Northern memoirs, calculated for the meridian of Scotland; to which is added, the contemplative and practical angler

Contents

PAGE.

PREFACE, . . . . : 1

To Mr J. W. Merchant in London, v

Preface

THE following reprint of a scarce book will afford, it is hoped, amusement as well to the topographical antiquary as to the lover of the angle, since it contains some curious particulars respecting the state of Scotland during the sixteenth century.

Of Richard Franck, the author, nothing is known beyond what he himself has intimated. He was born at Cambridge, as is stated from one of his three dedications, and during the reign of James VI. , as appears from his having lived during the reign of five sovereigns. But, as Franck repeatedly mentions his slender education, it is not likely he participated, to any extent, in the advantages of the university, although one would think some degree of learning was necessary to have formed so very uncommon and pedantic a style. He informs his worthy and honoured friend Mr J, W. merchant in London, that the impending Civil Wars drove him from the university to London; and if he was born about 1624 (James died in 1625) he would be seventeen years of age in the fatal 1641.

Richard Franck seems to have resided at Nottingham, but in what capacity he give us no opportunity of conjecturing, nor whether it was before or after his expedition to Scotland ; he certainly served in the Parliament's cavalry during the wars in Scotland, to which he makes repeated allusion, and thence, probably, he derived the title of Captain, given to him by Richard Johnson in his commendatory verses. In religion, Franck appears to have been an Independent, but upon a mystical system of his own, which was no uncommon circumstance in that age. He censures occasionally both Prelate and Presbyter, and throws out, from time to time, his own peculiar tenets, which, indeed, he was at the pains to publish more at length, though not more intelligibly, in a separate work, called Rabbi Moses, written expressly for that purpose.

It is singular that, under all these circumstances, Richard Franck, a Cromwellian trooper, and Independent, should have been represented as an unfortunate Royalist, who undertook his tour to Scotland to escape the persecution of the dominant party during the Commonwealth. His enumeration of " the six great patriots of the English nation," Ireton, Vane, Nevill, Martin, Marvel, and Cromwell,* as well as his subsequent panegyric upon the Protector,f ought to have prevented this misrepresentation. The truth seems to be, that the author's journey into Scotland was owing to his desire of withdrawing himself from the disturbances which seemed like to arise in the Commonwealth. At what exact period this occurred, is not surely settled. If written in 1658, the journey must have been performed in 1656 or 1657, in which case the disturbances apprehended might be those betwixt the republicans and the faction of Cromwell, which led to the plot for which Sindercombe suffered in 1 656. No doubt, the uncertain state of things which succeeded Cromwell's death, in 1658, was still more likely to have induced a prudent man to withdraw himself from approaching evil. But, first, Cromwell only died 3d September 1658, rather too late in the season for commencing a fishing tour as far as Sutherland ; and, secondly, an event so remarkable would have been hinted at in the dialogue betwixt Arnoldus, Theophilus, and Agrippa, which precedes the resolution of the two first to visit Scotland.

The general route adopted by Arnoldus (Franck) and his companion, (for in description he often deviates from it,) contains a very extensive tour in Scotland, which they enter by Dumfries and Sanquhar. They then traverse Ayrshire, and come to Glasgow by Kilmarnock, visit Lochlomond and its romantic environs, from thence go to Crieff by Stirling, and from Crieff return southwards to Perth. From Perth the travellers descend Strathmore by Meigle, Forfar, and Brechin, and from thence journey northward by Fettercairn, Cairaiemount, and Kincardine O'Neall to Loch Ness. From Inverness they proceed to Sutherland, and visit Dunrobin, and the small town of Tain in Ross-shire ; Cromarty is also visited, and the travellers return by Castle Gordon, Aberdeen, and the coast-road which traverses Stonehaven, Montrose, Dundee, Bruntisland, to Edinburgh. From Edinburgh the pilgrims return to England by Dunbar and Berwick ; and, finally, repose at Nottingham, where, as we observed, the author seems at one time to have had his ordinary residence.

The sketch of such a tour, made during the seventeenth century, promises, it must be allowed, a great deal more curiosity and interest than the reader will receive from the actual perusal. The rage of fine writing had unfortunately seized on Richard Franck, Philanthropes, with inveteracy unparalleled, unless perhaps in the case of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromerty ; and instead of acquainting us with what actually befel him, like a man of this world, he generally renders himself obscure, and sometimes altogether unintelligible, by his affected pedantry and obscurity. Probably no reader, while he reads the disparaging passages in which the venerable Isaac Walton is introduced, can forbear wishing that the good old man, who had so true an eye for nature, so simple a taste for her most innocent pleasures, and withal, so sound a judgment, both concerning men and things, had made this northern tour instead of Franck ; and had detailed in the beautiful simplicity of his Arcadian language, his observations on the scenery and manners of Scotland. Yet we must do our author the justice to state, that he is as much superior to the excellent patriarch Isaac Walton, in the mystery of fly-fishing, as inferior to him in taste, feeling, and common sense. Franck's contests with salmon are painted to the life, and his directions to the angler are generally given with great judgment. Walton's practice was entirely confined to bait-fishing, and even Cotton, his disciple and follower, though accustomed to fish trout in the Dove, with artificial fly, would have been puzzled by a fish (for so the salmon is called, par excellence, in most parts of Scotland) of twenty pounds weight ; both being alike strangers to that noble branch of the art, which exceeds all other uses of the angling-rod, as much as fox-hunting excels hare-hunting.

It must not be omitted, that the Northern Memoirs, though less rich in local description and anecdote than might have been hoped, contain a great deal of interesting matter, concerning the state of Scotland, during the Civil Wars. They appear to have been committed to writing in 1658 ; but certainly not drawn out at length until 1685 ; so that the author's reflections often relate to events which took place long after the term of his own journey. This is the remark of his friend Theophilus, who says, " You writ your book in 58, and spread the net to 85."* There may be reason to think, that the first Dedication to " Mr J. W., merchant in London," was written for the rough draught of the Memoirs, and that the " prudent and valorous prince," who is pointed out as healing the wounds of the Civil Wars, was the Protector Oliver, whose death and its consequences may have prevented the publication of the work. But this supposition, the reader must be aware, rests on the same arguments which were formerly alleged, for supposing the tour was made in 1656, or 1657. If these do not appear convincing, and they are by no means offered as conclusive, the " victorious prince" must mean William III., applied to whom, the epithet is of doubtful propriety. At length, so late as 1696, the Northern Memoirs were given to the public.

During the interim it would seem, from his publication entitled Rabbi Moses, that the author had been in America, which was a general place of refuge to the soldiers or followers of the Commonwealth, as soon as the Restoration rendered England an unpleasant or dangerous abode for them. The full title is, " A Philosophical Treatise of the Original and Production of Things Writ in America in a Time of Solitude. By R. Franck, London, 1687." At the end of the Northern Memoirs, the same work is advertised as " Rabbi Moses, or a Philosophical, &c. to be Sold by the Author at his House in Barbican."

If the Northern Memoirs were published in the year 1694, Richard Franck, the author, born, as we have calculated, during the last years of King James the First's reign, must have attained the age of seventy and upwards ; so probably did not survive the publication many years ; and these few notices arc all the particulars of his life, which an attentive perusal of his work has enabled us to trace.

Franck, as already noticed, seems to have entertained peculiar and mystical notions in theology, yet, in general, expresses himself as a good Christian, and well-meaning man. His praise of Montrose and others, opposed to his own party, is, to say the least, liberal and candid ; and his view of Scotland, under so many circumstances of national discouragement, and affording, doubtless, most exquisite reasons for the censure which the travellers occasionally cast upon the sluttishness of the cookery, and the inferiority of accommodation which they met with, indicates much good-humoured liberality. It is remarkable, that he does not appear to have experienced that hospitality which Taylor, at an early period, and many tourists since his day, have received in Scotland, and which we are accustomed to consider as characteristic of the country. Captain Franck does not mention having experienced the civility of any native from the beginning of his tour to the end ; for the hospitable Commandant of Dumbarton was undoubtedly an

Englishman. If this was owing to the dislike in which Franck's countrymen were held at that time in the land, which they kept in subjection, the circumstance makes his candour the more remarkable, and every Scotchman must look with some favour on an author, who, so circumstanced, could have described Caledonia as " a legible fair draught of the beautiful creation, dressed up with polished rocks, pleasant savannas, flourishing dales, deep and torpid lakes, with shady woods, immerged with rivers and gliding rivulets, where every fountain overflows a valley, and (which is especially to the author's purpose) every ford superabounds with fish."

It only remains to say, that a young friend having undertaken the present edition of a rare work, (of which only a limited number of copies has been printed,) these remarks, and a few trivial notes, were contributed by one who may subscribe himself with John Richards, in his Recommendatory Poem : —

No FISHER,

BUT A WELL-WISHER

To THE GAME.

EDINBURGH, January 3, 1821.

THE TROUT, THE DACE, THE PIKE, THE BREAME, THE EELE, THAT LOVES THE TROUBLED STREAME, THE MILLER'S THOMBE, THE HIDING LOACH, THE PERCH, THE EVER-NIBLING ROACH, THE SHOALES WITH WHOM IS TAVIE FRAUGHT, THE FOOLISH GUDGEON QUICKLY CAUGHT, AND LAST, THE LITTLE MINNOW-FISH, WHOSE CHIEFE DELIGHT IN GRAVELL IS.

TO

MY WORTHY AND HONOURED FRIEND,

MR J. W. MERCHANT IN LONDON.

SIR,

As this compendious volume of my Northern Memoirs contains nothing of obscenity whereat I may blush, so I hope no absurdity worthy your reprehension : Yet because modelized in the plain methods of an English dress, will perhaps occasion the sciolist to interpret me but a junior academian ; and truly so he may, if when to consider my slender education. However, I have endeavoured, as much as in me lies, to avoid all prolixity, and long parentheses, which possibly would relish unpleasant in your ear ; so have I abhorred repeated tautologies, lest fearing to nauseate and surfeit your appetite.

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For that end, sir, I'll be brief in my description of Scotland, and as concise as possible in my Contemplative Angler ; so sum up both as compendiously as I can. In Cambridg, it's true, I had my education; but travel having the ascendent over me, I afterwards rambled the remote northern tracts of Scotland ; where, to admiration, I inspected that little artick world, and every angle of it. It's true, travel always affected me, and to travel by books, when nothing else presented to transport me, was a solitary kind of satisfaction, but no fruition. I must confess 'twas in an ill juncture of time, when the nation was alarm'd by the fatal approach of an intestine war (that perplex'd my anxious thoughts with various inquietudes) because then to see a preternatural cloud arise, that neither men nor counsels were prophetick enough to consult, whereby to stop the deluge of this hostile inundation that threatned to involve the kingdom in blood.

In this dilemma I left the university to seek umbrage in the city of London ; but my retirements contributed equal trouble,

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for now a smoak began to rise in every corner, and like a meteor, it blaz'd out at last into fuliginous flames, that overspread the beautiful prospect of peace; which not only distracted the minds but the manners of men ; because then to behold a storm rise out of a calm, that not only threatned prerogative and privilege, but a national exit, unhappily calculated to compel the people to see their own ruins wrapt up in the destiny of war. Where some, because never enough satisfied by being well, endeavoured by inadvertency to make themselves worse, and striking their breasts with their own weapons, forced all the kingdom to bleed at last. So that now every man runs to seek a pleget to stanch, if possible, the reeking wound ; yet no man so propitious to find his own cure, by which he fancied all the rest incurable. That now so generally and epidemically the kingdom was diseased, that deliriated and distracted, they let one another blood. Nor stop'd it here neither, for the cultivated fields stained all over with English blood (beyond all precedent) bled, via till the life of that nonsuch Charles expired.

But now since England is so happily blest under the prudent, conduct of a valorous prince (whose heroick vertues like a corona surround him) presents me an opportunity to step into Scotland, to examine there her remoter stars, fed by the vital flames of our southern orb ; supposing it no riddle, to fancy any man ridiculous that holds up a taper to illuminate the sun : for if when to consider, that the beautiful Cynthia sheds her nocturnal beam abroad, only to sprinkle the universe with cold influences, from thence we conclude that the major luminary (viz. the sun) adds to her obscurity his bright reflections, since she of herself is but a borrowed light, that can neither warm the world, nor cherish it with vegetation. But the light of the sun not only invigorates the creation with light and warmth, but is also a creational good in the ends of production.

Come then, whilst it is day, let us step into Scotland, to rummage and rifle her rivers and rivulets, and examine her flou-

IX rishing streams for entertainment; there the rocks and the groves will be our solent reception, and the cities and citadels supply us with accommodation ; and there I fancy our time will be well enough spent to view the country, and give a description of all her curiosities : which I here present you, my worthy patron, in this short narrative, not doubting your clemency to absolve my stripling muse, though not fleg enough to elevate it self to the lowest elevations of your generous acceptation. But I'll do what I can in these northern tracts, to bring you a discovery of some of her rarities, whose solitary shades strike a damp to my pen, because to behold there such unexpected landskips, meanders and labyrinths (which I frequently met with) as exposed my reso-r lution to a farther progress, whereby to discover all her northern gaities that shin'd so splendidly in every fir-wood, as also in her lofty domineering hills, that over-top'd the submissive shady dales, and over-look'd the rapid torrents of rivers, and pretty purling gliding rivulets ; where the polish'd rocks, and imbellish'd fortifications beyond

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belief, so sufpriz'd my genius, that it puzzles me to report these remote cariosities. For you are to consider, sir, that the whole tract of Scotland is but one single series of admirable delights, notwithstanding the prejudicate reports of some men that represent it otherwise. For if eye-sight be argument convincing enough to confirm a truth, it enervates my pen to describe Scotland's curiosities, which properly ought to fall under a more elegant stile to range them in order for a better discovery. For Scotland is not Europe's umbra^ as fictitiously imagined by some extravagant wits : No, it's rather a legible fair draught of the beautiful creation, drest up with polish'd rocks, pileasant savanas, flourishing dales, deep and torpid lakes, with shady fir- woods, immerg'd with rivers and gliding rivulets; where every fountain o'reflows a valley, and every ford superabounds with fish. Where also the swelling mountains are covered with sheep, and the rnarish grounds strewed with cattle, whilst every field is fill'd with corn, and every swamp swarms with fowl. This, in my opinion, proclaims a plenty, and pre-

XI

sents Scotland, a kingdom of prodigies and products too, to allure foreigners, and entertain travellers.

So that now Scotland represents a star that reflects a beam on our southern orb ; but England is the magnet that attracts this northern Chalybs by sweet influences, (and mild condescensions) whereby the fruits of peace and tranquillity protrude, and bud up to unite interests in one another. The orbs were made for the erratick stars ; and every star as a lesser orb (destinated for light and discovery) renders the creation beautiful to excess, by divine appointment of the divinest. For the sun we see is not impaired, because to lend us a ray of light ; nor does it lessen superiours (in any degree) to communicate their virtues to influence inferiours. Do stars run retrograde to make subjects slaves, when the whole creation is but under subjection by divine condescension of the great Creator ? Nor is there any thing of slavery (save only servility) except man who enslaves himself to his lust ; or by tyranny imposed upon his fellow creature, And now, sir, I have done, in doing my

Xll duty, not only to my country, but singly to your self : give me leave therefore to wind up my epistle, and solicit pardon if any thing be amiss ; supposing my language runs harsh and rugged ; but that I cannot help, because drawn from the rough draught of a martial pen, which shews my stile may be somewhat unpolished. Nor can I flatter the times, for I never was a parasite nor a time-server ; so that, errors excepted, I may hope a pardon and an easy penance from so mild, so moderate and judicious a patron, under whose patronage I lodg my sentiments, and subscribe my self,

Worthy sir, yours to serve you,

PHILANTHROPIC.