Barncraig: episodes in the life of a Scottish village

Front matter

First rrinled .... Octoler, iSg3 Reprinted . ... March, i8^S BARNCRAIG BY THE SAME AUTHOR. SUNSHINE AND HAAR A NEW EDITION. Large Crown 8vo. Price 2s. 6d. PRESS NOTICES Daily Chronicle. — " The volume is written with grace and feeling, and with occasional touches of dramatic art. It exhibits the same kailyard and the same castocks, only from slightly altered points of view, but the author is hardly deserving of blame when he yields to the encore of his public." Daily News. — "The episodes are full of human interest, the local colouring is admirably rendered, and the dialogue, tinged with dry Scotch humour, has just dialect enough to convey an impression of accuracy without being incomprehensible." Globe. — "Altogether 'Sunshine and Haar' is a successful attempt to deal with simple lives in a picturesque and interesting manner."

The World. — "The promise revealed in the author's first venture is more than fulfilled in this fresh series of studies of the comedy and tragedy of life in a community of simple miners and seafarers in a Fifeshire coast village. Sympathetic appreciation of humble character is abundantly manifested in these unpretentious little stories, which further reveal pathetic and humorous powers of no mean order, and occasionally strike a strong and impressive tragic note." The Queen. — " 'Sunshine and Haar' fulfils the promise of 'Barncraig.' Mr. Setoun has a great many of Mr. Barrie's gifts. His stories are whole some, sincere, graphic representations of life in a little Fifeshire town. The book is all admirably written. Throughout Mr. Setoun writes patiently, honestly, skilfully. There is hardly anything in the book which one would like to spare."

The Spectator. — "This pleasant and graphic volume is the sequel to a careful study of a Fifeshire seaport and mining village, which its author published under the title of ' Barncraig.' The poor old village poet — his character is of the best, though his verse is of the worst — is one of the most vivid studies in Scotch life that we have had for a long time." Glasgow Herald. — "His whole volume deserves to be studied with attention, and will certainly be read with pleasure." LONDON: BLISS, SANDS AND CO. BARNCRAIG EPISODES IN THE LIFE OF A SCOTTISH VILLAGE By Author of GABRIEL SETOUN Robert Urquhwt fef Sunshine and Haar LONDON! BLISS SANDS &? C° MDCCCXCVIII

Preface

' I AHESE short sketches, unconnected as they are and fragmentary, yet give account in their own way of a good many years of village history. For in villages, such as Barncraig, it is not so much variety of incident as diversity of character that undulates the current of existence and marks off one decade from another. Incident and circumstance, as they appear there, are apt to be commonplace, and can seldom claim outside interest on their own account. Only at intervals do they become importunate and significant, when seen as the setting, in some cases it may be as the fetters, of lives of marked individuality or tragic distinction. Not that there is not "colour," and to spare, for whosoever cares to stay still long enough to see it, even in the daily life of the villager. But, like the tones and tints on his weather-worn gables and lichened walls, the colours so harmonise as to be lost in the general effect: and this to the stranger passing by is a sombre grey.

There the life of to-day is mellowed already by connection with a world of memories ; memories which time seems not so much to blur or obliterate, as to soften day by day till they become traditions, and then, in the fulness of time, begin to loom indistinctly in the mystery of legend.

PREFACE.

And while it is true that such legend and tradition are not history, it is also true that they are a great deal more. They are poetry and biography, drama and day-dream — not the mere flotsam and jetsam of perished events, but the materials of an unwritten literature. Or, if history be the memorial skeleton of the Past, then may they be regarded as its revisiting spirit : lingering about the old scenes, loth to forego the familiar daylight. To quit the metaphor — in such hearsay literature of traditional talk there cannot but be a wealth of human nature none the less worth knowing because presented in undress. There ought, at least, to be the freshness that comes of immediate reference to fact, the freedom of unconsciousness and play. For there are no art maxims and no preconceived theories of what is true to nature, to mutilate and to limit the subject-matter of the legend-making spirit.

Whomsoever and whatsoever common men can talk of through three generations, these are its affair. And if it happens that such persistent attention does not always favour characters of the most blameless sort, and sentiments of the most "soothing" tendency — very dear as these are to the heart of the Pecksniff who is a part of all of us — that ought rather to be claimed as an additional merit in this kind of literature, and welcomed as matter for a special thanksgiving. Nevertheless, that no adventurous hopes may be disappointed, let it be said at once that the accent of acute episodical interest has not always been sought in the following pages. If the narrative be sometimes a trifle slow, this is not altogether without design. What has been attempted is rather to give, on the whole, a convincing picture of the every-day conditions of life

PREFACE.

IX and modes of thought of the good folk in a certain Scottish mining village — a picture which in the treat ment of subjects more dramatic or less, at any rate should suggest somewhat of the atmosphere, and express some of the feeling of life in the old barony burgh. Of the persons who have helped to fill the picture many are dead and gone now. But, it is hoped, the spirit in which they have been touched will ensure that their memory shall live on in their native village none the less sweetly for these pages having been written. Neither have village annals been ransacked, nor family secrets violated in a latter-day search for sensational copy. Only such incidents have been selected as seemed illustrative and, at the same time, deserving on their own account of a setting less evanescent than local tradition is, or promises soon to become.

For the day draws rapidly on when — thanks to the news paper and the spread of education — that community of humane and neighbourly interest and instinct and insight which makes local memories possible, will be as sad to seek in our villages as it has long been in our large towns. Be that to Barncraig the apology for this book. G. S. Barncraig . . . 1893.

PREFACE.

TO THE SECOND EDITION " "D ARNCRAIG," first published by Mr. Murray in 1893, is out of print. Now that a new edition is to be issued, the author has thought it opportune to add two further sketches, which, however slight in themselves, are none the less typical of life in Barn craig, and may give fresh glimpses of its character and customs. Hence their inclusion here. "The Keeper's Rock " is simply a bit of village tradition — with which it is always unwise to tamper — told as the old folk were wont to tell it to children. "The Bairn's Piece" is founded on a custom still quaintly and prettily upheld at village christenings. This story first appeared in The British Weekly, and it is to the courtesy of Dr. Robertson Nicoll that it now takes its place alongside of its companion sketches. " The Keeper's Rock " was written expressly for this edition, and appears here for the first time. CONTENTS

For Her Sake . . . ... 117