Memoir of Robert Chambers, with autobiographic reminiscences of William Chambers

Prefatory Note

On the death of my brother, Dr. Robert Chambers, numerous Biographic sketches of him appeared, both in Great Britain and the United States, all of them kind and complimentary, but in many cases imperfect or erroneous as regards certain leading details. It seemed to me that, while still spared life and opportunity, I might try to do justice to the memory of the deceased, by giving a correct history of his life and principal writings.

The attempt, however, involved a difficulty. Having been intimately associated with my brother, not only in early life, but in literary enterprises, it was scarcely possible to relate the story of one without frequent reference to the other. I have so far yielded to this necessity, as to oifer some Autobiographic Reminiscences, in subordination to the principal object in view. To this extent only is the Memoir that of two individuals.

I need hardly say that the retrospect of some early events, which could not well be omitted, has not been unaccompanied with poignant recollections ; but if a perusal of the narrative serves in any degree to inspire youth with notions of self-reliance, along with a hopeful dependence on Providence when pressed by adverse circumstances, I shall be more than recompensed. W. C.

January, 1872.

CHAPTER I. Early Years — 1800 to 1813

CHAPTER n.

Early Years continued — 1800 to 1813

CHAPTER ni.

Settling in Edinburgh — 1813 to 1814

CHAPTER IV.

My Apprenticeship — 18 14 to 181 9

CHAPTER V.

Robert's Early Difficulties — 1814 to 1819

CHAPTER VI.

Beginning Business — 1819 to 1821

CHAPTER VII.

Robert's Writings — 1822 to 1832

CHAPTER VIII.

Some Reminiscences — 1822 to 1832 .

CHAPTER IX.

Cheap Literature Movement of 1832

CHAPTER X.

The Conducting of "Chambers's Journal"

CHAPTER XI.

Retrospect of General Work done .

PAGS

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CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIL page

Robert's Later Works — 1842 to 1865 . . . . 244

CHAPTER XIII.

A Skeleton in the House, and other Matters . . 273

CHAPTER XIV.

Robert's Closing Years, and Literary Remains . . 284

CHAPTER XV.

His Last Days, Death, and Character .... 303

CHAPTER I.

EARLY YEARS — 1800 TO 1813.

TV /FY brother and I were born and spent our early ^^^ years in a small country town in the south of Scotland^ situated amidst beautiful scenery, and had therefore the advantage — as advantage it might be called — of being acquainted from infancy with some of the noble works of nature, along with rural objects and circumstances. The place of our birth was Peebles, an ancient royal burgh on the upper part of the Tweed, where our ancestors had dwelt from time immemorial — the tradition among them being, that they were descended from a personage inscribed as " William de la Chaumbre, Bailif e Burgois de Pebles," in the list of those who signed bonds of allegiance to Edward I., 1296. However that might be, I was born in this little old burgh, i6th April, 1800 ; and Robert, coming next in order in the family, was born loth July, 1802.

For the place of birth and early associations almost every one has a peculiar affection; and among the Scotch, as is well known, this feeling is a marked national characteristic. It will not seem surprising, therefore, that through life Robert cherished kindly remembrances of the scenes of his infancy. A few years previous to his decease, he began notes of what may have been intended as a memoir of himself, but which were not carried farther than reminiscences from the dawn of inteUigence to about his tenth year. Fragmentary as are these memoranda, they abound in tlie geniality of sentiment for which the writer was remarkable, and serve to illustrate the state of things in certain by-corners of Scotland sixty to seventy years since. The following portions may accordingly be acceptable, supplemented here and there by such particulars from my own remembrance as may help to complete the picture : —

" In the early years of this century," he proceeds, " Peebles was little advanced from the condition in which it had mainly rested for several hundred years previously. It was eminently a quiet place — ' As quiet as the grave or as Peebles,' is a phrase used by Cockburn. It was said to be a finished town, for no new houses (exceptions to be of course allowed for) were ever built in it. Situated, however, among beautiful pastoral hills, with a singularly pure atmosphere, and with the pellucid Tweed running over its pebbly bed close beside the streets, the town was acknowledged to be, in the fond language of its inhabitants, a bonny place. An honest old burgher was enabled by some strange chance to visit Paris, and was eagerly questioned, when he came back, as to the character of that capital of capitals ; to which, it is said, he answered that ^ Paris, a'thing considered, was a wonderful place — but still, Peebles for pleesure ! ' and this has often been cited as a ludicrous example of rustic prejudice and narrowness of judgment. But, on a fair interpretation of the old gentleman's words, he was not quite so benighted as at first appears. The 'pleesures' of Peebles were the beauties of the situation and the oppor-

PEEBLES. 9

tunities of healthful recreation it afforded, and these were certainly considerable.

" There was an old and a new tov/n in Peebles — each of them a single street, or little more j and as even the new town had an antique look, it may be inferred that the old looked old indeed. It was indeed chiefly composed of thatched cottages, occupied by weavers and laboring people — a primitive race of homely aspect, in many instances eking out a scanty subsistence by having a cow on the town common, or cultivating a rig of potatoes in the fields close to the town. Rows of porridge luggies (small wooden vessels) were to be seen cooling on window-soles j a smell of peat smoke pervaded the place \ the click of the shuttle was everywhere heard during, the day ; and in the evening, the gray old men came out in their Kilmarnock night-caps, and talked of Bonaparte, on the stone seats beside their doors. The platters used in these humble dwellings were all of wood, and the spoons of horn \ knives and forks rather rare articles. The house was generally divided into two apartments by a couple of box-beds, placed end to end — a bad style of bed prevalent in cottages all over Scotland ] they were so close as almost to stifle the inmates. Among these humble people, all costumes, customs, and ways of living smacked of old times. You would see a venerable patriarch making his way to church on Sunday, with a longbacked, swing-tailed, light-blue coat of the style of George II., which was probably his marriage coat, and half a century old. His head-gear was a broad-brimmed blue bonnet. The old women came out on the same occasions in red scarfs, called cardinals, and white mutches (caps), bound by a black ribbon, with the gray hair folded back on the forehead. There was a great deal of drugget, and huckaback, and serge in that old world, and very little cotton. One almost might think he saw the humbler Scotch people of the seventeenth century before his eyes.

" Apropos of the box-beds, there was a carrier named Davie Loch, who was reputed to be rather light of wits, but at the same time not without a sense of his worldly interests. His mother, finding her end approaching, addressed her son, in the presence of a number of the neighbors : —

"'The house will be Davie's, of course, and the furniture too.'

" ' Eh, hear her ! ' quoth Davie ; ' sensible to the last, sensible to the last.'

"'Thelyin' siller'—

" * Eh, yes ; how clear she is about everything ! '

"*The lyin' siller is to be divided between my two daughters '—

" ' Steek the bed-doors, steek the bed-doors,' interposed Davie \ * she's raving now ! ' And the old dying woman was shut up accordingly.

" In this old-town population, there survived two or three aged persons who professed an adherence to the Covenant and covenanted work of Reformation. One of these, designated Laird Baird, remains clearly daguerreotyped on my memory, — a tall, bony, grim old man, with blue rig-and-fur stockings rolled half-way up his thighs, and a very umbrageous blue bonnet. His secular business consisted in thatching houses ; his inner life was a constant brooding over the sins of a perjured and sinful nation, and the various turns of public affairs, in which he traced the punishments inflicted upon us by an outraged Deity, for our laying aside the Solemn League and Covenant. He came up to my mother one summer evening, as she was standing at her door with her first-born in her

LAIRD BAIRD. II

arms. * Ye're mickle pleased wi' that bairn, woman,' said the laird gruffly. ' If the French come, what will ye do wi' him ? I trow ye '11 be fleeing wi' him to the tap o' the Pentland Hills. But ye should rather pray that they may come. Ye should pray for judgments, woman, — judgments on a sinfu' land. Pray that the Lord may pour out the vials of his wrath upon us, — it would be for our guid.' And then he went on his way, leaving the pretty young mother heart-chilled by his terrible words. Having known something of old-town worthies of this kind, there was no novelty or surprise to me, a few years thereafter, when I read of Habakkuk Mucklewrath in Scott's ' Old Mortality.'

" I had reason to know the old town in my earliest years, for our family then dwelt in it, though in a modernslated house, which my father had had built for him by his father when about to be married. Our ancestors had been woolen manufacturers, substantial and respectable people, although living in a very plain style. My father growing up at the time when the cotton manufacture was introduced into Glasgow, had there studied it, and now conducted it on a pretty extensive scale at Peebles, having sometimes as many as a hundred looms in his employment. My earliest recollections bring before me a neat, small mansion, fronting to the Eddleston Water ; a tastefully furnished sitting-room, containing a concealed bed, one or two other little rooms, and a kitchen; a ground-floor full of looms, and a garret full of webs and weft. Games at marbles played with my elder brother on the figures of the parlor carpet, when recovering from an illness, come back upon me as among the pleasantest things I have experienced in life ; or wandering into the workshop below, it was a great entertainment to sit beside one of the weavers, and watch the movements of the heddies and treadles, and hear the songs and the gossip of the man. Weavers were topping operatives in those days, for they could reaUze two pounds a week, sometimes even more, and many young men of good connections had joined the trade. My father, as agent for Mr. Henry Monteith, for Mr. M'llroy, and others, in Glasgow, realized a good income, which enabled him to live on an equality with the best families of the place.

" To a child, of course, all things are new, and the first occurrence of anything to his awakened senses, never fails to make a deep impression. I think I yet remember the first time I observingly saw the swelling green hills around our little town. I am sure I could point to within ten yards of the spot where I saw the first gowan and the first buttercup ; first heard the hum of the mountain bee ; first looked with wonder into a hedge-sparrow's nest, with its curious treasure of blue eggs. A radius of half a mile would have described the entire world of my infancy : of that world every minute feature remains deeply stamped within me, and will while life and consciousness endure. There is a great deal of studious observation in a child. Casual, trivial, and thoughtless words spoken by his seniors in his presence go into him, to be afterwards estimated and judged of; so it is a great mistake to speak indecorously before children.

" At the time when I was coming upon the stage of the world, a number of old things were going out of it. The Rev. Dr. Dalgliesh, the minister of the parish, still wore a cocked hat. He died in 1808 ; and I can just remember seeing him one Sunday, as he walked home from church, with that head -gear crowning his tall and dignified figure. There were still a few men with pigtails whisking constantly over the collars of their coats. Spencers still lingered in use. Boots, formerly used only in

riding and travelling, were also in vogue with men who desired to be smartly dressed. One could either have top-boots, that is, boots with a movable cincture of pale leather at top, or tassel-boots, by which was meant what were afterwards called Hessians, terminating in a wavy line under the knee, with a tassel hanging out over the middle in front. A buckish weaver, called Willie Paterson, had got a pair of tassel boots, on which he could fasten tops, and thus enjoy tops or tassels at his pleasure. People meeting him when he went to church would say : 'Willie, I see this is top-day with you.' Top-day or tassel-day for Willie Paterson's boots was a favorite joke. As an alternative for boots were gaiters to the knee, originally tight, but latterly lax, with vertical foldings.

" * Lax in their gaiters, laxer in their gait,'

is a line in the ' Rejected Addresses,' which strongly recalls to me the year 18 12.

" The new town was a smarter place than the old ; yet it contained many homely old thatched houses, and few of any elegance. The shops were for the most part confined and choky places, with what were called half-doors, a bell being generally rung by customers to summon the worthy trader. The shop of the candle-maker was provided with a bell-pull consisting of an old key dangling at the end of a cord, which was put in requisition to summon ' Candle Nell,' as the female in charge of the establishment was familiarly called. No attempt was made to keep up an appearance of business. All was quiet and sombre by day, and in the evenings a dim candle on the counter made the only difference. A favorite position of the shop-keeper was to lean on his arms over the half-door, gazing abroad into the vacant street, or chatting with a casual bystander. I do not think there ipr were more than three traders in the town who had any apprentice or hired assistant. If the husband was out for a forenoon's fishing in the Tweed, his wife was his sufficient h"eutenant. It seems to me remarkable that, small as the concerns generally were, the family life of these people was of a somewhat refined character. The tone of the females was far from being vulgar. Accomplishments, such as are now so common, were unknown; but all had a good education in English, and their conversation was not deficient in intelligence."

Considering how little business was done, and also the easy way in which things were conducted, one would scarcely be prepared for the genteel interior of many of the dwellings, or for the tasteful dresses and courteous manners of the wives of the tradesmen. Though a trifle too obese. Candle Nell herself, when the shop was shut, could receive company in style, and, addressed in her proper name, do the honors of her brother's household. A considerable number of persons, as has been said, kept a cow. The going forth of the town cows to their pasturage on a neighboring hill, and their return, constituted leading events of the day. Early in the summer mornings the inhabitants were roused by inharmonious sounds blown from an ox-horn by the town-herd, who leisurely perambulated the streets with a gray plaid twisted around his shoulders. Then came forth the cows, deliberately, one by one, from their respective quarters, and took their way instinctively by the bridge across the Tweed, their keeper coming up behind to urge forward the loiterers. Before taking the ascent to the hill, the cows, in picturesque groups, might have been seen standing within the margin of the Minister's Pool, a smooth part of the river, which reflected on its

SCOTTISH PROVERBS. 1 5

glistening surface the figures of the animals in various attitudes, along with the surrounding scenery ; the whole — river, cows, and trees — forming a tableau such as would have been a study for Berghem or Wouvermans.

There was much pleasant intercourse among families at a small cost. Scarcely any gave ceremonious dinners. Invitations to tea at six o'clock were common. After tea there were songs, with perhaps a round of Scottish proverbs — a class of sayings which, from their agreeable tartness, found scope for exercise in ordinary transactions, and were more especially useful in snubbing children, and keeping them in remembrance of their duty. The Peebles people were not behind their neighbors in the art of applying these maxims. As, for example, if a fastidious youth presumed to complain that his porridge was not altogether to his mind, he would have for reply, — "Lay your wame to your winnin'-;" that is, "Suit your stomach to your earnings," — a staple observation in all such cases. Or, if one of unsettled habits got into a scrape, such as " slumping" in the ice, and coming home half-drowned, instead of being commiserated, he would be coolly reminded that " An unhappy fish gets an unhappy bait." Or, if one hinted that he was hungry, and would not be the worse of something to eat, he would, if the application was inopportune, be favored with the advice in dietetics : '^ You'll be the better o' findin' the grunds o' your stamick." Or, if he, on the other hand, asked for a drink of water shortly after dinner, he would be told that " Mickle meat taks mickle weet ; " by which wholesome rebuke he was instructed in the ex cellent virtue of moderation in eating. Or, if one, when put to some kind of difficult task, said he wanted assistance, he would get the proverb pitched at him : " Help yourseP, and your friends will like you the better."

Or, when a family of children quarreled among themselves, and appealed to their mother for an edict of pacification, she would console them with the remark, " You'll all agree better when ye gang in at different kirk doors." A capital thing were these proverbs and sayings for stamping out what were called notions of " uppishness " in children, or hopes of having everything their own way.

It must not^ however, be inferred, from a proficiency in hurling these repressive maxims, that there was any actual deficiency in the afiections. Along with a singular absence of demonstrativeness, there was often a spirit of true kindness. At that period, and till comparatively recent times, there was no demoralizing poor-law, such as now exists, to steel the hearts of the people, and create paupers by wholesale. Those in easy circumstances helped, and gave some little personal attention to, their poorer neighbors ; and I can remember that, on the occasion of a sudden death by a distressing accident in the family of a laboring man, the feelings of the whole community were munificently stirred up in compassion.

The country was still haunted by mendicants of various orders, including old decrepit women, who were carried about on hand-barrows from door to door, begging meal or half-pence. The town, also, was never without two or three natural idiots, generally harmless in character. The most interesting and amusing of these was Daft Jock Grey, — or, to give him his proper title, " Daft Jock Grey of Gilmanscleugh," — a wanderer through Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Peebles shires, who was known to Sir Walter Scott, and possessed qualities not unlike those assigned to the character of Davie Gellatley. Jock was a kind of genius, had a great command of songs, and composed a ballad, which, commencing with an allusion to his own infirmity, recited, in jingling rhymes, the names and quali-

DAFT JOCK GREY. 1 7

ties of a number of persons whose houses he frequented in his extensive ranibles. It may be amusing to read this curious jingle of names and places, which^ as far as I remember, ran as follows, though it is proper to mention that Jock seldom sang it twice the same way — sometimes throwing in a new verse, or leaving out an old one : —

DAFT JOCK GREY'S SONG.

" There's Daft Jock Grey o' Gilmanscleugh, And Davie o' the Inch, And when ye come to Singley, They'll help ye in a pinch.

And the laddie he's but young,

And the laddie he's but young, And Robbie Scott ca's up the rear, And Caleb beats the drum.^

" There are the Taits o' Caberston, The Taits o' Holylee, The ladies o' the Juniper Bank,^ They carry a' the gree.

And the laddie he's but young, etc.

'There's Lockie o' the Skirty Knows,

There's Nicol o' Dick-neuk, And Bryson o' the Priestrig, And Hall into the Heap,

And the laddie he's but young, etc.

" The three Scotts o' Commonside, The Tamsons o' the Mill, There's Ogilvy o' Branxholm, And Scoon o' Todgiehill.

And the laddie he's but young, etc.

*' The braw lads o' Fawdonside, The lasses o' the Peel,

1 Caleb Rutherford, town- drummer of Hawick.

2 The Misses Thorbum. Mr. Thorburn, farmer at Juniper Bank, is reputed to have had some characteristics of Dandie Dinmont.

"And when ye gang to Fairnielee, Ye'll ca' at Ashestiel.i

And the laddie he's but young, etc.

" There is Lord Napier o' the Lodge, And Gawin in the Hall, And Mr, Charters o' Wilton Manse, Preaches lectures to us all.

And the laddie he's but young, etc.

" There are three wives in Hassendean, And ane in Braddie-Yards, And they're away to Gittenscleugh, And left their wheel and cards.^

And the laddie he's but young, etc.

" There's Bailie Nixon, merchant,^ The Miss Moncrieffs and a', And if ye gang some farther east,

Ye'll come to Willie Ha'. " ,

And the laddie he's but young,

And the laddie he's but young, And Robbie Scott ca's up the rear, And Caleb beats the drum."

Jock was also a mimic, and as such gave acceptable imitations of the style of preaching of all the ministers in his rounds. Before commencing an imitation, he required to have an apron thrown over his head, and thus he stood, like a veiled prophet, for a few moments, as if recalling the appropriate inspiration. Attempts had been made to get him to attend to regular labor, but without effect. The minister of Selkirk on one occasion addressed him some-

1 At Ashestiel, Ettrick Forest, Sir Walter Scott resided with his family for several years prior to 1810 ; from this place he dates some of his beautiful introductions to the different cantos of Marmion.

HOGMANA V DA Y.

what pompously : "John, you are an idle fellow ; why don't you work ? You could at least herd a few cows."

" Me herd ! " replied Jock ; " I dinna ken corn frae gerss." That answer settled the minister.

Hogmanay, the last day of the year,^ was the grand festival of all varieties of mendicants, daft folk, and children generally ; for there was a universal distribution of oatcakes, cheese, short- bread, and buns at the doors of the inhabitants. Among those who secured a respectable dole on such occasions was the town-piper, dressed in a red uniform and cocked hat, as befitted a civic official. Piper Ritchie, for such was his name, enjoyed a munificent salary of a pound a year from the corporation, along with a pair of shoes j and it was understood that, besides his dole at Hogmanay, he was entitled to receive at least a groat annually from all well-disposed householders. His emoluments were completed by certain small fees for playing at weddings. In escorting a marriage-party, he marched with becoming importance in front, playing with might and main a tune called " Welcome Hame, my Dearie," — which air I would be glad to recover.

On Hogmanay Day, tradesmen called personally with their yearly accounts, of which they received payment along with some appropriate refreshment. There W3.sjtrsffooting on New-year's morning. And Handsel Monday — the first Monday in the year — was marked by tossing a profusion of ballads and penny chap-books from windows among a crowd of clamorous youngsters. New Year was also signalized by various domestic festivities. The

1 The origin of the word Hogmanay has been very puzzling. None of the ordinary explanations is worth anything. I venture to suggest that it is a familiar corruption from an old cry in French : Aux gueux mener (Bring to the beggars). The calling out of the word at doors by children and mendicants is in this view quite appropriate.

severity of manners of a hundred years earlier had worn off. There was unrebuked joviality at births and marriages, and even in a solemn way at deaths. In the house of the deceased, on the morning before the funeral, there was a Lyke-wake^ consisting of a succession of services of refreshments, presided over by an undertaker^ one of whose professional recommendations consisted in saying a fresh grace to each batch of mourners. Laird Grieve, an aged and facetious carpenter, carried off the chief business in coffin-making, in consequence of being able to say seven graces of considerable length without repetition. The consumption of whiskey at these lugubrious entertainments was incredible, and sometimes encroached seriously on the means of families. After the funeral, there was an entertainment called the Dredgy, which was a degree more cheerful than the preceding potations.

Although the belief in witchcraft had died out generally, it was still entertained in a limited way by the less enlightened classes. I have a recollection of a poor old woman being reputed as a witch, and that it was not safe to pass her cottage, without placing the thumb across the fourth finger, so as to form the figure of the cross. This species of exorcism I practiced under instructions from boys older than myself I likewise remember seeing salt thrown on the fire, as a guard against the evil eye, when aged women, suspected of not being quite canny, happened to call at a neighbor's dwelling. The aged postman, as was confidently reported, never went on his rounds with the letters without a sprig of rowan-tree (mountain ash) in his pocket, as a preservative against malevolent influences. There was no police. Offenders against the law were usually captured by a town-officer, at the verbal command of the provost, who administered justice in an off-hand way behind his counter, amidst miscellaneous dealings with customers, and

DRUMMER WILL. 21

ordered off alleged delinquents to prison without keeping any record of the transaction. Dismission from confinement took place in the like abrupt and arbitrary manner.

As will be observed, there was still much of an old-world air about Peebles. The transit to and from it was tedious and expensive. In winter, there was a dearth of fuel, causing the poorer classes to rely for warmth on that species of deposit from cows, mixed with coal-culm and baked in the sun, which we learn from the Malmesbury Papers was used as fuel in Cambridgeshire after the middle of last century. Although the town had existed for a thousand years or more, it possessed no printing-press. Only two or three newspapers came to it in the course of a week, and these were handed about till they were in tatters. Advertisements were made by tuck of drum ; the official employed for the purpose being an old soldier, a tough little man with a queue, known as *' Drummer Will." It was told of him that he had gallantly beat a drum at the battle of Quebec until the whole regiment had perished, he alone being the survivor, and still vigorously beating his drum like a hero amidst fire and shot. Now settled down as an officer of the civic corporation, Drummer Will usefully performed the triple duty of acting as jailer, constable, and agent for advertisements, which after collecting an audience, he read by means of a pair of Dutch spectacles, and always pronounced advcrteesements.

Robert describes the way that the more affluent burghers often spent their evenings.

" The absence of excitement in the ordinary life of a small town, made it next to impossible for a man of social spirit to avoid convivial evening meetings, and these were frequent. The favorite howff was an old-fashioned inn kept by a certain Miss Ritchie, a clever, sprightly woman of irreproachable character, who, so far from the obsequiousness of her profession, required to be treated by her guests witli no small amount of deference, and, in especial, would never allow them to have liquor after a decent hour. When that hour arrived — I think it was the Forbes-Mackenzie hour of eleven — it was vain for them to ask a fresh supply. ' Na, na ; gang hame to your wives and bairns,' was her dictum, and it was impossible for them to sit much longer. ' Meg Dods ' in ' St. Ronan's Well ' is what I would call a rough and strong portraiture of Miss Ritchie, a Miss Ritchie of a lower sphere of life ; and if I may judge from a conversation I once had with Sir Walter Scott regarding the supposed prototype, I think he knew little about her. The tottt-enseinble of the actual inn, — a laird's town-house of the seventeenth century, with a grande cour in front, accessible by an arched gate surmounted by a dial, — with the little low-ceiled rooms and Miss Ritchie herself ruling house, and servants, and guests with her clear head and ready tongue, jocosely sharp with everybody, forms a picture in my mind to which I should now vainly seek to find a parallel.