John Galt - Social Historian

For many years the Greenock Philosophical Society held an annual John Galt Lecture.  This little book, John Galt, Social Historian was presented to William M Brownlie, Rector of Greenock High School, who delivered the lecture in March 1951.

The bookplate states - "Presented to William M Brownlie PhD by the members of the Greenock Philosophical Society as a memento of a very interesting occasion".  It was published by the Telegraph Printing Works in Greenock.

It is a very interesting account of Brownlie's lecture in which he looks at Annals of the Parish by John Galt and compares the accounts of the Parish of Dalmailing (the setting of the novel) with changes to the social and industrial lives of the people of Greenock and Irvine.  Changes in farming methods and introduction of large scale industry are particularly noted.

Greenock Philosophical Society (link leads to present Facebook page) was instituted in 1861 and still continues to this day.  Many interesting and learned speakers over the years.  The annual John Galt Lecture ran for a number of years along with an annual James Watt Lecture.

The Field of Battle

On this Remembrance Sunday thoughts turn to those who lost their lives in battle.  While the weapons may change, the carnage left behind on the battlefield remains.  

This extract from a poem The Field of Battle, published by John Galt in 1833 is a graphic description of the realities of war.

"At morn, the soldier from his comrade’s corpse

Startles the camp dog;

And the wounded oft,

To scare the foul birds hov’ring o’er them, lift

Their shatter’d limbs and roll their gashy heads.

And there the sun, remorseless on his throne,

Brings clouds of carnage-flies, that fill the air

With shadowy gloom – a living shower of sound."

John Galt at Makars' Court

The Royal Mile in Edinburgh is a very popular tourist destination.  Near the top of the Royal Mile, is Lady Stair’s Close.  Here can be found Edinburgh’s Makars' Court - makar is the Scots word for poet or author - and the Writers’ Museum.  One of the first things you will see on entering Lady Stair's Close is this paving slab commemorating author John Galt with the words birr and smeddum.

John Galt slab in Makars' Court, Edinburgh

Birr and smeddum are Scottish words often used by Galt in his writing.  Birr usually means energy or enthusiasm and smeddum can mean strength.

Galt uses the term “birr and smeddum” in Annals of the Parish when describing a book by the son of a parishioner -

“And his mother had the satisfaction, before she died, to see him a placed minister, and his name among the authors of his country; for he published at Edinburgh a volume of Moral Essays, of which he sent me a pretty bound copy, and they were greatly creditable to his pen, though lacking somewhat of that birr and smeddum that is the juice and flavour of books of that sort.”

Galt uses the words individually.  In his work The Annals of the Parish, when Mrs Craig states to Mr Snodgrass –

“For my part, it’s a very caldrife way of life to dine every day on coffee; broth and beef would put mair smeddum in the men.”  

The word caldrife can mean, cold, cheerless.  In The Provost, one of the characters is called “Mr Smeddum”.  Also in the Provost is an account of a council meeting when the Provost relates -

“Mr Keelevine made an endeavour to dissuade me; but I set him down with a stern voice, striking the table at the same time with all my birr, as I said “Sir, you have no voice here.”

The courtyard called Makars' Court contains many other slabs commemorating Scottish writers and poets.  The Writers' Museum faces the courtyard and has fabulous exhibits of the life and works of Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.  Unfortunately, there is nothing inside concerning John Galt – surely a great omission.

John Galt and the Gunpowder Plot

In 1821 John Galt published a massive work – Pictures Historical and Biographical drawn from English, Scottish and Irish History.  Volume I has 539 pages and Volume II has 564 pages.  They cover historical events from ancient Greece (taking the view of Geoffrey of Monmouth that after the fall of Troy, Brutus led his people to an island which they called Britain) the second volume ends with the reign of George III.  The book had many illustrations and was published in 1821. 

In his preface to the massive work Galt writes – 

“The object of this Work is to present a descriptive view of the most remarkable incidents in the annals of these kingdoms.  The selection consists of those transactions, which, either from their extraordinary nature, or the celebrity of the characters concerned in them, make the deepest impression on the memory.” 

One event that certainly left a lasting impression on Britain is covered in Volume II - the 1605 Gunpowder Plot when Guy Fawkes and his fellow Catholic conspirators attempted to blow up Parliament.  The plot was discovered on 5 November and to this day the phrase “remember, remember the 5th of November” is still used and bonfires are lit around Britain.   

John Galt tells of the plot in great detail and writes about the aftermath of the discovery of the barrels of gunpowder that had been hidden in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament – 

“After this discovery, Fawkes being searched, there was found upon him a dark lantern, a tinder-box, and three matches.  The villain, instead of being dismayed, boldly told them, that if he had been taken within the cellar he would have blown up himself and them together.  He confessed the design was to blow up the king and parliament.”

The two volumes show the breadth of Galt's interest in history and his commitment to large scale projects.