Woman's Work in English Fiction, from the Restoration to the Mid-Victorian Period

by Clara Helen Whitmore

  CHAPTER VIII

  Elizabeth Hamilton. Anna Porter. Jane Porter

  Elizabeth Hamilton was also an Irish writer, but through her one novelshe will always be associated with Scotland. In _The Cottagers ofGlenburnie_ she did for the Scotch people what Maria Edgeworth had donefor the Irish, and represented for the first time in fiction the life ofthe common people. It is a story of poor people of the serving class.Mrs. Mason, who had been an upper servant in the family of a lord, hasbeen pensioned and takes up her abode with a cousin in the village ofGlenburnie. She was among the earliest of our settlement workers. Thislittle village with the pretty name, situated in a beautiful country,had accumulated about its homes as much filth as the tenements of thepoorest ward of a large city, and for the same reason, that itsinhabitants did not understand the value of cleanliness. Its thatchedcottages, had it not been for their chimneys and the smoke issuing fromthem, would have passed for stables or hog-sties, for there was adunghill in front of every door.

  Mrs. MacClarty's cottage, where Mrs. Mason was to live, was like all therest. It was as dirty inside as out. Mrs. MacClarty picked up a clothfrom the floor beside her husband's boots, with which to wipe herdishes, and made her cheese in a kettle which had not been washed sincethe chickens had eaten their last meal from it, although the remains oftheir feast still adhered to the sides. When Mrs. MacClarty put herblack hands into the cheese to stir it, Mrs. Mason reminded her gentlythat she had not washed them:

  "'Hoot,' returned the gudewife, 'my hands do weel eneugh. I canna befash'd to clean them at ilka turn.'"

  When Mrs. Mason proposed that the windows should be hung on hinges andsupplied with iron hooks, so that they could be opened at pleasure, Mr.MacClarty objected to the plan:

  "'And wha do you think wad put in the cleek?' returned he. 'Is thereane, think ye, aboot this hoose, that would be at sic a fash?'

  "'Ilka place has just its ain gait,' said the gudewife, 'and ye neednathink that ever we'll learn yours. And, indeed, to be plain wi' you,cusine, I think you hae owre mony fykes. There, didna ye keep Grizzy formair than twa hours, yesterday morning, soopin' and dustin' your roomin every corner, an' cleanin' out the twa bits of buird, that are fornaething but to set your foot on after a'?'"

  It may be well to explain that the chickens had been roosting in thischamber before Mrs. Mason's arrival.

  The story of Mr. MacClarty's death is pathetic. He is lying ill with afever in the press-bed in the kitchen, where not a breath of air reacheshim. The neighbours have crowded in to offer sympathy. The doors aretightly closed, and his wife has piled blankets over him and given himwhiskey and hot water to drink. When Mrs. Mason, who knows that withproper care his life can be saved, urges that he be removed to her roomwhere he can have air, all the neighbours violently oppose her advice.But Peter MacGlashon, the oracle of the village, looks at it morephilosophically:

  "'If it's the wull o' God that he's to dee, it's a' ane whar ye tak him;ye canna hinder the wull o' God.'"

  But upon Mrs. Mason's insisting that we should do our best to save thelife of the sick with the reason God has given us, Peter becomesalarmed:

  "'That's no soond doctrine,' exclaimed Peter. 'It's the law of works.'"

  Elizabeth Hamilton had been a teacher and had written books oneducation, so that her description of the school which Mrs. Masonopened in the village gives an accurate idea of the Scottish schools forthe poorer classes. Each class was divided into landlord, tenants, andunder-tenants, one order being responsible for a specific amount ofreading and writing to the order above it. The landlord was responsibleto the master both for his own diligence and the diligence of hisvassals. If the tenants disobeyed the laws they were tried by a jury oftheir mates. The results of the training at Mrs. Mason's school mightwell be an aim of teachers to-day: "To have been educated at the schoolof Glenburnie implied a security for truth, diligence and honesty."

  The pupils in the school gradually learned to love cleanliness andorder. The little flower-garden in front gave pleasure to all. Thevillagers declared, "The flowers are a hantel bonnier than the middenand smell a hantel sweeter, too." With this improvement in taste, the"gude auld gaits" gave way to a better order of things.

  _The Cottagers of Glenburnie_ is more realistic in detail than anythingwhich had yet been written. It is a short simple story told in simplelanguage. There is a slight plot, but it is the village upon which ourattention is fastened. One individual stands out more strongly than therest: that is Mrs. MacClarty with her constant expression, "It is welleneugh. I canna be fashed."

  This little book was read in every Scotch village, and many of the poorpeople saw in it a picture of their own homes. But its soundcommon-sense appealed to them. It was reasonable that butter withouthairs would sell for more than with them, and that gardens without weedswould produce more vegetables than when so encumbered. The book did forthe cottagers of Scotland what Mrs. Mason had done for those ofGlenburnie.

  * * * * *

  The lives of Anna Maria and Jane Porter resemble in a few particularsthat of Elizabeth Hamilton. Like her they belonged, at least on thefather's side, to Ireland, and like her they lived in Scotland, andtheir names will always be associated with that country. But ElizabethHamilton wrote the first novel of Scotland's poor, the ancestor of _TheWindow in Thrums_ and _Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush_; Jane Porter wrotethe first novel of Scotland's kings, the immediate forerunner of_Waverley_, _The Abbot_, and _The Monastery_.

  Upon the death of Major Porter, who had been stationed for some yearswith his regiment at Durham, Mrs. Porter removed to Edinburgh, where herchildren were educated. Their quick lively imaginations found food forgrowth on Scottish soil. At that time Caledonia was a land of cliff andcrag, inhabited by a quarrelsome people, whom the English still regardedwith something the same aversion which Dr. Johnson had so oftenexpressed to Boswell. But every castle had its story of brave knightsand fair ladies, and every brae had been the scene of renowned deeds ofarms. In every cottage the memory of the past was kept alive, andfathers and mothers related to their children stories of Wallace and ofBruce, until the romantic past became more real than the living present.Mrs. Porter's servants delighted to relate to her eager children storiesof Scotland's glory. The maids would sing to them the songs of "Wallacewight," and the serving-man would tell them tales of Bannockburn andCambus-Kenneth.

  Rarely have stories fallen on such fertile soil. In a short time, threeof these children became famous. Sir Robert Ker Porter, the brother ofAnna and Jane, followed closely in the footsteps of Scotland's heroes,and became distinguished as a soldier and diplomat, as well as a famouspainter of battles. He painted the enormous canvas of _The Storming ofSeringapatam_, a sensational panorama, one hundred and twenty feet inlength, the first of its kind, but in a style that has often beenfollowed in recent years. The idol of his family, it would seem that hewas endowed with many of those qualities which his sisters gave to theheroes of their romances.

  Anna Maria Porter, the youngest of the group, was the first to appear inprint. At the age of fifteen, she published a little volume called_Artless Tales_. From this time until her death, at least every twoyears a new book from her pen was announced. She wrote a large number ofhistorical romances, which were widely read and translated into manylanguages. This kind of story, in the hands of Sophia Lee, was tame anduninteresting. Anna Porter increased its scope and its popularity. Herplots are well worked out with many thrilling adventures. Herimagination, however, had been quickened by reading, not by observation,and although her scenes cover many countries of Europe and many periodsof history, they differ but little in pictorial detail, and hercharacters are lifeless. Her style of writing is, moreover, so inflatedthat it gives an air of unreality to her books.

  She thus describes the Hungarian brothers: "They were, indeed, perfectspecimens of the loveliness of youth and the magnificence of manhood."This novel, dealing with the French Revolution, was one of the mostpopular of all her stories. It
went through several editions both inEngland and on the continent. Superlative expressions seem to have beenfashionable in that age which was still encumbered by much that wasartificial in dress and manners. Miss Porter with proper formality thuswrites of her heroine as she was recovering from a fainting fit: "With ablissful shiver, Ippolita slowly unclosed her eyes, and turning themround, with such a look as we may imagine blessed angels cast, whenawakening amid the raptures of another world, she met those of her sweetand gracious uncle."

  Some of her society novels are witty and have a lively style, whichsuggests the truth of Mr. S. C. Hall's description of the sisters. Anna,a blonde, handsome and gay, he named L'Allegro, in contrast to Jane, abrunette, equally handsome, but with the dignified manners of theheroines of her own romances, whom he styled Il Penseroso.

  * * * * *

  Jane Porter took a more serious view of the responsibilities ofauthorship than her sister. Her first novel, _Thaddeus of Warsaw_, waswritten while England was agitated against France and excited over thewrongs of Poland. It grew out of popular feeling. Miss Porter had becomeacquainted with friends of Kosciusko, men who had taken part with him inhis country's struggle for liberty, and made him the hero of the story.The scenery of Poland was so well described that the Poles refused tobelieve that she had not visited their country; and events were relatedin a manner so pleasing to them that they distinguished the author bymany honours. It is one thing to write an historical novel of people andevents that have long been buried in oblivion; but to write a story oftimes so near the present that its chief actors are still living, is,indeed, a rash task. And for any history to meet with the approval ofits hero and his friends bespeaks rare excellence in the work.

  In the light of the classic standing of the historical novel, due to thegenius of Scott and Dumas, it is interesting to read how _Thaddeus ofWarsaw_ came to be published. Miss Porter wrote the romance merely forher own amusement, with no thought of its being read outside the circleof her family and intimate friends. They urged her to publish it. Butfor a long time she resisted their importunities on the ground that itdid not belong to any known style of writing: stories of real life, like_Tom Jones_, or improbable romances, like _The Mysteries of Udolpho_,were the only legitimate forms of fiction. _Thaddeus of Warsaw_ had theexact details of history with a romance added to please the author'sfancy. Thus did Jane Porter discover to the world the possibilities ofthe historical novel.

  Her next novel, _The Scottish Chiefs_, grew out of the stories she hadheard in her childhood. Besides the tales of Scotland's struggle forindependence which she heard from the servants in her own home, avenerable old woman called Luckie Forbes, who lived not far from Mrs.Porter's house, used to tell her of the wonderful deeds of WilliamWallace. Of the influence these stories had upon her childish mind, JanePorter has thus written:

  "I must avow, that to Luckie Forbes's familiar, and even endearing,manner of narrating the lives of William Wallace and his dauntlessfollowers; her representation of their heart-sacrifices for the good oftheir country, filling me with an admiration and a reverentialamazement, like her own; and calling forth my tears and sobs, when shetold of the deaths of some, and of the cruel execution of the virtuousleader of them all;--to her I must date my early and continuedenthusiasm in the character of Sir William Wallace! and in the friendshis truly hero-soul delighted to honour."

  Before writing _The Scottish Chiefs_, Miss Porter read everything shecould find bearing upon the history of England and Scotland during thereigns of the first two Edwards. She personally visited the places shedescribed. She wrote in the preface: "I assure the reader that I seldomlead him to any spot in Scotland whither some written or oral testimonyrespecting my hero had not previously conducted myself." Besides thesesources of information, Miss Porter was familiar with the poem of_Wallace_ by Blind Harry the Minstrel, the biographer of Scotland'snational hero. Blind Harry lived nearly two centuries after the death ofWallace, but he had access to books now lost, and collected storiesabout Scotland's struggle for independence while it was still prominentin the public mind. Although he tells many exalted stories of thenumbers whom Wallace overcame by his single arm, the poem is on thewhole authentic. Sheriff Mackay in the _Dictionary of NationalBiography_ writes that the life of Wallace by Blind Harry "became thesecular bible of his countrymen, and echoes through their laterhistory." Miss Porter introduced love scenes to vary the deeds of war,but there is nothing else in _The Scottish Chiefs_ which is not true tohistory, or to that more legitimate source of romance, the traditionscommon among the people.

  From the opening chapter, in which Wallace is described as an outlawbecause he had refused to take the oath of allegiance to an Englishking, to his death in London and the final crowning of Bruce, there isnot a dull page. Especially interesting is the scene between WilliamWallace and the Earl of Carrick, after the battle of Falkirk, and theappearance of Robert Bruce, who overheard this conversation, fighting bythe side of Wallace. The truth of this incident has been denied, but itis related by Blind Harry. The trial of William Wallace in the greathall at Westminster for treason, and his defence that he had neveracknowledged the English government, is most impressive, and is a matterof record.

  _The Scottish Chiefs_ is the first historical novel in which the authormade diligent research in order to give a truthful representation of thetimes. It has the atmosphere of feudal days. Notwithstanding theridicule cast upon Wallace as a lady's hero, he is drawn in heroicproportions. Miss Mitford declared that she scarcely knew "one _heros deroman_ whom it is possible to admire, except Wallace in Miss Porter'sstory." The work is written in the style of the old epics. The manypuerile attempts of the last few years to write an historical romance inwhich Washington or Lincoln should figure have shown how difficult isthe task. How weak and commonplace have these great men appeared infiction! It requires a nature akin to the heroic to draw it. In 1810,when it was published, _The Scottish Chiefs_ was the only greathistorical romance. Four years later _Waverley_ was published, the firstof the novels of Sir Walter Scott. This was superior in imagination andin craftsmanship to Miss Porter's novel, but not in interest. _TheScottish Chiefs_ has since been excelled by many others of the Waverleynovels, though not by all, by _Henry Esmond_, and _A Tale of TwoCities_, but it preceded all these in time, and still holds a place as aclassic of the second rank.

  Critics of to-day smile at its enthusiastic style, but Miss Porterspeaks with no more enthusiasm than did the poor folk from whom sheheard the story. As long as enthusiastic youth loves an unblemishedhero, _The Scottish Chiefs_ will be read. It is impossible to analysethese early impressions or to test their truth. One can only rememberthem with gratitude. Jane Porter has, however, taught the youth of otherlands to reverence Scotland's popular hero, so that the mention of hisname awakens a thrill of pleasure, and the hills and glades associatedwith his deeds glow with the light of romance.

  In 1815, Jane Porter wrote a third historical novel, _The Pastor'sFireside_. This is far inferior to _The Scottish Chiefs_. It has thesame elevated style, and the mystery which surrounds the hero awakensand holds the attention. But the novel deals with the later Stuarts, andone feels that the author herself was but little interested in thehistorical events about which she was writing. The book has no abidingqualities.

  In 1832 was published a book bearing the title _Sir Edward Seaward'sNarrative of His Shipwreck and Consequent Discovery of certain Islandsin the Caribbean Sea, with a Detail of many extraordinary and highlyinteresting Events in his Life from the year 1733 to 1749 as written inhis Own Diary. Edited by Jane Porter._ In the preface Miss Porterexplains how the manuscript was given to her by the relatives of SirEdward. The story reads like a second Robinson Crusoe. It has all theminute details that give an air of verisimilitude to the writings ofDefoe. In the opening chapter, Edward Seaward supposedly gives thisaccount of himself:

  "Born of loyal and honest parents, whose means were just sufficient togive a common education to their childre
n, I have neither to boast ofpedigree nor of learning; yet they bequeathed to me a betterinheritance--a stout constitution, a peaceable disposition, and a propersense of what is due to my superiors and equals; for such an inheritanceI am grateful to God, and to them."

  In the story he is married to a woman of his own rank, and she embarkswith him for Jamaica, but they are shipwrecked on an island near Lat. 14deg. 30 min. N. and Long. 81 deg. W. They find bags of money hidden onthe island, some negroes come to them, and a schooner is driven totheir haven. Edward sees in this a purpose which afterward is fulfilled.He says to his wife: "I should be the most ungrateful of men, to thegood God who has bestowed all this on me, if I did not feel that thismoney, so wonderfully delivered into my hands, was for some specialpurpose of stewardship. The providential arrival of the poor castawaynegroes, and then of the schooner,--all--all working together to give usthe means of providing every comfort, towards planting a colony ofrefuge in that blessed haven of our own preservation,--seem to me, insolemn truth, as so many signs from the Divine Will, that it is our dutyto fulfil a task allotted to us, in that long unknown island."

  This island becomes inhabited by a happy people, and Seaward is knightedby George the Second.

  Everybody read the book. A second edition was called for within theyear. Old naval officers got out their charts, and hunted up theprobable locality of the places mentioned. Nobody at first doubted itsveracity. The _Quarterly_, however, decided that no such man had everexisted and that the whole story was a fiction. It hunted for a schoonermentioned and the names of the naval officers. The latter had neverserved in his Majesty's navy and the former had not timed her voyagesaccording to the story. The uniform of a naval officer described in thenarrative was not worn until thirteen years after these adventures hadtaken place, and no man by the name of Seaward had been knighted duringthis time, nor was there any village in England having the name of thevillage which he gave as his birthplace. Supposing the editor hadchanged names and dates, the _Quarterly_ criticism becomes valueless.Although the magazine declared it a work of fiction, it gave both thestory and the style high praise, and declared it far superior to herromances. When Miss Porter was asked about it, she declined to answer,but said that Scott had his great secret and she might be permitted tohave her little one.

  It is generally considered now to have been the work of Jane Porter. Notwo books differ more in style than _The Scottish Chiefs_ and _SirEdward Seaward_. But twenty-two years had elapsed between them. Theformer is written in dignified, stately language; the latter in simplehomely words, and both its invention and its style entitle it to a placeamong English classics.