior had been responsible for clearing a route from Lake Ontario via Guelph to Goderich at Lake Huron.  This was to make the journey easier for new settlers.  After clearing the route, Dunlop's residence, a log cabin known as The Castle was one of the first buildings to be constructed in the town and had been built at the top of the cliff facing the Lake.  On hearing that it was finished, Galt travelled by gunboat Bee (which had been placed at his disposal), along Lake Huron to visit his friend.  Dunlop came out on a canoe to meet him.  On that first evening they celebrated with a bottle of champagne (Days of the Canada Company).

Arms of the Canada Company.

After being recalled to Britain, Galt made a last journey along this route in winter by sleigh to bid farewell to Goderich where by now, land had been cleared and a few houses built.  It was a bittersweet occasion.  He wrote – 

“My adieu to Lake Huron was a final farewell; for, from the moment I lost sight of its waters, I considered my connection with the Company closed.”

Galt would never return to the places he founded in Canada, and ended his days in ill health in Greenock in 1839.

John Galt in quarantine

In August 1811 John Galt was returning from his travels in the Mediterranean.  He writes of his return journey in his Autobiography (Vol I) – 

“From Gibraltar I went to Cork, where we were again 
put under quarantine at Cove.”

Quarantine procedures were put into place at many ports to stop the spread of plague.  Cove (Cobh) was the stopping off point for ships going to Cork in Ireland. 

Galt managed to make the best use of his time in quarantine – “During the quarantine nothing particular occurred; but I got the newspapers regularly, and was naturally led to think of the condition of Ireland.” 

The newspaper he was particularly interested in was The CorkMorning Intelligencer.  It was published by John O’Rorke of Castle Street in Cork from May 1811 until 1823.  Crime stories seem to have particularly interested John Galt at this time.  And was even able to read about Thomas Murphy indicted at Carrickfergus for uttering forged notes of the Greenock Bank!  Galt was not particularly impressed by Ireland's legal process!

After the ship was cleared from quarantine, Galt continued his journey, taking time to do a bit of sightseeing at Dublin –

“When relieved from that captivity, I went to the city of Cork, where letters from home were awaiting me.  After dinner, I set off in the mail for Dublin; next day stopped in that city, to which I had letters, and hired a coach and man to go about with me, to shew me all the objects of curiosity.”

 After a day of sightseeing, Galt continued his journey -

“In the evening, I set out in the mail for Belfast, embarked at Donoghadee, and in due season, as fast as the post, was taken to  Greenock; there I remained a few days with my friends, and then proceeded to London.”

Quite a journey from Gibraltar to Greenock!