A Rich Man - John Galt

In 1925 William Roughead (1870-1952) issued an edition of A Rich Man and Other Stories by John Galt.  It was published by T N Foulis Ltd of Edinburgh and London.  The book contains three works by Galt which had previously been serialised in various publications. 

John Galt

The volume contains the following tales by John Galt -A Rich Man; or He Has Great Merit described as being the Autobiography of Archibald Plack Esq, Late Lord Mayor of London in a series of letters to his grandson, the Honourable George Spend.  First published in Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine in 1836.  A review of Roughead’s edition in the Edinburgh Evening News on 4 November 1925 describes  the story - “with pawky humour, Galt traces the meteoric career of a penniless Scot in London.” 

From Edinburgh Evening News 1925

The second work is The Tribulations of the Rev Cowal Kilmun which was also first published in Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine from November 1835 until January 1836.  Roughead describes Kilmun as – “a simple, kindly childlike soul, whose knowledge of human nature and acquaintance with life are bounded by the narrow confines of his rural charge.”  He compares him with Rev Balwhidder from Galt’s Annals of the Parish.

The third tale is My Landlady and Her Lodgers which was published in Blackwoods Magazine between August and November 1829.  In a letter to Blackwood, Galt describes the work - “It embraces something of satirical remark on London.” 

Roughead’s edition also comes with a glossary of Scots words which the Edinburgh Evening News review notes – “It will doubtless be in much use, as Galt often uses the Scots vernacular.  It is most interesting to study the quaint old words.”  It certainly is a useful addition.

Advertisement for Tait's Edinburgh Magazine 1835

Two of these three works were written after John Galt had returned to Greenock in 1834 and just a few years before his death.  In the book, Roughead also includes a sample of Galt’s handwritten manuscript of A Rich Man.  He writes of the pages of the manuscript – “They are entirely and throughout in Galt’s running script, which shows that he wrote the story with his own hand, before he was disabled by the paralysis that compelled him to dictate all his later work.”

The book also contains two pictures of John Galt.  Roughead dedicated the book to J M Barrie (1860-1837), the author best known as the creator of Peter Pan.  William Roughead was a lawyer and is thought of as a pioneer of true crime fiction.  There is an excellent article about the writer on the WS Society, at The Signet Library, Edinburgh - click on blue link to be taken to site.

Happy birthday Guelph!

This plaque can be seen in the beautiful city of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. 

It reads – 

Erected by the City of Guelph April 23^rd 1927,

in honoured memory of John Galt 

its founder April 23^rd 1827.  

It marks the centenary of the founding of the city by John Galt in 1827, one of John Galt's proudest achievements.  

In A Brief Sketch of the Early History of Guelph by Robert Thomson, A First Year Settler, he describes the felling of the first tree (read previous post here) and describes how the stump of that tree -

“was afterwards fenced round, neatly levelled and dressed on the top, and a sundial placed on it, which answered as the town clock for several years.”

Galt writes about the an early view of the city before building work began (Autobiography Vol 2) -  

“The glory of Guelph was unparallelled, but, like all earthy glories, it was destined to pass away.  It consisted of a glade, opened through the forest, about seven miles in length, upwards of one hundred and thirty feet in width, forming an avenue, with trees on each side far exceeding in height the most stupendous in England.”  

Guelph, also known as the Royal City, was named in honour of King George IV.  The name Guelph refers to the Hanoverian origin of Britain’s royal family.  In his Autobiography (Vol 2) Galt writes – 

“The name was chosen in compliment to the royal family, both because I thought it auspicious in itself, and because I could not recollect that it had ever been before used in all the king’s dominions.”

The date of the founding of the city was also intentional as Galt writes -

“I returned to Upper Canada, and gave orders that operations should commence on St George’s Day, the 23^rd of April.  This was not without design; I was well aware of the boding effect of a little solemnity on the minds of most men […] at eras which betokened destiny, like the launching of a vessel, or the birth of an enterprize, of which a horoscope might be cast.”

St George's Day is the celebration of the patron saint of England - St George.  It takes place on 23 April each year.

Next year will mark the bicentenary of Guelph. Read more about how the city will be celebrating on this website - Guelph 200.

John Galt leaflet - what's in a name?

This picture of John Galt is taken from a leaflet about him published by Inverclyde Council.  It can be downloaded from the Inverclyde Council website (click on link to see).

Title page of leaflet issued by Inverclyde Council

It is available along with leaflets on other "Famous People Inverclyde".  Be aware that the actual file for the downloadable leaflet is named "James Galt"!  Fortunately the downloadable leaflet on that other well known Greenockian, James Watt is labelled correctly and he is not named "John Watt"!

The actual text of the leaflet comes from BBC2 Writing Scotland (click on link to see) section on John Galt which is well worth reading.

John Galt - "always ready"

The picture of the Galt family armorial bearings is taken from Ontarian Families by Edward Marion Chadwick, published in 1898.  The moto semper paratus means “always ready”.

Galt Family Crest

The arms could be seen as a visual description of Galt’s life.  The sailing ship could represent Captain Galt (John Galt’s father) a shipmaster who undertook many voyages to the West Indies.  It could also refer to Galt’s own travels, both to the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic to NorthAmerica.  The book between two thistles obviously represents Galt’s writing career and his pride in the land of his birth.  The archer could represent Galt’s chosen motto “ettle” to which he gives the meaning – aim. 

In John Galt’s time, having a personal seal was considered very important, especially for those who corresponded frequently – the seal would be pressed into hot wax which sealed the package of correspondence.  The seal was often in the form of a finger ring.

Galt writes about his seal in Literary Life (Vol I) – 

“I was then getting a new seal with armorial bearings, and I wrote to one of my companions that I had an intention of taking for my motto, “I will myself” or “Hope and Try”.  The former I thought rather arrogant, and took the latter.”  

In a letter to his cousin in Ayrshire, Galt’s brother Thomas writes - 

“I look for something better where I am going – it is not improbable however that I may be disappointed, but you know our Motto – “Hope and Try”. 

(This can be found in a letter in John Galt and the Lizars Collection, University of Guelph Library, on the website Electric Canadian.)

John Galt explains that he needed such a device for the side of his small carriage or cariole – 

“But on the panel of a cariole, which I bought at Quebec, 

conceiving I had attained something, 

I changed it then to “ettle” (aim)."

Ettle is a Scottish word which suits Galt admirable.  As well as aim, it can also mean – intend, plan, design, attempt or venture.  This describes especially the plans and ideas Galt had for a variety of business ventures.  He was originally going to give the hero of his novel Eben Erskine the surname Ettle as he explains in Literary Life (Vol I) – 

“My original intention was to call the book Eben Ettle, and the early sheets were so printed; but at the request of the published, I changed the name.  I thought this was something out of his line to meddle with, especially as Ettle was as good as any other name.”  

Galt uses the word frequently in his work as this example from The Provost shows.  Provost Pawkie describes a friend and neighbour – 

“Mr Kilsyth, an ettling man, who had been wonderful prosperous in the spirit line …”.

Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, John Galt's youngest son, was knighted in 1869 and his middle son, Sir Thomas Galt was knighted in 1888.  Read more about Sir Thomas Galt here.

Galt and the Granny Kempock Stone

Gourock’s Kempock Stone gets a mention in John Galt’s novel Southennan the story of a young man’s journey from Ayrshire to Edinburgh to witness the arrival of Mary Queen of Scots from France.

Kempoch Stone, Gourock

In the first chapter, Galt writes about the young laird of Southennan’s parents –

“For his mother was an English lady of high rank, the daughter of the Lord Derwent, to whom his father surrendered himself a prisoner in the mutinous field of the Solway moss, and by whom he was entertained more as a guest than a prisoner.  During the period of that captivity the fair Isabel was wooed and won.”

The Battle of Solway Moss took place in 1542 between the Scots and the English.  The Scottish forces were defeated.  Many Scottish “noblemen and gentlemen” were taken prisoner and given into the custody of English gentry and landowners with pledges that they would support the English cause.  This explains Galt’s description of Southennan being “entertained more as a guest than a prisoner”.

However, the young couple returned to Scotland after Southennan’s release, but the bride – 

“before she was yet a mother, her husband was killed while hunting among the moors of Renfrewshire.  His horse bounded in the chase, close to the edge of the precipice of Kempoch, and, startled by the danger, suddenly recoiled, and threw him over the rock.  A large stone still marks the spot where the accident happened.”

Kempock Stone, Gourock

The Kempock Stone in Gourock is now surrounded by housing but did indeed once stand on the edge of a cliff facing the River Clyde.  The Rev David Macrae in Notes About Gourock, Chiefly Historical published in 1880 describes the stone - 

“It stands about six feet high, with a diameter of two, and has a faint resemblance to a mantled figure, with a shrouded head.”

For that reason, the stone is known locally as the Granny Kempock Stone.  Macrae goes on to state –

"It was chiefly in connection with the winds and the sea that the Kempoch Stane was regarded with superstitious dread.  Standing forth on the top of the rock, where there were no trees or houses or Castle walls to intercept the view, Granny Kempoch must have been a marked object to ships sailing up or passing down the Firth; and would look like someone placed there to rule the winds and the waves, and watch the ships as they came and went.”

The stone had many old tales and superstitions connected with it.  It was said that mariners would walk around the stone seven times to assure a safe voyage.  The Kempoch Stone was also associated with the storiy of Marie Lamont who was accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake in 1662.

John Galt's edition of Graydon's Memoirs 1822

John Galt edited Alexander Graydon’s Memoirs of a Life Chiefly Passed in Pennsylvania Within the Last Sixty Years.  which was published in January 1822 in Edinburgh by William Blackwood.  It had first been published in America and was a memoir by Alexander Graydon (1752-1818), an American writer who had fought against Britain during the American Revolution.  Graydon wrote mostly about his life and experiences, and his work was published in many journals of the time.

Galt’s edition received a very unfavourable review by the Quarterly Review (also known as the London Quarterly Review) which had previously given extremely negative comments of John Galt’s own work.  John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), at one time editor of the Quarterly Review was particularly known for slating Galt and his writing.  The review for the Memoirs reads - 

“He [Galt] now appears as the editor and eulogist of these Memoirs, which – not withstanding his high and solemn praise, both of their matter and manner – we venture to pronounce to be in matter almost worthless, and in manner wholly contemptible.  We scarcely remember to have met with an emptier pretender to literature, or a grosser apostate in politics.”

The writer goes on –

“We can honestly assure Mr Galt – without overrating his talents and taste in the least – that he is himself capable of adding a thousand times more lustre to the English language than the author of such an absurd farrago as he has here thought proper to reprint.”

Galt had a keen interest in America.  During the time he worked both in Greenock Custom House and for local firms Miller & Co and Robert Ewing, he would have been aware of how the relationship between the two countries could affect trade.  In 1820 he worked for claimants seeking compensation for losses they had sustained during the British/American War of 1812-1815.  He dedicated his edition of Graydon’s book to Richard Rush (1780-1859) who was the American Ambassador to Britain from 1818 to 1825.

Richard Rush - American Ambassador in Britain

In his dedication, Galt writes – 

“It is remarkable that a production so rich in the various excellencies of style, description, and impartiality, should not have been known to the collectors of American books in this country, especially as it is perhaps the best personal narrative which has yet appeared relative to the history of that great conflict which terminated in establishing the independence of the United States.”

John Galt's home in Greenock

The Galt family home in Greenock was at the corner of West Blackhall Street and Westburn Street.  It was here that John Galt died on this day in 1839.  A plaque on the building which now stands on the site reads –  “Here John Galt dwelt at his death 11 April 1839.”

The Galt family home at the corner of West Blackhall Street and Westburn Street

The original house was built by Galt’s father when he moved his family from Irvine to Greenock in 1789.  Galt’s father was a shipmaster and sailed from Greenock to the West Indies.  Captain Galt and his wife Agnes Thomson had four children – John was the eldest born in 1779, Agnes born in 1781, James born in 1783 and Thomas born in 1785.  The house had a garden which the young John enjoyed –

“Attached was a garden, in the decorations of which my taste for flowers suffered no interruption. For several years it afforded me agreeable employment, and I still recollect with pleasure the aspect of the borders when the sun was shining and the air clear.”

 

In later years, after the death of her parents, the house was occupied by John’s younger sister, Agnes who had married Robert Andrew Macfie. 

Galt and his wife, Elizabeth returned to Greenock in 1834 because they could no longer afford to stay in London and his sister had offered to share her home.  He had suffered from several strokes and was in very bad health.  By this time, the area around the house had become much busier.  Galt, in a letter to William Blackwood’s sons, Alexander and Robert, dated 15 August 1834 writes – 

“I find this house now so surrounded with others that I am going for privacy while the fine weather lasts to Gourock.”  

Gourock was, and still is, a lovely seaside town and many in Galt’s day visited “for their health”.  Unfortunately a short stay there did not improve Galt’s condition and he returned to Greenock. 

Increasingly unwell, Galt continued to produce work for various publications.  When he was unable to hold a pen, he employed someone to write to his dictation.  He also kept up his correspondence with friends and family. 

Plaque at the entrance to Inverkip Street cemetery

John Galt died in his family home in Greenock and was buried in Inverkip Street burying ground beside his parents and other members of his family.

Galt in The Lady's Magazine

The Lady’s Magazine or to give it its full name - Ladies’ Magazine and Museum of the Belles Lettres, Fine Arts, Music, Drama, Fashions etc - was published during the 1830s and contained articles on a variety of subjects as well as poetry and pictures of the latest fashions.  John Galt had several articles published in various volumes of the magazine. 

Fashion plate from Lady's Magazine 1833

The June 1833 edition contained a short story by John Galt called The Midgard, or the Sea-Serpent.  Midgard was the name of a huge sea serpent in Norse mythology.  An advertisement for the publication describing some of the other articles in the issue states – 

“Galt’s amusing fragment … ought to put us in good temper with all the others".

It is the story of a whaling ship’s encounters in Arctic waters with a sea-serpent or Midgard."  In true Galt fashion, we get a very down-to-earth and amusing description of the beast, given by Galt's narrator, Captain Lampet –

“When the weather cleared up we beheld ahead of us something that reminded me of Waterloo bridge as seen from Westminster, only much longer, and black, crossing the sea.  Not a man of board could make out what it was but being only south fifteen miles of the Pole we were prepared for wonders.  Still the sight was inexplicable; all around the sea was calm, and nothing could be seen but this black, up-and-down, zig-zag phenomenon on the water.”

Waterloo Bridge, London

The rest of the story includes sailing through an arch made by the serpent's body and finding the North Pole.  An interesting read!

During the 1820s and 30s there was a lot of interest in Arctic exploration due to Scottish naval officer Sir John Ross (1777-1856) and his various expeditions in the area which were widely reported in the press of the day.

Jams, jellies and marmlet

With the current controversy about marmalade it is interesting to note that John Galt wrote about "marmlet", the old Scottish word for marmalade in the Ayrshire Legatees which was published in 1821.  His wonderful character, Mrs Pringle, wife of the Rev Dr Zachariah Pringle of Garnock, packed some to take with her on a trip to London.  It was then considered a delicacy.  In Chapter 3, Letter 6,  Mrs Pringle writes from London to her friend Miss Mally Glencairn back in Garnock.  She tells her friend about the supplies she packed before leaving Garnock which she thought would be necessary in London including some muslin because she had heard that London shops –

“get all their fine muslins from Glasgow and Paisley; and in the same bocks [box] with them I packit a small crock of our ain excellent poudered butter, with a delap cheese, for I was told that such commodities are not to be had genuine in London. I likewise had in it a pot of marmlet [marmalade], which Miss Jenny Macbride gave me at Glasgow, assuring me that it was not only dentice [a delicacy], but a curiosity among the English."

18th century recipe for marmalade

Mrs Pringle tends to spell words as she would say them.  However, Mrs Pringle’s careful packing of necessities and delicacies suffered from the journey, as she goes on to describe –

"Howsomever, in the nailing of the bocks, which I did carefully with my oun hands, one of the nails gaed in a-jee, and broke the pot of marmlet, which by the jolting of the ship, ruined the muslin, rottened the peper round the goun, which the shivers cut into more than twenty great holes.  Over and above all, the crock with the butter was, no one can tell how, crackit, and the pickle lecking out and mixing with the seerip of the marmlet, spoilt the cheese.  In short, at the object I beheld when the bocks was opened, I could have ta’en to the greeting; but I behaved with more composity on the occasion than the doctor thought it was in the power of nature to do.”

Galt also refers to the popularity of jams and other preserves in the Annals of the Parish (Chapter 28, Year 1787) when the Rev Michah Balwhidder notes –

“I should not, in my notations, forget to mark a new luxury that got in among the commonality at this time.  By the opening of new roads, and the traffic thereon with carts and carriers, and by our young men that were sailors going to the Clyde and sailing to Jamaica and the West Indies, heaps of sugar and coffee-beans were brought home, while many, among the kail-stocks and cabbages in their yards had planted groset [gooseberry] and berry bushes; which two things happening together, the fashion to make jam and jelly, which hitherto had been only known in the kitchens and confectionaries of the gentry, came to be introduced into the clachan.”

Greenock Harbour

Certainly at that time, Greenock was one of the biggest importer of sugar from the West Indies.  John Galt's father had been the master of a ship trading with Jamaica, so Galt would have been very much aware of the effect such imports had on everyday life.  Along with the regular imports, of course there were other "unregulated" goods, which the Rev Balwhidder goes on to mention -

“All this, however, was not without a plausible pretext; for it was found that jelly was an excellent medicine for a sore throat, and jam a remedy as good as London candy for a cough, or a cold, or a shortness of breath.  I could not, however, say that this gave me so much concern as the smuggling trade, only it occasioned a great fasherie to Mrs Balwhidder; for, in the berry time, there was no end to the borrowing of her brass-pan to make jelly and jam, till Mrs Toddy of the Cross-Keys bought one, which in its turn, came into request, and saved ours.”

One of John Galt's great strengths as a writer is the way he uses ordinary people and households to illustrate the changes that were going on in local society and the wider world.  Marmlet - what a great word!

Galt's books - "the Larger Catechism of the Scottish language"

In John Galt's novel the Annals of the Parish - (p10, Year 1760), Thomas Thorl speaks to the Rev Micha Balwhidder -  

“Come in, sir, and ease yoursel’: this will never do: the clergy are God’s gorbies, and for their Master’s sake it behoves us to respect them.  There was no ane in the whole parish mair against you than mysel’; but this early visitation is a symptom of grace that I couldna have expectit from a bird out of the nest of patronage.”

The language used is everyday speech for Thorl. In the 1895 Blackwoods Edition of the Annals of the Parish, edited by David Storrar Meldrum, the author Samuel Rutherford Crockett (1859-1914) in his introduction, compares Galt's use of language with that of the Bard –

“Practically he [Galt] writes the Scots of Robert Burns.  His vocabulary is not so extensive, his adjectives scantly so trenchant.  He is by no means so “free in his discourse” as the poet.  But they are essentially shoots of the same stem.  They learned, as it were, at one parent’s knee.”

Crockett continues, comparing Galt's use of Scots with that of the Scottish authors Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) and Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) - 

"Galt’s variety of his Scottish tongue is full of fine old grandmotherly words, marrow with pith and sap.  Scott, like Stevenson, wrote his vernacular a little from the heights.  But Galt writes his Scots like one who has been cradled in it, who lisped it in the doorways and cried it to other loons across the street.  He lived among men and women who habitually spoke it.”

Another great example of the speech of Galt's ordinary, everyday folk can be found in The Entail (p120) when the Leddy speaks to Jamie Walkinshaw - 

“Haud your tongue, and dinna terrify folk wi’ ony sic impossibility!” exclaimed the Leddy – “Poor man, he has something else to think o’ at present.  Is no your aunty brought nigh unto the gates o’ death?  Would ye expek him to be thinking o’ marriage settlements and wedding banquets, when death’s so busy in his dwelling?  Ye’re an unfeeling creature, Jamie.  But the army’s the best place for sic graceless getts."

Crockett remarks on Galt's use of Scots - 

“Galt spares no pains to introduce every old and recondite Scots word he knows.  His books are, indeed, the Larger Catechism of the Scottish language, in so far that they are by no means written for those of weaker understanding.”

The language used by Galt in many of his works will be very familiar to a lot of Scottish people.  It makes his characters come to life and become more real - just by the way they use everyday language of their time and place.