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Title: The Ballantyne press and its founders 1796-1908
Author: Anonymous
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Ballantyne press and its founders 1796-1908" ***
FOUNDERS 1796-1908 ***
THE BALLANTYNE PRESS AND ITS FOUNDERS
[Illustration: JAMES BALLANTYNE
From the Picture at Abbotsford.]
THE
BALLANTYNE PRESS
AND ITS FOUNDERS
1796-1908
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO OFFICES
OF OLD PAUL’S WORK]
EDINBURGH
BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
1909
_PREFACE_
_At the Centenary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, in the year 1871,
a sketch of the Ballantyne Press was issued, setting forth its close
connection with him, and giving statistics of the Novels. But the story
of the Press, its rise and vicissitudes under the control of James
Ballantyne and Sir Walter, its progress and development, and its collapse
and new birth, as gleaned from Lockhart’s “Life of Scott” and other
sources, has not been given in a succinct form. For this purpose the
late Mr. W. T. Dobson, for some forty years one of the principal Readers
at the Press, gathered together considerable material which it has been
thought might prove to be of general interest. The Press has therefore,
with the assistance of Mr. W. L. Carrie, M.A., put the story into its
present book-form._
PAUL’S WORK, _April 1909_.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE 1
II. REMOVAL TO EDINBURGH 15
III. THE BALLANTYNE BROTHERS 26
IV. SCOTT’S POETICAL ROMANCES 32
V. JOHN BALLANTYNE, PUBLISHER 42
VI. THE WAVERLEY NOVELS 62
VII. THE “GREAT UNKNOWN” 82
VIII. COMMERCIAL TROUBLES AND SUCCESSES—“THE WEEKLY JOURNAL” 98
IX. THE AUTHOR AND THE REVISER 118
X. LOCKHART AND THE BALLANTYNE CONTROVERSY 132
XI. THROUGH OLD PAUL’S WORK, CANONGATE 143
XII. END OF OLD PAUL’S WORK 152
XIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY—EARLY DECADES OF PAUL’S WORK 158
APPENDIX 181
ILLUSTRATIONS & FACSIMILES
JAMES BALLANTYNE (_Photogravure_) _Frontispiece_
PAGE
KELSO IN 1797 _To face_ 2
FIRST PAGE OF FIRST ISSUE OF “KELSO MAIL” ” 4
TITLE—“AN APOLOGY FOR TALES OF TERROR” 9
TITLE—“MEMOIRS OF JOSEPH BORUWLASKI” 11
PLAYBILL PRINTED BY JAMES BALLANTYNE IN KELSO 13
TITLE—“MINSTRELSY OF THE SCOTTISH BORDER” (KELSO, 1802) 19
TITLE—“MINSTRELSY OF THE SCOTTISH BORDER” (EDINBURGH, 1803) 23
ST. JOHN STREET _To face_ 24
JOHN BALLANTYNE (_Photogravure_) ” 42
SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART. (_Photogravure_) ” 62
TITLE—“WAVERLEY” 63
THE “GREAT UNKNOWN” _To face_ 82
A PAGE OF THE MS. OF “WAVERLEY” ” 96
OLD WOODEN PRESS AT PAUL’S WORK (_Photogravure_) ” 106
TITLE—“LIFE OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE” 129
CORRECTED PAGE-PROOF OF “LIFE OF BUONAPARTE” 131
JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART, LL.D. (_Photogravure_) _To face_ 132
OLD PAUL’S WORK (_Photogravure_) ” 143
ENTRANCE TO THE OFFICES OF OLD PAUL’S WORK 145
WINDOW IN PAUL’S WORK OF THE PRESENT DAY _To face_ 156
DESK USED BY SIR WALTER SCOTT IN PAUL’S WORK 185
SIR WALTER SCOTT’S CHAIR IN PAUL’S WORK 187
THE BALLANTYNE PRESS
CHAPTER I
ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE
The History of the Art of Printing in Edinburgh shows periods of
fluctuating progress—times of decadence and revival—at recurring
intervals. These are found in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
and towards the close of the eighteenth century another period of
decadence seems to have arisen, although a few of the printers in the
city strove to maintain the fairer traditions of the art and did good
work. Among these it is interesting to note that the firms of Neill &
Co., Pillans & Wilson, and Oliver & Boyd are survivors of that far-off
time.
With the origin of the Ballantyne Press at Kelso in 1796, and its removal
a few years afterwards to Paul’s Work in Edinburgh, a revival took place
which inaugurated a new era for printing in Scotland. The advent of James
Ballantyne was productive of great changes, as he helped to diffuse
a taste for correct and elegant workmanship till then comparatively
unknown. Curwen, in his “History of Booksellers,” referring to the high
level of English typography, mentions the Ballantynes of Edinburgh as
founding a press, the excellent work of which had gained the good-will of
many authors and publishers both in Edinburgh and London.
[Illustration: KELSO IN 1797]
James Ballantyne was the son of a merchant in the Border town of Kelso,
and was born in 1772. He was educated at the grammar-school of that
town, then kept by Lancelot Whale, an admirable scholar and teacher,
who is said to have resembled Dominie Sampson in “Guy Mannering.” For a
short time in 1783 James had as schoolfellow and companion the youthful
Walter Scott, who was staying at Rosebank for the benefit of his health.
The two became associated, perhaps to the neglect of their tasks during
school hours, through the story-telling propensities of Scott.[1]
After school they would wander along the banks of the Tweed, and these
rambles had many pleasant associations—the one happy in drinking in the
romantic stories and legendary lore which the other was equally happy
in pouring out. This school friendship was never broken off, as Scott
paid frequent visits to the Border town for some years afterwards; and
when James Ballantyne went to Edinburgh to complete his legal training,
after finishing his apprenticeship in Kelso, it is more than probable
that he would meet Walter Scott, who was then attending the law-classes
of the University. The intercourse would be renewed in the class-rooms
and also in the monthly symposiums of the Teviotdale Club, to which they
both belonged. On the conclusion of his legal studies, James Ballantyne
commenced business as a lawyer in Edinburgh, but success proving slow he
returned in 1795 to his native town; and here, whatever legal or other
work he may have carried on, he seems, according to an advertisement
in No. 1 of the _Kelso Mail_, to have acted as agent for the Sun Fire
Insurance Co. Being a young man of literary ability as well, he soon
attracted the attention of the county people, who prevailed upon him,
in 1796, to become the editor and manager of a new weekly newspaper,
the _Kelso Mail_, which they were promoting in opposition to the _Kelso
Chronicle_, a paper of advanced democratic principles, circulating in
Roxburgh and the other Border counties. In this way he established his
first practical connection with printing.
[Illustration: REDUCED FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF THE FIRST NUMBER OF
THE “KELSO MAIL”]
In the prospectus of the paper given in No. 1, April 13, 1797, there
occurs this paragraph: “In the Miscellany we present to the Public, it
shall be our endeavour to combine amusement with information. Literary
speculations, poetical productions of merit, extracts from popular works,
and interesting anecdotes, shall occasionally be called in to relieve the
more important details, which they shall not, however, in any instance
be suffered to supersede. In this department of our undertaking, we
hope from the arrangements we have made, to be able to furnish to the
Public a species of entertainment, which will be a source of innocent
and agreeable relaxation, while it will afford an opportunity for those
of our young countrymen who are partial to the lighter species of
literature, to indulge the excursions of their fancy, and ascertain,
without abusing their time, how far they may be qualified to succeed in
pleasing the Public.”
The somewhat lengthy Prospectus does not parade the usual phrase about
“the felt want,” but it implies it all the same, and it is pleasant to
record that the _Kelso Mail_ is still flourishing, having published
its centenary number in April 1897. By the courtesy of the present
proprietor, there is given here a reduced facsimile of the first page of
No. 1.
For the purposes of the new paper James Ballantyne had to make several
journeys—first to London, to arrange for correspondents, and also to
Edinburgh and Glasgow, in order to obtain type and other printing
appliances—Glasgow at that time having one of the best type-foundries in
the country.
In October 1799, when Walter Scott was returning from a ballad-hunting
raid through Ettrick Forest and Liddesdale, he stayed at Rosebank in
Kelso for some days, and the school friends again met. Scott had recently
published translations of the German ballads of Bürger—“Lenore” and
“The Wild Huntsman,”—through the publishing house of Manners & Miller
of Edinburgh. This little book had been well received in Scotland, but
had gained no general acceptance in the south. It had led, however, to a
correspondence with a few who were interested in ballad lore, especially
with Matthew Gregory Lewis (known generally as “Monk” Lewis), who was
then engaged upon a similar work called “Tales of Wonder,” but who had
delayed its progress in such a way as to cause considerable annoyance
to Scott and to others who had promised their aid.[2] In the meantime
it happened that, while Scott was at Rosebank, James Ballantyne called
one morning and asked him to supply a few paragraphs on some legal
question of the day for his newspaper. Scott complied, and, carrying his
manuscript to the printing-office, took with him also some ballads of
his own composition designed to appear in “Monk” Lewis’s collection of
“Tales of Wonder.” “With these, especially the ‘Morlachian fragment after
Goethe,’ Ballantyne was charmed. Scott talked of Lewis with rapture;
and, after reciting some of his stanzas, said: ‘I ought to apologise to
you for having troubled you with anything of my own, when I had things
like this for your ear.’ ‘I felt at once,’ says Ballantyne, ‘that his
own verses were far above what Lewis could ever do, and though, when I
said this, he dissented, yet he seemed pleased with the warmth of my
approbation.’”
On parting, Scott made a casual remark that he wondered his old friend
did not try to get some work from the booksellers, “to keep his types
in play” during the intervals of publication of the weekly _Mail_.
Ballantyne replied that such an idea had not occurred to him, and that,
moreover, he had little acquaintance with the Edinburgh publishers; but
that his types were good, and he thought he could produce work equal to
that of any of the town printers. “Scott, with his good-humoured smile,
said, ‘You had better try what you can do. You have been praising my
little ballads; suppose you print off a dozen copies or so of as many
as will make a pamphlet, sufficient to let my Edinburgh acquaintances
judge of your skill for themselves.’ Ballantyne assented; and exactly
twelve copies of ‘William and Helen,’ ‘The Fire King,’ ‘The Chase,’ and
a few other pieces, not all Scott’s own, were thrown off accordingly,
with the title (alluding to the long delay in the publication of Lewis’s
collection) of ‘An Apology for Tales of Terror, 1799.’”[3] A reproduction
of the title is given on the opposite page.
It happened also that Hughes, Ballantyne’s chief workman, had been
trained in one of the foremost printing-houses of the time, and was
capable of using his materials to the best advantage; and this, joined to
James Ballantyne’s excellent taste in the selection of type, contributed
to the production of the ballads in a style of typographical perfection
worthy of the most eminent printers before him.
[Illustration]
In the beginning of 1894 a copy of this very limited edition of the
“Apology” was advertised at a moderate price by a bookseller in London.
It was immediately purchased by an Edinburgh bookseller, who had a
higher opinion of its value than his London brother. This copy bore an
inscription in James Ballantyne’s handwriting, of which the following is
a slightly reduced facsimile—
[Illustration]
Evidently, however, John Murray had given it away some time after, as it
shows the further enrichment of the poet Campbell’s book-plate pasted on
the title-page. The book is rare, and, till this copy was discovered,
the only one known to exist was that at Abbotsford. It consists of
seventy-six pages and a title, and from a printer’s point of view
deserves the high praise bestowed upon it—having meadows of margin, wide
leading, good spacing and colour.
[Illustration]
In chronological order another Kelso book falls to be noticed here,
before we come to the important time of the association of Scott and
Ballantyne with the “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.” The reproduced
title shows it to be the life of Count Boruwlaski, a celebrated dwarf,
who died in 1837 at Durham, in the ninety-ninth year of his age.[4] The
book, a copy of which is at Paul’s Work, bears the date of 1801, and
must of course have been issued during the dwarf’s lifetime. In a letter
to Mr. Morritt, soon after the publication of “Waverley,” Scott has
the following humorous reference to the Count:—“I am heartily glad you
continued to like ‘Waverley’ to the end. The hero is a sneaking piece of
imbecility; and if he had married Flora, she would have set him up upon
the chimney-piece, as Count Boruwlaski’s wife used to do with him.”
[Illustration]
In connection with this chapter on Kelso work, it is gratifying to be
able to print here, besides the facsimile of the first page of No. 1 of
the _Kelso Mail_, a reduced facsimile of a playbill for the “New Theatre”
at Kelso for Monday, November 16, 1801.[5]
CHAPTER II
REMOVAL TO EDINBURGH
The “Apology” having proved thoroughly satisfactory to Scott, he wrote
to Ballantyne: “I have been for years collecting old Border ballads,
and I think I could, with little trouble, put together such a selection
from them as might make a neat little volume to sell for four or five
shillings. I will talk to some of the booksellers about it when I get
to Edinburgh, and if the thing goes on, you shall be the printer.”
Ballantyne was delighted with the proposal; and the result of this
venture changed the whole course of his fortunes, as well as those of his
friend and patron.
The “neat little volume” alluded to grew into the “Border Minstrelsy,”
the editor being fortunate enough to arouse the interest of many scholars
and antiquaries, who gave him valuable help in the work. The first two
volumes were printed and issued by Ballantyne in 1802, and bore the Kelso
imprint (Vol. I. 258 + 146; II. 392 + 6). The edition consisted of eight
hundred copies, fifty of which were on large paper. It was disposed of
in the course of the year; and the terms of publication having been that
Scott should receive half the clear profits, his share amounted to £78,
10s. When the book appeared, the obscure imprint of “Kelso” was regarded
with wonder by connoisseurs of typography, who had probably never heard
of such a place, and were astonished at the specimen of handsome printing
this provincial town had produced: it was received with the exclamation,
“What a beautiful book!”[6] The editor’s name did not appear on the
title-page, but was appended to the Dedication to the Duke of Buccleuch.
A third volume of the “Minstrelsy” followed in 1803, and was published
along with a reprint of the first two volumes. It had Edinburgh on the
imprint.
In consequence of the publication of the “Minstrelsy,” the Kelso printer
soon acquired a more than local fame, and was in general request in the
publishing world. He was therefore induced, towards the end of 1802, to
remove to Edinburgh, and he commenced there his long and distinguished
career as a book printer, “with two presses and a proof one.” He adopted
at first the designation of the Border Press. This was for a short time
in premises in the neighbourhood of Holyrood, and then again in Foulis
Close, Canongate; but in 1805 he removed to better accommodation at
Paul’s Work, where, according to one of Scott’s letters (July 1806), he
had “established a hall, equal to that which the genie of the lamp built
for Aladdin in point of size, but rather less superbly furnished, being
occupied by about a dozen of presses.” In another letter to Ballantyne,
Scott says, “I am glad you have got some elbow-room at last.”
Paul’s Work, at North Back of Canongate, under the shadow of the Calton
Hill and near the foot of Leith Wynd, had been rebuilt in 1619, on
the site of an earlier religious foundation, for the reception and
entertainment of twelve poor men, under the name of the Hospital of Our
Lady, with a chapel or altar dedicated to St. Paul; and it must also
have had some connection with the police of the city. The accounts of
the Town Treasurer and of the Dean of Guild are preserved in almost
unbroken series from 1552 to the present time. Many of the entries are
very quaint, and throw light on the social conditions then prevailing in
Edinburgh. Several items illustrating the rough justice of those days,
arranged under “discharge extraordinar,” and one referring to Paul’s
Work, may be given:—
“Item, the day of 1554, for takin of ane
greit gebet furth of the nether tolbuith and
beiring of it to the hecht of the Dow Crag,
to haif hangit hommill Jok on, and down
bringing of it agane to Sanct Paullis Wark xijᵈ
Item, for cords to bynd and hang him with, viijᵈ
Item, the feird day of Fabruar 1554, for cordis
to bind Nicoll Ramsay quhill he wes hedit, vjᵈ
Item, the samyn day, for cords to hang the man
that brint Lord James’ cornis, viijᵈ”[7]
[Illustration]
Subsequent to Reformation times the building fell into decay, but was
reconstructed and again occupied about 1619-1620 by certain Dutch
manufacturers and weavers from Delft. It was decorated over the doorway
with the city arms and the legend, “GOD · BLISS · THIS · WARK, 1619.”
We next find it converted into a hospital for the wounded soldiers of
General Leslie’s army, during the skirmishes which preceded his defeat
at Dunbar, and thereafter it was used as a penal workhouse or bridewell.
Portions of the grounds and buildings were cleared away about the middle
of the eighteenth century by James Macdowall, a merchant of Edinburgh,
who here erected a street of dwelling-houses under his own name. At the
east end of the street there was also an entrance to the printing-house.
The whole district—houses and everything thereabout—has undergone a
complete change, the ground having been appropriated by the station and
goods-sheds of the North British Railway. As a bridewell or house of
correction Paul’s Work is referred to in the “Heart of Midlothian,” in
the scene where Madge Wildfire is examined regarding her knowledge of
Geordie Robertson and the Porteous Riot:—
“‘But maybe, Madge, ye wad mind something about it, if I was to gie ye
this half-crown?’ said Sharpitlaw, taking out the piece of money.
“‘That might gar me laugh, but it couldna gar me mind.’
“‘But, Madge,’ continued Sharpitlaw, ‘were I to send you to the
Wark-house in Leith Wynd, and gar Jock Dalgleish lay the tawse on your
back——’
“‘That wad gar me greet,’ said Madge, sobbing, ‘but it couldna gar me
mind, ye ken.’”
Paul’s Work was also entered from the Canongate by the long, narrow,
and steep Coull’s Close, one of those lanes intersecting the towering
structures of the High Street and the Canongate, so happily depicted in
one sentence of “Guy Mannering”: “Away walked Mr. Pleydell with great
activity, diving through closes and ascending covered stairs, in order to
attain the High Street, by an access which, compared to the common route,
was what the Straits of Magellan are to the more open but circuitous
passage round Cape Horn.”
James Ballantyne lived close by at No. 10 St. John Street, which was
entered by an archway from the Canongate, and led to South Back of
Canongate. At the bottom of this street, within a couple of minutes from
Holyrood, could be seen, quite near at hand, Arthur’s Seat, Salisbury
Crags, and St. Anthony’s Chapel and Well—a beautiful and romantic
environment of the grey old northern capital. St. John Street, long after
the Canongate had been deserted by its courtly occupants, continued to be
the residence of a few of the rural and city gentlefolk. In this retired
spot, only a few years previously, lived the eccentric Lord Monboddo,
who is said to have anticipated the “evolution” theory. Lord Monboddo’s
daughter was one of the loveliest women of her time—the “fair Burnet”
mentioned by Burns in his “Address to Edinburgh.” A tenement at the top
of the street contained the abode of Smollett when in Edinburgh. From its
being a private street it was a quiet locality, and in those days was
guarded by an ancient seneschal in faded uniform, who barred all passage
to carriages and carts, except for the service of those who lived in the
street.[8]
[Illustration]
One of the earliest efforts of the press in Paul’s Work was the third
volume of the “Border Minstrelsy,” which was published in April 1803.
Scott wrote to Ballantyne: “I have to thank you for the accuracy with
which the ‘Minstrelsy’ is thrown off. Longman and Rees are delighted with
the printing.” The new edition of the first two volumes, issued along
with the third, consisted of 1000 copies; of Vol. III. (422 + 6) there
were 1500 printed. Five other editions followed—the sixth being printed
in 1820.
[Illustration: ST. JOHN STREET]
CHAPTER III
THE BALLANTYNE BROTHERS
The business of Paul’s Work was immediately prosperous, and rapidly
increased. James Ballantyne was an excellent man of business. He was also
an artist in his profession, as is shown by many of his productions,
and especially by the beautiful 1829 edition of Sir Walter Scott’s
novels printed at his press. It is to this edition that Mr. Percy
Fitzgerald makes particular reference, when he writes: “The press of the
Ballantynes, under the inspiration of Sir Walter Scott, issued marvels
of brilliant and effective printing, which seem to ripen with age....
There is a calm dignity, an unobtrusive harmony, in the large page and
its proportions and tint, that at once excites admiration.... A more
beautiful, legible, and satisfactory edition could not be well imagined
than that of the long set of the Waverley Novels, published about
‘sixty years since.’ The size, paper, illustrations, and extraordinary
brilliance of the type make it quite a favourite edition—indeed, the
famous tales seem to read differently in this than in later editions of
more show and pretence.”[9]
John Ballantyne, the next of the family to James, came to Edinburgh
soon after the removal to Paul’s Work, and was employed as a clerk.
He is described at a later date, in the famous “Chaldee Manuscript,”
published in _Blackwood’s Magazine_ of October 1817, as “John, the
brother of James, a man of low stature, who giveth out merry things,
and is a lover of fables from his youth up.” He was originally destined
for a mercantile life, but after a brief business training in London
he returned to Kelso, and remained there till 1805, when he joined his
brother James in Edinburgh. Lockhart thus pictures the two brothers:
“James was a short, stout, well-made man, and would have been considered
a handsome one but for grotesque frowns, starts, and twistings of his
features, set off by a certain mock-majesty of walk and gesture, which
he had perhaps contracted from his usual companions, the emperors and
tyrants of the stage. His voice in talk was grave and sonorous, and
he sang well, in a fine rich bass. John’s tone in singing was a sharp
treble; in conversation something between a croak and a squeak.” As a
storyteller John was unrivalled, having an infinite fund of ludicrous and
characteristic anecdote, which he set off with a humour endless in its
variety of shades. “Scott used to call the one Aldiborontiphoscophornio;
the other Rigdumfunnidos. They both entertained him; they both loved and
revered him; and I believe would have shed their hearts’ blood in his
service.”[10] “Fatsman” was another of Scott’s playful nicknames for
James Ballantyne, as was also “Mr. Basketfill,” used by Constable, in
allusion to the well-known printer Baskerville.
A favourite entertainment of Scott was the reciting or singing by John
Ballantyne of the “Cobbler of Kelso.” On one occasion, when Scott,
Constable, and the Ballantynes were discussing at Abbotsford the
arrangements for the publishing of “Rob Roy,” at the end of the business
Scott turned to John, and said:—
“‘By-the-by, ’tis a long time, Johnny, since we have had the “Cobbler of
Kelso.”’ Mr. Puff (a name sometimes given by Scott to John Ballantyne)
forthwith jumped up on a mass of stone, and seating himself in the proper
attitude of one working with his awl, began the favourite interlude,
mimicking a certain son of Crispin—at whose stall Scott and he had often
lingered when they were schoolboys—and a blackbird, the only companion
of his cell, that used to sing to him, while he talked and whistled
to it all day long. With this performance Scott was always delighted:
nothing could be richer than the contrast of the bird’s wild sweet notes,
some of which he imitated with wonderful skill, and the accompaniment
of the Cobbler’s hoarse cracked voice, uttering all manner of endearing
epithets, which Johnny multiplied and varied in a style worthy of the Old
Women in Rabelais at the birth of Pantagruel.”[11]
John’s private residence was called Harmony Hall, a villa at Trinity on
the Firth of Forth, surrounded by gardens, and about three miles distant
from Paul’s Work. Here he kept up an expensive style of living—in all
things showing a great contrast to the sober and staid conduct of his
brother James.
After James Ballantyne’s removal to Edinburgh, he continued to edit
the _Kelso Mail_ for about three years, when the pressure of the
printing-office compelled him to relinquish the editorial chair. He was
succeeded by his youngest brother, Alexander, who conducted the paper
with marked ability and success for the next twenty years. Alexander
ultimately came to Paul’s Work, and was made a partner in the firm in
1829.[12] He was a good musician, and Sir Walter Scott, several times in
his “Journal,” tells us how much he enjoyed his playing upon the violin
and the flageolet. Here is an entry under May 31, 1827: “Dined at James
Ballantyne’s, and heard his brother Sandy sing and play on the violin,
beautifully as usual. James himself sang the ‘Reel of Tullochgorum’ with
hearty cheer and uplifted voice.” And again, on July 28 of the same year,
he writes: “We heard Sandy’s violin after dinner—
‘Whose touch harmonious can remove
The pangs of guilty power and hopeless love.’
I do not understand or care about fine music, but there is something in
his violin which goes to the very heart.”
Alexander was an amiable and modest man, never connected with Scott in
any business matters, but always his favourite in private. During some
temporary financial difficulty of Scott in 1826, he was able to lend him
£500. He was the father of Mr. John Ballantyne, R.S.A., a well-known
artist in London, who died in May 1897, and of the late Mr. R. M.
Ballantyne, celebrated for his tales of travel and adventure, published
by Messrs. James Nisbet & Co., which are still popular with young people.
CHAPTER IV
SCOTT’S POETICAL ROMANCES
For many years after its institution the Ballantyne Press was in
continuous action, and the number of volumes that issued from it can
hardly be reckoned. Besides work for publishing houses in London and
Edinburgh, all Scott’s writings were first printed there, and the
printing-house was constantly occupied in pouring forth edition after
edition of his works. “Sir Tristrem” was published in May 1804 by
Constable, who expected so little popularity for it that the edition
consisted of 150 copies only, which were sold at the high price of two
guineas. In due time, however, the work had its share in the celebrity
attached to the name of its editor, and it was through the printing of
this poem that the intimate connection of Constable and the Ballantyne
Press began.
“The Lay of the Last Minstrel” was published in January 1805. It was a
splendid quarto volume, with “meadows of margin,” and was greeted with
unbounded applause, both for its intrinsic merits and for its beautiful
printing.
It may be doubted if, in the history of British poetry, any other work
ever equalled the demand for the “Lay.” In 1825 the poem had reached its
fourteenth edition, upwards of 33,000 copies having been circulated;
and before 1830 11,000 copies more were printed and disposed of.
Scott entrusted the revision of the manuscript of the poem to his two
friends—William Erskine and James Ballantyne. Regarding the latter at
this time, Lockhart observes—and in the light of his strictures after
the financial crash the passage may well be deemed worthy of note: “The
printer was himself a man of considerable literary talents: his own
style had the incurable faults of pomposity and affectation, but his
eye for more venial errors in the writings of others was quick, and
though his personal address was apt to give a stranger the impression
of insincerity, he was in reality an honest man, and conveyed his mind
on such matters with equal candour and delicacy during the whole of
Scott’s brilliant career. In the vast majority of instances he found his
friend acquiesce at once in the propriety of his suggestions; nay, there
certainly were cases, though rare, in which his advice to alter things of
much more consequence than a word or a rhyme was frankly tendered, and on
deliberation adopted by Scott.[13] Mr. Erskine was the referee whenever
the poet hesitated about taking the hints of the zealous typographer,
and his refined taste and gentle manners rendered his critical alliance
highly valuable.”[14]
Shortly after the publication of the “Lay,” Ballantyne found his
capital inadequate to meet the business which was flowing to his press.
He accordingly applied to his great patron for assistance, and Scott
assented, on condition of his becoming partner with Ballantyne, and
having a third share in the profits. This arrangement was kept strictly
private.[15] Attracted by Ballantyne’s superior taste and beauty of
workmanship, Scott made it a point from the first, that whatever he
wrote or edited should be printed at the Ballantyne Press; and his
personal connection with it stimulated his inventive genius, directly and
indirectly, to add to the rapidly growing printing-house.
In April 1805 Scott wrote to Ballantyne: “I have imagined a very superb
work. What think you of a complete edition of British poets, ancient
and modern?” This work he proposed to edit for thirty guineas a volume.
The publishers did not quite respond to his views in the matter, as
the booksellers refused to admit into the series certain poets whom
the editor was insisting upon, and the scheme was abandoned. But it is
interesting to know that, if not so complete in all respects as Scott
would have desired, a Library Edition of the British Poets, begun in
1853, was issued from Paul’s Work in forty-eight demy octavo volumes,
in every respect worthy of its reputation. This series was edited by the
Rev. George Gilfillan, and published by James Nichol in Edinburgh.
“An Historical Enquiry respecting the Harp in the Highlands of Scotland”
should find its proper place here, though not in any way connected with
Scott. It has the date 1807, and was printed at Paul’s Work for Constable.
Mr. John Murray, in a letter to Constable, bears this early and
remarkable testimony to the worth of James Ballantyne as a printer:
“_June 6, 1807._—I am quite delighted with the appearance of Mr. Gunn’s
work upon the Harp, which is a splendid and honourable specimen of Scotch
typography, which I think cannot be surpassed in Britain. I showed the
book to Mr. Wright, a printer who stands foremost in the second class,
and he admired and praised it greatly, and said that he thought that
Ballantyne’s _general_ style of printing was superior to that of any
other printer, and that it was a matter of nicety if Bentley and Bulmer
exceeded him even occasionally.”[16]
“Marmion” was begun in 1807 and published in February 1808, as a splendid
quarto volume, price one guinea and a half. Of this work 4000 copies were
printed in the year of its publication, 6000 in the year following, and
prior to 1836 as many as 50,000 in all.
In April 1808 William Miller of Albemarle Street published an edition of
the Works of John Dryden in eighteen volumes. This was edited by Scott
and printed at the Ballantyne Press. The speculation was considered a
bold one at the time, but it must have been a success, as the entire work
was reprinted in 1821.
“Queenhoo Hall,” in four volumes, Carleton’s “Memoirs of the War of the
Spanish Succession,” and the “Memoirs of Robert Carey, Earl of Monmouth,”
published in 1808, also Sadler’s “Life and State Papers,” three volumes
quarto, published in 1809, followed by the Somers Tracts, in thirteen
volumes quarto, were all edited by Scott, and printed by Ballantyne.
In May 1810 there appeared “The Lady of the Lake,” perhaps the most
popular of all Scott’s poems. The first edition was in quarto, and
the second in octavo; and the successive editions, as in the case of
“Marmion,” amounted in 1836 to 50,000 copies.
The “Poetical Works of Miss Seward,” in three volumes, with a Prefatory
Memoir by Scott, was published from Paul’s Work in the autumn of 1810.
This was one of the unfortunate speculations of Scott, and the unsaleable
stock had afterwards to be taken over by Constable at a ruinous loss.[17]
“It is most curious,” says Professor Saintsbury, “how Scott, the
shrewdest and sanest of men in the vast majority of affairs, seems to
have lost his head whenever books or lands were concerned.”
In 1810 were also issued the two first volumes of the _Edinburgh Annual
Register_, in the production of which Scott largely aided. James
Ballantyne was editor, and other contributors included the poet Southey,
Professor Leslie, the “Man of Feeling,” and William Erskine.
“The Vision of Don Roderick,” which was Scott’s contribution to the
fund in aid of the sufferers from Massena’s campaign in Portugal in
1810, was published in a quarto volume in July 1811; and the romance
of “Rokeby,” another quarto, in January 1813. The edition consisted of
3250 copies, of which only eighty remained unsold on the second day of
publication. “Rokeby” was followed within two months by a small volume,
“The Bridal of Triermain.” The MS. of this poem was transcribed by one
or other of the Ballantynes, in order to guard against any indiscretion
in the printing-office, as the little work was to be issued at first
anonymously, “as a trap for Jeffrey.” He was not deceived, however,
although other critics thought the work an imitation of Scott.
The “Life and Works of Swift,” in nineteen volumes, undertaken by Scott
for Constable, was issued from the Ballantyne Press on the 1st of July
1814. The impression consisted of 1250 copies, and a second impression
of the same number was required in 1824. This work was again printed at
Paul’s Work in 1882-84 for Bickers & Son, London.
How much longer Scott would have continued to work out the vein of poetry
within him we cannot say. He was still turning out rich ore when Byron
electrified the world with his “Childe Harold.” Scott at once recognised
that he had met his superior, and that his supremacy as a popular poet
was seriously threatened. Many years after, only a few months before he
died, he was talking over the events of his career with Lockhart, his
son-in-law.
“‘I asked him,’ said Lockhart, ‘why he had ever relinquished poetry.’
“‘Because Byron _bet_ me,’ Scott replied, pronouncing the word _beat_
short. ‘He _bet_ me out of the field in the description of the strong
passions, and in deep-seated knowledge of the human heart; so I gave up
poetry for the time.’”
But when we look at the rich legacy that Scott has left us in his
Waverley Novels we cannot regret this. One morning, in searching an old
desk for some fishing-flies, he found the forgotten MS. of the first two
or three chapters of “Waverley,” which he had written some time before.
He read over the fragment, thought it had promise of good in it, and
determined to finish the story. This trifling circumstance led to the
unparalleled series of romances which were read with wonder and delight
when they first appeared, and which will continue to charm so long as our
language endures.
CHAPTER V
JOHN BALLANTYNE, PUBLISHER
The business at Paul’s Work continuing to prosper, about 1808 or 1809 a
new venture was made by John Ballantyne commencing as publisher, with
Scott as a “silent” partner. He took the designation of “Bookseller to
the Regent.” This firm was projected as the result of a quarrel between
Scott and Constable, regarding a political article which appeared in
the _Edinburgh Review_—to which he occasionally contributed—combined
also with the reputed incivility which he received from Mr. Hunter, the
publisher’s partner. The capital for the new firm was arranged, and a
deed, deposited for the purpose of secrecy in the hands of Scott, laid
the foundation of the firm of John Ballantyne & Co., publishers and
booksellers, Edinburgh. Scott appears to have found most of the capital;
and “jocund Johnny” was installed in Hanover Street as the avowed rival
of Constable, and as publisher in Scotland, for John Murray, of the
new _Quarterly Review_, which had been started in opposition to the
_Edinburgh_.
[Illustration: JOHN BALLANTYNE
From the original painting by John Ballantyne, R.S.A.]
It has often been a matter of surprise that Scott, with his family pride,
his fame, and his money, should have adopted such means of adding to his
income. He seems to have been ashamed in some measure of this mercantile
speculation, as all the arrangements were kept a profound secret—Scott
being always considered the mere patron and friend of the Ballantynes. He
evidently thought he would derive profit from a business guided by a man
of knowledge like himself, and confounded the aspirations of an author
with the expectations of a merchant.
Scott was now at the zenith of his fame as a poet. Immense sums had been
given by other publishers for his works, still more splendid offers
were made to him for further productions, and it would seem probable
that the idea of sharing the profits of author, publisher, and printer
had presented itself to his mind in this way. Accordingly, the first
work published by John Ballantyne, and printed, of course, by James
Ballantyne, was “The Lady of the Lake,” for writing which the sum of
£3000 was placed to Scott’s credit in the publisher’s books. After the
business was fairly begun, Scott, greatly to the annoyance of Constable,
almost wholly withdrew himself from the premises of the latter in the
High Street, and directed his steps to the cheerful and handsome rooms of
John Ballantyne in Hanover Street. They formed a convenient resting-place
in his daily journeys to and from Parliament Square, and contained a
store of his favourite black-letter volumes. No doubt, also, considering
the extreme degree to which party spirit was carried in those days, he
would find himself pleasantly free from the band of Edinburgh Whigs who
frequented Constable’s premises in the Old Town.
But the publishing firm in Hanover Street, begun in pique, was never
prosperous. Scott’s goodness of heart led him to help on many books
which he ought to have known could never be successful. These included
a ponderous “History of the Culdees,” by his friend Dr. Jamieson; a poor
edition of Beaumont and Fletcher, by Henry Weber; three volumes of the
Poems of Anna Seward, already referred to; a bulky collection of the
Tixall Poetry and Letters; and, worse than all, the _Edinburgh Annual
Register_, for which he himself did much work, but which left the firm
with about £1000 a year on the wrong side of the ledger. Besides all
this, John Ballantyne proved an indifferent and irregular book-keeper;
and it was in vain that Scott repeatedly wrote letters of remonstrance
to him, though in doing so he frequently made the bookseller’s habits
the subject rather of his jokes than of his indignation. John was
happy-go-lucky in his methods, and as Mr. Andrew Lang says, “was like the
proverbial spendthrift who can never be induced to give his benevolent
kinsfolk a full schedule of his debts.” The consequence was that the
business was neglected and allowed to drift; and in 1813, when it was
wound up, a great amount of useless stock had been accumulated, which
was partly cleared off by forced sales to Constable and others. Scott by
this time had resumed friendly relations with Constable, whose partner
Hunter was now out of the firm. The printing business at Paul’s Work was
sadly hampered by these publishing transactions, and Constable himself
was seriously injured by the burden of almost unsaleable stock, which he
had to take over as part of the price he agreed to pay for the copyright
of forthcoming works by Scott, and much of which he had afterwards to
sell to other booksellers at a heavy loss to himself.[18]
Archibald Constable was one of the most sagacious men who have ever
followed the profession of publisher.[19] Though he made no pretensions
to literature, he was well skilled in it generally, and was of most
essential service to Scott on many occasions. He came from Fife, served
his apprenticeship with Peter Hill, and then set up for himself in a
“small way” in a shop forming part of the Royal Exchange buildings,
next door to Allan’s Close, High Street. It was a mere box of a place,
but as his business increased he enlarged his premises by opening a
communication with the tenement behind. At first he devoted his attention
to the collection of old and rare books, and the sign above his door had
in large letters, “Scarce Books.” Shortly after he began business the
public were amused one morning to find the preposition “of” inserted in
the sign, advertising that the bookseller was “Scarce of Books.”
While struggling on, he gained the affections of the daughter of Mr.
Willison, a well-known printer of Edinburgh. This connection seems to
have arisen through the medium of the _Edinburgh Review_, which Constable
published, and which Willison printed.[20] He discountenanced the match,
but the young lady consulted her own inclinations, and the marriage took
place soon after. The printer became reconciled, and gave his son-in-law
considerable assistance; but the publication of the _Review_ was the
chief means of Constable’s advancement, and his little shop gradually
became the rendezvous of the learned of Edinburgh.
After the failure of the publishing and bookselling company, John
Ballantyne became a literary and art auctioneer in the Hanover Street
premises. For this kind of work he was specially qualified; and he
conducted it with marked success, particularly in the disposal of
literary property. The auction rooms became a fashionable lounge. A
periodical which he issued in connection with his business was called
the _Sale Room_, written very much after the style of the _Spectator_.
It was rather a dull concern, however, and had little success; although
one of its numbers contained a humorous poem by Scott called “The Sultan
of Serendib, or The Search after Happiness,” and another had an article
by Lockhart signed “Christopher Corduroy,” which first drew Scott’s
attention to that writer.
The first number of the _Sale Room_ was issued on Saturday, Jan. 4, 1817,
and contained the following introductory paragraph, presumably by John
Ballantyne:
“An architect of great skill and experience was wont to say, that he
found less difficulty in giving the plan of a gentleman’s seat than in
devising a lodge for the termination of his avenue. We are much mistaken
if a similar difficulty has not been felt by most periodical essayists.
The first appearance before the public is like the entrance of a bashful
person into a ceremonious company, and in both cases the French proverb
applies, _Ce n’est que le premier pas qui coûte._ And how often have
we seen such a person, qualified both to entertain and enjoy society,
suffering during a whole evening under the too acute feeling of some
awkwardness or inadvertent solecism, which he supposes himself to have
committed on his first entrance. But the case of the essayist is still
harder. The utmost that can be expected from a member of fashionable
society is, that he shall present himself with the ordinary ease and
grace of men of good breeding; and those who affect peculiarity, or
marked singularity of manners, are in our day, as in Congreve’s, set down
among the Lord Froths and Mr. Brisks, the solemn or lively coxcombs of
society. But here the metaphor no longer holds; for, in this department
of literature, mediocrity, however void of affectation, or even if marked
by elegance, is insufficient to produce any impression on the public.
It is expected of us, not only that we should be eloquent, but that we
shall be new; not only that we should be correct, but that we shall be
striking; and that our lucubrations should promise to combine originality
with the humour of Addison, the learning of Cumberland, and the pathos
of the Man of Feeling. Aware of the difficulty, not indeed of making
such promises, but of giving the public any sound reason to think that
it was in our power to keep them, we were somewhat tempted to elude the
task of announcing our pretensions in an opening number; and, like the
worthy Irishman, who, on finding the second month of attendance at the
fencing-school was rated at a lower fee than that which preceded it,
requested to take the second month first, we had half resolved to publish
No. II. of THE SALE ROOM before No. I.”
This opening Essay was signed C. for Coryphæus, the name given to the
presiding genius of the contributors to the periodical. It continued for
twenty-eight numbers, the last being issued on Saturday, July 12, 1817.
It consisted of weekly essays of varying length of from six to eight
pages, and, when the subject matter was only sufficient to fill six or
seven, the remaining pages were left blank.[21]
John Ballantyne was much in request as musical critic on the _Edinburgh
Weekly Journal_, of which his brother James was editor. He also made at
least one excursion into the field of letters. This was a novel in two
volumes called “The Widow’s Lodgings.” It had little merit, but reached a
second edition.
A curious story of John’s volatile nature and indiscreet vivacity is
related in the second volume of Mrs. Charles Mathews’ life of her
husband, the well-known humorist and actor. At a dinner-party where
Constable, Terry, and John Ballantyne were present, he closed a speech
he had been making about some books with the startling announcement: “I
shall soon send you Scott’s new novel!” Mrs. Mathews goes on to say: “I
shall never forget the consternation of Messrs. Constable and Terry,
and, indeed, we were as much embarrassed. Constable looked daggers—and
Terry used some—for, with a stern brow and a correcting tone, he cried
out ‘John!’ adding, with a growl resembling what is generally made to
check or reprove a mischievous dog,—‘Ah! what are you about?’ which made
us drop our eyes in pain for the indiscreet tattler; while Wee Johnny
looked like an impersonation of Fear, startled at the sound himself had
made. Not another word was said; but our little good-natured friend’s
lapse was sacred with us, and the secret was never divulged while it was
important to preserve it.”
John Ballantyne visited the Continent shortly after Waterloo, and
published an account of his travels, in which the “long-bow” did good
service. Being on one occasion rebuked by a lady for having stated as
facts what were transparent fictions, his reply to the censure was in
these few words: “Very true, madam, what you say; but truth is a great
hamperer of genius.”[22]
During the earlier and perhaps most interesting years in the career of
the “Great Unknown,” John Ballantyne managed all the business connected
with the communication of the author’s works to the public. When Scott
began “The Bride of Lammermoor,” his amanuenses were William Laidlaw
and John Ballantyne, “of whom he preferred the latter, when he could
be at Abbotsford, on account of the superior rapidity of his pen, and
also because John kept his pen to the paper without interruption; and,
though with many an arch twinkle in his eyes, and now and then an audible
smack of his lips, had resolution to work on like a well-trained clerk;
whereas good Laidlaw entered with such keen zest into the interest of the
story as it flowed from the author’s lips, that he could not suppress
exclamations of surprise and delight—‘Gude keep us a’!—the like o’
that!—eh sirs!’ and so forth, which did not promote despatch.”[23]
In several long articles which appeared in _Tait’s Magazine_ in 1843,
entitled “Random Recollections of Scott and the Ettrick Shepherd,” by
Mr. John Morrison, a land-surveyor, there are several notices of James
and John Ballantyne. The following is one of those relating to John: “On
a day appointed,” says Mr. Morrison, “we all set out on a hare-hunting
expedition. Miss Scott rode Queen Mab, a little pony; John Ballantyne was
mounted on Old Mortality, an old gaunt white horse. He was dressed in
a green coat, the buttons of mother-of-pearl, silver and gold—with, if
I remember well, a precious stone in the centre, and altogether a most
harlequin and piebald figure. Sir Walter appeared to laugh and amuse
himself with his grotesque appearance. I admired the buttons. ‘And well
you may,’ said Sir Walter. ‘These buttons, sir, belonged to the Great
Montrose, and were cut, by our friend John, from an old coat belonging
to the Marquis, which he purchased from an unworthy descendant of the
family, Graham of Gartmore, with many other nick-nackets too tedious
to enumerate.’ On the same day,” Mr. Morrison continues, “at and after
dinner, although he looked very kindly on Johnny Ballantyne, Scott made
himself merry at his expense, and Ballantyne seemed awed in his presence;
although, when addressed, he turned a bold front to any one else. I
ventured to joke him a little on the quality of his coat, and said it was
the best at table. ‘Yes,’ said John, ‘and it belonged to a better man.’
You will find some difficulty in convincing Mr. Morrison of that,’ said
Sir Walter”—the latter well knowing that Morrison’s sentiments regarding
the character of Montrose were at variance with his own.
After some years of failing health, John Ballantyne retired to a villa
which he had built near Kelso, and here he was frequently visited by Sir
Walter. On one of these occasions, the latter revived a long-forgotten
project of their early connection in business, and offered his gratuitous
services as editor of a Novelists’ Library, to be printed and published
for the benefit of his friend. The offer was eagerly embraced, and the
first volume of “Ballantyne’s Novelists’ Library” appeared in February
1821, though the collection, notwithstanding the Biographies and
Introductions which Scott wrote for it,[24] did not prove a fortunate
speculation.
On the 16th of June 1821, John Ballantyne died at Edinburgh. Until a
week or two before, Sir Walter had not entertained any thought that
his end was so near. “I (Lockhart) accompanied Sir Walter when one of
their last interviews took place, and John’s deathbed was a thing not to
be forgotten. We sat by him for perhaps an hour, and I think half that
space was occupied with his predictions of a speedy end, and details of
his last will, which he had just been executing, and which lay on his
coverlid; the other half being given, five minutes or so at a time, to
questions and remarks, which intimated that the hope of life was still
flickering before him—nay, that his interest in all its concerns remained
eager. The proof-sheets of a volume of his Novelists’ Library lay also
by his pillow; and he passed from them to his will, and then back to
them, as by jerks and starts the unwonted veil of gloom closed upon his
imagination, or was withdrawn again.... Scott was visibly and profoundly
shaken by this scene and sequel. As we stood together a few days
afterwards, while they were smoothing the turf over John’s remains in the
Canongate Churchyard, the heavens, which had been dark and slaty, cleared
up suddenly, and the midsummer sun shone forth in his strength. Scott,
ever awake to the skyey influences, cast his eye along the overhanging
line of the Calton Hill, with its gleaming walls and towers, and then
turning to the grave again, ‘I feel,’ he whispered in my ear, ‘I feel as
if there would be less sunshine for me from this day forth.’
“As we walked homewards, Scott told me, among other favourable traits of
his friend, one little story which I must not omit. He remarked one day
to a poor student of divinity attending his auction, that he looked as
if he were in bad health. The young man assented with a sigh. ‘Come,’
said Ballantyne, ‘I think I ken the secret of a sort of draft that would
relieve you—particularly,’—he added, handing him a cheque for £5 or
£10—‘particularly, my dear, if taken upon an empty stomach.’”[25]
In the “Noctes Ambrosianæ” (vol. iii. pp. 93-95), there is the following
tribute to the memory of John Ballantyne:—
_Shepherd._ Johnny Ballantyne!
_North._ Methinks I see him—his slight, slender figure, restless with a
spirit that knew no rest—his face so suddenly changeful in its expression
from what a stranger might have thought habitual gravity, into what his
friends knew to be native there—glee irrepressible and irresistible—the
very madness of mirth, James, in which the fine ether of animal spirits
seemed to respire the breath of genius, and to shed through the room, or
the open air, a contagion of cheerfulness, against which no heart was
proof, however sullen, and no features could stand, however grim; but
still all the company, Canters and Covenanters inclusive, relaxed and
thawed into murmurs of merriment, even as the strong spring sunshine
sends a-singing the bleak frozen moor-streams till all the wilderness is
alive with music.
_Shepherd._ He was indeed a canty cratur—a delichtfu’ companion.
_North._ I hear his voice this moment within my imagination, as distinct
as if it were speaking. ’Twas exceedingly pleasant....
_Shepherd._ What’n a lauch!
_North._ Soul-and-heart-felt!
_Shepherd._ Mony a strange story fell down stane-dead when his tongue
grew mute. Thousands o’ curious, na, unaccountable anecdotes, ceased to
be the day his een were closed, for he telt them, sir, as ye ken, wi’
his een mair than his lips; and his verra hauns spak, when he snapped
his forefinger and his thoom, or wi’ the haill five spread out—and he
had what I ca’ an elegant haun o’ fine fingers, as maist wutty men
hae—manually illustrated his subjeck, till the words gaed aff, murmuring
like bees frae the tips; and then Johnny was quate again for a minute
or sae, till some ither freak o’ a fancy came athwart his genie, and
instantly loupt intil look, lauch, or speech—or rather a’ the three
thegither in ane, while Sir Walter himsel keckled on his chair, and
leanin’ wi’ thae extraordinar chowks o’ his, that aften seem to me
amaist as expressive as his pile o’ forehead, hoo would he fix the
grey illumination o’ his een on his freen Johnny, and ca’ him by that
familiar name; and by the sympathy o’ that maist capawcious o’ a’ souls,
set him clean mad—richt-doun wudd a’thegither—till really, sir, he got
untholeably divertin’; and folk compleened o’ pains in their sides, and
sat wi’ the tears rinnin’ doun their cheeks, praying him for gudeness to
haud his tongue, for that gin he didna, somebody or ither would be fa’in
doun in a fit, and be carried out dead.
[Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.
PAINTED BY SIR HENRY RAEBURN, R.A.]
CHAPTER VI
THE WAVERLEY NOVELS
[Illustration]
“Waverley,” the first of a series of novels unsurpassed for power,
picturesqueness, and variety, as well as healthy sentiment and morality,
was published anonymously in three volumes on the 7th July 1814. This
edition of 1000 copies was sold within five weeks. A second of 2000
followed immediately, and a third and fourth, each of 1000, appeared
in October and November of the same year. The mystery in which the
author had chosen to shroud himself, and the high literary character
of the work, had meanwhile given rise to an intensity of interest and
speculation hitherto unparalleled in the history of literature. Scott was
pressed by his few friends who were in the secret to own the authorship,
and take to himself the laurels which were being freely handed about.
He steadfastly refused, and wrote the following humorous reply to one of
John Ballantyne’s expostulations:—
“No, John, I will not own the book—
I won’t, you _Picaroon_!
When next I try St. Grubby’s brook,
The A. of Wa—— shall bait the hook,
And flat-fish bite as soon,
As if before them they had got
The worn-out _wriggler_—Walter Scott.”
About 40,000 copies of “Waverley” were sold previous to the publication
of the first uniform edition of the novels, with introductions and notes
by the author, in 1829.
“The Lord of the Isles,” which Scott alludes to as closing his poetic
labours upon an extended scale, appeared on the 18th January 1815. This
poem, the title of which was originally intended to be “The Nameless
Glen,” was received with perhaps less favour than former ones. Regarding
“The Lord of the Isles,” James Ballantyne had a somewhat delicate task
to perform, of which he left the following account: “‘Well, James,’ said
Scott to his printer, ‘I have given you a week; what are people saying
about “The Lord of the Isles”?’ I hesitated a little, after the fashion
of Gil Blas, but he speedily brought the matter to a point. ‘Come,’ he
said, ‘speak out, my good fellow; what has put it into your head to be
on so much ceremony _with me_ all of a sudden? But I see how it is, the
result is given in one word—Disappointment!’ My silence admitted his
inference to the fullest extent. His countenance certainly did look
rather blank for a few seconds; in truth, he had been wholly unprepared
for the event; for it is a singular fact that, before the public, or
rather the booksellers, gave their decision, he no more knew whether he
had written well or ill, than whether a die thrown out of a box was to
turn up a ‘size’ or an ace. However, he instantly resumed his spirits,
and expressed his wonder rather that his poetic popularity should have
lasted so long, than that it should now at last have given way. At length
he said, with perfect cheerfulness: ‘Well, well, James, so be it;—but,
you know, we must not droop, for we can’t afford to give over. Since
one line has failed, we must just stick to something else,’ and so he
dismissed me, and resumed his novel.”
The interest taken in the growing success of the mysterious “Waverley”
was greatly heightened, and the curious public were somewhat bewildered,
by the simultaneous announcement with the publication of “The Lord of
the Isles” of another prose work of fiction by the A. of W——, nearly
ready for issue. This work, “Guy Mannering”—the result of six weeks’
labour of the Christmas recess—appeared on the 24th February 1815, and
was pronounced by universal consent to be worthy of its author. The
first edition, consisting of 2000 copies, was sold out the day after
publication, and within three months second and third editions, amounting
to 5000 copies, were also disposed of; and before 1837 the total sale
reckoned up to 50,000.
The poem of “The Field of Waterloo” was issued in October 1815, the
profits of the first edition being Scott’s contribution to the fund
raised for the widows and orphans of the soldiers slain in the battle.
Lockhart’s “Life” (v. 99-104) contains a list, much too lengthy to
reproduce here, of the Ballantynes’ suggestions on this poem, with
Scott’s objections and admissions. One or two instances of those by James
may, however, be given:—
“Stanza I.—‘Fair Brussels, thou art far behind.’
_James Ballantyne._—I do not like this line. It is tame, and
the phrase _far behind_ has, to my feeling, some associated
vulgarity.
_Scott._—Stet.
Stanza VIII.—‘Nor ceased the _intermitted_ shot.’
_James._—Mr. Erskine contends that _intermitted_ is redundant.
_Scott._—‘Nor ceased the _storm of shell and shot_.’
Stanza XII.—‘Nor was one forward footstep _stopped_.’
_James._—This staggering word was intended, I presume, but I
don’t like it.
_Scott._—Granted. Read _staid_, &c.
Stanza XV.—‘Wrung forth by pride, _regret_, and shame.’
_James._—I have ventured to submit to your choice—
‘Wrung forth by pride, _and rage_, and shame.’
_Regret_ appearing a faint epithet amidst such a combination of
bitter feelings.
_Scott._—Granted.
Stanza XXI.—‘Through his friend’s heart to _wound_ his own.’
_James._—Quære—_Pierce_, or rather _stab_—_wound_ is faint.
_Scott._—_Pierce._”
Constable (iii. 84) says regarding this revision: “No better evidence of
Scott’s constitutional good nature could be given than will be found
in the strictures on this poem by James and John Ballantyne when it was
passing through the press, and the genial manner in which he either
agrees or declines to give effect to them.” And Mr. Andrew Lang in his
“Life of Scott”[26] testifies: “The emendations made by John Ballantyne
on the proof-sheets of this effort show considerable intelligence and
taste, and in several cases were approved of and accepted by the author,
though he once said that he was ‘The Black Brunswicker of literature, who
neither took nor gave criticism.’”
“Paul’s Letters to his Kinsfolk,” a series of letters describing a visit
to Belgium and the field of Waterloo, appeared in January 1816 as an
octavo volume,—the first edition consisting of 6000 copies, followed
in the course of a few years by second and third editions of 3000. The
work, avowedly by Scott, was hailed as a specimen of his prose writing,
suggesting a comparison with that of the “Great Unknown.” The last of the
“copy” of these letters reached James Ballantyne on the 26th December
1815, and contained a few lines of Scott’s playful doggerel, having
reference also to his next novel:—
“DEAR JAMES,
I’m done, thank God, with the long yarns
Of the most prosy of Apostles—Paul;
And now advance, sweet Heathen of Monkbarns,
Step out, old quiz, as fast as I can scrawl.”
“The Antiquary,” begun towards the close of 1815, was issued in May 1816.
Six days sufficed to exhaust the edition, which consisted of as many
thousand copies. This work attained a popularity not inferior to that of
its predecessors. It was while correcting the proof-sheets of this novel
that the author took to fabricating mottoes for the chapter headings. One
day John Ballantyne, who was sitting beside him, was asked to hunt for
a certain passage in Beaumont and Fletcher, and as he did not succeed,
“Hang it, Johnnie,” said Scott, “I believe I can make a motto sooner than
you will find one.” From that time he had recourse to his own invention,
attributing the mottoes to “old ballad” or “old play.”
The same year, October 1816, saw the publication of another volume of
the _Edinburgh Annual Register_, containing an historical sketch of the
year 1814 by Scott, sufficient of itself to form the contents of a large
volume.
On the 1st of December 1816 the First Series of the “Tales of My
Landlord,” containing “Old Mortality” and “The Black Dwarf,” appeared,
but minus the talismanic words “By the Author of ‘Waverley.’” This
work, published by John Murray, was received with undiminished favour;
and all doubt as to whether these “Tales” proceeded from the pen of
the author of “Waverley” was set at rest in a week, and within two
months three editions of 2000 each were printed. Murray and Blackwood
had still in stock a large number of copies of this book, when John
Ballantyne advertised a new edition, in disregard of arrangements with
the publishers. He was expostulated with, and threatened with an action
for damages; but as this would have revealed the author, who was still
the “Great Unknown,” the matter was compromised and the books were
transferred to Constable.
“Harold the Dauntless, by the Author of ‘Triermain,’” was published in
January 1817. The “History of the Year 1815,” by Scott, appeared in the
_Register_, published in August 1817; and time was also found to prepare
an Introduction to a richly illustrated quarto edition of the “Border
Antiquities,” which was issued a month later.
“Rob Roy,” projected in May and arranged for by Constable, was issued in
December 1817. It started with a first edition of 10,000, and within a
fortnight a second of 3000 more was required. While the manuscript of the
novels was usually transcribed by the Ballantynes, this one was copied
by George Stillie, a clerk at Paul’s Work. He died a few days after
James Ballantyne in 1833. His brother James was in the service of John
Ballantyne in Hanover Street, and, on the failure of that business, was
employed at Paul’s Work. James Stillie was afterwards a bookseller in
Edinburgh for many years, and his shop in George Street was the resort
of book-collectors from all parts of the kingdom—including Mr. Gladstone
when he came to Edinburgh. He lived to a great age, and died in August
1893.
Scott had scarcely completed “Rob Roy” when he projected the Second
Series of the “Tales of My Landlord,” in which was comprised “The Heart
of Midlothian,” to be ready by the 4th June 1818, at which date it duly
appeared. The Third Series of the “Tales” came out on the 10th June
1819. This Series included “The Bride of Lammermoor” and the “Legend of
Montrose.” Scott had suffered severely in health for some time previous,
and the work was received with a sad presentiment that it might be the
last from its author’s pen; but, except in a few errors, the result of
his inability to correct the proof-sheets, no one could perceive the
slightest indication of his illness.
On the 18th December 1819 the romance of “Ivanhoe” appeared. The work
was hailed in England “with a more clamorous delight than any of the
_Scotch novels_ had been.” It came out in three vols., post 8vo, price
30s., and in this original form 12,000 copies were sold. “Mr. Ballantyne
the printer, who is a good judge, speaks very highly of this romance”
(“Scott’s Letters,” ii. 63).
“The Monastery” was published by Longman & Co. in March 1820. It
appeared in three vols. 12mo, like the earlier works of the Series. Its
popularity was enhanced by “The Abbot,” which followed in September,
published by the same firm, in conjunction with Constable.
“Kenilworth” appeared in January 1821, three vols. post 8vo, similar to
“Ivanhoe,” and this form was adhered to in all the subsequent volumes of
the Series. “Kenilworth” was one of the most successful of all at the
time of publication, and will probably continue to hold a place in the
highest rank of prose fiction.
The splendid romance of “The Pirate” was published in the beginning of
December 1821; and “The Fortunes of Nigel” on the 30th May 1822, followed
in June by the dramatic sketch of “Halidon Hill.” For the copyright of
the last Constable paid Scott the sum of £1000. “Nigel” took its place
amongst the first of Scott’s romances, and on publication was eagerly
sought after. According to a letter of Constable, “so keenly were the
people devouring my friend _Jingling Geordie_” (George Heriot, one of
the leading characters in the story), “that I actually saw them reading
it in the streets” (of London) “as they passed along.”
At this time the profits of the author’s works were estimated at from
£10,000 to £15,000 a year, and Ballantyne’s presses were taxed to their
utmost. In addition to the ordinary work of the office, he had also
in hand for Constable a reprint of Scott’s Poetical Works, miniature
edition, ten vols., 5000 copies; Novels and Tales, twelve vols.,
miniature edition, 5000 copies; Historical Romances, six vols., 5000
copies; Poetry from “Waverley,” &c., one vol., 5000 copies—equal to
145,000 volumes; to which from thirty to forty thousand may be added as
the result of Scott’s daily industry within the space of twelve months.
“Peveril of the Peak” appeared in January 1823. The work was at first
rather coldly received, but was finally pronounced not unworthy of
Scott’s pen. “Quentin Durward” followed in June, and attained great
popularity. In this novel he had, for the first time, ventured on foreign
ground, and the French public were seized with a frenzy of delight,
to find that Louis XI. and Charles the Bold had started into life
again under the wand of the Northern Magician. The excitement in Paris
equalled that of Edinburgh under the influence of the first appearance of
“Waverley,” or that of London under the spell of “Ivanhoe.”
Constable during this year completed the purchase from Scott of the
copyright of the Waverley Novels, for which he had paid up to this time
the sum of £22,000, in addition to Scott’s half-share of profits of the
early editions. The novel of “St. Ronan’s Well” was published in December
1823.
Immediately on the conclusion of “St. Ronan’s Well,” Sir Walter began
“Redgauntlet,” which was published in June 1824. It was originally called
“Herries,” until Constable and James Ballantyne persuaded the author to
choose the more striking name. This fascinating work contains more of
the author’s personal experiences than any of his previous fictions,
or even than all of them put together,—not to mention the incomparable
legend of “Wandering Willie’s Tale.” It was the only novel Scott produced
during this year, but he was abundantly occupied in preparing for
press the second edition of his voluminous Swift, the additions and
corrections to which were numerous and careful. Towards the end of the
year the “Tales of the Crusaders” were begun, and were issued in June
1825. “The Betrothed” found little favour with James Ballantyne, and his
remonstrance weighed so much with the author that he resolved to cancel
it altogether. Meanwhile, spurred by disappointment, he began another
story, “The Talisman.” The brightness of this new tale dazzled the eyes
of the public; and the burst of favour which attended the brilliant
procession of Saladin and Cœur-de-Lion considerably modified Scott’s
literary plans, and “The Betrothed” was issued under its wing.
“The Letters of Malachi Malagrowther,” written against the Government
proposal to interfere with the Scottish banking system,[27] appeared on
the 1st of March 1826; and on the day following Scott writes: “The First
Epistle of Malachi already out of print.” These Letters—of which there
were three—first appeared in Ballantyne’s _Edinburgh Weekly Journal_, and
were afterwards collected into a pamphlet and published by Blackwood.
This ran into numerous editions, the Scottish banks taking hundreds of
copies for gratuitous circulation. It was often referred to in subsequent
discussions in Parliament, and is believed to have had considerable
influence in causing the abandonment of the measure. A fourth Letter was
written in December 1830, but, in deference to the opinions of James
Ballantyne and Cadell the publisher, the essay, though put in type, was
never issued, and manuscript and proof were finally consigned to the
flames.
“Woodstock,” written during a period of great commercial distress, was
finished in April and issued in June 1826. This most successful novel
realised the large sum of £8228.
The “Life of Bonaparte,” which had been in progress during two years of
deep affliction, was published in June 1827. Its contents are equal to
thirteen volumes of the Waverley Novels in their original form. The first
and second editions produced the enormous sum of £18,000. Regarding
the “Life of Bonaparte” there is a characteristic entry in Scott’s
“Journal,” dated September 6, 1826, referring to some suggestions of
James Ballantyne:—
“I had a letter from Jem Ballantyne—plague on him!—full of remonstrance,
deep and solemn, upon the carelessness of ‘Bonaparte.’ _The rogue is
right, too._ But as to correcting my style to the ‘Jemmy jemmy linkum
feedle’ tune of what is called fine writing, I’ll be d——d if I do.”
Scott also at this time superintended the first collection of his
Prose Miscellanies, published in six vols. 8vo, several articles being
remodelled and extended to adapt them for a more permanent existence than
had been originally thought of.
The First Series of “Chronicles of the Canongate” was published in
November 1827, but the work did not meet with the favour awarded to his
previous writings, and Sir Walter was much discouraged. Yet the wondrous
power and fertility of his genius remained undiminished, and the First
Series of “Tales of a Grandfather” followed in December. It met with
a heartier reception than any other of his works since “Ivanhoe,” and
years only add to its popularity. The “Chronicles of the Canongate,”
Second Series, three vols. 8vo, and “Tales of a Grandfather,” Second
Series, three vols. 18mo, were both published in 1828. In this year
was also published “Religious Discourses by a Layman,” being signed by
“W.S.” These were originally written by Sir Walter Scott to aid a young
candidate for the ministry in the Kirk of Scotland.
“The Fair Maid of Perth” was finished in March, and published in April
of the same year. “Anne of Geierstein” appeared about the middle of May
1829. The Third Series of “Tales of a Grandfather” appeared this year;
and Scott’s remaining labours were: In 1829—“History of Scotland,”
Vol. I.; Waverley Novels, Vols I. to VIII., with new Introductions and
Notes (monthly). In 1830—“Doom of Devorgoil” and “Auchindrane”; “Essays
on Ballad Poetry”; “Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft”; “Tales of
a Grandfather,” Fourth Series; “History of Scotland,” Vol. II. In
1831—“Count Robert of Paris” and “Tales of My Landlord,” Fourth Series.
When the publishing of the Waverley Novels passed into the hands of
Cadell, about 1825-26, and the issue of the author’s own edition
commenced in 1829—this being playfully distinguished by Scott himself
as “the _Magnum_”—the sale again proved large. The legends, family
traditions, and historical facts which formed the groundwork of the
novels were now added by the author himself, and attracted anew the
public attention. Cadell began this edition with 7000, raised the
estimate to 10,000, and then to 12,000, while the ultimate circulation
rose to about 35,000 a month—a figure then unprecedented. This, it
should be remembered, was probably done on the hand-press, as the
printing-machine was making slow headway, and must have greatly taxed
the resources of the printing-house. The publication arrangements of
the novels and other works mentioned in this chapter were variously and
sometimes jointly made by Constable, Blackwood, Longman, Murray, John
Ballantyne, and latterly by Cadell.
Since that time many editions of Scott’s Poetical and Prose Works have
passed through the Ballantyne Press. One of the most important is the
Border Edition of the Waverley Novels in forty-eight volumes, edited with
additional Introductions and Notes by Mr. Andrew Lang, illustrated with
many etchings, and published by John C. Nimmo, London. This edition has
now passed into the hands of Messrs. Macmillan & Co.
CHAPTER VII
THE “GREAT UNKNOWN”
The Waverley Novels long continued to be spoken of as the works of the
“Great Unknown,”—the titles of the successive novels simply showing
that they were by the “Author of ‘Waverley.’” The designation was
first conferred upon Scott by James Ballantyne. It was never publicly
discarded until the Theatrical Fund dinner on February 23, 1827, when
the author, in reply to the toast of his health, in which the secret was
divulged,[28] uttered these memorable words: “I certainly did not think,
in coming here to-day, that I should have the task of acknowledging,
before three hundred gentlemen, a secret which, considering it was
communicated to more than twenty people, has been remarkably well
kept.... I am willing, however, to plead _guilty_—nor shall I detain the
Court by a long explanation why my confession has been so long deferred.
Perhaps caprice might have a considerable share in the matter. I have now
to say, however, that the merits of these works, if they had any, and
their faults, are all imputable to myself.”
[Illustration: THE “GREAT UNKNOWN”
_By permission of_ CHARLES E. S. CHAMBERS, Esq.]
During much of this period of secrecy James Ballantyne had the almost
exclusive task of corresponding with the author, who had thus the
advantage not only of his professional talents, but also of his critical
abilities; and it is admitted that the works of his friend and patron are
indebted to him for many judicious emendations, as Scott’s inattention to
not unimportant details rendered such assistance necessary. In early life
Scott wrote a legible hand, though being—
“A clerk foredoomed his father’s soul to cross,
Who pens a stanza when he should engross,”
his verses displayed more character than his chirography. In regard to
this Mr. Andrew Lang, in his Introduction to the Border Edition of
“Waverley,” says: “About Shakespeare it was said that he ‘never blotted
a line.’ The observation is almost literally true about Sir Walter.
The pages of his manuscript novels show scarcely a retouch or erasure,
whether in the ‘Waverley’ fragment of 1805 or the unpublished ‘Siege
of Malta’ of 1832. The handwriting becomes closer and smaller; from
thirty-eight lines to the page in ‘Waverley,’ he advances to between
fifty and sixty in ‘Ivanhoe.’ The few alterations are usually additions.”
Professor Saintsbury observes: “Scott was always a rapid worker, but it
was only now, under the combined stimulus of the new-found gift, the
desire for more land and a statelier Abbotsford, and the pressure of the
affairs of Ballantyne & Co., that he began to work at the portentous
rate which, though I do not believe that it at all injured the quality
of his production, pretty certainly endangered his health.” The only
systematic check on Scott’s rapid production was that introduced by James
Ballantyne, who read his proofs, and frequently saved him from oversights
and inconsistencies. In this connection the following entry is to be
found in Scott’s “Journal,” June 22, 1828—no doubt when he was in failing
health:—“Had a note from Ballantyne complaining of my manuscript, and
requesting me to read it over. I would give £1000 if I could; but it
would take me longer to read than to write. I cannot trace my _pieds de
mouche_ but with great labour and trouble; so e’en take your own share of
the burden, my old friend; and, since I cannot read, be thankful I can
write.”
When the manuscript or “copy” was transcribed the original was preserved
with great care. As the novels were frequently begun to be set in type
before they were fully written, only a few compositors were required to
keep pace with author and amanuensis; and it is remarkable that there
was not an instance of treachery during all the years these precautions
were resorted to, although various amanuenses were employed at different
times. Double proof-sheets were regularly printed. One was forwarded to
the author by Ballantyne, and the alterations which it received from
Scott were copied by him upon the other proof-sheet for the use of the
printers; so that even the corrected proofs of the author were never seen
in the printing-office. In this way the curiosity of such eager inquirers
as made minute investigations was baulked, though the authorship was an
“open secret” with many of the compositors.
The following Notice, however, shows that sheets of the work in hand must
have been finding their way out of the printing-office:—
“NOTICE
“Having reason to believe that the Workmen in the PRINTING
OFFICE AT PAUL’S WORK are in the habit of Abstracting Sheets of
New Books in the progress of Printing,—more especially those
of the Original Works of the Author of ‘Waverley,’—Notice is
hereby given, that the most effectual steps are taken to detect
those offending in this manner; and the utmost Punishment of
the Law will be executed on those proved guilty of so flagrant
an offence.
“255 HIGH STREET, _20th April 1822_.”
It is an unwritten tradition that such knowledge of anonymous authorship
is never carried outside the printing-house, although the manuscript
might be well enough known to the compositors; and there have been
instances in which attempts to pry into secrets of this nature have
been made. Though suspected and sometimes taxed with the authorship of
the novels, before the fact was made publicly known, Scott’s invariable
reply to those who asked his reason for concealment was that it was
his humour. The author, in his works of fiction, displayed wonderful
skill and resource, and no one understood better how to turn the public
favour to a thrifty advantage. He knew the value of the incognito after
the publication of “Waverley,” and made excellent use of it, while his
denials were intended rather as rebuffs to persons asking questions they
had no right to ask than as conveying a false impression. He may also
have wished to escape the annoyance of having productions known to be his
made the topic of discussion in his presence.
So well was the secret kept, however, that even William Blackwood and
John Murray did not know who the author was, though they had their
surmises, as appears from the following under the date of February
1816: “Mr. Blackwood, like Mr. Murray, was anxious to have a share in
the business of publishing the works of Walter Scott, especially the
novels teeming from the press by ‘The Author of “Waverley.”’ Although
Constable and the Ballantynes were necessarily admitted to the knowledge
of their authorship, to the world at large they were anonymous, and
the author still remained unknown. Mr. Murray had, indeed, pointed out
to Mr. Canning that ‘Waverley’ was by Walter Scott; but Scott himself
trailed so many red herrings across the path, that publishers as well
as the public were thrown off the scent, and both Blackwood and Murray
continued to be at fault with respect to the authorship of the Waverley
Novels.” Again, a few months after: “The controversy still continued as
to the authorship. ‘For these six months past,’ wrote Blackwood (6th June
1816), ‘there have been various rumours with regard to Greenfield being
the author, but I never paid much attention to it; the thing appeared to
me so very improbable.... But from what I have heard lately, I now begin
to think that Greenfield may probably be the author.’ On the other hand,
Mr. Mackenzie called upon Blackwood, and informed him that ‘he was now
convinced that Thomas Scott, Walter’s brother in Canada, writes all the
novels.’ The secret, however, was kept for many years longer.”[29]
In Sinclair’s “Old Times and Distant Places,” a characteristic story is
related by Mr. Guthrie Wright, one of Scott’s friends: “I called one
day,” he says, “at the Edinburgh Post Office, and began to read in the
lobby a letter from Lady Abercorn, in which she gave an answer to some
arguments I had stated to her in proof that Sir Walter was the author
of ‘Waverley’; while thus employed I stumbled on Sir Walter himself. He
immediately inquired about whom I was reading so busily. ‘About _you_,’
I replied, and put the letter into his hands. I soon observed him blush
as red as scarlet, and recollected that Lady Abercorn in her letter had
said, ‘I am quite sure you are wrong, for Sir Walter Scott declared to
me _upon his honour_ that he was not the author of “Waverley.”’ On
reading this, Sir Walter exclaimed, ‘I am sure I never said so, I never
pledged my honour—she is quite mistaken.’ Then, perceiving that he had
thus betrayed himself, he stammered out some unintelligible sentence,
and then continued: ‘Well, Mr. Wright, it is a very curious question,
who can be the author of these novels. Suppose we take a walk round the
Calton Hill, and lay our heads together to find him out.’ We proceeded
arm-in-arm, and I said, ‘I think that we can soon so completely hedge
in the author that he cannot escape us.’ ‘Well, then,’ said Sir Walter,
‘how would you hedge him in?’ I replied, ‘You will agree with me that
the author of “Waverley,” whoever he may be, must be a lawyer?’ ‘True,
it is evident he must be a lawyer.’ ‘You will also admit that he must be
an antiquary?’ ‘No doubt he must be an antiquary.’ ‘He must also be of
Jacobite connections?’ ‘Certainly, he must have Jacobite propensities.’
‘He must also have a strong turn for poetry?’ ‘Yes, he must be something
of a poet.’ I next assigned some reasons why he must be rather more than
forty years of age, and then added, ‘Now, among our friends in the
Parliament House, let us consider how many there are who, besides being
lawyers, poets, antiquaries, and of Jacobite connections, are rather
more than forty years of age.’ ‘Well,’ says Sir Walter, ‘what do you
think of Cranstoun?’ I gave reasons for setting aside Lord Cranstoun’s
pretensions, adverting particularly to his want of humour; and then Sir
Walter, seeing that he himself must inevitably come next, unloosed his
arm and said, ‘Mr. Wright, the author of “Waverley,” whoever he may be,
gets people to buy his books without a name; and he would be a greater
fool than I think he is, were he to give a name. Good morning.’”
So decided was Scott on this matter of anonymity that the legal form,
dated 1818, conveying to Messrs. Constable & Co. the existing copyrights,
contained a clause by which they were bound, under a penalty of £2000,
never to divulge the author’s name during his lifetime; and a similar
clause appeared in another legal instrument in 1821. There was no
necessity for the manuscripts being re-written by James Ballantyne
and others, unless it were to prevent the “Great Unknown” from being
identified. The handwriting of Scott was eminently readable and easily
followed, and so was that of his various amanuenses; and this for the
compositor was a great boon.[30]
Subsequent to transcription and publication, the “Waverley” manuscripts
were either sent back to Scott himself or placed in charge of his
intimate friend, William Erskine (Lord Kinnedder). After the latter’s
death the manuscripts and correspondence were carefully sealed up and
returned by Erskine’s trustees to Sir Walter, and these, along with
others, were afterwards widely dispersed by private arrangement or at
public sales.
In 1823, four years prior to the public acknowledgment of the authorship
of the Waverley Novels, Scott presented a number of his manuscripts to
Constable. This gift was made on the morning after the first Bannatyne
Club dinner, when the publisher received a letter from Scott begging his
“acceptance of a parcel of MSS., which I know your partialities will give
more value to than they deserve; and only annex the condition that they
shall be scrupulously concealed during the author’s life.” Among those
sent were manuscripts which had been in Lord Kinnedder’s possession, and
also a few more from Abbotsford; but, before this, Constable had already
in his possession the manuscripts of several of Sir Walter’s poems,—of
“Rokeby,” “Marmion,” “Don Roderick,” “Waterloo,” “Lord of the Isles”;
and also of the “Life of Swift.” That of the “Lay” was unfortunately
not preserved, as it had not been thought important, till after the
publication of “Marmion,” that such should be kept; but John Ballantyne
long possessed the manuscript of “The Lady of the Lake,” and it was to
him that Constable was indebted for “Rokeby.” The poet Hogg, referring to
the manuscript of “Marmion,” says it was “a great curiosity, being all
written off-hand on post-letters from Ashestiel, Mainsforth, Rokeby and
London.”
On the death of Constable in 1827 the various manuscripts of Scott’s
works in his possession were claimed by the creditors on Sir Walter’s
estate and also by Sir Walter himself. The matter having been referred
to arbitration, it was decided that the condition originally attached
was no longer of any avail, and the author of the Waverley Novels then
said, “If they are not mine, I do not wish to interfere in the matter
in the slightest degree.” The trustees accordingly sent the manuscripts
to Mr. Evans, at that time the principal literary auctioneer in London,
and they were put up for sale in August 1831. “The sale-rooms of Mr.
Evans,” says a literary journal of the day, “were crowded by the curious
to witness the sale of the original manuscripts of the Waverley Novels.”
They did not realise anything like the prices expected. The whole amount
obtained for the manuscripts of the Constable lot was only £317, and it
was believed that rumours of the large sums such manuscripts would be
likely to fetch had deterred many prospective purchasers from attending
the sale. For instance, it may be mentioned that the manuscript of
“Waverley” was bought by Mr. Wilks, M.P., for £18, and re-sold a few days
after to Mr. Hall for £42. The latter subsequently gave a small portion
of it to Cadell, and this portion afterwards found its way to Abbotsford.
The main part of “Waverley,” however, was presented, in September 1850,
by Mr. Hall to the Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh, where it may now be
seen.[31] The manuscript of “Rob Roy” was another purchase of Mr. Wilks,
for £50, and at his death it was bought by Cadell for £82, the latter
afterwards presenting it to Lockhart.
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OF THE MS. OF “WAVERLEY”]
Shortly after their publication many of the Waverley Novels were pirated
in Germany. A copy of one, picked up at a bookstall in Edinburgh some
years ago, bears the title: “The Monastery, a Romance. By the Author of
‘Waverley.’ In Four Volumes. Zwickau, printed for the Brothers Schumann.
1824.” It is actually in two volumes—1 and 2 being together, but each
of the four has separate title and steel frontispiece. There was also
published, in 1825, a German romance called “Walladmor,” which was
impudently ascribed to Sir Walter Scott. Presumably the long-continued
anonymity regarding the authorship of the Waverley Novels encouraged the
publisher of this book to hope for a successful sale.[32]
CHAPTER VIII
COMMERCIAL TROUBLES AND SUCCESSES—“THE WEEKLY JOURNAL”
Sir Walter Scott in his eagerness to purchase land for his Abbotsford
estate, and to fill the mansion with antiquarian and historical
curios, brought together with persevering industry and at great cost,
was continually in need of money to carry out his plans. Abbotsford
eventually became a show-place, and at the same time a kind of hotel,
where the greatest men of Europe were proud to be received and to partake
of his hospitality. In 1820 Scott received the baronetcy for which he
longed, as an aristocratic badge for the new Border family he had the
desire to found; and soon after he figured as director of the pageantry
in welcoming George IV. to Scotland. The sums which he spent in these
ways were great; nor could he have reconciled himself to such outlays,
except from the conviction that his genius was a mine upon which he could
draw whenever he pleased. For much of this expenditure he resorted to
Constable, who, acting as a sort of literary broker, took the author’s
genius and popularity in pledge for advances to him. It would have been
better for all concerned had Constable, as well as the Ballantynes,
been less accommodating on these occasions, for it was, no doubt, the
command of ready money that induced Scott to launch out into extravagant
schemes. His purchases of land were the talk of the whole district around
Melrose and Selkirk, and it was a common saying among the rustics, “that
they would wish for no ampler fortune than just the length and breadth
of themselves in land within half a mile of the Shirra’s house.” Some
in the neighbourhood shook their heads doubtfully over it all, and one
adjacent proprietor, whose property Scott envied, told him that “he
wouldna be surprised if he lived to see the craws bigging in the braw
lum-heads.” But author, printer, and publisher seemed alike intoxicated
with the success of the Waverley Novels, and the nature of their dealings
was perhaps without parallel in literary commerce. Not to speak of the
extravagant remuneration for books already before the public, and of
advances for books in progress, it afterwards appeared that large sums
were drawn for works which, if contemplated, were at least not begun. To
add to all these difficulties, Scott was led by a feeling of gratitude to
grant Constable counter-acceptances, in order to relieve him from those
embarrassments of which he himself was the chief cause. The complications
of all these transactions, precipitated by a commercial panic, brought
on at last a complete crash. At the end of January 1826, the firm of
Archibald Constable & Co. was declared bankrupt; shortly after, the
failure of James Ballantyne & Co. was announced; and with these houses
that of Hurst, Robinson & Co., of London, was hopelessly involved.
The market was stocked with the dishonoured bills of the firms, and
confidence in the great publishing houses was ended. Scott himself was
involved in something like £130,000, between publishers and printers.
In all this Scott, not James Ballantyne, played the leading part. In a
letter of October 15, 1815, referring to the failure of his brother’s
bookselling business, and equally applicable to this new imbroglio, the
printer writes to Scott: “I am singularly and hopelessly ignorant in
these matters; but I fancy the truth is that, owing to the bad success of
the bookselling speculation, and the injudicious drafts so long made on
the business that throve, I am, _de jure et de facto_, wholly dependent
on you.” It would appear that James Ballantyne was right in this—that the
trouble arose not through any incompetence on the printer’s part, but
mainly through the setting up of the firm of John Ballantyne & Co., and
the speculations of the publishing firms.
“Scott was always incurring expenses, often heavy expenses, for other
people. Thus, when Mr. Terry, the actor, became lessee and manager of
the Adelphi Theatre, London, Scott became his surety for £1250, while
James Ballantyne became his surety for £500 more, and both these sums
had to be paid by Scott after Terry’s failure in 1828. Such obligations
as these, however, would have been nothing when compared with Sir
Walter’s means, had all his bills on Constable been duly honoured, and
had not the printing firm of Ballantyne & Co. been so deeply involved
with Constable’s house, that it necessarily became insolvent when he
stopped.”[33]
Scott’s share of the large sum involved by the failure was ultimately
paid in full by himself and his representatives, while the other firms
paid their creditors about ten per cent. of the amount due. It must be
kept in mind, however, so far as Constable’s house was concerned, that
their property appears to have been foolishly sacrificed by forced sales
of copyrights and stock.
The printing-office at Paul’s Work in those days was as complete in all
its arrangements as any one of the inimitable volumes which issued from
it; and no printed book was put into the binder’s hands till the sheets
were thoroughly dry and the ink was fully “ripened.” The business
was vigorous, and, as we have seen, in 1822 no fewer than 145,000
volumes issued from the Ballantyne Press, all from the pen of Scott—an
extraordinary number of volumes in those days of hand-presses; and this
leaves out of reckoning work done for other authors and publishers.
The manager of the working departments—Mr. Hughes being now more in
connection with the counting-room—was Daniel M’Corkindale. He never
spoke above a whisper, nor stirred out of his quiet manner, and yet,
under his control, every man and boy performed his task with despatch
and the regularity of clockwork. M’Corkindale was part and parcel of
that office—visit it at what hour of the day or night you pleased, there
you found him; and even on a Sunday he would take the key and flit
noiselessly among the untenanted case-frames and silent presses. James
Hogg called him the honest and indefatigable M’Corkindale. After thirty
years of faithful service, he died in March 1833, two months after his
master.
Mr. James Bertram, editor of the _North Briton_, published in 1893
“Memories of Books and Authors,” which contained the following notice
of the Ballantyne Press in 1837-38: “I had often occasion to visit
Paul’s Work, where my friend, Mr. R. H. Patterson, afterwards editor of
the _Edinburgh Advertiser_, was one of the ‘readers.’ Ballantyne’s was
an office in which many ‘characters’ were to be found, including ‘the
Major,’ Mr. Cartwright, an accomplished printer’s-reader; Mr. Christie,
one of the foremen; and William Tofts, one of the machinists. These men
had all known Sir Walter, Mr. Lockhart, Mr. Constable, Mr. Blackwood,
Professor Wilson, and others of the bright spirits of _Maga_. One of
the old ‘pigs’[34] of the house delighted to tell us stories about
Sir Walter, ‘stories that Mr. Lockhart kent naething ava aboot.’ He
maintained that he knew who wrote the novels ‘almost as soon as the
master’ (Mr. James Ballantyne). When asked how that came about, he would
tell his best tale with a sufficient amount of importance; and although
it was credited in the office, I cannot guarantee its accuracy. ‘I had
just begun (he would say) to a new sheet of “Guy Mannering” one night
a while after twelve—we were working late in the press-room at that
time—and all the compositors had left, when in comes Mr. Ballantyne
himself, with a letter in his hand and a lot of types. “I am going to
make a small alteration, Sandy,” he said, “just unlock the forme, will
you? I’ll not keep you many minutes.” Well, I did as I was bidden, and
Mr. B., looking at the letter, altered three lines on one page and one
line on another. “That will do now, I think, Sandy,” were his words; “but
first pull a sheet till I see.” The master then looked carefully over
the two pages and said, “Bring me the printed sheets—they’ll have to be
destroyed,” and off he went, never thinking that he had left the letter
lying on my bank. I had barely time to get a glimpse at it, when back
came Mr. Ballantyne, but I kent the hand weel, and the signature, and it
was “Walter Scott.” I had a great lang ballant (ballad) in Sir Walter’s
ain hand o’ write at hame, so that I was nae stranger to it. I would hae
likit to see what the difference was that was made in the sheets, but
he made me carry them up to his room. So you see, gentlemen, I kent the
grand secret, when it _was_ a secret.’”
On William Tofts’ death in 1859 the following notice appeared in the
_North Briton_: “Mr. Tofts was, in some respects, a remarkable man. He
had been associated with the mechanical department of the printing trade
for nearly half a century, and during that period had witnessed many
eventful changes. When he first went, as a boy, to learn the pressman’s
trade, the neat hand-presses now in use were not known, and printing by
steam was not even dreamt of. The presses then in use were of cumbrous
construction, and in place of rollers, the ink was distributed over the
surface of the types by means of pads, with which the formes were dabbed
over. The work of improvement had begun, however, and printing by means
of hand-presses was shortly afterwards brought to the state of perfection
in which we now find it.
[Illustration: OLD WOODEN PRESS AT PAUL’S WORK
Used by Ballantyne in Printing the Waverley Novels]
“Mr. Tofts was engaged in the office of the Messrs. Ballantyne in the
palmy days of the Waverley Novels, and printed off several of the
impressions of that immortal series of fictions. He well remembered Sir
Walter Scott, who made frequent visits to the office where Mr. Tofts,
then a very young man, was engaged; and he had also vivid recollections
of Jeffrey, Lockhart, Sydney Smith, and the other great guns of the
_Edinburgh Review_. He was the first man who superintended a steam
printing-machine in Scotland—it was, if we remember rightly, on the first
introduction of one of these valuable aids to book-making in Messrs.
Ballantyne’s establishment. He also had the distinction of inaugurating a
steam machine for printing _Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal_.”
In appearance James Ballantyne was a gentleman of the old school. It was
a treat to see him do the honours of his own house in St. John Street,
whether in the drawing-room before dinner, showing the proof-sheets
of Scott’s poems or novels, bound up with the marginal correspondence
between the critic-printer and the author, or after dinner, pressing
his guests to a particular glass of Burgundy, “a present from his friend
Sir Walter.” The prop of his existence was his connection with Scott;
the happiest moments of his life were those that he spent—while the
Waverley Novels were appearing in rapid and dazzling succession—amid a
small circle of friends, when the eagerly-expected volumes were produced,
a week or a fortnight before they were issued to the general public.
James Ballantyne read them aloud with his best emphasis and expression,
and for this duty he was admirably qualified, being a good elocutionist,
and possessed of a melodious voice. There was to the listeners a certain
gratification in forestalling the rest of the world—in being able to tell
their friends mysteriously that there was a great treat awaiting them.
There was much pleasure also in discussing the merits of the work, with
timid allusions to the veiled author, whose name was never mentioned.
And amid the circle sat James, the founder of the feast, happy in the
happiness he was creating.
Lockhart gives a vivid description of one of these evenings: “To be
present at one of these scenes,” he writes, “was truly a rich treat....
When the cloth was drawn, the burly preses rose, and spouted with a
sonorous voice the formula of Macbeth:—
“‘Fill full!
I drink to the general joy of the whole table!’
This was followed by ‘The King—God bless him!’ and second came
‘Gentlemen, there is another toast which never has been nor shall be
omitted in this house of mine—I give you the health of Mr. Walter Scott,
with three times three!’... Then James rose once more, every vein on his
brow distended, his eyes solemnly fixed upon vacancy, to propose, not
as before in his stentorian key, but with bated breath, in the sort of
whisper by which a stage conspirator thrills the gallery—‘Gentlemen, a
bumper to the immortal Author of “Waverley”!’ The uproar of cheering, in
which Scott made a fashion of joining, was succeeded by deep silence;
and then Ballantyne proceeded to lament the obscurity in which his
illustrious but too modest correspondent still chose to conceal himself
from the plaudits of the world—to thank the company for the manner in
which the _nominis umbra_ had been received—and to assure them that the
Author of ‘Waverley’ would, when informed of the circumstance, feel
highly delighted, ‘the proudest hour of his life,’ &c. The name of the
forthcoming novel would then be given, and success to it pledged in
another bumper.”[35]
For a number of years James Ballantyne conducted and printed the
_Edinburgh Weekly Journal_, with a degree of spirit and good taste which
the public did not fail to appreciate. This paper began originally in
1744, and was edited, about 1767, by William Smellie, well known in the
printing profession and first editor of the “Encyclopædia Britannica.”
In 1806 the paper was exposed for sale, when Mr. Blackwood and another
offered £1830 for it, but it became the property of James Ballantyne and
Walter Scott for £1850, and under their joint ownership was one of the
most influential papers of the time.[36]
“Christopher North,” in an early number of _Blackwood’s Magazine_,
characterised the _Journal_ as “one of the best principled and best
written newspapers in Scotland.” During James Ballantyne’s editorship it
was noted also for its theatrical criticisms, the work of the editor, who
had previously contributed similar articles to the _Edinburgh Evening
Courant_. His brother John looked after the musical notices, being
considered one of the best critics of the day in this special direction.
Scott furnished many articles for its columns, such as “The Visionary,”
in December 1819 and January 1820, three essays on popular doctrines or
delusions of the time, afterwards collected into a pamphlet which had a
large sale; and also the Malachi Malagrowther Letters, already referred
to, which also appeared in pamphlet form.
James Ballantyne continued to be editor of the _Weekly Journal_ till his
death in 1833. His successor was Thomas Aird, the author of many poems
and prose articles which first appeared in _Blackwood’s Magazine_, and
the valued friend of Thomas Carlyle; but he held the post only for a
short time, being chosen editor of the _Dumfries Herald_, then newly
started. The _Journal_ continued to be printed at Paul’s Work till 1844,
when it was again sold. It ceased to exist in 1848, its last editor being
Theodore Williams.
The following letter from Scott to Ballantyne refers to a strike among
the men, regarding some extra work in connection with the _Journal_,
which they had refused to do unless at a higher rate than usual:—
“DEAR JAMES,—I heard of your mutiny. We will help you all we
can, and I advise you to stand firm, and punish ringleaders.
The men are fools. The work would be easily printed in London.
I return two Bellendon books—‘History of James VI.,’ and
‘Melville’s Memoirs,’ borrowed from you by yours truly,
W. SCOTT.
“EDINBURGH, _Saturday_.”
Connected with Ballantyne’s editing of the _Weekly Journal_ there is the
following curious story. The speech of George IV. at the banquet in the
Parliament House, Edinburgh, 1822, was reported in the _Weekly Journal_;
but it happens that, though that version of his Majesty’s speech appears
in all the works published at the time (not newspapers), it is not his
Majesty’s speech at all, but James Ballantyne’s, so far, at least, as
the concluding part is concerned. A reporter belonging to the _Courant_
happened to be sitting beside Ballantyne on the occasion, and was invited
by him, when the feast was over, to accompany him to St. John Street that
he might look over his notes. The reporter went with him, and wrote out
the royal speech in his presence. On reading the concluding sentences of
the speech, Ballantyne exclaimed: “Ay, ay! his Majesty did say so; but
it is not good—we will improve it!” With that he took his pen, cancelled
what was written, and substituted the sentences which have always passed
current as his Majesty’s. This is a tolerable specimen of Ballantyne’s
ready tact in this way.[37]
On two occasions, however, the _Journal_ threw a shadow between the two
friends, which must have been painful to Scott, whose warm regard for his
confidential critic and trusted friend was no secret. The paper adopted
the popular side during the trial of Queen Caroline, and afterwards
espoused the cause of the Reform Bill. On neither of these points could
Scott’s high Toryism permit him to be silent. He urged the right of
control belonging to a proprietor, whilst Ballantyne replied by insisting
on the right of free action by an editor. The first dispute was got over,
but that on the Reform Bill had a painful end. “The two old and faithful
friends parted in a tiff, and never again met.” So completely had the
long friendship been broken that, when Sir Walter began his “Castle
Dangerous,” about June 1831, he told Cadell the publisher about his new
work, but said nothing to his old ally, and even thought of giving the
book to another printer. This severity, however, was too much for his
genial nature.
James Ballantyne, equally with his partner in the collapse of 1826, as
told in this chapter, was a ruined man; everything he possessed—including
his house, No. 3 Heriot Row, to which he had removed from St. John
Street—being surrendered to his creditors. Fortunately for all concerned
a trust-deed was drawn up, and he was chosen to manage Paul’s Work for
the creditors at a salary of £400 a year. He was assisted by his younger
brother, Alexander, and by John Hughes—son of the Mr. Hughes who came
with him from Kelso; and these two afterwards became, with James’s son,
John Alexander Ballantyne, the active partners in the business. To add
to his misfortunes his wife died in 1829, leaving a large family. In
1816, when forty-five years of age, he had married Miss Hogarth, of
Berwickshire, sister of George Hogarth, author of “A History of Music.”
Their household was a happy one; Mrs. Ballantyne was an amiable woman
of simple habits, and the children were pleasant and well-mannered. Her
death affected him so much that for some time he was unfit for business,
and his health was impaired. He was never the same buoyant, happy man
again. Scott writes regarding this event: “I received the melancholy news
that James Ballantyne has lost his wife. With his domestic habits the
blow is irretrievable. What can he do, poor fellow, at the head of such a
family of children! I should not be surprised if he were to give way to
despair.” He was not able to appear at the funeral, and this circumstance
evoked much sympathy.
In the same year we find him residing in Albany Street. Some time after
he removed to Hill Street, and here he died on January 17, 1833. Shortly
before this event, he had expressed a hope that he might yet be restored
to sufficient health, to enable him to place on record all he felt and
knew regarding the great and good Sir Walter, who had so recently gone
before him. Accordingly, one of the last acts of his busy life, when
lying on his deathbed, was to write and send to Lockhart the Memorandum
of which the latter made such full use in his “Life of Scott,” and in
return for which he thought it not inconsistent with the courtesy of a
gentleman to traduce the character of the writer.
CHAPTER IX
THE AUTHOR AND THE REVISER
On the 21st September 1832 Sir Walter Scott died, and four months later
James Ballantyne followed him to that bourne “where the petty politics
of terrestrial powers no longer inflame men’s minds, and the sound of
discord and disagreement is not heard.” The following obituary notice
appeared in the _Scotsman_ of January 19, 1833:—
“It is with feelings of sincere regret that we have to announce the death
of our able and excellent contemporary and friend, Mr. James Ballantyne.
His health for several months past has been very delicate, and he expired
on Thursday at noon, rather unexpectedly by his friends, as he had fallen
into a soft sleep in the morning, after a night of painful suffering from
a vomiting of blood, with which he had of late been visited.
“Mr. Ballantyne has been so long and honourably distinguished in his
connection with the press of Scotland, in the highest acceptation
of that expression, that we cannot forbear alluding slightly to the
leading points of his life and character in that connection. He began
his career by establishing the _Kelso Mail_ in his native town; and it
was while he was thus engaged, that, in consequence of some suggestion
from Mr. Hughes, then and long after in his employment, he made some
successful attempts to improve the typography of Scotland. In these the
success which attended his efforts was so conspicuous as to attract the
notice of some distinguished individuals, and, amongst others, that of
his illustrious friend, Sir Walter Scott; and a new era in Scottish
typography, as well as of Scottish literature, was ushered in by the
printing of the ‘Border Minstrelsy’ at the Border press. Mr. Ballantyne’s
well-merited fame for elegance and accuracy as a printer soon extended in
the marts of literature, and the encouragement which he received from the
booksellers of London and Edinburgh induced him to remove to this city
about the year 1802; and it is no disparagement to any of his brethren
to state that, from the time that Mr. Ballantyne devoted himself to the
pursuit, the art has been improved among us to the highest pitch, for
nothing in typography can exceed the beauty and accuracy which have ever
characterised the productions of the Ballantyne Press. These qualities
are known to the whole world in the works of his illustrious friend, Sir
Walter Scott, and they were the result at once of the most conscientious
and scrupulous vigilance over his press, and of an exquisite taste and
great intelligence which were applied to the works entrusted to his
superintendence. The intimate connection which subsisted betwixt Sir
Walter and Mr. Ballantyne from their schoolboy days—the confidential
nature of that connection—and the unceasing kindness which was veiled
only by the shadows which darken all human friendships in the grave, were
such as to associate the name of Ballantyne with that of his much-loved
and honoured countryman, and to invest it with consideration and honour.
During the last fifteen or sixteen years Mr. Ballantyne has been the
editor, and a proprietor of the _Edinburgh Weekly Journal_, which has
been uniformly distinguished for its candour, sound constitutional
principles, moderation, and independence. In private life Mr. Ballantyne
was amiable and gentlemanly in his demeanour, accomplished, courteous,
cheerful; and to have been the intimate associate of Walter Scott, John
Leyden, James Grahame, Robert Lundie, was of itself a proof not merely of
his intellectual superiority, but of what is more estimable, of his moral
worth. He was a dutiful son, brother, husband, father, and friend; and
the affectionate qualities of his nature will be long remembered by those
who moved within the circles of his friends or his friendships.”
On the death of James Ballantyne his trustees examined his repositories
in the printing-office, and found a number of fragmentary portions of
the manuscripts of the novels, as well as numerous proof-sheets with
corrections, and several manuscripts of the later novels which had
been overlooked. These fragmentary leaves and proof-sheets remained in
possession of the trustees till James Ballantyne’s son came of age; and
the latter, on formally taking up his position at the printing-office,
presented some of them to friends as memorials—among others, the MS.
of “Old Mortality” was presented to Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Cowan of
Beeslack. The state of the business, however, led a few years after
to sequestration, and the rest of the Scott relics, as well as James
Ballantyne’s library, were sold for behoof of the estate by Mr. Dowell
of Edinburgh, in May 1848. Among the lots sold at this time were the MS.
of the “Black Dwarf,” and the author’s proofs of the “Life of Napoleon”
(nine vols.), “Woodstock,” “Nigel,” “Quentin Durward,” “Ivanhoe,”
“Peveril,” &c., as well as the author’s interleaved copy, with many
notes, of the “Letters on Demonology,” &c., realising altogether £121,
13s. 6d.
These proof-sheets contained the notes and letters which passed between
the author and the printer, as well as the author’s corrections and
additions during the progress of the books through the press. The
suggestions and remarks of Ballantyne are many, and occasionally curious;
and Sir Walter appears frequently to have adopted the advice of his
friend, who for his occasional strictures was sometimes playfully
designated “Tom Telltruth.” “The proof-sheets of ‘Redgauntlet’ exist,”
says Mr. Lang in his Introduction to that novel, “and show some
noteworthy points, as we see Mr. James Ballantyne’s suggestions, Scott’s
corrections, and an occasional aside to Ballantyne.... James objects to
the mixture of ‘thou’ and ‘you’ in Fairford’s letter, but Scott does
not make any change.... Ballantyne rather timidly suggests that Green
Mantle at the fishers’ dance reminds him of Di Vernon, so Scott slightly
modifies her cavalier tone. James is scandalised at the mention of young
advocates as ‘boys.’ Scott writes, ‘Aye, aye!’” The printer makes a
“useful suggestion, which Scott accepts, when Alan reads the wrong letter
in the trial.”
The author and the printer often differed, and other replies of Scott to
his corrector are characteristic, as the following, which appears in one
of the proofs of “Woodstock”: “‘Completing’ wants a nominative,” says
James. “You certainly have had the toothache,” says the author in reply;
“why, it puts me in mind of the epigram when Pitt and Dundas came drunk
into the House of Commons:—
“‘I cannot see the Speaker, Hal, can you?’
‘Not see the Speaker! d—n me, I see two!’”
On another occasion Sir Walter says in his “Journal” (January 11, 1826):
“I got proof-sheets, in which it seems I have repeated a whole passage
of history which had been told before. James is in an awful stew, and I
cannot blame him.... However, as Chaucer says:—
“‘There is na workeman
That can bothe worken wel and hastilie;
This must be done at leisure parfitly.’”
It must be admitted that Scott was occasionally careless, partly
because he could save time by allowing others to correct his errors and
inconsistencies resulting from rapid composition. For example, in “The
Antiquary” he makes the sun set in the German Ocean; in the “Legend of
Montrose” he uses in one place westward where it should be eastward; in
“Kenilworth” the text has “In the employment both of Burleigh and Cecil,”
but Burleigh and Cecil are one and the same person, and it should
probably read Walsingham and Cecil; in “Anne of Geierstein” in two places
Nancy is used instead of Aix.
The proof-sheets of “Peveril” were sold in London some time in the middle
of last century and bought by an American. They afterwards formed part of
an article in _Scribner’s Magazine_ (February 1889) on Sir Walter Scott
and his works, from which several of the instances are here given:—
“_Proof._ ‘He was never visited by any doubt.’ Note by J. B.
See p. 127, where this doubt is strongly expressed by him.
Scott thereupon alters to—‘any permanent doubt.’
“_Proof._ ‘The cutler agreed.’ Note by J. B. He had gone
downstairs in the last sentence. Scott hurries him back, and
alters to ‘the cutler returns at this summons and agreed.’
“_Proof._ Motto to Heading to Chapter VIII. J. B. This motto is
repeated in the next chapter. Scott alters to ‘My native land,
good-night.—BYRON.’”
So it goes on throughout, and there are also such marginal remarks by
Ballantyne as these: “Imperfect;” “Incomplete;” “Incorrect;” “This is
inimitable in all respects;” “Capital! there is something new under
the sun;” “Unintelligible and probably incomplete;” “This is almost
magnificent.”
Many of the proof-sheets still existing show that the author and the
printer remained the best of friends, even under the pressure of
financial troubles, till the unfortunate differences arose in regard to
the political views of the _Weekly Journal_. They leave no doubt that
James Ballantyne by his courageous and unprejudiced criticism pointed out
many an error which the reviewers would have seized upon with eagerness.
Referring again to this subject, Mr. Lang, in his “Life of Lockhart,”
says: “Why, one is inclined to ask, why with Lockhart at his side did
Scott turn to Ballantyne for criticism? The truth probably is that
in Ballantyne, comparatively uneducated and ignorant of things which
one supposes everybody to know, Scott thought he had a measure of the
ordinary taste, and a judge who would never veil his actual opinion, nor
‘seek for a glossy periphrase.’” “Comparatively uneducated and ignorant
of things!” This is said of one who not only passed but practised as
a solicitor, and whom Scott himself—surely a sufficient judge of his
ability—recommended for the editorship of a proposed new paper (November
1819), as “a thoroughly well-principled, honourable man.... He writes a
good enough style, and has often been happy in his opening articles.”
Even stronger testimony regarding James Ballantyne and the _Weekly
Journal_ occurs in an entry in Scott’s “Journal” (December 18, 1825),
“for sure they cannot find a better editor.”[38]
Moore[39] describes Scott’s marvellous labour and power of composition,
as well as the extent to which he had carried the art of book-making.
“Besides writing his history of Scotland for Dr. Lardner’s
‘Encyclopædia,’” he observes, “he is working at the prefaces for the
re-publication of the Waverley Novels, the ‘Tales of a Grandfather,’
and has still found time to review Tytler, which he has done out of the
scraps and chips of his other works. A little while ago he had to correct
some of the proofs of the History of Scotland, and, being dissatisfied
with what was done, he nearly wrote it over again, and sent it up to the
editor. Some time after, finding another copy of the proofs, he forgot
that he had corrected them before, and he re-wrote these also and sent
them up, and the editor is at this moment engaged in selecting from the
two corrected copies the best parts of each.”
In spite of all the printer’s care and personal supervision, however,
Sir Walter sometimes had the chance of giving James “a Roland for his
Oliver,” as the following letter testifies:—
“DEAR JAMES,—I return the sheets of ‘Tales,’ with some waste
of ‘Napoleon’ for ballast. Pray read like a lynx, for with
all your devoted attention things will escape. Imagine your
printing that the Douglases, after James II. had dirked the
Earl, trailed the royal safe-conduct at the _tail_ of a
_serving man_, instead of the _tail_ of a _starved mare_.”
So printed in the first edition, but corrected in subsequent editions to
“a miserable cart jade.”
[Illustration]
The accompanying facsimiles are from proof-sheets in the possession
of Lord Rosebery, who has courteously given permission for their
reproduction. One shows the title-page of a volume of the “Life of
Napoleon,” while the other is a page of the same work, with Sir Walter’s
corrections, and one of James Ballantyne’s remarks. The playful missives
sent by the author to his printer have been already referred to, and
there is to be seen along with the MS. of “Rob Roy,” and bound up with
the last proof-sheet, the following note to James Ballantyne:—
“DEAR JAMES—
With great joy
I send you Roy;
’Twas a tough job,
But we’re dune wi’ Rob.
“I forget if I mentioned Terry in my list of friends. Pray send
me two or three copies as soon as you can. And we must not
forget Sir William Forbes.—Yours ever,
“W. S.”
The allusion to its being a “tough job” refers to the labour of producing
the book in his shattered state of health in 1817, the year of the
publication of “Rob Roy.”
[Illustration]
CHAPTER X
LOCKHART AND THE BALLANTYNE CONTROVERSY
Into the merits of the disputes which arose over the disastrous
business transactions it is not necessary, perhaps, to enter at length.
What is brought together here is mainly drawn from materials left by
contemporaries of the persons immediately concerned. Recent criticism
has not supported Lockhart’s view that Scott was unaware how things were
going, and it has never been explained how a man, so exact about his
personal expenses, could have been so careless in his commercial dealings
as partner in a printing firm. Lockhart was well known in literary
circles to be a pungent critic, and his severity as a reviewer gained
for him the name of the “Scorpion.” His studiously insolent tone and his
wilful misrepresentations led to the publication by James Ballantyne’s
trustees of “The Refutation of the Misstatements and Calumnies contained
in Mr. Lockhart’s ‘Life of Sir Walter Scott’ respecting the Messrs.
Ballantyne.” This was followed by “The Ballantyne Humbug Handled” from
Lockhart; and this again was answered by a “Reply to Mr. Lockhart’s
Pamphlet. By the Authors of the Refutation.”
[Illustration: JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART, LL.D.
PAINTED BY SIR FRANCIS GRANT P.R.A.]
A review of these pamphlets in _Tait’s Magazine_ for 1839 states that
Lockhart “had done gross and, everything considered, pitiful injustice
to Mr. James Ballantyne; but, in our opinion, the case stood still worse
as to Dr. John Leyden, Thomas Pringle, the Ettrick Shepherd, Alister
Campbell and other men of genius, who had no sons or friendly trustees
to do justice to their true characters, and defend their memories from
clumsy ridicule, and wanton and unprovoked misrepresentation.... The
editor of the _Quarterly_ (Lockhart) has been as condescending in the
free use of abusive and insolent language, and in calling names and
giving nicknames, as the veriest Grub Street author could desire; and,
all the while, this vulgarity is directed against persons whom he assumes
to treat as immeasurably his inferiors. The trustees, whether tradesmen
or professional men, though sufficiently acute and cutting at times, have
a manifest advantage over Mr. Lockhart, in never abandoning that decent
propriety of language which they owed to themselves, if not to their
supercilious and unceremonious adversary; while they have carefully and
ably elaborated every point in Mr. Lockhart’s statements, and knocked
them down one by one....
“For the unfounded assertions in the earlier volumes regarding the
Ballantynes, Mr. Lockhart makes a sort of _amende honorable_: ‘I
have been entirely mistaken, if those to whom I allude (Ballantyne’s
relatives), or any other of my readers, have interpreted any expressions
of mine as designed to cast _the slightest imputation upon the moral
rectitude_ of the elder Ballantyne. I believe James _to have been
from first to last a perfectly upright man_; that his principles were
of a lofty stamp—_his feelings pure even to simplicity_.’... It was
sufficiently proved from the documents given in the controversy that on
all occasions he (Scott) made use of James Ballantyne & Co. as the means
of supplying his wants. If he wanted money, and they happened to have it,
he drew it out; if not, he made use of their firm to raise it. Such was
his uniform practice, from the first formation of the company to the last
day of its existence.”[40]
John Gibson Lockhart died at Abbotsford on the 25th November 1854, in his
sixty-first year. “In a letter addressed to me,” says Dr. Charles Rogers,
“a few days afterwards, Mr. Robert Chambers referred to the event in
these words: ‘It is melancholy to think of Lockhart sinking at sixty—and
all through heart-break. Sir Adam Ferguson feels assured that such is
the remote but true cause of his death. He was perhaps the least amiable
man of letters I ever knew; but these considerations make his departure
somewhat touching.’
“Naturally a cynic, Lockhart was latterly prone to irritation; he
possessed that unhappy temperament which magnifies trifles and distorts
judgment. His perversity is in a measure illustrated by his harsh
treatment of James Hogg; it was wholly unexpected by the Shepherd’s
family, who supplied him with papers, and to whom his visits had (as Mrs.
Hogg assured me) been frequent and cordial. But Archibald Constable and
the brothers Ballantyne he cruelly wronged. By Sir Walter Scott they were
loved and trusted; and his biographer had no cause to heap censures on
their memory. That Sir Walter’s character might appear bright and pure,
it was unnecessary that his associates should be charged with baseness.
“The detractor succeeds at the outset. Lockhart, who, as has been shown
by an unprejudiced witness, Mrs. Gordon, in the life of her father
(Christopher North), was not unwilling to inflict pain, succeeded in
deeply wounding the families of Constable and the Ballantynes. But the
day of reparation came. The Ballantynes were vindicated at once, and the
censorious vehemence with which Lockhart returned to the charge invoked
wide disapproval. In 1873 appeared a memoir of Archibald Constable by his
son; in the third volume of that work the great bookseller obtains full
and complete exculpation.”[41]
Sir Walter Scott contributed not only capital to the firm, but great
literary influence, which attracted a copious supply of work to the
Ballantyne Press; yet the other partners were not very far behind him in
their influence upon the business. In addition to some capital, James
Ballantyne brought what in many ways was as important, experience in
literary matters and great talent as a practical printer, while John’s
pleasant manners and social accomplishments must have gained not a few
customers for the house. It cannot be denied that Sir Walter had a chief
share in maintaining the firm, for he always insisted that his own works
should be printed there, no matter who the publishers were; but he was
also largely responsible for the collapse, owing to those unsuccessful
publications previously referred to, which through his influence had
been printed by the firm. Moreover, his excessive desire for family
aggrandisement and his profuse baronial hospitality were extremely
unfortunate for all concerned; and before the collapse came he had spent
£29,000 on land alone, while his expenditure on house and grounds was
estimated at £76,000.
The following observations are from one who was acquainted with all the
circumstances: “It is a curious instance of Lockhart’s moral obtuseness
that he could make some most painful and needless disclosures in regard
to Scott himself in that Life (of Scott), to say nothing of his foul
and elaborate misrepresentation of the Ballantynes throughout. To that
evil deed it is necessary only to refer; for the confutation immediately
published was so complete, and the establishment of the fair fame of
the Ballantynes so triumphant, that their libeller had his punishment
very soon. Some lovers of literature and of Scott still struggled to
make out that the Ballantynes and their defenders, as tradesmen, could
know nothing of the feelings, nor judge of the conduct, of Scott as a
gentleman. The answer was plain: the Ballantynes were not mere tradesmen;
and if they had been, Scott made himself a tradesman, in regard to his
coadjutors, and must be judged by the laws of commercial integrity. The
exposures made by the Ballantynes and their friends of Scott’s pecuniary
obligations to them were forced upon them by Lockhart’s attacks upon
their characters and misrepresentation of their conduct and affairs. The
whole controversy was occasioned by Lockhart’s spontaneous indulgence in
caustic satire; and the Ballantynes came better out of it than either he
or his father in-law.”[42]
Another of Lockhart’s charges was that of professional incompetence, made
not from his own knowledge, but on the conjectural statements of Robert
Cadell, the partner of Constable and afterwards his supplanter in the
publication of the Waverley Novels. This objection mainly rested on the
assertion that James Ballantyne had not been trained as a printer, but it
need count for little. Neither Caxton nor Chepman, nor yet Baskerville,
all of them celebrated typographers, received the education of a printer;
and of how many printer-capitalists of the present day can it be said
that they have been subjected to the technical training of a skilled
workman? This, however, may be better answered from some notes by Dr.
Robert Chambers, a printer and a publisher,[43] who personally knew both
Scott and the Ballantynes. He maintains that Scott watched closely over
all the arrangements, was cognisant of the most minute transactions,
and alone planned all the necessary ways and means for carrying on the
business. He says further that “the printing business, which was James
Ballantyne’s legitimate work, was always prosperous, and we can say
with equal confidence from what we have ascertained through our own
experience, and that of friends, that his printing-office was decidedly
the most ably and carefully managed for all ends with which its customers
had to do in Edinburgh.” And Mr. R. P. Gillies, in his “Recollections of
Sir Walter Scott,”[44] observes regarding James Ballantyne: “A character
of more sterling integrity, or more friendly disposition, never existed.
As he was by no means of an over-sanguine temperament, it is possible
that by following his advice the subsequent embarrassments might have
been avoided.”
Again, as late as 1897, the _British Weekly_, in noticing Leslie
Stephen’s article on Scott in the _Cornhill Magazine_ of April that
year, says: “Although nothing will ever explain Scott’s extraordinary
recklessness, one comes nearer to an understanding when reading that
Scott drew from the Ballantyne business in four years £7000 for building
at Abbotsford, £5000 for his son’s commission, and nearly £900 to
a wine-merchant. Altogether it appears that during the four years
(1822-1826) Ballantyne & Co. had paid on Scott’s account £15,000 more
than they had received from him.”
This chapter may be concluded with Sir Walter’s own testimony to James
Ballantyne. In his “Journal” under date of December 18, 1825, he writes:
“Ballantyne behaves like himself, and sinks his own ruin in contemplating
mine. I tried to enrich him indeed, and now all—all is gone.” In a letter
to Lockhart, January 20, 1826, Scott again exonerates James Ballantyne
from being a primary cause of his misfortunes, and says: “It is easy,
no doubt, for any friend to blame me for entering into connection with
commercial matters at all. But I wish to know what I could have done
better.... Literature was not in those days what poor Constable has
made it; and with my little capital I was too glad to make commercially
the means of supporting my family.... I have been far from suffering by
James Ballantyne. _I owe it to him to say that his difficulties as well
as his advantages, are owing to me_.” We have here the crux of the whole
matter; and with this manly admission on the part of Sir Walter a painful
controversy may now be allowed to rest.
[Illustration: JAMES BALLANTYNE & CO’S. PRINTING OFFICE.]
CHAPTER XI
THROUGH OLD PAUL’S WORK, CANONGATE
In the early years of last century, when the New Town of Edinburgh
was beginning to show itself along the northern slopes of the valley
of the Nor’ Loch, beneath the Castle and the High Street, all the
printing-houses were to be found either down the closes or lanes or
in some blind alley approached from the High Street or the Cowgate.
The precincts were frequently noisome with the dirt and rubbish of
long-past years. The building itself would have a peculiar odour of
its own—a combination of rancid oil, mouldy paste, and printer’s ink,
and few people would ever care to pass that way except on business.
The printing-office would probably be located in what had at one time
been a private dwelling-house, and rendered serviceable by the removal
of partitioning walls, the erection of narrow winding stairs, and the
joining of several apartments of neighbouring houses into one, not
infrequently on varying levels.
Paul’s Work was entered by a small courtyard with an iron gateway leading
to a narrow door immediately below an outside stair. This stair led to
the counting-room, adjoining which was the room allotted to Sir Walter
Scott on his visits. The window of this room is shown in the accompanying
illustration.
In those days work began at either six or seven in the morning—the
“devils” having been there an hour earlier for sweeping and cleaning.
There was an hour, from nine to ten, for breakfast, a healthy arrangement
long since given up under the pressure of modern business, which tends
more and more to fewer breaks in the day—although the removal of
work-places to suburban districts may also have had much to do with this
change. The workmen now make their appearance at eight, and the dinner
interval is from one to two, instead of from two to three as in former
days.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE OFFICES OF OLD PAUL’S WORK]
Close by the entrance-doorway sat the time-keeper, a post long held by
Mr. Smith, an old grey-headed man, father of Alexander Smith the poet,
author of “A Life Drama,” and for some time Secretary to Edinburgh
University. Passing upwards by devious stairways to what was known as the
“long case-room,” here one would find about thirty or forty compositors,
busily dipping their fingers into cases of types—spelling, capitalising,
and punctuating line after line from the manuscript or “copy” before
them—amidst the joke and chaff flying among themselves, and the noisy
hammering of wooden “mallets” at the imposing tables or “stones” down the
centre of the room, on which the “formes” of type were being corrected
and got “ready for press.” A second case-room, with about twenty men,
was on another, higher flat; adjoining this, in course of time, was the
stereo foundry.
Beyond the long case-room, on a slightly different level, was a fairly
large room, partitioned off like so many sentry-boxes, occupied by that
much-maligned but indispensable class, the printer’s Readers, each with
his attendant satellite or “devil.”
The Reader’s duty is not only to see that the punctuation and the
spelling are correct, but also to make a note of interrogation against
any passage which appears doubtful or incomplete. Some authors profit by
these unobtrusive queries; others resent them and snub the Reader.[45]
Though not exactly perfect, he bestows much time and patience over his
work, and the general correctness of books shows that his labour is not
in vain. With all his care and anxiety, however, errors will creep in—it
is a moot point whether an absolutely correct book was ever published.
It is curious, too, that the most obvious blunders are sometimes passed
by a painstaking and careful Reader, as if to show that experienced
watchfulness is liable to occasional defeat; for example, there is the
case of one Reader who passed for press as accurate a work of reference
in which were quotations from many languages, yet overlooked an error
on the title-page, though there the types were even larger. Some of
the “devils,” or reading-boys, whose duty it was to read the MS. aloud
while the Reader marked the errors on the proofs, used to attain by long
practice exceptional ability in deciphering the vilest “copy,” and the
compositor occasionally availed himself of their aid in a difficulty.
But since typewriting has come into general use, illegible copy is
comparatively rare.
Further up the stairs, beyond the Readers’ rooms, were other case-rooms,
one for the “jobbing” department and another known as “The Garret,”
containing about twenty persons, where the case apprentices were trained
by experienced men.
While the formes were being prepared for press, the damping-room below
was called into operation. It was here that the paper to be printed was
damped, in order that it might take on better the impression from the
type. This process is now almost abandoned, except in the case of some
special make of paper, as printing papers are now made with a texture
which does not require damping. In the early days of Paul’s Work,
however, it was very necessary.
The formes of type and the paper being ready, the pressmen put the formes
on the press-bed, and after “making ready” the pages of type to ensure
a uniform impression and colour on the printed sheet, proceeded to work
off the formes. In the early days of last century, before the advent of
the steam-printing machine, the work of the hand-pressmen must have been
a constant strain on their physical powers. A “token” of 250 sheets per
hour was the ordinary output; they had to lay the sheet of paper on the
tympan and roll it under the press, pull the bar to take the impression,
roll back, and lift off the printed sheet—all this for 250 times an hour
for ten or twelve hours each day was no light task. In those days also,
prior to the invention of the hand-roller, the ink had to be put on the
formes of type by means of hand-balls or “dabbers”; and this, too, took a
much longer time. The sheets of a book having been thus printed, either
by hand-press or by machine, were next sent to the drying-room, and hung
over horizontal bars, one above the other, being put up or taken down by
means of long peels. When thoroughly dried the sheets were subjected to a
smoothing process between highly-glazed boards under great pressure, and
were then ready for the bookbinder.
What would a publisher of the present day say to the following? “The
printing of ‘Sir Tristrem’ will be finished about the end of June; if
you approve, it ought to lie two months before it is hot-pressed, and it
could be published about the middle of October.”[46]
The press-room was on the ground-flat, which on the introduction of
steam-printing, about 1817, became the machine-room.
In concluding this chapter mention may be made of a kind of democratic
court common to every printing-house. This is called the “Chapel,” and
its membership comprises all the journeymen. This “Chapel” is said to
have originated in the time of William Caxton in one of the chapels at
Westminster, and has thus an antiquity coeval with the beginning of
printing in Britain. A Chapel meeting may be called at any time, either
to preserve the employer’s property, or to settle a dispute regarding
prices to be paid for special kinds of work. It is presided over by
an experienced workman known as the “Father of the Chapel,” and its
meetings are convened by another known as the “Clerk”; and any delinquent
found guilty by his peers of a trespass or fault may be subjected to
a fine, from which sentence there is no appeal. Should he decline to
submit, he may be “sent to Coventry,” a position which he will find very
uncomfortable. One Chapel dispute regarding the _Weekly Journal_ has been
already referred to, but a previous one in 1803 may be noticed here, as
told in a letter of Sir Walter Scott to Miss Seward:—
“On my return, I find an apologetic letter from my printer, saying the
third volume will be despatched in a day or two. There has been, it
seems, a meeting (? mutiny) among the printers’ devils; also among the
paper-makers. I never heard of authors _striking work_, as the mechanics
call it, until their masters the booksellers should increase their pay;
but if such a combination could take place, the revolt would now be
general in all branches of literary labour.”[47]
Various other terms were in use in those early days of Paul’s Work,
but of these only two need be noticed here—the “bullet” and the “qui.”
Both refer to somewhat similar results—the “qui” being a contraction
for _quietus est_, when a workman was suspended for lack of work,
implying that he might be reinstated when work became more plentiful;
the “bullet,” again, denoted a discharge on the spot, owing to some
misconduct or fault, for which he was “shot” out of the office
altogether.
CHAPTER XII
END OF OLD PAUL’S WORK
James Ballantyne was not in good health for some years before his death
in 1833. During that time, as we have seen, he was assisted by his
brother Alexander and by John Hughes, son of the Mr. Hughes who came
from Kelso to Paul’s Work. John Hughes, beginning as a compositor, was
afterwards taken into the counting-room to aid in the control of the
business, and in this position he continued till the death of James
Ballantyne. When the trustees opened Ballantyne’s will, they found a
letter instructing them to continue John Hughes in that position till
the testator’s son, John Alexander Ballantyne, came of age, and if the
business were conducted to their satisfaction, John Hughes was then to
receive a substantial interest in the firm.
For a number of years the firm of Ballantyne & Hughes was fairly
successful. About the year 1850, however, it got into trouble, the causes
for which were not far to seek. For one thing, a centralising movement
had been going on for some time. Many literary men were finding it
necessary to live in London for library and other consulting facilities,
and the work naturally followed with the editors and the contributors.
The _Edinburgh Review_, for example, which had been printed for a number
of years at Paul’s Work, was removed to London, for the convenience of
the editor.
Other causes also were at work. The population of Edinburgh and Leith
about the time of Scott’s birth in 1771 was probably not more than
70,000; at his death in 1832 it was reckoned at about 140,000. Thus
during his lifetime the number of inhabitants was doubled, and these
had to find room elsewhere than in the crowded streets and wynds of old
Edinburgh. The New Town across the valley was rapidly growing down the
slopes of the northern hills of the city, and many of the wealthier
inhabitants and of the old legal firms had already crossed, and other
large businesses were following. This led to the withdrawal of much
work and traffic from the old town; whilst, again, the starting of
the Blackwoods as printers of their own books, which began with the
January number of _Maga_ in 1847, took away from Paul’s Work not only
that publication but also the _Journal of Agriculture_, the various
editions of Alison’s “History of Europe”—which kept the old office lively
for a long time—and other works. _Tait’s Magazine_, another Edinburgh
periodical of good standing, was also taken away. All these and other
similar changes, in the absence of a counter-current of local supply,
were sufficient to weaken any business.
The firm, however, had foreseen the coming evil days, and made an effort
to avert the serious consequences of the change in the tide of business.
In 1846, a branch office was started at 3 Thistle Street, which soon
became a successful little place, where a large amount of Court of
Session work was done, as well as the printing for some of the Edinburgh
insurance offices. John A. Ballantyne took charge of the branch business
till John Hughes purchased the property and stock at Thistle Street. The
former remained connected with the business at Paul’s Work till his death
in 1863.
Various changes took place after this. Work was increasing beyond the
limits of the old Paul’s Work, owing to the influence and energy of one
of the partners, Mr. Edward Hanson, resident in London, who revived the
connection which existed in the early days of James Ballantyne, and
gave a great impetus to the printing of books in Edinburgh for London
publishers. Mr. Hanson was born in Cleveland in Yorkshire, and as a youth
went to Edinburgh in 1857 to enter the publishing house of Mr. James
Nichol. Mr. Nichol was at the time engaged in the issue of a complete
edition of the British Poets, in forty-eight volumes, edited by the Rev.
George Gilfillan, and also an edition of the Standard Divines. Both of
these series were printed at the Ballantyne Press, and Mr. Hanson became
acquainted with Mr. John A. Ballantyne, the last of the family to enter
the business. This friendship led eventually to Mr. Hanson joining the
Ballantyne Press. After John A. Ballantyne’s death a partnership was
formed by Mr. James Cowan, M.P., Mr. J. D. Nichol, and Mr. Hanson. In
1875 Mr. Nichol retired from the firm, and was followed in 1879 by Mr.
Cowan, leaving Mr. Hanson sole partner. In the financial arrangements
requisite on the retirement of Mr. Cowan, Mr. Hanson was assisted by
his friend Mr. Francis Logie Pirie, of Tottingworth Park, Sussex, who
became and remained for some years a partner in the Press. Mr. Hanson
subsequently assumed as partners his nephew, Mr. R. W. Hanson, in
Edinburgh, and Mr. Charles M’Call in London, and with their assistance
has materially developed the old business. A third generation of the
Hanson family has recently joined the firm in the person of Mr. Edward
Taylor Hanson.
[Illustration: WINDOW IN PAUL’S WORK OF THE PRESENT DAY]
As the neighbouring encroachments of the North British Railway station
prevented any extension of old Paul’s Work, plans were made for
accommodation in better quarters. These were found at Clare House,
lying between Findhorn Place and Causewayside. Many of the larger
printing-offices have, within the last thirty years, removed their
premises to the more commodious outskirts of the city, and Paul’s Work
was among the first to lead the way in this respect by its removal, in
December 1870, to the Newington district.
In 1878 Mr. Hanson acquired the printing business of Saville, Edwards
& Co., Chandos Street, and thus the firm secured for itself a habitat
in London. He was fortunate in having for his manager Mr. Horace Hart,
now Controller of the Oxford University Press. This branch removed to
Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, in 1888, and there carries on the
printing of several Magazines, as well as a considerable amount of Book
production. In 1905 it was converted into a private limited company under
the name of Ballantyne & Co., Limited, the shares being chiefly held by
the old firm. In 1908 the firm experienced a great loss in the death of
Mr. M’Call. His son, Mr. C. H. M’Call, has succeeded to his position.
CHAPTER XIII
BIBLIOGRAPHY—EARLY DECADES OF PAUL’S WORK
Various causes render a bibliographical chapter a difficult matter. Lapse
of time, enlargements of premises, removals, and changes of several kinds
incident to an old business, have led to the loss of records which would
have been of great value in a chapter of this kind. Apart from the works
of Sir Walter Scott—of which we give a chronological list, we can only
hope to describe a few of the books printed by James Ballantyne & Co. in
the earlier decades of Paul’s Work. It may be noted in passing, however,
that much of the early work of Carlyle was printed there, particularly
his “Miscellanies,” which include the famous essay on Burns.
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF SIR WALTER SCOTT’S WORKS
Date of
Publication.
The Chase, and William and Helen (translations from Bürger),
Manners & Miller, Edinburgh 1796
Goetz von Berlichingen (translation from Goethe), and other
Ballads, Manners & Miller, Edinburgh 1799
An Apology for Tales of Terror Kelso 1799
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border—Vols. I. and II. Kelso 1802
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border—Vol. III. Edinburgh 1803
Sir Tristrem: by Thomas of Ercildoune (_Edited_) 1804
The Lay of the Last Minstrel 1805
Original Memoirs of the Great Civil War, being the Lives of
Sir Henry Slingsby and Captain Hodgson (_Edited_) 1806
Ballads and Lyrical Pieces 1806
Marmion: a Tale of Flodden Field 1808
Memoirs of Captain George Carleton (_Edited_) 1808
Works of John Dryden (_Edited_) 1808
Memoirs of Robert Carey (_Edited_) 1808
Strutt’s Queenhoo Hall: a Romance (_Edited_) 1808
State Papers and Letters of Sir R. Sadler (_Edited_) 1809
Lord Somers’ Collection of Tracts (_Edited_) 1809-1815
English Minstrelsy (_Edited_) 1810
The Lady of the Lake 1810
The Vision of Don Roderick 1811
Secret History of the Court of James the First (_Edited_) 1811
Rokeby 1812
Warwick’s Memoirs of Reign of King Charles I. (_Edited_) 1812
The Bridal of Triermain; or, The Vale of St. John 1813
Works of Jonathan Swift (_Edited_) 1814
Letting of Humours Blood into the Head Vaine (_Edited_) 1814
Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since 1814
The Border Antiquities 1814-1817
The Lord of the Isles 1815
Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer 1815
The Field of Waterloo 1815
Memoirs of the Somervilles (_Edited_) 1815
Paul’s Letters to His Kinsfolk 1816
The Antiquary 1816
Tales of My Landlord (First Series): The Black Dwarf; Old
Mortality 1816
Harold the Dauntless 1817
Rob Roy 1817
Tales of My Landlord (Second Series): The Heart of Midlothian 1818
Tales of My Landlord (Third Series): Bride of Lammermoor;
Legend of Montrose 1819
The Visionary 1819
Ivanhoe 1819
The Monastery 1820
The Abbot 1820
Memoirs of the Haliburtons (_Edited_) 1820
Carey’s Poems and Triolets (_Edited_) 1820
The Novelists’ Library (_Edited_) 1821-1824
Franck’s Northern Memoirs (_Edited_) 1821
Kenilworth 1821
The Pirate 1822
Notes of Scottish Affairs; Diary of Lord Fountainhall (_Edited_) 1822
The Fortunes of Nigel 1822
Halidon Hill; a Metrical Drama in Two Acts 1822
Military Memoirs of the Great Civil War (_Edited_) 1822
Peveril of the Peak 1823
Quentin Durward 1823
St. Ronan’s Well 1823
Redgauntlet 1824
Tales of the Crusaders: The Betrothed; The Talisman 1825
Provincial Antiquities of Scotland 1826
Letters of Malachi Malagrowther 1826
Woodstock; or, The Cavalier 1826
Life of Napoleon Buonaparte 1827
Chronicles of the Canongate (First Series): Highland Widow;
The Two Drovers; The Surgeon’s Daughter 1827
Memoirs of Marchioness de la Rochejaquelin (_translation_) 1827
Tales of a Grandfather (First Series) 1827
Miscellaneous Prose Works (collected in 6 vols.) 1828
Religious Discourses by a Layman 1828
Chronicles of the Canongate (Second Series): Fair Maid of Perth 1828
Tales of a Grandfather (Second Series) 1828
Memoirs of George Bannatyne 1828
Anne of Geierstein 1829
Tales of a Grandfather (Third Series) 1829
History of Scotland (Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopædia) 1829-1830
Auchindrane; or, The Ayrshire Tragedy 1830
The Doom of Devorgoil 1830
Tales of a Grandfather (Fourth Series) 1830
Tales of My Landlord (Fourth Series): Count Robert of Paris;
Castle Dangerous 1831
* * * * *
“The Defence of Order, a Poem, by Josiah Walker, M.A. Third Edition.
Edinburgh. Printed by James Ballantyne, for Manners and Miller,
Parliament Square; and sold in London, by Longman and Rees, Paternoster
Row, and Cadell and Davies, Strand.” This book has the imprint at the
end: “Printed by James Ballantyne, at the Border Press, Edinburgh. 1803.”
* * * * *
“The Poems of Ossian, Translated by James Macpherson, Esq. In Three
Volumes. The Engravings by James Fittler, A.R.A., from Pictures by Henry
Singleton. Vol. I. London: Published for William Miller, Albemarle
Street; John Murray, Fleet Street; and John Harding, St. James Street.
1805.”
A very fine 12mo Edition of a famous and much-discussed work, with the
imprint of James Ballantyne, Paul’s Work. A prior edition of the “Poems
of Ossian, containing the Works of James Macpherson, Esq., in Prose and
Rhyme,” with Notes and Illustrations by Malcolm Laing, in Two Volumes,
8vo, was printed by Ballantyne in 1802.
“This edition of the poems ascribed to Ossian is illustrated by notes,
in which every simile, and almost every poetical image is traced to its
source, thus serving as a commentary to point out the real originals from
which the poems have been derived.”[48]
* * * * *
“Journal of the Transactions in Scotland, During the Contest between The
Adherents of Queen Mary and Those of her Son, 1570, 1571, 1572, 1573. By
Richard Bannatyne, Secretary to John Knox. Edinburgh. Printed by James
Ballantyne and Co., For A. Constable and Co., Edinburgh, and J. Murray,
32 Fleet Street, London. 1806.”
Very little is known of this old chronicler, besides his connection with
John Knox the Reformer and the fact that he was a man of learning. There
are two MSS. of the above-named work—one in the University Library and
the other in the Advocates’ Library at Edinburgh. From the latter Sir
John Graham Dalzell took the volume published in 1806, which excited much
interest. Shortly after that time the University MS. was discovered, and
the two being collated by Pitcairn, a more complete edition was issued in
1836.
* * * * *
“The Poetical Works of Hector Macneill, Esq. A New Edition, Corrected
and Enlarged. _Veritatis simplex oratio est._ In Two Volumes. Vol. I.
Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co., for Mundell and Son,
Manners and Miller, and A. Constable and Co., and Longman, Hurst, Rees,
and Orme, and John Murray, London. 1806.”
Hector Macneill (1746-1818) was a popular poet and song-writer. He had a
varied experience in life, and showed his poetic ability by publishing
in 1789, “The Harp, a Legendary Tale,” which brought him into favourable
notice. His most popular poem, “Scotland’s Skaith, or The History of
Will and Jean,” appeared in 1795, and its sequel, “The Waes o’ War,”
was almost equally successful. All Macneill’s works are in the Scottish
dialect. The copy here noted is the second edition (12mo); the first
(8vo) was issued in 1801.
“The moral of Will and Jean was admirable,” says Constable (ii. 235),
“and in favour of temperance at a time when such advice was at a
discount; but it is rather curious and somewhat inconsistent to find the
author in the next poem of the series declaring
“I am resolved, be’t right or sinfu’,
To hae at least,—a decent skinfu’”—
of a large bottle of Jamaica rum, which accompanies a rhyming letter to
his friend ‘Canty Chairlie.’”
* * * * *
“The Poetical Works of Sir David Lyndsay of The Mount, Lyon King at Arms
under James V., with Prefatory Dissertations, and a Glossary. Three
vols., crown 8vo. 1806. Longman and Co.”
This edition was the work of George Chalmers, a well-known Scottish
antiquary, whose greatest work, “Caledonia,” displays much research and
learning.
* * * * *
“Historical Enquiry respecting the Harp in the Highlands of Scotland,
4to. Edinburgh: A. Constable. 1807.”
In regard to this work, reference has been already made (p. 36) to a
letter of John Murray to Constable, in which the beauty of the typography
is praised.
* * * * *
“An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, LL.D., late
Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic in the Marischal College and
University of Aberdeen. Including many of his Original Letters. By Sir
William Forbes of Pitsligo, Bart., one of the executors of Dr. Beattie.
Second Edition. Vol. I. Edinburgh: Printed for Arch. Constable and Co.,
Edinburgh; Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, T. Cadell and W. Davies, and
John Murray, London. 1807.”
James Beattie (1735-1803) first published a volume of poems and
translations in 1760, which he afterwards tried to suppress, though
the book had been favourably received. The work which brought him most
prominently into notice was “An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of
Truth,” written to refute the scepticism of Hume; and it also gained him
a Government pension of £200 a year. “The Minstrel” is Beattie’s best
poem, and it will continue to be read when his philosophical productions
are forgotten. His poems were again printed at Paul’s Work in 1854, in
Nichol’s “British Poets.”
* * * * *
“The Shipwreck, a Poem, by William Falconer, a sailor. With a Life of
the Author. Edinburgh: Printed by J. Ballantyne and Co., for Alexander
Mackay, High Street, Edinburgh, and John Murray, No. 32, Fleet Street,
London. 1807.”
At an early age Falconer became a sailor on board a Leith merchantman,
and in his eighteenth year was wrecked in the _Britannia_ off Cape
Colonna, only three of the crew being saved. He was again wrecked with
the _Ramilies_, when only twenty-six escaped out of a total of 734. After
a period on shore, during which he published several poems, he joined the
_Aurora_, and sailed for India in September 1769. The vessel touched
at the Cape, but was never heard of again, and was supposed to have
foundered in the Mozambique Channel. “The Shipwreck” is his best work,
and is believed to embody his experiences in the wreck of the _Britannia_.
* * * * *
“Poems by James Grahame. In Two Volumes. Vol. I. containing The Sabbath,
Sabbath Walks, Rural Calendar, &c. Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne
and Co., for William Blackwood, South Bridge Street; and Longman, Hurst,
Rees, and Orme, Paternoster Row, London, 1807.”
Two neatly-printed little volumes, each containing a Glossary of Scottish
words at the end. “The Sabbath” first appeared in print in 1804, and was
published anonymously. So careful was the poet regarding the authorship
of this work, that he exacted a promise of secrecy from the printer of
the first edition, whom he used to meet clandestinely at coffee-houses
for the correction of proofs, but never twice at the same house.
* * * * *
“Shakespeare’s Works, in eight vols. 8vo. 1807. Printed by James
Ballantyne for Longman and Co., London.”
* * * * *
“The Cottagers of Glenburnie; a Tale for the Farmer’s Ingle-neuk. By
Elizabeth Hamilton, Author of The Elementary Principles of Education,
Memoirs of Modern Philosophers, &c. Edinburgh: Printed by James
Ballantyne and Co., for Manners and Miller, and S. Cheyne, Edinburgh;
T. Cadell and W. Davies, Strand, and William Miller, Albemarle Street,
London. 1808.”
Elizabeth Hamilton (1758-1816) was born in Belfast of Scottish parentage,
and is worthy of note for her faithful pictures of lowly Scottish life,
as well as for her works criticising the republicanism and scepticism of
the time. The “Cottagers” passed through many editions, and is her best
book.
* * * * *
“Memoirs of Capt. George Carleton, an English officer; including
Anecdotes of the War in Spain under the Earl of Peterborough, and Many
Interesting Particulars relating to the Manners of the Spaniards in the
beginning of last century. Written by Himself. Edinburgh: Printed by
James Ballantyne and Co., for Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and
J. Murray, London, 1808, 8vo.”
Originally published in London in 1728, this work was attributed to Dean
Swift, but is now known to have been written by Defoe. In Boswell’s
“Johnson” there is the following reference to it: “Lord Eliot: ‘The
best account of Lord Peterborough that I have happened to meet with is
in Captain Carleton’s Memoirs.’ Johnson said he had never heard of the
book. Lord Eliot sent it to him. Johnson was about going to bed when it
came, but sat up till he had read it through; and remarked to Sir Joshua
Reynolds, ‘I did not think a _young lord_ could have mentioned to me a
book in English history that was not known to me.’”
* * * * *
“The Novels of Daniel de Foe. In Twelve Volumes. Vol. I. containing Life
of Defoe and Robinson Crusoe. Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and
Co., for John Ballantyne and Co., and Brown and Crombie, Edinburgh; and
Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, London. 1810.”
* * * * *
“Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, chiefly written during the
early part of the Fourteenth Century, to which is prefixed An Historical
Introduction, intended to illustrate the Rise and Progress of Romantic
Composition in France and England. By George Ellis, Esq. Second Edition
in Three Volumes. Vol. I. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme,
and Brown, Paternoster Row. 1811.”
The first edition of this interesting and valuable work was issued in
1805. The author was a great friend of Sir Walter Scott, who says of him
that “George Ellis was the best converser I ever knew. His patience and
good breeding made me often ashamed of myself, going off at score upon
some favourite topic.”[49] Sir Walter addressed to Ellis the fifth canto
of “Marmion,” in which the following lines occur:—
“Dear Ellis! to the bard impart
A lesson of thy magic art,
To win at once the head and heart,—
At once to charm, instruct, and mend,
My guide, my pattern, and my friend!”
George Ellis was also a contributor to “Specimens of the Early English
Poets,” which ran through a number of editions.
* * * * *
An edition of Miss Seward’s Poems, in three volumes, 12mo, edited by
Scott, printed by James, and published by John Ballantyne in 1810. See
_ante_, p. 38.
* * * * *
“The Secret History of the Court of James the First: containing I.
Osborne’s Traditional Memoirs. II. Sir Anthony Weldon’s Court and
Character of King James. III. Aulicus Coquinariæ. IV. Sir Edward Peyton’s
Divine Catastrophe of the House of Stuart. With Notes and Introductory
Remarks. In Two Volumes. Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co.,
For John Ballantyne and Co., Edinburgh; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme,
and Brown, London. 1811.”
Two large 8vo volumes, about 480 pp. each, edited by Sir Walter Scott.
* * * * *
“The Chase, Field Sports, Rural Games, and Other Poems. By William
Somerville. With a Life of the Author. Edinburgh: Printed by James
Ballantyne and Co., for John Ballantyne and Co., Hanover Street,
Edinburgh. 1812.”
The author of “The Chase” (1677-1742) was “a squire well-born, and six
foot high.” He had a goodly estate in Warwickshire worth £1500 a year,
but being of extravagant habits, he died in distressed circumstances. He
was a friend of William Shenstone and Allan Ramsay.
* * * * *
“Tixall Poetry, With Notes and Illustrations, by Arthur Clifford, Esq.,
Editor of Sir Ralph Sadler’s State Papers. Edinburgh: Printed by James
Ballantyne and Co., For Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London;
and John Ballantyne and Co., Edinburgh. 1813.”
A beautifully printed 4to volume, with large margins, having some
English-made Scotch songs among many other poems. This was one of the
unfortunate speculations of Scott, which proved so disastrous to both the
printing and publishing firms; and yet, in spite of its non-success, the
following was taken in hand not long after:—
“Tixall Letters, or the Correspondence of The Family Aston and their
Friends during the Seventeenth Century. With Notes and Illustrations,
by Arthur Clifford, Esq. In Two Volumes. London: Printed for Longman,
Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster Row; and for Archibald
Constable and Co., and John Ballantyne and Co., Edinburgh. 1815.”
There were two volumes in this latter work, of 216 pp. each in foolscap
8vo. The Letters refer generally to the first half of the seventeenth
century.
* * * * *
“The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By Edward
Gibbon, Esq. In Twelve Volumes. Vol. I. A New Edition. London. Printed
for Lackington, Allen, and Co., W. Stride, R. Scholey, and G. Cowie and
Co., London; and for P. Hill, Doig and Stirling, and Oliver and Boyd,
Edinburgh. 1815. Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co.”
Many editions of this great history have since been printed at Paul’s
Work; one of the latest, in six volumes, for the “World’s Classics,” in
1904.
* * * * *
“The City of the Plague and other Poems, by John Wilson, author of
‘The Isle of Palms,’ &c. Second Edition. Edinburgh: Printed by James
Ballantyne and Co., for Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh;
John Smith and Son, Glasgow; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown,
London. 1817.”
“The Isle of Palms” was published in 1812, and the first edition of “The
City of the Plague” in 1816.
* * * * *
The Bannatyne Club and its books took their initiative from George
Bannatyne, a merchant of Edinburgh, who, during a time of great
pestilence in 1568, retired to a secluded house in Forfarshire, and
there employed his enforced leisure in making a collection of old
Scottish poetry, which might otherwise have perished. “Bannatyne’s
manuscript,” says Scott, in a Memoir written for the Club, “is in folio
form, containing upwards of eight hundred pages, very neatly and closely
written; and designed, as has been supposed, to be sent to press.” Allan
Ramsay borrowed from it the specimens of old verse which appeared in his
“Evergreen,” a Collection of Scots Poems, which he published in 1724;
Lord Hailes issued another selection in 1770; and in 1772 the manuscript
was presented to the Advocates’ Library by the Earl of Hyndford. In 1822
the Club was instituted for “the publication of substantial volumes
illustrative of the history, antiquities, and general literature of
Scotland.” Sir Walter Scott became president, and regularly took the
chair at its annual meetings from 1823 till 1831. During the period of
its existence till 1861, the Club published no fewer than 116 volumes,
many of them printed at Paul’s Work. They were all deemed of value, and
one complete set was sold in 1887 for £235. The membership at first
consisted of thirty-one, but, owing to the desire of many persons of
rank and literary distinction to join, it was gradually increased to one
hundred in 1828, when it made a final pause. At the first annual dinner
of the Club, on March 9, 1823, Scott wrote a song for the occasion to
the tune of “One Bottle More,” several verses hitting off the foibles
of various bibliophiles. This song was sung by James Ballantyne, and
heartily chorused by the company.
Three verses are here given:—
“Assist me, ye friends of Old Books and Old Wine,
To sing the praises of sage Bannatyne,
Who left such a treasure of old Scottish lore
As enables each age to print one volume more.
One volume more, my friends, one volume more,
We’ll ransack old Banny for one volume more.
...
John Pinkerton next, and I’m truly concern’d
I can’t call that worthy so candid as learn’d;
He rail’d at the plaid and blasphemed the claymore,
And sets Scots by the ears in his one volume more.
One volume more, my friends, one volume more,
Celt and Goth shall be pleased with one volume more.
...
As bitter as gall, and as sharp as a razor,
And feeding on herbs as a Nebuchadnezzar,
His diet too acid, his temper too sour,
Little Ritson came out with his two volumes more.
But one volume more, my friends, one volume more,
We’ll dine on roast beef, and print one volume more.”
One noble specimen of the Bannatyne Club books was the “Catalogue of the
Library of Abbotsford,” presented to the members by Major Sir Walter
Scott, December 1838. This Catalogue was prepared by Mr. Cochrane of the
London Library.
* * * * *
“The History of the Ingenious Gentleman, Don Quixote of La Mancha.
Translated from the Spanish, by Motteux. A new Edition with Copious
Notes; and an Essay on the Life and Writings of Cervantes [by J. G.
Lockhart]. In Five Volumes. Vol. I. Edinburgh: Printed for Hurst,
Robinson and Co., London; and Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh.
1822.”
* * * * *
“The Works of John Home, Esq. Now first Collected. To which is prefixed
an Account of his Writings. By Henry Mackenzie, F.R.S.E., &c. In Three
Volumes. Vol. I. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co.,
Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., London. 1822.”
John Home (1722-1808) was a clergyman in the Kirk of Scotland, who wrote
several plays. His most popular play was “Douglas,” a Scottish romantic
drama, in which maternal affection is depicted under novel and striking
circumstances—the accidental discovery of a lost child; and Henry
Mackenzie, “the Man of Feeling,” here gives his opinion that the chief
scene, in which the preservation and the existence of the lost Douglas
is discovered, has no equal in modern and scarcely a superior in ancient
drama. The play was first performed at Edinburgh on December 14, 1756,
and met with instant and brilliant success, but so violent a storm was
raised by the fact of a Presbyterian minister so violating the rules of
clerical propriety as to write a play, that the author had to succumb
to the Presbytery and resign his ministry. It is in “Douglas” that the
well-known passage occurs: “My name is Norval: on the Grampian hills my
father feeds his flock,” &c.
* * * * *
“A Topographical and Historical Account of the Town of Kelso, and of the
Town and Castle of Roxburgh. With a succinct detail of the occurrences
in the History of Scotland connected with these celebrated places. And
an Appendix, containing various official documents, &c. By James Haig.
Edinburgh: Printed for John Fairbairn, Waterloo Place; and James Duncan,
London. 1825. Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co.”
Demy 8vo, and illustrated with several fine steel engravings.
* * * * *
“The Poems of William Dunbar. Now first Collected. With Notes and a
Memoir of his Life. By David Laing. Volume First. Edinburgh: MDCCCXXXIV.
Printed for Laing and Forbes, Princes Street, Edinburgh, and William
Pickering, London.”
This old Scottish poet was born in East Lothian, and after his education
at the University of St. Andrews became a Franciscan friar and travelled
through France, England, and Scotland as a mendicant preacher. Little was
known of his poems till the beginning of the eighteenth century, though
several of them had been issued as tracts by the first Scottish printers,
Walter Chepman and Andro Myllar, in 1508. Sir Walter Scott said: “Dunbar
was unrivalled by any poet that Scotland has yet produced; he excelled in
moral and humorous verse, and was peculiarly happy in using allegory in
the advocacy of truth.”
There is evidence that Dr. Laing had a previous edition of a portion of
Dunbar’s poems printed at Paul’s Work in 1827; but just as the volume
was completed, with the exception of the Introduction, a disastrous
fire occurred in the binder’s premises which destroyed the greater
portion of the sheets, and only seventy-six copies (four on vellum) were
actually published, not a few bearing evidence of the scorching they had
sustained.[50]
* * * * *
“Constable’s Miscellany,” extending to seventy-six volumes, was first
printed by Willison (Constable’s father-in-law), and after his death, for
two years by Hutchinson for Willison’s heirs, and then at Paul’s Work by
Ballantyne & Co., who had also given occasional aid in the production
of the early volumes. This series comprised books in all branches of
literature, such as Lockhart’s “Life of Burns,” Robert Chambers’s
“History of the Rebellions in Scotland during the Seventeenth Century,”
2 vols.; the same author’s “History of the Rebellion of 1745,” 2 vols.;
Basil Hall’s “Voyages,” &c., &c. The first volume appeared on January 6,
1826. The “Miscellany” was “undoubtedly the pioneer and suggester of all
the various ‘Libraries’ which sprang up in its wake, and which, after the
inspiration and management of its projector had been withdrawn, may be
said to have run it down.... ‘Constable’s Miscellany’ also inaugurated
the cloth bindings which are now universally adopted in our own and other
countries.”[51] The printing of the same publisher’s _Edinburgh Review_,
begun in October 1802, was done till 1806 by different printers—Mundell,
Muirhead, Walker and Son, and Moir. In 1807 Willison’s name first appears
and continues till his death, when Hutchinson comes in for two years; and
from 1827 till its removal to London it was printed at the Ballantyne
Press.
It is impossible to mention a tithe of the other books which have passed
through the Ballantyne Press during the century and more that has elapsed
since its origin, and all that can be attempted here is a reference to
the outstanding publications which have been printed at Paul’s Work.
These include several editions of the Waverley Novels, Shakespeare,
Browning, Dickens, Thackeray, Bret Harte, Besant and Rice, Charles Reade,
Mrs. Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë, Thomas Hardy, Mrs. Sewell, and others;
various editions of Ruskin’s Works, including the great Library Edition
of thirty-eight volumes—one of the finest works printed at the Press;
Walpole’s “History of England”; Maunder’s “Dictionaries”; Chisholm’s
“Gazetteer of the World”; “The Armorial Families”; “Chronicles of the
Atholl and Tullibardine Families” for the Duke of Atholl; “Military
History of Perthshire,” edited by the Marchioness of Tullibardine;
Nuttall’s “Dictionary” and “Encyclopædia” and “Dictionary of Quotations”;
volumes of the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” the Temple Classics,
the Chandos Classics, and Lansdowne Poets; Trübner’s Oriental and
Philosophical Libraries of about 200 octavo volumes; editions of Henry’s
“Commentary” and of Hymn-books and Church Praise; Bagster’s Bibles and
“Daily Light” and Prayer-books; Latin and Greek text-books, Art books,
works of Travel and Biography, school-books of all kinds; The Journal
of the Iron and Steel Institute; The Records of the Historic Society of
Lancashire and Cheshire, of the Champlain Society of Toronto, and of
various other learned Societies.
[Illustration]
APPENDIX
A pleasant and memorable chapter in the history of the Ballantyne Press
is its connection with the Edinburgh International Exhibition of 1886,
held in the West Meadows. The position occupied by Paul’s Work relative
to the literary history of Edinburgh since the beginning of last century,
as well as other considerations, induced the firm to make an exhibit of
ancient printing materials and of Early Bibles and other books in the Old
Edinburgh buildings of that Exhibition; and to show a working model, so
to speak, of an early printing-house. This was considered to be a very
attractive feature of the Exhibition, and the following account of it
appeared in the Scotsman of September 15, 1886.
“THE BALLANTYNE PRESS IN ‘OLD EDINBURGH’
“Passing through the Nether Bow Port, and keeping to the left,
visitors to the Exhibition will come upon the reproduction
of an old house in Dickson’s Close, now improved away, and
supposed to have been originally the work of Robert Mylne,
the builder of the modern portion of Holyrood, and peculiar
from its upper storeys and open galleries projecting for
several feet beyond the basement—a not uncommon feature of the
architecture of olden times. This house, or a near neighbour
to it in the same ‘land,’ was at one time the abode of David
Allan, the Scottish Hogarth. Above the door is an old-fashioned
swinging signboard showing ‘Ye Ballantyne Presse, 1796,’ while
the windows are adorned with stained glass. Here Messrs.
Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., Paul’s Work, have gathered together a
goodly display of the old implements of the ‘prenters,’ ancient
Bibles and other books, as well as a number of other curios.
“Prominent among the typographical antiquities is a venerable
wooden hand-press, nearly two centuries old, and substantially
identical with those used in the early stages of the art.
This press is worked by a genial and chatty representative of
Caxton, in a neat sixteenth-century costume. He is engaged
printing off sundry jobs, using the old-fashioned hand-balls
or ‘dabbers’ for putting the ink on the types, a method of
inking which came in with the art, and which was superseded
by the modern ‘roller’ only about fifty years ago. Within the
cases on the counter of this old curiosity shop are to be seen
ancient composing-sticks, type moulds, punches, matrices, &c.,
for casting types. In the cases are also a number of relative
curiosities, lent for exhibition by the Oxford University
Press, and originally the property of the celebrated Dr. Fell.
Among these is a small quarto book, printed in 1700, containing
the Lord’s Prayer in upwards of 200 languages. Here also is a
parcel of Icelandic type, given to the Oxford Press by Francis
Junius about 1677, and some music type of the seventeenth
century.
“In one case is a proof-sheet of the ‘Life of Napoleon,’ by Sir
Walter Scott, with the author’s corrections. One page of this
proof-sheet, which is the property of the Earl of Rosebery,
has a characteristic remark by James Ballantyne, the printer,
in reference to one of Sir Walter’s footnotes. It was to be
expected from the connection the Ballantynes had with Scott
that some relics of the author of the Waverley Novels would be
shown, and here are to be seen the chair and desk reserved for
his use in Paul’s Work when he came to correct his proofs or
transact business.
“Around the walls are also to be seen a number of pictures,
among these being a copy by Maris of Raeburn’s portrait of
Scott; a proof copy of the well-known engraving of Scott and
his contemporaries; Caxton in Westminster Abbey; old views
of Edinburgh, one of them dated 1579, &c. A remarkably fine
etching shows the bookselling shop of Jacob van Liesvelt at
Antwerp in the sixteenth century. Liesvelt was condemned and
beheaded at Antwerp, because in the annotations of a Bible he
had edited and printed, it was said that ‘the salvation of
mankind proceeds from Christ alone!’ A number of old playbills
also adorn the walls, some of these having portraits framed
along with them, such as that of Mackay as Bailie Nicol Jarvie,
Mrs. Siddons as Lady Randolph, and Mr. Liston as Dominie
Sampson. One old playbill is shown of the Kelso Theatre,
printed by Ballantyne at the Border Press, before Scott induced
him to remove his printing-office to Paul’s Work, Edinburgh.
“There are here a number of old newspapers—the _Kingdom’s
Intelligencer_, the _Perfect Diurnal_, the _Courant_,
_Caledonian Mercury_, &c. One of the _Diurnals_ contains a
despatch of General Monk, dated from his headquarters at
Dalkeith in August 1654; and a _Caledonian Mercury_ of August
26, 1822, contains a subscription list for the National
Monument on Calton Hill, and the _menu_ for the banquet given
by the municipality of Edinburgh to George IV. in Parliament
House. There is also an early number of the _Scotsman_, of
1855, shown by way of contrast to the present issues of the
journal.
[Illustration: DESK USED BY SIR WALTER SCOTT IN PAUL’S WORK]
“To many visitors, however, the interest in the Ballantyne
Press exhibits will centre in the fine collection of Ancient
Bibles and other books which have been gathered together. The
gem of this collection is a copy of the very rare ‘Mentelin’
Bible, printed about 1466—one of the earliest printed by the
aid of movable type, in fine condition, with initial letters
filled in by the hand, of beautiful design and colouring. The
table of contents extends to eighteen pages, and is all in
MS. of various colours. Another rare Bible is the Hans Lufft,
or first edition of Luther’s Bible in two volumes, printed in
1534. This Bible is in its original binding of wood with brass
mountings, and has a great number of woodcuts printed along
with the text, which in this copy were afterwards coloured
by hand expressly for the Prince Protector. The existence of
this Bible was frequently denied by learned men of Germany,
owing to its great rarity, caused by the destruction of most
copies by the Roman Catholics. John George of Saxony was unable
to obtain it for himself, and was obliged to be contented
with the sight of one, then supposed to be unique. A copy of
this work sold at a very high price at Lord Holland’s sale
in 1860. The engravings throughout the work, and especially
in the Revelation of St. John, are curious and full of
anachronisms—the patriarchs and prophets being clad in the
German costume of the sixteenth century. Another Lutheran
Bible here is one printed at Nurnberg, in 1720, by Andrea
Enolters. This is said to be one of the finest of all the
ancient German Bibles, and has, besides a number of beautiful
engravings of Biblical scenes, several portraits of well-known
German princes. It is also in its original binding with metal
ornaments. A copy of the first edition of the Paris printer
Robert Stephens’ valuable Greek Testament, in two volumes,
published in 1546, may also be seen. A former possessor has
enriched the margins of this copy with a copious supply of
Latin notes and comments in very small MS. There were other
editions of this book published in 1549, 1550, and 1551. That
of 1551, published at Geneva, was divided into verses as we
have the Bible now, a plan which the printer Stephens was the
first to put into actual use.
[Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT’S CHAIR IN PAUL’S WORK]
“Of a more purely local interest, however, is a copy of
another Bible we find here, that of the first one printed
in Scotland, with the date of 1576. This work, printed by
Alexander Arbuthnot and Thomas Bassendyne, has a history of
its own. It was put in type from the Genevan version, and
has the well-known ‘breeches’ translation of Genesis iii.
7, and contains also the side-notes, to which King James
is said afterwards to have strongly objected as ‘partial,
untrue, and seditious,’ when arrangements were being made for
the Authorised translation of 1611. Besides being connected
with the first Bible printed in Scotland, Bassendyne’s
printing-office, which was situated in a close nearly opposite
John Knox’s house, is repeatedly referred to in the evidence
of the accomplices of the Earl of Bothwell in the murder of
Darnley, an event which took place in the lifetime of the old
printer. In the deposition of George Dalgleish, one of those
who were executed for their share in that crime, it is stated
that, ‘efter thay enterit within the Nether Bow Port, thai zeid
up abone Bassyntine’s house, on the south side of the gait, and
knockit at ane dur beneth the sword slippers, and callit for
the Laird of Ormestounes, and one within answerit he was not
thare; and thai passit down a cloiss beneth Frier Wynd, and
enterit in at the zet of the Black Friers.’ This reference
clearly indicates that Bassendyne’s workshop was situated near
the Nether Bow, whence was issued the folio Bible which is here
shown.
“Another Genevan or ‘breeches’ version, printed by Christopher
Barker in 1586, is also in the collection, this one having the
Book of Common Prayer at the beginning. There is here, too,
King James’s own copy of the first edition of the Authorised
Version of 1611, printed by Robert Barker in black letter.
It is in fine condition, with the Royal arms on the massive
outside boards, and contains the well-known and curiously
elaborate genealogical tables by John Speed. Taking thought
for the common people, King James is said to have given orders
that a smaller and cheaper edition of the Authorised Version
in Roman type should be prepared in quarto size. This was also
printed by Robert Barker, and published in 1614, and is to be
seen here, along with many other Bibles, some with curious
bindings, and others with music to the Psalms. Several of the
more important of the Bibles above mentioned have been lent for
exhibition by the Rev. Dr. Ginsburg of London.
“One of the most curious black-letter books in the Ballantyne
collection, and with an interesting history, is a copy of the
first complete Concordance to the English Bible, written by
John Marbek (or Merbecke), and printed by Richard Grafton,
in 1550. This John Marbek was organist to the Royal Chapel
at Windsor, and his book bears the following title: ‘A
Concordance, that is to saie a worke wherein by the ordere of
the letters A. B. C. ye maie redely finde any worde conteigned
in the whole Bible, so often as it is there expressed or
mentioned.’ Marbek, after various difficulties, had gone on
with his Concordance as far as the letter L, when all his
papers were seized, and he was apprehended and imprisoned. ‘He
was arraigned, for that he had with his own hand gathered out
of divers men’s writings certain things that were expressly
against both the mass and the sacrament of the altar. He was
arraigned and condemned with three others—namely, Anthony
Persone, priest; Robert Testwood, singing-man; and Henry
Filmer, tailor; on account of the Six Articles in the year
1544; the three last were burned at Windsor, but the innocence
of Marbek gained him the King’s pardon.’
“When he was set at liberty, as his papers were not restored
to him, he had his Concordance to begin again; and this, when
completed, he showed to a friend, who promised to assist him in
having it presented to the King, in order to have it published
by his authority; but Henry VIII. died before that could be
brought about, and it was accordingly dedicated to Edward VI.
This folio black-letter Concordance gives a good specimen of
the printer Grafton’s rebus or monogram, a _graft_ inserted
into a _tun_.
“A number of other interesting curiosities, and a library of
ancient books, too numerous to be detailed here, are in various
cabinets and bookcases in this shop of Old Edinburgh. Many
of the volumes are over 300 years old; several are in their
original bindings; and all are in fair condition. Classics
from the printing-presses of the Elzevirs, Stephens, Gryphius,
Foulis, Ruddiman, and other printers whose names are now
historical, are all to be seen, besides a goodly array of fine
art and other books, the more recent productions of Messrs.
Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.”—W. T. D.
THE END
[Illustration: NEW PAUL’S WORK, EDINBURGH]
FOOTNOTES
[1] “I remember it was a thing of daily occurrence, that after he had
made himself master of his own lesson, I, alas! being still sadly to seek
in mine, he used to whisper to me, ‘Come, slink over beside me, Jamie,
and I’ll tell you a story.’”—James Ballantyne’s “Memorandum.”
[2] Afterwards published in 1801, and coldly received.
[3] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” ii. 42, 43.
[4] The Count was a native of Russian Poland, and was in early life
patronised by a Polish lady, with whom he visited various countries of
Europe. He resided for some time in Paris, but quitting it shortly before
the Revolution came over to this country. He exhibited himself at fairs,
and was a favourite with the public, to whom he recommended himself
not only by his diminutive stature, but by his intelligence and genial
disposition. He eventually realised enough to enable him to spend the
last thirty years of his life in comfort. The Count’s height was exactly
35½ inches, and his person was a model of symmetry. His remains were
interred in Durham Cathedral, near those of his intimate friend, Stephen
Kemble.
[5] This and the view of Kelso market-place in 1797, at page 3, are also
given through the courtesy of the present proprietor of the _Mail_.
[6] Endorsed by Professor Saintsbury (“Sir Walter Scott,” Famous Scots
Series): “The earliest form of the ‘Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border’ is
a very pretty book: it deservedly established the fame of Ballantyne as a
printer.”
[7] “A History of Accounting and Accountants” (T. C. and E. C. Jack,
1904).
[8] The following note gives the residents in the little street in James
Ballantyne’s time:—
No. 1, the old street guardian.
No. 2, Mr. Ewart and two sons, officials in the Chancery Office.
No. 3, Dr. Brunton, Professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages, Edinburgh
University, and Mrs. Brunton, authoress of some religious novels, which
had considerable popularity in their day.
No. 4, Mr. Phillips, Commissioner of Customs.
No. 5, Mr. Alexander Cowan, the well-known papermaker.
No. 6, Mr. Andrew Bogle, Secretary Royal Bank of Scotland.
No. 7, Mrs. McLeod, widow of McLeod of St. Kilda, with a large family of
daughters and one son, who rose to the rank of General in the Indian Army.
No. 8, The Countess of Hyndford.
No. 9, Miss Suttie, an old lady from East Lothian.
No. 10, Mr. James Ballantyne.
No. 13, Mr. Speid, W.S., laird of Ardovie, Forfarshire.
No. 14, Mr. Andrew Ramsay, Advocate; and, later on, Mr. Alexander
Ballantyne.
No. 15, Mr. Trotter, the laird of Morton Hall.
—_Derived from_ Mr. Charles Cowan’s “Reminiscences” (1878).
[9] “The Book-Fancier” (1886), p. 80.
[10] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” iii. 120, 121.
[11] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” v. 218.
[12] “James Ballantyne has taken his brother Sandy into the house, I mean
the firm.”—“Scott’s Journal,” Feb. 21, 1829.
[13] See also James Ballantyne’s suggestions as to the “Field of
Waterloo,” given on p. 67; and a fuller treatment of this topic in
Chapter IX.
[14] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” ii. 201, 202.
[15] “My father never could forgive Scott his concealment of the
Ballantyne partnership.”—Ruskin, “Fors Clavigera,” Letter liv.
[16] “Constable and his Literary Correspondents,” i. 376.
[17] “The book was among the most unfortunate that James Ballantyne
printed, and his brother published, in deference to the personal feelings
of their partner.”—Lockhart’s “Life,” iii. 298. See further on this
point, Chapter V., p. 46.
[18] “The conclusion of the matter was that the Ballantyne publishing
company found a haven in the capacious bosom of Constable, who believed
in the Star of Scott, advanced some £4000, and took off the sinking ship
the useless burden of the valueless books.”—A. LANG.
[19] “He was a prince of booksellers.... He knew, I think, more of the
business of a bookseller in planning and executing popular works than any
man of his time.”—Scott’s “Journal,” July 23, 1827.
[20] Willison was his own press-reader. He was rigid in his ideas of
punctuation, and gave much trouble to the Reviewers by his finical
particularity in this respect. A story is told of his having on one
occasion sent Jeffrey a second proof (technically _revise_) of a portion
of one of his criticisms, with a note on the margin, that “there appeared
to be something unintelligible in this passage.” Jeffrey returned the
proof unaltered, with a note to the effect that “Mr. Jeffrey can see
nothing unintelligible in this passage, unless in the number of commas,
which Mr. Willison seems to keep in a pepper-box beside him, for the
purpose of dusting the proof with.”
[21] A complete set of the _Sale Room_ in good condition is very rare.
[22] Charles Cowan’s “Reminiscences.”
[23] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” vi. 67.
[24] “Perhaps the very best specimens of Scott’s powers in this direction
are the prefaces which he contributed much later and gratuitously to
John Ballantyne’s ‘Novelists’ Library’—things which hardly yield to
Johnson’s ‘Lives’ as examples of the combined arts of criticism and
biography.”—Saintsbury’s “Sir Walter Scott” (Famous Scots Series).
[25] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” vi. 328, 329.
[26] “Literary Lives” (Hodder & Stoughton).
[27] “To dethrone the Scot’s one-pound note, the Palladium of the ancient
kingdom.”—A. LANG.
[28] “Meadowbank taxed me with the novels, and to end that farce at once
I pleaded guilty, so that splore is ended.”—Scott’s “Journal,” Feb. 24,
1827.
[29] Smiles’ “Life of John Murray,” i. 457, 461.
[30] Many manuscripts of modern authors are execrable, and little care
is taken to make what is written plain and intelligible, resulting in
“errors of the press,” though, owing to the vigilance of the press
reader, comparatively few of these meet the eye of the public. In the
preparation of their “copy” lawyers of high repute will leave technical
and foreign terms in a truncated or misspelt way; divines frequently
show an aversion to both punctuation marks and capitals, the omission
of which would bring scorn and contempt upon the compositor and the
reader. Many instances of faulty manuscripts could be cited. A few will
suffice. A learned professor in a northern university wrote in such a
shocking spidery hand that the men were paid a third more for putting
it in type; a divine, long since gone over to the majority, wrote his
sermons on any scrap of paper he got hold of—old bills, torn envelopes,
&c.—and thus caused an infinity of labour in arranging these oddments
in a readable way. If any particular bit got transposed from its proper
place, it did not appear to matter very much; it was as well there as
anywhere else. Similar to this was a famous writer, well known at Paul’s
Work, who, prior to his morning prowl among old bookshops, would fill his
pockets with scraps of paper—envelopes and such-like—on which he noted
the particulars of his daily finds; and these were afterwards sent to
the printer to be arranged for a book. Another reverend writer, whose
works were many and sold well, would take a quarto sheet of paper to
write on—beginning with a narrow centre column for the first draft of
his subject; to this would be added afterthoughts by branching lines to
the centre column, till the whole sheet was full—like a rushing river
gathering in fresh supplies from meandering rivulets on either side of
its course. But this topic is a wide and curious one, and instances might
be given where an author was unable to read his own “copy,” and had to
see a proof of what could be set in type before he was able to remedy an
unreadable passage or supply an obscure or missing word.
[31] By permission of the Curators of the Library there is here given a
facsimile of a page of “Waverley.”
[32] The following note is from C. G. Leland’s translation of Heine’s
“Pictures of Travel” (i. 258): “Of all great writers, Byron is just the
one whose writings excite in me the least passion, while Scott, on the
contrary, in his every book gladdens, tranquillises, and strengthens my
heart. Even his imitators please me, as in such instances as Willibald
Alexis, Bronikowski, and Cooper, the first of whom, in the ironic
‘Walladmor,’ approaches nearest his pattern, setting before our souls a
poetic originality well worthy of Scott.”
[33] Hutton’s “Life of Scott.”
[34] An old name for hand-pressmen, as “cuddie” was for the compositor:
both now gone out of use.
[35] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” v. 344, 345.
[36] It may be interesting to reproduce here the statement of accounts,
&c., of the paper at the time of the sale:
RECEIPTS
Sale of Newspapers £2390
Advertisements 1055
------
Total £3445
EXPENDITURE
Annual cost of stamps and paper £1425
Printing 570
Advertisement duty 360
Clerks’ salaries, office rent, &c. 250
Allowance for bad debts 230
Profits 610
------
Total £3445
—_Edinburgh Newspapers, Past and Present_ (1891).
[37] Andrew’s “British Journalism,” &c.
[38] See also a letter of Scott to Ellis (Lockhart’s “Life,” iii.
145):—“An Edinburgh Annual Register, to be conducted under the auspices
of James Ballantyne, _who is himself no despicable composer_.”
[39] “The Greville Memoirs,” i. 251.
[40] _Tait’s Magazine_ (1839), pp. 657, 658, 668.
[41] “Leaves from My Autobiography.” By Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D.
[42] Miss Martineau’s “Biographical Sketches,” pp. 347, 348.
[43] “No man was better fit to arbitrate in this difficult dispute than
Chambers was.”—Claudius Clear, in the _British Weekly_, January 1907.
[44] _Fraser’s Magazine_, 1835.
[45] See footnote, pp. 47-48.
[46] Letter of James Ballantyne in “Constable and his Literary
Correspondents,” iii. 5.
[47] Lockhart’s “Life of Scott,” ii. 125.
[48] “Constable and his Literary Correspondents,” ii. 197.
[49] Journal, Aug. 29, 1826.
[50] In connection with this a curious fraud may be noted here. At the
sale of Dr. Laing’s library there was disposed of a number of odd lots of
pamphlets and papers, and amongst these a quantity of undamaged sheets
of the Ballads and Poems of Dunbar. Whoever bought these was determined
to make a profit out of them, for an Edinburgh “book-hunter” discovered
one day in a second-hand bookseller’s shop a nicely bound gilt-top
quarto volume, bearing the title “Ancient Poetry of Scotland. Edinburgh,
1508,” and having the device of Andro Myllar on it. Facing the title
was “Imprinted Glasgow, 1800. Limited to 50 copies, 10 on thick paper,
1 on vellum.” The book looked tempting, and was bought; but, to the
bibliophile’s disappointment, it proved most fragmentary, as it contained
only a limited portion of the sheets of the Ballantyne reprint several
times repeated, irrespective of consecutiveness, throughout the book, and
many of the pages bore traces of the accident which befell the original
work.
[51] “Constable and his Literary Correspondents,” iii. 305, 310.
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