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!

John Galt - a lucky find!

A great edition of John Galt’s best-known works – Annals of the Parish and the Ayrshire Legatees in one volume, published by Mercat Classics (TheMercat Press) in 1994.  According to the information on the inside page this is “a facsimile of the edition published by Macmillan & Co in 1895”.  In the modern edition, there is a new introduction by Ian Campbell.  This was a fortunate find in a charity shop recently at a cost of £3.49.  

This edition, like that of 1895 contains wonderful illustrations by Charles E Brock.  Both the Annals of the Parish and The Ayrshire Legatees were originally published separately in book form in 1821 after having been serialised in Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine.

Illustration by C E Brock

A very lucky find!

Rachel Pringle's view of Greenock's Cathcart Street

In the Ayrshire Legatees, published monthly originally in Blackwoods Magazine between June 1820 and February 1821and in book form in June 1821, John Galt describes the Pringle family’s journey from Irvine to London to receive a legacy left by a relative.  In Chapter 1, Letter II - Miss Rachel Pringle writes to her friend Miss Isabella Tod describing Greenock. 

“The chambermaid of the inn where we lodge pointed out to me, on the opposite side of the street, a magnificent edifice erected for balls; but the subscribers have resolved not to allow any dancing till it is determined by the Court of Session to whom the seats and chairs belong, as they were brought from another house where the assemblies were formerly held.” 

Tontine Hotel, Cathcart Street, Greenock

The “inn where we lodge” was likely to have been Greenock’s Tontine Hotel on Cathcart Street.  Coaches to Ayr and Glasgow arrived and departed daily from the Tontine or the White Hart Inn in Cathcart Square, as this extract from Hutchison's Greenock Directory of 1820 shows. 

Built in 1801, the Tontine Hotel contained a large hall, twelve sitting rooms and thirty bedrooms.  It was a popular stopping place for visitors to the town, and many local clubs and organisations held their meetings there.  It was ideally situated in Cathcart Street, which was then the commercial centre of Greenock.

The "magnificent edifice erected for balls" probably refers to the Exchange Buildings (opened 1814) also the home of the Coffee Room. In 1821 a new Coffee Room was opened in Cathcart Square.  There was a disagreement between some of the subscribers about the cost etc, and a court case followed - thus Rachel Pringle's reference to the Court of Session.  

Thereafter there were two Coffee Rooms in Greenock!

Tontine Hotel, Cathcart Street.  Photo - Greenock Burns Club

The original Tontine Hotel was demolished and replaced by a new Post Office in 1899.  That Post Office  building still stands and is now the James Watt Pub (Wetherspoons).  A new Tontine Hotel was opened in 1892 in Union Street, Greenock.  Read more about the history of the Tontine Hotel here.

Pawkie's Close, Irvine

Pawkie's Close can be found in Irvine, directly across the street from the Bank of Scotland building on the High Street. A plaque commemorating John Galt can be found on the wall of the Bank building.

Pawkie Close is a narrow path between buildings leading east from the High Street and is typical of the many closes which would have led from the houses and businesses here.  Pawkie's Close is paved, and some of the slabs have words and phrases etched into them.  There is no information about where these quotes originated.

The Close was named after Provost Pawkie in one of John Galt's best loved books - The Provost which was published in 1822.  Pawkie in Scots means sly or cunning and Galt describes his character as:

 “exhibiting a tolerably correct picture of a Scottish borough, I had in view, while writing it, a gentleman, who, when I was a boy at school, had the chief management of the borough council in my native town.  I believed he was dead, and had no scruple about choosing him for my model.”

The man being described was Robert Fullarton (1740-1835) who was a councillor in Irvine for 42 years.  Read more about Galt and Irvine on a previous post - Galt and the Freedom of Irvine.

Yesterday on the anniversary of the birth of John Galt, a short ceremony took place at the Bank of Scotland building which replaced the house in which he lived as a child.  A floral tribute was placed on the wall beside the plaque.

John Galt's birthday!

Today marks the 247^th birthday of John Galt. 

Born in Irvine in 1779, he was the eldest of four children of Captain John Galt and his wife Jean Thomson.  Galt seems to have happy memories of his early childhood in Irvine and not being particularly robust as a child, was for a while educated at home by his mother.  He enjoyed the company of his mother and his friends, storing up memories of the tales they told each other.

Memories of Irvine re-emerge in the poem To the River Peneus which is printed in his Autobiography (Vol 1) published in 1833 he writes of his travels in the Mediterranean during the years 1809 -1811;

"From Phersela we proceeded to Larissa, a considerable town with a number of spires or minarets.  The city stands on the banks of the river Peneus, and in one particular place, where calicoes on bleach fields were spread around, the scene moved me with a strange sadness, in which, if I did not weep, I shed the following verses;

 Methought that youth was still my own
As when I strayed by Irvine’s stream,
And all the cares I since have known
The phantoms of a troubled dream.
Ah! never shall I know again
Those simple hopes of blithesome hue,
The playmates gay of fancy’s train,
Such as by Irvine’s stream I knew."

Rather sad lines written abroad with memories of times by the River Irvine in his native Ayrshire.  Many of the place names of the places he travelled to abroad are written slightly differently now.  Find out more about these places visited by Galt all those years ago by clicking on the highlighted links.

Phersela - possibly Farsala in Thessaly, Greece. 
Larissa is in the Thessaly region of Greece.  
River Peneus – River Peneios.

Macskipnish the dancing master

One of the great things about the novels of John Galt is the descriptive names he gives to his characters.  Mr Macskipnish the dancing master in Annals of the Parish (Year 1761) is a perfect example.

Galt writes – 

“Mr Macskipnish, who was, to be sure, a great curiosity, with long spindle legs, his breast shot out like a duck’s, and his head powdered and frizzled up like a tappit-hen.  He was indeed, the proudest peacock that could be seen, and he had a ring on his finger, and when he came to drink his tea at the Breadland, he brought no hat on his head, but a droll cockit thing under his arm, which, he said, was after the manner of the courtiers at the petty suppers of one Madam Pompadour, who was at that time the concubine of the French king.”  

In his Literary Life (Vol I) John Galt notes that 

“… Macskipnish is a caricature of one [dancing master] that afterwards taught me to walk minuets at Greenock.  His story, however, is a fiction.”

In Galt’s time, many Greenock youngsters attended dancing lessons at the Masons Hall at the corner of Hamilton Street and Charles Street, not far from Galt's home in West Blackhall Street.  John Williamson describes, from personal memory, local dancing master, James Crawford in Old Greenock From the Earliest times -

 “Mr Crawford, senior, was a little, broad man, with grey hair profusely powdered.  His function was to promenade the hall, and take a general supervision, while his sons showed the steps, one of them meantime playing the violin.  They were both graceful dancers.  Our masters’ pronunciation of the word “foot” always caused a titter, as they pronounced it futt.  Want of attention or careless dancing was not unfrequently visited by a whack on the shins or toes, and in this way the figures of the dances were literally whipped into us.”

Galt gives Macskipnish and his arrival in Dalmailing, town in which the Annals of the Parish is set, in 1761 a back story - 

“But a thing happened in this year, which deserves to be recorded, as manifesting what effect the smuggling was beginning to take in the morals of the countryside.  On Mr Macskipnish, of Highland parentage, who had been a valet de chambre with a major in the campaigns, and taken prisoner with him by the French, he having come home in a cartel, took up a dancing school at Irville, the which art he had learnt in the genteelest fashion, in the mode of Paris, at the French court.”

Dancing proved to be a popular pastime with young boys and girls in Dalmailing -

“For such a thing as a dancing school had never, in the memory of man, been known in our countryside; and there was such a sound about the steps and cotillions of Mr Macskipnish, that every lad and lass, that could spare time and siller, went to him, to the great neglect of their work."

Williamson also explains the dancing lessons in Greenock and how the Masons Hall – 

“When not required for the business of the Lodge, the Hall was let for lectures, public exhibitions, or auction sales.  It was also hired for a dancing school, and here for many years Messrs James Crawford & Sons, the fashionable dancing masters from Paisley, had classes for instruction in the terpsichorean art, dubbed “heel philosophy” by our sarcastic grammar school master, Dr Brown.  The classes were largely attended by the pupils of the English, writing, grammar, and other day schools.  They met in the afternoons of winter and spring.  Great attention was devoted to the pointing of the toes and the carriage of the pupils, the latter being the chief object of many of the parents in sending their children to the dancing school, rather than the learning of “steps” and “dances”."

Masons Hall, Charles Street, Greenock (later Crawfords Restaurant)

However, dancing masters were not always popular.  Williamson continues - 

“At the end of the season, sometimes before it, the grand gathering for the ball took place in the new Assembly Rooms, Exchange Buildings, when our positions and partners were assigned to us – sometimes to our no small disgust, when separated from the partners of our choice!”

Mr Macskipnish would appear to embody a lot of what John Galt remembered from his boyhood dance teacher in Greenock and provides us with a wonderful, almost visual character strutting about the dancefloor.

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.