One of the aspects of John Galt’s writing which is interesting and appealing is the way he manages to retell factual, real life events, sometimes very trivial, within the characters and plots of his novels.
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| Alexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton |
One of the characters in Annals of the Parish (published in 1821) is Lord Eaglesham who is shot by Mungo Argyle, an exciseman. Lord Eaglesham can easily be identified as Ayrshire's Alexander Montgomerie, 10th Earl of Eglinton who, in 1769 was shot by an exciseman, Mungo Campbell. There is a very interesting account of the incident here.
Galt writes in Annals of the Parish, (Chapter 22) -
“About the end of summer my Lord Eaglesham came to the
castle, bringing with him an English madam, that was his Miss.” “And sure enough it so happened; for the next
day, being airing in his coach with Miss Spangle, the lady he had brought, he
happened to see Mungo Argyle with his dogs and his gun, and, my lord being as
particular about his game as the other was about boxes of tea and kegs of
brandy, he jumped out of the carriage, and ran to take the gun. Words passed, and the exciseman shot my lord
… and the same night my lord breathed his last, and the made and wild reprobate
that did the deed was then up and sent off to Edinburgh.”
As for “Miss Spangle”, as Galt calls her, Lord Eglinton had a long term mistress, Mrs Brown. James Boswell (another Ayrshire man) who knew Eglinton well, wrote in his London Journal on Thursday 10 March 1762: –
“I breakfasted with Lord Eglinton. He generally breakfasts with his family above stairs, whom I shall now paint. It consists of three. In the first place, Miss or Mrs Brown, who has lived with him seven or eight years. She is a good-looking woman, and I dare say is the best of her profession that ever existed. She is quiet, good-humoured, and diligent at slight pretty work. She is neither avaricious nor extravagant. She has a degree of laughing simplicity that is agreeable so far, but when she shows it too much it appears foolish.”
The Earl of Eglinton was responsible for planning and
building the village of Eaglesham in East Renfrewshire, now a conservation
area - obviously where John Galt got his character's name from. Eglinton was also known for introducing
improvements to his Ayrshire estate. He
was also a keen horseman and raced his horses at many events around the country. Galt has Reverend Micah Balwhidder describe the
character Eaglesham: –
"His Lordship was of a genteel spirit, and very fond of his
horses, which were the most beautiful creatures of their kind that had been
seen in all the countryside.”
Smuggling in Ayrshire is described in the Annals of the Parish and the Reverend Balwhidder is not averse to enjoying some of the goods which are available. Customs officers, or excisemen as they were known, were obviously not well liked! John Galt's character, Mungo Argyle is described by Reverend Balwhidder -
"Mungo Argyle, the exciseman, waxing rich, grew proud and
petulant, and would have ruled the countryside with a rod of iron. Nothing less would serve him than a fine
horse to ride on, and a world of other conveniences and luxuries, as if he had
been on an equality with gentlemen. And
he bought a grand gun, which was called a fowling-piece; and he had two pointer
dogs, the like of which had not been seen in the parish since the planting of
the Eaglesham-wood on the moorland.”
While this story plays just a small part of the narrative in Annals of the Parish, the events which took place in 1769 played a part in the history of Ayrshire.
