Daft Davie and other sketches of Scottish life and character

Front matter

DAFT DAVIE and other sketches of SCOTTISH LIFE AND CHARACTER. f } UN f FORM WfTH "DAFT DAVfF Price Five Shillings. i. Second Edition. NOTHING BUT LEAVES. By SARAH DOUDNEY. it. Third Edition. THE SISTERS OF GLENCOE ; Or, Letitia's Choice. By EVA WYNN. nt. Second Edition. LAURA LINWOOD; Or, The Cost of an Accomplishment. BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE WHITE CROSS AND DOVE OF PEARLS." IV. Fourth Edition. THE BEGGARS; Or, The Founders of the Dutch Republic. BY J. B. DE LIEFDE, Author of "The Great Dutch Admirals," etc., etc. DISCUSS1MG THE LAST SABBATH'S SERMON, DAFT DAVIE AND OTHER SKETCHES OF SCOTTISH LIFE AND CHARACTER. BY. S. R. WHITE HEAD, AUTHOR OF "ROSE DOUGLAS," ETC. LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1876. Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury, CONTENTS. PAGE DAFT DAVIE I. DISCUSSING THE LAST SABBATH'S SERMON . 3 II.

DAFT DAVIE RESCUED FROM HIS TORMENTORS. 29 HI. JENNY TELFER'S GOSSIP . . . -52 5? IV. JAMES WARRANDER'S BLESSING . . .81 LANG TAM TAMS0N I. THE HERD LAD . . . . .83 II. FLOODED . . . . . .108 III. LANG TAM SEES HIS FUTURE WIFE .- -133 IV. LET THEM WONDER . . . . 160 AUNTIE KIRSTY'S VISIT TO GLASGOW I. THE TRONGATE . . . . . 18 1 II. ON THE WRONG COACH .... 208 A TALE OF HALLOWE'EN I. JENNY ON HAUGHEAD ROAD . . .239 II. PULLING STOCKS IN THE KAIL-YARD . .259 JOHN BEATSON'S HOUSEHOLD I. NO NEWS FROM ANDREW. . . .287 II. ONE DOOR CLOSED. . . . . 311 III. THE RENEWAL OF THE LEASE . .335 DAFT DAVIE I

Chapter I

■ DISCUSSING THE LAST SABBATH'S SERMON. T IGHTBURN, at the period of which I write, ■* — ' was an unpretending country village on the highway to a flourishing manufacturing town. It was of the usual order of Scotch villages, built of stone and plastered with rough lime, whose original white was transformed by age into a dusky grey, stained here and there with green from the drop pings from the thatch in rainy weather. It was sluttish and uninteresting, and occasionally, when the open drain which lay by the footpath in front of the houses was choked up, not particularly odoriferous. But there were no signs of poverty about the place ; the children that swarmed about the doors, though bare-footed, dirty, and unkempt, were sufficiently clad and evidently well fed ; and the parents were, with few exceptions, " decent Da/t Davie. 4 folk," and regular kirk-goers.

A pious, devoted clergyman had laboured in the parish for nearly thirty years, and had made his impress upon it ; and most individuals had at least the "form of godliness " if they had not realized its " power." So much was this the case that there was but one public-house in the village ; and its custom depended more on passing travellers than on the inhabitants, and which sold more ale than whisky. Mr. Geddes, the clergyman, could not make his appearance in the village — the manse and church were in the Kirkhill, a quarter of a mile from it, where was a small cluster of houses, the original " toun " of the parish — without being greeted with such tokens of kindly reverence as spoke well for the moral tone of the place. Not that there was unbroken ecclesiastical harmony in it ; for a few Original Seceders had early taken root in the parish, having, by the assistance of wealthy members of that body at a distance, reared for themselves a small taber nacle, and who loudly vaunted their Mr. Gabriel McLuckie, a much-suffering man, whom they half starved and wholly governed, in contrast to the Sabbath's Sermon. 5 parish minister, who was a sound Gospel preacher, but no Boanerges or pulpit orator.

But, fortunately, the tabernacle had been built on the borders of the parish, so as conveniently to absorb into itself whatever of Dissent might exist not only in it but in the neighbouring one ; and worthy Mr. Geddes suffered less annoyance from it than he might have done if it had been a nearer neighbour of the parish kirk. He and Mr. McLuckie were on friendly terms — as much so, at least, as the latter's jealous flock would permit, who in those days regarded civilities between a minister of that Kirk from which their fathers had seceded and their own pastor as a compromising of principles and a bowing down in the house of Rimmon. For, as is well known, the fewer the adherents of any religious body — and the seceders among us gained no new members, and death was gradually thinning them — the more narrow and exclusive do their views become.

The village of Lightburn consisted of a double and unbroken row of the cottages I have described, which were principally tenanted by weavers ; for our story took place in the days of handloom weaving, and when men could make a comfortable livelihood by the trade. There was an unceasing click from the numerous shuttles in operation as one passed through the village during the working time of the day, supplemented by the low hum of the women's winders as they got ready the " pirns " of thread for their husbands and sons. Many of the young women were weavers themselves. The dwelling-place in these cottages was on one side of the narrow-flagged house passage, and the shop, containing generally several looms — a loom stance being often sublet by the householder — was on the other. The passage ran the whole depth of the house, and had its back door as well as its front.

The former stood always open, except in peculiarly inclement weather and at night, and led into the kail-yard ; but which, though so denomi nated, had also its potato patch and onion bed, and in some cases its plants of southernwood and mint, pinks and marigolds. The flower cultiva tors, however, were decidedly exceptional, for the villagers were more inclined to prize the useful than the ornamental, though a balsam or similar delicate plant, for which the weaving atmosphere Sabbath' s Sermon 7 was suited, might occasionally be seen in a shop window. These gardens or kail-yards were separated from each other by low thorn hedges, whose numerous gaps were filled up with unbarked wooden stobs or even withered furze ; and on washing days these hedges were covered by the family garments spread on them for drying purposes.

These cottages, though united, were here and there unequal in height and general appearance. Not that any of them possessed the importance of a second story ; but the few better ones, owing to the superior elevation of their walls, had two low roofed and very campceiied garrets beneath the thatch, each lighted by a small projecting window of coarse greenish glass. The occupier was generally also the proprietor of these cottages, and was respected by his more humble neighbours as being " his own laird." In addition to the public-house, there was a shop, or, rather, store, in the village ; what was the weaving end in other cottages being here appro priated to the purposes of trade. Everything was sold in it, from sickles and spades, to tea and sugar and wheaten bread ; the latter being delivered at the store by the carrier, whose canvas covered cart plied sluggishly twice a week between the large town and a small one some twelve miles apart, Lightbum being about equally distant from each.

None but the better class of its population indulged in " baker's bread," and these only for their Sunday tea or some special occasion. Porridge and milk morning and evening, and broth and potatoes for dinner, was the usual diet of these working people ; and it could not be denied that they throve upon it; for though weaving is not considered a healthy occupation on account of the sedentary habits it induces, the weavers of Lightburn were a healthy race. They did not neglect exercise, however, — which might account for it ; for when the universal introduction of machinery into spinning-mills reduced the profits of handloom weavers, a change took place in this habit from their grudging the time bestowed on it, and physical degeneration quickly followed. A worse change was visible in the next generation — a moral one.

Their fathers had been a God-fearing, ordinance-prizing race of men ; the Sabbaths Sermon. 9 sons grew up careless, intemperate, and scoffing. Bible-reading and the Shorter Catechism were ex changed for Paine's and other infidel publications, and family worship became almost unknown in the village. The origin of the evil was, undoubtedly, the difficulty which they more and more ex perienced in procuring constant employment in the only trade they knew, and, indeed, were physically fit for. They could not afford to purchase decent clothes for Sabbath ; fell out of attendance at church ; were a trial to Mr. Geddes' successor; till .at length most of the weavers of Lightburn drifted away to the manufacturing towns, and were lost sight of there. But that was long subsequent to the date of my story.

In their prosperous days, as I have said, the weavers did not neglect daily exercise. Morning and evening the fathers of the village, girt with green woollen aprons, to which thrums betokening their trade were constantly sticking, might be seen at the same hour taking a moderate " constitu tional " in groups, but more generally in pairs, discussing, it may be, the last Sabbath's sermon, or the latest political news that had reached the village ; while the lads and younger men played in cold weather at ball or shinty, and in summer strolled together down the "braes," as a narrow glen, inclosed by grassy hills on either side, and near to the village, was called. On one of the slopes of this glen was a spring of very pure cold water, which was considered better for drinking than that of the village well, and the young women would also flock to supply their families with it at the same seasons of the day, which, of course, re sulted in much rustic coquetting and relieving of burdens.

Weavers though they were, instead of swains and shepherdesses, to watch these young people — the girls attired in the old picturesque dress of the peasantry of Scotland — winding up the narrow rocky pathway bearing their rude water pitchers, while the glen resounded with their talk and merriment, was to realize a scene as truly pastoral in its features as either poet or painter has ever delineated. The lower end of this glen terminated in a ridge of rocks on the farther side. Above this height was the kirk and kirkyard, and beyond them were the manse and Kirkhill village, the latter tenanted Sabbath s Sermon. I x principally by miners. A very steep road, first descending and then reascending across the mouth of the glen, lay between the two villages. The church was an old barn-like building, in the midst of a tree-surrounded graveyard, whose monumental stones might be seen from the glen below peering over the rocks; and the manse was in keeping with the kirk.

But there did worthy Mr. Geddes and his middle-aged sister, Miss Janet, live in peaceful content. The small, old-fashioned rooms were large enough for them, their two staid maidser vants, and the occasional stranger within their gates. The weavers did not constitute the whole population of Lightburn. Besides the shopkeeper and publican, it had its souter, or cobbler, for he mended more shoes than he made ; and its tailor, who, when he had not sufficient work at home, would itinerate among the numerous farmhouses around, making or turning clothes, and even patching them when rents and thin places went beyond the gudewife's skill or material to mend. Then there was the " doctor," as the people called him, though his only claim to the title was his having been in his early years errand boy, and afterwards assistant in the dispensary of a medical man in the neighbouring city, where he picked up some knowledge of drugs, and learnt the art of cupping and bleeding.

Turn bull was frugal and saving, and at the end of middle life was able to retire to his native village on a modest competence, for a little money went a great way in those simpler days. There was no medical man then in the parish ; but the people could not have held old Turnbull's skill in higher respect if he had belonged to the faculty. His favourite prescription was Glauber salts ; and he drove a lucrative trade every spring by phlebotom izing half of the population of the district, it being a notion among country folks at that time that nature required periodical depletion. The " doctor's " domicile was as humble as that of his neighbours, consisting of a single apartment, with bed-closet adjoining ; and he did his cleaning, washing, and cooking himself, having neither wife nor child.

He was a religious man, and a grave authority on all points of disputed doctrine ; moreover, he was a leading member in Mr. McLuckie's tabernacle. There were also the blacksmith and carpenter, each of whom carried on his trade at opposite ends of the village, or rather in the suburbs of it ; for their dwelling-houses and working premises, though adjacent, were yet separate and distinct from it. The carpenter was undoubtedly the principal man of the place. He was known to have made money, though to what amount none could say. His house and workshop were his own property, and being a first-class workman, he had almost more business than he and his journeymen could execute. His house and premises had the comfortable look that denotes the thriving tradesman. They were some short distance apart from the last house of the village on that side.

On the right hand in the yard was the sawpit, and a goodly range of sawn planks seasoning for use ; on the other, the workshop, built of brick, with windows pieced with all varieties of glass in size and shape. A glance through the open door showed a mass of shavings and all the tokens of an energetic and prosperous trade. The dwelling-house stood considerably back in this workyard, and completely out of the line of the village. It was only one story in height ; but storm windows of the carpenter's own devising and executing had made two excellent garret rooms in the roof, which was slated — a distinction in the village. All about the house, from the green-painted door, with its bright brass knocker and whitened step beneath, to the tidy water barrel in the little yard behind out of sight, was orderly and in the best repair, as everything belonging to James Warrander was likely to be.

And it is with this house and its inhabitants, per taining to and yet separate from the village of Lightburn, that my story has to do. James Warrander had been the son of a farmer in the parish. Even in his boyhood he was noted for unusual steadiness and intelligence, united, how ever, to a cold, reserved, and unsocial nature, which rendered him indifferent to the society of com panions of his own age. It showed itself, indeed, towards his own family as well as to others. He was not sullen or ill-tempered at home, however, though he exhibited little attachment to any one there ; and he never disputed his parents' com mands ; so that, when censured in his absence by his brothers and sister for his unkindly ways, the father once remarked that "if Jamie cared less than some for his friends, he would never cost them a wet eye by his undutifulness."

His father's was professedly and markedly, even in that time, a Christian household. A revival of religion had taken place in the parish many years previously ; and its effects were still visible in the family life, especially of the rural population whose fathers had partaken of the blessing. It was a religion of a severe and somewhat gloomy type, however. Strict attention was enforced to all private and social religious duties, such as would now create discontent and even rebellion in families ; but which, so respected then was a parent's au thority, no one thought of disputing. There was domestic worship twice a day, at which every one was expected to be present, unless prevented by illness ; constant attendance upon public ordin ances on Sabbaths and sacramental preparation and thanksgiving days, in all weathers, was insisted on ; and the head of the family never failed to catechise the assembled household, including wife, children, and servants, from the Shorter Catechism, and on what they had heard at church, on the evening of the sacred day, the younger children alone being exempted.

And woe to the unfor tunate individual, whether child or servant, or even the wife of his bosom, whose defective and hesitat ing answers showed the " gudeman " that there had been a wandering mind while sitting under the preaching of the Word ! The solemn and stern rebuke administered would cover the culprit with shame and confusion. In such families also there was great confidence in the saying of Solomon, that " Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child ; but the rod of cor rection shall drive it far from him ; " and certainly the rod was not spared. Under this severe, though, perhaps, wholesome discipline, considering the rugged endurance of the race and the simplicity of the time, did James Warrander pass his childhood and early youth. The danger was of being moulded by it into the outward form and intellectual knowledge of religion while destitute of its spirit — of substituting faith in dogma for faith in a living and personal Christ. .

It had its advantages, however ; it trained the young into habits of sobriety and reverence, and was a check to many temptations in after-life. James Warrander had no turn for agricultural pursuits, and, at his own desire, was early bound apprentice to a house carpenter and wheelwright. It was his true vocation ; and when his apprentice ship came to an end, he established himself in business at Lightburn, where, so steady and skil ful a workman he proved himself, trade soon flowed in upon him. He married, ere many years had passed, and before he was thirty, the daughter of a farmer in the parish, who had recently died, leaving her a portion of one hundred pounds. That the possession of this sum had much to do with his choice of a wife, or his taking one at all, no one could doubt, for James Warrander had always shown himself profoundly indifferent to the society of women, avoiding their company when he could ; and it was the opinion of the whole parish that if Jeanie Gemmell had been portionless, James Warrander would never have looked her "airt."

Not that there was anything about poor Jeanie to make it a wonder that she should be sought in marriage. She was of slight make, rather under than above the middle size, with a meek, simple, but not uncomely face. Her figure and face did not positively suggest ill-health, only a certain feebleness and want of stamina both in her physical and mental constitution. It was, indeed, a common saying in the parish that " none of the Gemmells had ever been the wale of the country-side for wisdom." But they were decent, creditable people, all allowed ; and that no worse thing could be said against Jeanie than that she had little to say either as maid or wife — a considerable fault with those who loved a gossip — and that " she kent little mair than how to read her Bible, and to keep a house clean."

She, indeed, knew the latter thoroughly; and well for her it was so, for her husband was a man who would suffer no disorder or confusion to reign in the dwelling where he was master. Master he was there as certainly as in his workshop, and his wife was the most submissive and humble of his servants. His will was her law, and was never opposed by her on any occasion. She had, doubtless, more respect and fear for him than affection ; but she was too simple, tender-hearted, and self depreciating a woman not to have some for him, were it but that he was the father of her son. There had been little of the usual attentions of courtship between them ; but he had asked her in marriage : he was a religious man, she believed,. which was the greatest of recommendations in her eyes, and all her friends strongly advised her to take him ; therefore she took him, and he made her not an unkind husband.

She never thought herself on an equality with him ; and she held his wisdom and book knowledge — for James War rander was a reader — in profound veneration. To her he was always "our Mr. Jeames;" and as she only spoke of him by that name, it became at length a sort of private nickname among the villagers when speaking of the carpenter, though they never ventured to use it in his presence. James Warrander was more respected than liked in the village. He was civil to his neighbours when he met them ; but he avoided their company when he could. He never entered their houses, or admitted them into his, but on occasions of business ; and these did not often occur, for he kept himself clear from all village disputes. He was a self-concentrated man, wholly occupied with his own concerns, and though firm and decided in his opinions, indifferent as to impressing them upon others.

Whatever work he undertook he did con scientiously. He listened attentively to his em ployer's directions, put the few necessary questions as briefly as possible, and then went silently and steadily about the work till its completion. His materials and workmanship could always be trusted ; so could his punctuality. To his work men he was a just, though strict, master, and his word was at all times as good as his bond. But he was hard, unsympathising, and ungenial. He had that want of compassion for poverty and in ertness of character which strong-willed, energetic men, who have fought their own way upward unaided, are apt to have. He was not ready to give alms, though when cases of illness appeared in the village, and especially when the industrious head of a young family was prostrated by it, he could give even liberally.

A professed beggar was his abhorrence, and none such were allowed to be relieved at his house. He was considered a religious man. His youth had been free from vice ; and when he became the head of a household he followed his father's ex ample of keeping up family worship in it ; and he was a steady attendant upon religious ordinances. He had never questioned his own Christianity,. nor had his minister. Indeed, Mr. Geddes had more than once proposed to him to allow himself to be nominated for the eldership, but had failed, James alleging, in excuse, not his unfitness, but his inability to find time to discharge the office effectually. It would also have necessitated an inter course with others that was uncongenial to his. reserved nature. There was one man in Lightburn, however, who> was less satisfied with the religious state of tha carpenter than was the minister.

This was his nearest neighbour, an elder and Sabbath-school teacher, whose Christian experience and judgment were deeper and clearer than his pastor's, whom he yet loved and reverenced as truly a man of God. He was a weaver, and in comfortable circum stances, being the proprietor as well as tenant of his house, and letting three loom-stances; for Thomas Lowrie and his wife had no family. He was held in great respect in the village, where most of the younger population had been under his religious tuition, while his visits were frequent to the old and sick. " Them that honour Me, I will honour," saith God ; and this promise was fulfilled in the case of Thomas Lowrie. To him his neighbours had recourse in all their troubles — sure of sympathy and good counsel ; but whatever advice he gave, he never failed to drop in the seed of the Word at the same time.

Thomas had little more intercourse than others with his neighbour the carpenter, for he would not intrude himself where he felt his company was not desired ; yet he saw enough of him to know that there was no real Christian fellowship between them. " I'm fear't, Mary." he said to his likeminded wife one evening, after sitting thoughtfully for some time by the fireside, " I'm fear't that James Warrander's religion has been a' taught him by man, and not by the Holy Ghost. I'm sair troubled about that man, Mary ; mair troubled, I doubt, than he has ever been for himsell. As weel as I can judge, he has never kent, for a' his knowledge, what it is to be humbled and broken in spirit, though he has had what might hae done it ; but I think it has only made him prouder and harder baith to God and man without his suspectin' it."

" Ay, ay, puir man ! " ejaculated his wife, shaking her head significantly. " I met him just turning into his yard the now," continued Thomas, in a distressed voice, "and I stopped and spoke to him, as I canna bear passing a neebor without a kindly word. But as we were speaking, puir Davie came stealing out from the back o' the house, chucklin' and swingin' himsell frae the tae side to the tither, as his way is ; and eh, sirs ! what a black, gruesome look came ower the faither's face as he saw him. He scarcely bade me gude nicht, and awa he went, driving the puir thing roughly before him into the house, and then steeking the door upon him, as if he had been a messan dog. Oh, woman, it went to my very heart to see it ! It's a sair trial, nae doubt — I'm no makin' light o' it — but it's o' the Lord's sending, and it should soften a man instead o' harden him."

" Atweel should it, gudeman," said Mary. " I'm sorry for the mither — puir Jeanie Gem mell," added Thomas, after a pause. " I mind her weel at the Sabbath-school the first year I helped Mr. Galloway wi' it. She was in my class, and I couldna help noticing her. She was a quate timorsome thing, no half sae ready wi' her answers as some; but yet somehow I thought that the truth had taken haud o' her. I mind once when I was talkin' to the bairns o' the love o' Christ and His willingness to receive sinners, and what a blessed thing it was when folk kent Him in their young days, for then they might hae a lang life to serve Him in, instead o' mere thrums and remnants o' time for 't, when I happened to look at Jeanie, and I saw her een glistening wi' tears. I meant to speak to her at the close, but she slippit awa', and I never got an opportunity ; though she was so regular in attending the school, she was sae shy and backward.

But she was one o' the 'weak things o' the world that confound the things that are mighty,' I doubt not. She would be a lassie a' twal years auld then, sae she maun be a woman o' five-and-forty now ; and Davie canna be less than one-and-twenty. I dinna think James Warrander would use her ill — he's ower just a man for that ; but he will show her little kindness, I fear, and she would need it, puir thing. They say she never lets Davie be mair in his faither's sight than she can help, but keeps him either in the house or the back-yard, and we a' ken what that means." "A heavy heart and a troubled mind for a mither," said Mary, wiping her eyes with her checked apron. " Onybody that ever put een on her and the puir natural thegither would see that. But she's a godly woman, I'm sure, though she's weak, puir thing — weak."

Yes, this was " the dead fly in the ointment of the apothecary " that tainted it all ; this was the cloud that rested on the dwelling of the thriving tradesman, and darkened its prosperity — his only child was an idiot. Heavy trial to any parent ; but peculiarly heavy to a proud, reserved, self sufficing nature, which rejects sympathy, and at the same time cannot hide its disgrace from the observation of others. He felt it to be a disgrace ; and though from the time it became a certainty to him, which was only when the strange, unteachable boy grew into the hopelessly and unmistakably Daft Daiie. fatuous lad, he had set himself sternly and reso lutely to endure the trial, it was not the less a trial to him. He spoke of it to no man ; but it blighted his life to him. Promising children surrounding a cheerful fireside might have softened his temper and developed his affection ; but instead of this, there were but the restless, chuckling, uncouth idiot in the opposite chimney-corner, and his quiet timid handmaiden of a wife between them.