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.

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.

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.

John Galt - making the reader his friend

The following is part of a review which appeared in The National Standard, of John Galt’s Stories of the Study published in 1833 -

“For this is one of the great charms of Mr Galt’s works, that he makes his reader his friend; he throws so much of his own shrewd, honest, and kindly character into the pages of his romances, […] that his readers become his friends.  What a multitude of friends must Mr Galt have gained!” 

Stories of the Study is a collection of tales of vary variable type and quality.  Many reviews at the time mention “The Greenwich Pensioner” and included a passage from it with the review.  Of this particular story Galt writes in Literary Life -

“On one occasion I was at Greenwich with two friends from the country; we were taken to see a blind sailor who had reached the antediluvian age of more than fivescore.  […] This old man was literally alone in the world; his patriarchal age, his solitary condition, and the asylum assigned to him, were interesting to the imagination, and, in thinking lately, I threw together the following imaginary narrative.”

Greenwich

Naturally, Galt's home town of Greenock gets a mention in the old mariner's tale - 

"Long ago, when America belonged to England, and we had beat the French in all the four quarters of the globe, the Virginy trade was briskest in the Clyde, and my father, who was an English sailor, went to look for bread at a town called Greenock, in the west of Scotland, where he was told berths were plentiful, and sailors in request.”

Interestingly the review appeared in the National Standard, or to give it its full name - The National Standard of Literature, Science, Music, Theatricals, and the Fine Arts was owned at the time by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) best known for his novel Vanity Fair, published around 1848 .  Thackeray bought the National Standard in 1833, but it only lasted until 1834 when he ran out of money!

However, the reviewer certainly seemed to have a knowledge of Galt's works and concludes - 

Mr Galt […] seems to suffer and expire with the heroes he depicts, 

and to kindle and melt with his reader.”

There are many more interesting tales in Stories of the Study!

Find out more about the Royal Hospital, Greenwich here.

Lingo's Wedding - Galt's version

John Galt loved the theatre.  He wrote several works intended for the stage but perhaps the best known was actually a non-starter - he was too afraid of his mother's reaction to have it presented on stage!  It was a version of Lingo's Wedding.  The original Lingo's Wedding (1784), was a follow up to the Agreeable Surprise, a comic opera written by Irish playwright John O’Keffe (1747-1833).  The music for the work was written by composer and organist Samuel Arnold (1740-1802).  The Agreeable Surprise was written in 1781 and was a great success.  Lingo, a Latin teacher and parish clerk, was one of the characters in the comedy.  He was played, with great acclaim by William Henry Moss (1748-1817), actor and theatre manager.

William Henry Moss by John Kay

Galt writes in his Literary Life -

“Moss, so famous in London as Lingo, then an old man, came to Greenock with a company.  I became intimate with him, and being then reading of the prolific Lopez de Vega, wrote a farce in one day for him, exhibiting Lingo as a lover.  It was called Lingo’s Wedding, and he expressed himself much amused with it; but the fear of my mother came over me, and I prevented the performance, interdicting all mention of the subject in the most judicious filial manner.”  (Lope de Vega (1562-1635) was a Spanish playwright and poet.)  

From the Caledonian Mercury, April 1784

William H Moss came to Greenock in 1802 while Galt was still living at home.  At that time theatrical productions were performed at the Assembly Hall at the eastern end of Cathcart Street in Greenock.  

Galt continues to describe his version -

"Part of the original manuscript, since I commenced this work, has been recovered; and without any personal feeling on the subject at all, I do say that, as an effore to excite laughter at the expense of the understanding, it is not entirely a failure.  The character of Lingo seems to have been well preserved; and he has a rival in a Mr Ipsy Dixy, a lawyer, who is conceived with some drollery, and whom he characteristically always speaks of as Manylaws.  The charm of the piece, however, is a Miss Girzy, a Scotch cousin of Dominie Felix, to whom Lingo and the lawyer are paying their addresses.  Lady Grippy in “The Entail”, is a sound and sober personage compared to Miss Girzy.”  (Ipsy Dixy - from the Latin ipse dixit can be translated as a dogmatic or unproven statement.)

While his version of Lingo's Wedding was not produced on stage, Galt later went to to write several other works, some of which made it to various theatres, but with not much success.

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.

John Galt's first love?

There is very little evidence from his work that John Galt was in any way a romantic - evidence would show quite the opposite.  In his novels, many of the marriages that take place are for purely practical or financial reasons.  In the Annals of the Parish, the Rev Micah Balwhidder, after the death of his second wife recounts the the reasoning behind choosing his third -

 "I was now far down in the vale of years, and could not expect to be long without feeling some of the penalties of old age, although I was still a hail and sound man.  It therefore behoved me to look in time for a helpmate, to tend me in my approaching infirmities."

It comes as a bit of a surprise then to learn that in his own younger life, John Galt had a secret love!  She was someone he met before his departure from Greenock to London in 1804.

The Greenock Advertiser published this article in December 1849, ten years after Galt's death -

"For half a century the late John Galt kept in his desk, never seen by human eye save his own, the miniature of a young lady who was, we may suppose, his first love.  The likeness was taken when the lady was about to proceed to the south of England for the benefit of her health; but the hopes of lengthened days from the change of climate were doomed to be disappointed, as she there died.

During his varied career, our clever townsman seems ever to have retained fresh in his memory a tender recollection of her who first called forth his affection.  Very shortly before his death, Mr Galt gave the portrait to his friends, with directions that it might be presented to some one of the relatives of the lady who had not any other remembrancer of her, and this wish was complied with."

It seems that John Galt also kept some verses which he wrote at the time.  The article continues - 

"It [the likeness] was accompanied by the following lines, which were written on hearing of the lady’s decease.  They are chiefly remarkable as among the earliest, perhaps the very earliest, effusions of Mr Galt."  

The second verse of the poem reads -

"How sweet was that face and mild its expression,
As a lamb on the lea in the evening beam;

And kind was that heart, and soft its impression,

So soft as the moonlight that sleeps on the stream."

 The work ends -

"But consumption’s pale hand, with a touch cold and pining,
Has wasted those charms; on a strange distant shore
The lily was withered, wane and declining,
It bowed it sweet head, and it never rose more."

It would appear that John Galt's first love remained for a long time in his thoughts.

How the Ettrick Shepherd described John Galt

While portraits can give us a good idea of what a person looked like, it is just as interesting to read other people's thoughts on the looks and personality traits of the subject.  The poet James Hogg (1770-1835) who was known as the Ettrick Shepherd met John Galt in Greenock in 1804 when Galt would have been 25 years old.

Hogg describes being invited to supper at the Tontine Hotel in Greenock where he found – “no fewer than thirty gentlemen assembled to welcome us, and among the rest was Mr Galt, then a tall thin young man, with something a little dandyish in his appearance.  He was dressed in a frock-coat and new top-boots; and it being then the fashion to wear the shirt collars as high as the eyes, Galt wore his the whole of that night with the one side considerable above his ear, and the other flapped over the collar of his frock-coat down to his shoulder.”

Hogg points out what he views as one of Galt’s “peculiarities” – “He walked with his spectacles on, and conversed with them on; but when he read he took them off.  In short, from his first appearance, one would scarcely have guessed him to be a man of genius.”

James Hogg had worked as a shepherd in Ettrick in the Scottish Borders in his youth and was self educated.  He composed songs and poems and admired the work of Robert Burns.  He published a small collection of his work, Scottish Pastorals in 1801 and came to the attention of Walter Scott.  In 1807 he published The Mountain Bard and in 1810 moved to Edinburgh and continued his writing career, meeting many of the great writers and poets of the day and contributing to Blackwood's Magazine.  (John Galt also contributed to Blackwood's "Maga".)  Hogg's best known work, published in 1824 was the novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner.

James Hogg (the Ettrick Shepherd)

This is a verse by Hogg entitled Caledonia -

“Old Caledonia! pathway of the storm

That o’er thy wilds resistless sweeps along,

Though clouds and snows thy sterile hills deform,

Thou are the land of freedom and of song.

Land of the eagle fancy, wild and strong!

Land of the loyal heart and valiant arm!

Though southern pride and luxury may wrong

Thy mountain honours, still my heart shall warm

At thy unquestioned weir and songs of magic charm.”

James Hogg also writes about his thoughts on the works of John Galt - “I like Galt’s writings exceedingly, and have always regretted that he has depicted so much that is selfish and cunning in the Scottish character, and so little that is truly amiable, when he could have done it so well.”

It would be interesting to know Galt's thoughts on those remarks!

John Galt's final resting place

John Galt is perhaps the most well-known of those buried in Inverkip Street Cemetery, Greenock.  A plaque on the cemetery gates highlights his importance there. 

Three flat stones mark the Galt family plot.  The first stone marks the burial place of John Galt (1750-1817) and his wife Jean Thomson (1746-1820).  John Galt (1779-1839), writer, explorer and founder of the city of Guelph in Canada is added on at the end - almost as an afterthought.  The wording reads:-

    "Here are deposited the remains of John Galt, formerly shipmaster, and afterwards merchant in Greenock.  He died 6th August 1817 in the 67th year of his age having uniformly enjoyed the esteem of all who knew him.  Also Jean Thomson his spouse who died 18th July 1826 in the 80th year of her age.  Also John Galt their son who died on the 11th April 1839 in his 60th year, author of The Annals of the Parish etc etc."

Galt's parents, John Galt and Jean Thomson were married in Irvine in Ayrshire in 1776.  Their son John was born in 1779 at Irvine.  The family moved to Greenock when John was 10 years old.  As a shipmaster, his father found it more convenient and probably more financially rewarding to sail from Greenock.  He was connected with trade to the West Indies.  John Galt (senior) built a house with a garden at the northwest corner of Westburn Street and West Blackhall Street in Greenock.  There's a plaque on the wall where the house once stood.  At that time the area would have been much quieter, and not as built up as it was later to become.

John and Agnes Galt had four children – John was the eldest born in 1779, Agnes born in 1781, James born in 1783 and Thomas born in 1785.  John Galt described his parents -

    "My father was one of the best, as he was one of the handsomest men, but he was of an easy nature.  My mother was however a very singular person possessing a masculine strength of character with great natural humour."

His mother seems to have been a strong woman with her easy-going husband being away at sea for much of the time.  She had educated John at home when they lived in Irvine.  He had many memories of those days which he wrote about in his autobiography.

The third gravestone marks the burying place of John Galt's sister Agnes Galt (1781-1855) and reads - 

    “This stone is erected in affectionate remembrance by Agnes Galt, widow of Robert Andrew Macfie, late merchant in Greenock who died 28th October 1811 esteemed by those who knew him best.  Surviving all parents, brothers, husband and children, during a long pilgrimage throughout which upheld by Christian hope she bore with patience, much bodily suffering and zealously sought the kingdom of God on earth.  This old disciple finished her course in peace 30th April 1855 and was buried here.  Phil III, 20.21.”

Agnes Galt married Robert Andrew Macfie in Greenock in 1806.  Robert was a grocer and merchant in Greenock, son of Robert Macfie sugar refiner and his wife Mary Andrew (he was one of 11 children).  He died in 1811 and is buried here.  Agnes Galt Macfie died at 7 Brougham Street in Greenock in 1855.  She is buried here with her husband.  She had outlived all her family as the gravestone poignantly mentions.

The middle stone marks the burying place of the three children of Agnes and Robert Macfie.  Their son, Robert Andrew and daughters Mary and Jane Thomson died relatively young. The stone reads:-

    “Robert Andrew McFie, fell asleep in Jesus 28 October 1824 in the 17th year of his age and Mary, his sister 13th May 1826 having just copleted her 15th year.  Both died in faith with joyful hopes of a blessed immortality.  Also their sister Jane Thomson Macfie who departed this life with longing desire to be with Christ.  She died 5th September 1831 age 22 years.  The Saints in early life removed in sweeter accents sing and blessed the swiftness of the flight that bore them to their King.”

John Galt's widow and three sons all settled in Canada and became important figures in the history of that country.  It seems fitting that Galt himself should be buried with the people who had most to do with the nurturing of his genius in his early life.  Around him in Inverkip Street Cemetery, Greenock are the graves of many of those well known to him during his years living in Greenock.