Dougal Graham

“ I heard a young plowman so sweetly to sing,
And as he was singing, these words he did say,
No life is like the plowman’s in the month of May.
The lark in the morning rises from her nest,
And mounts in the air with the dew on her breast,
And with the jolly plowman she’ll whistle and she’ll sing,
And at night she’ll return to her nest back again.’
It is interesting to notice that Cromek has attributed lines almost identical with these to Robert Burns, [21] and the most eminent editors of the works of the Ayrshire Bard have followed him. ”

“ Any one who is at all acquainted with life among the lower classes, must admit that these descriptions are true to nature, and that a study of them is necessary before we can know thoroughly upon what the present superstructure of Scottish civilisation has been built. Graham, perhaps unintentionally, has held ‘the mirror up to nature,’ has shown ‘virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.’
It would be difficult, again, to over-estimate the value of Dougal Graham’s works as affording illustrations of the folk-lore of Scotland. ”

“ By his own confession, however, his work is merely an instalment, and, as we have indicated, a history of the chap-literature of Scotland has yet to be written. It is a matter to be regretted that the popular works of last century—the works which found most favour with the great mass of the people, and which, with the addition of the Bible, was the bulk of their reading—should have been over-looked. ”

“ The opinions Sir Walter Scott and William Motherwell had of Dougal Graham’s writings have already been shown, and their estimate of the value of the literature for which he wrote has been clearly brought out.
No one need regret that the days of chap-books are gone, but the human mind has a tendency to turn with a loving look to the past, as if life in it had been easier than in the present. ”

“ Until this time, Graham is not known to have made any effort in the direction of literature, though, in view of the magnitude of the task he set before himself on the conclusion of the rebellion, it is not improbable he may have courted the Muses from afar, and indulged in poetical, or rhythmical, fancies for the amusement of his customers and entertainers in his youthful chapman days. However that may be, Dougal, immediately after the disaster at Culloden, rapidly made his way homewards, and set about committing to verse a narrative of the expedition of Prince Charles. ”

“ Add to these virtues that Dougal is never out of humour, always laughing and gossiping, drinking and telling old tales. His laughter, also, is contagious; we cannot contain ourselves. All his stories are full of people who laugh “like to burst,” and one cannot help but join them in their cacchinations. ”

“ His indelicacy is notorious—his coarseness an abomination—but they are characteristic of the class for whom he wrote. He is thoroughly imbued with the national humours and peculiarities of his countrymen of the humblest classes, and his pictures of their manners, modes of thinking and conversation, are always sketched with a strong and faithful pencil. Indeed, the uncommon popularity the chap-books above noted have acquired, entitles them, in many a point of view, to the regard of the moralist, and the literary historian. We meet with them on every stall, and in every cottage. ”

“ As early as 1644, Zachary Boyd, for some time minister of the Barony Parish of Glasgow, and Vice-Chancellor of the University, complained to the General Assembly about the ‘idle books, ... fables, love-songs, baudry ballads, heathen husks, youth’s poison,’ in circulation. Printing was then in its infancy in Scotland, and it is interesting to note how, thus early in its existence, it sought to extend to the people a cheap literature which, though perhaps not of the most wholesome kind, might hardly be deserving of the strictures of the stern presbyterian of the seventeenth century. ”

“ The plan of another of Graham’s chap-books, Fun upon Fun, or the Comical Tricks of Leper the Taylor, is very similar to that which has been pointed out as characteristic of Lothian Tom and John Cheap. Leper is a madcap whose impudent doings bear a strong resemblance to stories told of similar beings in this and other countries; and the design of the author seems to have been to lay before his readers a collection of tales grouped round one central figure, rather than to give a record of the life of any real person. ”

“ We must not, however, be understood to give countenance to another impression, by no means uncommon among a certain class, that George Buchanan acted as the King’s buffoon or fool. The life of the historian of Scotland was cast in a troublous age. ”

“ The two chap-books that now fall to be spoken of are very different in their nature from any to which reference has yet been made, and, indeed, they may be said to form a class by themselves, for they are unique in the popular literature of either Scotland or England. The History of Haverel Wives, ‘written,’ as the title-page states, ‘by Humphrey Clinker, the Clashing Wives’ Clerk,’ one of the many cognomens adopted by Graham, is a ‘comical’ and exceedingly interesting conference between two old women, on their experiences of the past. ”

“ The Turnamspike alone was sufficient to entitle him to immortality. I had, in my early life, a great collection of these chap-books, and had six volumes of them bought before I was ten years old, comprehending most of the more rare and curious of our popular tracts.”’
Motherwell, again, says that he himself projected—but was unable, through want of leisure, and the difficulty of obtaining materials, to carry his intention into effect—a history of vulgar literature, in which, as a matter of course, Graham must have occupied a prominent place. ”

“ The History of John Cheap the Chapman belongs to the same class of chap-books as Lothian Tom, though it has been usual to believe that, unlike the latter, it was to a certain extent autobiographical, and that in it Graham related some of his own experiences. It has been already seen that its value in this respect, if it has any, cannot be estimated on account of the doubt as to whether it is autobiography or fiction. ”

“ In the preface also he says:—‘I have no dread of any Body’s finding Fault with me for telling the Truth, because Charles has no Sway here; Duke William, once the Idol of the loyal British, is gone to the House of Silence, and, I believe, if I should take the Liberty to tell the Truth of him, no Body could blame me.’ The contention here is not that Graham was not sufficiently worldly to stoop to trimming, but rather that the undoubted alterations made on the third edition were not of the character many have imagined them to be. ”

“ No complaint can be made of any neglect of the higher walks in the profession of letters in the eighteenth century. The philosophers, poets, novelists, and historians of Scotland in the last century, have had at least justice done them. But their works, for the most part, were addressed to the educated, then a small proportion of the population. Those who wrote for the people—for the uneducated peasantry—have been ignored, a notable exception being Burns, whose works were popular with all classes. ”

“ In truth, it is no exaggeration when we state, that he who desires to acquire a thorough knowledge of low Scottish life, vulgar manners, national characteristics, and popular jokes, must devote his days and nights to the study of John Cheap the Chapman—Leper the Taylor—Paddy from Cork—The whole proceedings of Jockie and Maggie’s Courtship—Janet [64] Clinker’s Orations—Simple John, &c., all productions of Dougald’s fertile brain, and his unwearied application to the cultivation of vulgar literature. ”

“ It is, however, another illustration of the familiar adage that ‘distance lends enchantment to the view.’ These works, impossible now, must be regarded in the light in which Dean Ramsay prepared his Reminiscences. His [80] object was to ‘depict a phase of national manners which was fast passing away, and thus, in however humble a department, contribute something to the materials of history, by exhibiting social customs and habits of thought which at a particular era were characteristic of a race.’ [39] Such is the value of the remnants of the once extensive chap literature of Scotland. ”

“ Motherwell’s edition of John Falkirk was published in Glasgow in 1779, but his copy of the Cariches was undated.
The Comical Sayings of Pady from Cork is the title of a chap-book attributed to Graham by Motherwell and all his successors. Unlike the bellman’s other works it does not deal with any phase of Scottish life, but rather with the vagaries popularly believed for many generations to be characteristic of the Irish mind. It is, in fact, a collection of the proverbial Irish ‘bulls,’ some of them ‘comical’ and spontaneous, but others studied and consequently stupid. ”

“ The first edition is so extremely rare, that only one copy is known to be preserved, and, as a literary curiosity, it might be worth reprinting; although it demolishes the fine story of the author’s difficulty in obtaining the bellman’s place from the Glasgow bailies, on account of his being a Jacobite, and having joined the Pretender’s army.’ [6] But more than that, there are in the third edition itself some lines which go against the notion of alterations in respect of the colouring of the events recorded. ”

“ There can be no question, however, that it contains a most valuable account of the real life of the Scottish Chapman, with many vivid glimpses of home life in Scotland in the middle of last century. Like all the others, its indelicacy is sometimes notorious, but like them its truthfulness must be its apology. The earliest dated edition we have seen is one published in 1798 by Johnston of Falkirk; but another, in some slight details more complete, was issued by J. Morren, of the Cowgate, Edinburgh, about the beginning of this, or the closing year of the eighteenth, century. ”

“ After a careful comparison of the English chap-book, Simple Simon, with Simple John, we cannot but admit the statement that ‘the prefatory matter is quite in Graham’s style, and could not have been written by an Englishman;’ but we are not prepared to admit that Graham ‘most certainly stole’ the main body of the work. What Professor Fraser assumes to have been stolen must have been, though he does not explicitly say so, the ‘Twelve Misfortunes,’ for he admits that the preface is original and Scotch. ”

“ The time had changed, and the popular taste had improved; and, after 1832, Chambers’ Journal took the place among the people formerly occupied by chap-books. As the taste for reading increased, the Journal shared honours with other [78] publications, until now the issue of ephemeral literature has reached an extraordinary development. There are, however, many still living who remember the days of chap-literature, and who can recall the zest with which they first read the adventures of ‘Louden Tam,’ ‘Leper the Tailor,’ ‘John Cheap,’ and all that race. ”

“ Here is a difficulty not easily overcome. Caldwell’s information was likely to be correct, and it is further supported by the knowledge that during the Jacobite risings the Glasgow bailies, and the citizens generally, were staunch supporters of the House of Hanover. The first thought that must suggest itself to the mind is, that it was not at all likely that Graham would seek to publish in Glasgow a Jacobite history of the Rebellion, at a time when the city authorities were applying to Parliament for an indemnification for the money and supplies levied on them by the Prince and his army. ”

“ To convince himself of the truth of this statement, all that the reader requires to do is to note carefully the chap-books written by Graham, either in contrast with others, or by themselves. There is enough in them, without considering their relation to others, to prove that statement, for their truthfulness to human nature, and especially Scottish human nature, appeals to the heart and convinces the judgment.
While Dougal Graham was thus actively employed, and with so much effect, other writers were contributing their quota to chapman literature. ”

“ Nothing that can be said to have given any new feature to chap literature was published after Graham’s death, though it still continued to be very popular. Many printers throughout the country set themselves almost exclusively to its circulation, which, it has been stated, had reached, before the close of the century, a quarter of a million copies annually. The old chap-books were reprinted in almost every town of any note in Scotland, sometimes in full, sometimes abridged; songs and ballads were collected and got up in chap-book and broadside form ”

“ The Editor of these volumes has endeavoured to combine the intentions of Scott and Motherwell. After long and careful search, he has been able to bring together extremely rare and unique editions of Graham’s chap-books. Many of these works are rich in illustration of the manners and customs of the people during the period of their first publication; and the Editor, by foot-notes, and otherwise, has tried to explain obscurities, or trace the origin and development of peculiar customs. He has also noted many passages containing valuable contributions to the folk-lore literature of Scotland. ”

“ With a due admiration for the talents of Graham, we must [47] submit that the character of the verse, even as given in a slightly polished state by Cromek, was not worthy of Burns, who said himself that his work was all the result of careful revisal. Graham’s verses often display false quantity; his rhyme is often far from true; and his grammar is frequently lame: but these are faults which the greatest detractor of the genius of Robert Burns would find it difficult to lay to his charge. It might be urged, of course, that this may have been a youthful production of Burns’s pen ”

“ Graham was first noticed as having done something for the literature of his country by Mr. E. J. Spence, of London, who in 1811 published Sketches of the Manners, Customs, and Scenery of Scotland. Motherwell, in the short-lived Paisley Magazine, next set forth fully Graham’s title to the regard of his compatriots, and rescued a few recollections concerning him which, in the course of a year or two more, would have been lost. ”

“ We do not feel ourselves under any obligation to do so, for had the author toned down the colouring of some of his chap-books, they would have been untrue to nature to the [67] extent of the suppression. What should be regretted was the immorality and coarseness so prevalent among the lower classes in Scotland during last century; and he who wishes to further the improvement and condition of the people will welcome Graham’s chap-books as showing distinctly what required reformation a century ago. ”

“ Like many another man, Graham becomes incoherent when indulging in strong language. But matters did not always remain in this sad state, and when he published the second edition of his History of the Rebellion he was able to call himself ‘Dougal Graham, merchant,’ showing he had advanced a step in his commercial position. ”

“ Sir Walter Scott felt interested in Dougal’s work, but unfortunately he has contributed nothing to his biography, though it is believed to have been his intention to have done so. Such being the state of matters, it is only fair at this stage to assume that comparatively few of the events in the life of Dougal Graham have been ascertained beyond doubt, and that much that is related about him might be overturned even by some minute discovery. The probabilities, however, are against such a happy occurrence at so remote a period. ”

“ Leaving the old home under the shadow of Stirling Castle, Graham went in his early youth as a servant to a small farmer in the neighbourhood of the quaint little village of Campsie. A tradition regarding his residence there lingered about the place for nearly a century, for Spence saw traces of a turf cottage said to be the birth-place and early residence of Dougal Graham. ”