Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps

by Ursula Buchan

23Ibid., pp. 232–3.

  24Ibid., p. 114–5.

  25John Buchan and George Adam Smith, The Kirk in Scotland, 1560–1929, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1930.

  26Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 35.

  27Rev. James C. Greig, ‘In journeyings often…’, The John Buchan Journal, no. 11, spring 1992, p. 15.

  28Buchan, Scholar Gipsies, p. 46.

  29Interview with Janet Adam Smith, 16 May 1958. NLS, Acc. 11164/4.

  30Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 33.

  31Lady Tweedsmuir, ed., The Clearing House: A Survey of One Man’s Mind, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1946, Preface by Gilbert Murray, O.M., p. vii.

  32JB to Charles Dick, letter, 11 April 1893, Queen’s University Archives (QUA), John Buchan fonds, locator 2110, box 13.

  33Rev. John Buchan, A Violet Wreath, privately published, 1893, p. 5.

  34Ibid., p. 8–9.

  35Ibid., p. 12.

  36JB to Charles Dick, letter, 5 July 1893, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  37JB to Charles Dick, letter, 6 September 1893, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  38JB to Charles Dick, 13 January 1902, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  39Extract from Alexander MacCallum Scott’s ‘Reminiscences’, NLS, Acc. 11164/4.

  40John Buchan, ed., Essays and Apothegms of Francis Lord Bacon, Walter Scott, London, 1894, p. vii.

  41JB, unpublished material, QUA 2110, box 20 (b).

  42JB to Charles Dick, 13 June 1893, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  43Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, pp. 23–4.

  44In the same Commonplace Book he quoted a piece of advice from Captain Cuttle in Dombey and Son which he took to heart: When found, make a note of. QUA, 2110, box 21.

  45Charles Dick to JB, 16 August 1893, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  46Lord Tweedsmuir, Always a Countryman, Robert Hale, London, 1968, p. 64.

  47It is in the W. D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.

  48JB to Charles Dick, 30 December 1894, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  49JB to Charles Dick, October 1893, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  50Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, pp. 42–3.

  51Ibid.

  52Roger Clarke, The Journalistic Writings of John Buchan: Selected Essays, Reviews, and Opinion Pieces, Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, NY, 2018, pp. 162–3.

  53Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 34.

  54Ibid., p. 37.

  55Ibid., p. 39.

  56John Buchan, ‘The Novel and the Fairy Tale’, The English Association, pamphlet 79, July 1931.

  57Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 249.

  58Ibid., p. 47.

  59JB to Gilbert Murray, 8 October 1895, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  60JB to Gilbert Murray, 14 October 1895, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  61John Buchan, ‘Sir Quixote’, in Good Reading about Many Books, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1895.

  62John Buchan, Sir Quixote of the Moors, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1896, p.13.

  2 Oxford, 1895–1899

  1The Glasgow Herald, 2 November 1895.

  2Ibid.

  3Ibid.

  4John Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1940, p. 77.

  5Brasenose College Archives, JB to C. B. Heberden, 25 January 1910.

  6Published by Henry Holt in America and T. Fisher Unwin in Great Britain.

  7JB’s dealings with Lane are described by David Crackanthorpe in ‘Buchan to Lane’, The John Buchan Journal, no. 43, spring 2011, pp. 3–15.

  8Quoted in David Crackanthorpe, ibid., p. 9. Jepson, a prolifically published novelist, was the grandfather of the novelist Fay Weldon.

  9JB to Charles Dick, 29 February 1896, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  10JB to Charles Dick, 18 May 1896, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  11JB to Helen Buchan, 22 May 1896, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  12JB to Anna Buchan, 12 June 1896, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  13Reginald Pound, Arnold Bennett: A Biography, Heinemann, London, 1952, p. 103.

  14JB to Taffy Boulter, 16 July 1896, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  15JB to Charles Dick, 28 August 1896, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  16JB to Charles Dick, 26 September 1896, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  17John Buchan, Scholar Gipsies, The Bodley Head, London, 1896, Prefatory.

  18Ibid., p. 54.

  19JB to Charles Dick, 19 October 1896, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  20JB to Charles Dick, 30 December 1896, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  21The Oxford Magazine, 8 December 1897.

  22JB to Charles Dick, 9 August 1897, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  23JB to Charles Dick, 1 November 1897, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  24JB to Gilbert Murray, 29 January 1898, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  25JB to Charles Dick, 10 February 1898, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  26The Spectator, 18 March 1899, p. 23.

  27JB to Taffy Boulter, 3 April 1898, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  28According to John Betjeman in Summoned by Bells, John Murray, London, 1960, p. 104.

  29JB, Memory Hold-the-Door, pp. 56–7.

  30John Buchan, These for Remembrance, privately published, 1919, p. 65.

  31Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 59.

  32Buchan, These for Remembrance, pp. 65–6.

  33Now in the Blackwell Collection in Merton College, Oxford.

  34The Times, 26 April 1901.

  35Susan Tweedsmuir, ed., John Buchan by his Wife and Friends, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1947, p. 154.

  36Who’s Who, A. & C. Black, London, 1898.

  37Quoted in Janet Adam Smith, John Buchan: A Biography, Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1965, p. 61.

  38JB to Charles Dick, 10 February 1898, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  39Roger Merriman in Tweedsmuir, ed. John Buchan by his Wife and Friends, pp. 111–12.

  40The Oxford Magazine, 8 December 1897.

  41Ibid.

  42Quoted in Adam Smith, John Buchan, p. 64.

  43Ibid.

  44Quoted in Andrew Lownie and William Milne, eds, John Buchan’s Collected Poems, Scottish Cultural Press, Aberdeen, 1996, p. 1.

  45Quoting Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 35.

  46The Interpreter’s House by David Daniell, Nelson, London, 1975, p. 9.

  47The Times, 6 September 1898.

  48NLS, Acc. 6975/22.

  49JB to Charles Dick, 18 July 1898, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  50Adam Smith, John Buchan, p. 70.

  51Ibid., pp. 72–3.

  52The Isis, 28 January 1899.

  53Adam Smith, John Buchan, p. 58.

  54Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 41.

  55JB to Gilbert Murray, 13 October 1900, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  56JB to Dr. A. G. Butler, 5 November 1899, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  57JB to Helen Buchan, 3 November 1899, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  58JB to Rev. John Buchan, 10 November 1899, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  59John Buchan, Sir Walter Scott, Cassell, London, 1932, p. 42.

  60Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 87.

  3 The Bar, Journalism and South Africa, 1900–1903

  1Calligraphically, the inscription seems compatible with JB’s handwriting in early adult life, according to James C. G. Greig, ‘The Writing on the Pane’, The John Buchan Journal, no. 3, p. 23.

  2John Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1940, p. 92.

  3Communication from Andy Haswell of GRM Law to the author, 31 August 2016.

  4JB to Anna Buchan, 14 January 1900, private collection.

  5JB to Charles Dick, 27 January 1900, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  6John Buchan, The Spectator, 3 November 1928, pp. 20–1.

  7Ibid.

  8Charles Graves, The Brain of the Nation and Other Verses, Smith, London, 1912, pp. 32–3.

  9JB to Anna, 20 January 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  10Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 94.

  11Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 89.

  12See Anthony Lentin, The Last Political Law Lord: Lord Sumner (1859–1934), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, 2008
.

  13Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 90.

  14JB to Willie Buchan, 17 November 1900, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  15Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 89.

  16JB to Helen Buchan, 23 April 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  17JB to Helen Buchan, 3 July 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  18JB to Anna Buchan, 7 July 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  19JB to Charles Dick, 9 June 1901, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  20Leo Amery, My Political Life, vol. 1, Hutchinson, London, 1953, p. 150.

  21Quoted in Michael Redley, ‘John Buchan and the South African War’, in Reassessing John Buchan: Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps, ed. Kate Macdonald, Routledge, London, 2009, p. 66.

  22Lord Milner to JB, 12 August 1901, NLS, Acc. 6975/13.

  23R. D. Denman, Political Sketches, Thurnam, Carlisle, 1948, p. 115.

  24Quoted in A. M. Gollin, Proconsul in Politics, Blond, London, 1964, p. 41.

  25JB to Angela Malcolm, 17 October 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  26Denman, Political Sketches, p. 115.

  27JB to Helen Buchan, 9 August 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  28JB to Lady Mary Murray, 25 August 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  29JB to Helen Buchan, 13 September 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  30Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, pp. 96–7.

  31JB to Anna, 22 September 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  32Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 125.

  33JB to Anna Buchan, 7 October 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  34Ibid.

  35JB to Charles Dick, 8 October 1901, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  36JB to Anna Buchan, 7 October 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  37John Buchan, These for Remembrance, privately published, 1919, p. 41.

  38JB to Stair Gillon, 15 October 1901, NLS, Acc. 11164/17.

  39JB to Anna Buchan, 7 October 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  40NLS, Acc. 11627/39.

  41JB to Angela Malcolm, 17 October 1901, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  42Ibid.

  43JB to Anna Buchan, 28 April 1902, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  44John Buchan, The Spectator, 22 June 1901, p. 905.

  45Quoted in Denman, Political Sketches, p. 118.

  46JB to Charles Dick, 13 January 1902, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  47JB to Lady Mary Murray, 16 January 1902, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  48Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 109.

  49See Michael Redley, ‘John Buchan and the South African War’, in Reassessing John Buchan, ed. Kate Macdonald, pp. 68–71.

  50Ibid., p. 74.

  51JB to William Buchan, 27 February 1902, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  52Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 110.

  53Ibid., p. 115.

  54John Buchan, The African Colony: Studies in the Reconstruction, William Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1903, p. 67.

  55Peter Henshaw, ‘John Buchan and the British Imperial Origins of Canadian Multiculturalism’, in Canadas of the Mind: The Making and Unmaking of Canadian Nationalisms in the Twentieth Century, ed. N. Hillmer and A. Chapnick, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal, 2007, p. 197.

  56JB to Walter Buchan, 12 May 1902, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  57Edmund Ironside (with Andrew Bamford), Ironside: The Authorised Biography of Field Marshal Lord Ironside, The History Press, Stroud, 2018, p. 37.

  58See Bill Nasson in ‘John Buchan’s South African visions’, in The John Buchan Journal, no. 26, p. 30.

  59JB to Helen Buchan, 23 August 1902, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  60JB to Helen Buchan, 7 December 1902, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  61The Times, 5 January 1903, p. 8.

  62Redley, ‘John Buchan and the South African War’, p. 71.

  63John Buchan, A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys, Thomas Nelson, Edinburgh, 1922, p. 122.

  64Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, p. 121.

  65JB to Anna Buchan, 21 December 1902, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  66Ibid.

  67Ibid.

  68Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, pp. 119–20.

  69JB to Anna Buchan, 4 January 1903, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  70Buchan, The African Colony, p. 390.

  71JB to Gilbert Murray, 30 January 1902, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  72Buchan, The African Colony, Introductory, p. 2.

  73JB to Helen Buchan, 22 February 1903, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  74JB to Anna Buchan, 15 February 1903, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  75JB to Helen Buchan, 11 January 1903, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  76JB to Helen Buchan, 9 May 1903, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  77JB to Anna Buchan, 29 May 1903, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  78JB to Helen Buchan, 29 July 1903, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  79Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, pp. 124–5.

  80Ibid., p.112.

  4 London, Courtship and Marriage, 1903–1907

  1JB to Anna Buchan, 26 June 1903, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  2JB to Helen Buchan, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  3John Buchan, Memory Hold-the-Door, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1940, pp. 127–8.

  4Willie Buchan to JB, March 1906, private collection.

  5JB to Helen Buchan, 28 November 1903, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  6JB to Helen Buchan, 11 November 1903, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  7JB to Sandy Gillon, 8 December 1903, NLS, Acc. 11164/18.

  8The Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, vol. 22, 1942.

  9John Buchan, The Law Relating to the Taxation of Foreign Income, Stevens and Sons, London, October 1905.

  10Isobel and Michael Haslett, ‘Buchan and the Classics, part 3: The Law Relating to the Taxation of Foreign Income (1905)’, The John Buchan Journal, no. 26, p. 9.

  11JB to Anna Buchan, 14 April 1905, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  12JB to Helen Buchan, 23 June 1905, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  13Anna Buchan, Unforgettable, Unforgotten, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1945, p. 102.

  14JB to Anna Buchan, 18 July 1905, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  15Susan Tweedsmuir, ed., John Buchan by his Wife and Friends, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1947, p. 34.

  16According to Willard Connely, ‘Willard Connely and the Buchans’, The John Buchan Journal, no. 37, autumn 2007, p. 15.

  17Susan Tweedsmuir, The Lilac and the Rose, Duckworth, London, 1952, p. 16.

  18Tweedsmuir, The Lilac and the Rose, p. 92.

  19JB to Helen Buchan, 21 July 1905, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  20JB to Anna, 9 August 1905, NLS, Acc. 11164/18.

  21Undated letter from Susan Grosvenor to Hilda Lyttelton, Queen Mary University of London Archives (QMUL), Lyttelton Collection, PP5/26/1.

  22Willie Buchan to JB, 6 September 1905, QUA, 2110, box 2.

  23Tweedsmuir, ed., John Buchan by his Wife and Friends, pp. 35–6.

  24JB to Helen Buchan, 15 September 1905, QUA, 2110, box 1.

  25JB to Susie Grosvenor, 21 October 1905, NLS, Acc. 11627/1.

  26JB to Susie Grosvenor, 25 October 1906, NLS, Acc. 11627/5.

  27JB to Charles Dick, 17 November 1905, QUA, 2110, box 13.

  28JB to Charles Dick, 21 February 1906, QUA, 2110, box 2.

  29JB to Susie Grosvenor, 10 April 1906, NLS, Acc. 11627/1.

  30Susie Grosvenor to JB, 14 April 1906, NLS, Acc. 1627/5.

  31JB to Susie Grosvenor, 14 April 1906, NLS, Acc. 11627/5.

  32JB to Susie Grosvenor, 18 April 1906, NLS, Acc. 11627/1.

  33Katharine Lyttelton to ‘Poo’, 13 April 1906, QMUL KL/Fam/3426.

  34JB to Susie Grosvenor, 6 June 1906, NLS, Acc. 11627/1.

  35JB to Susie Grosvenor, 4 September 1906, NLS, Acc. 11627/1.

  36Susie Grosvenor to JB, 6 September 1906, NLS, Acc. 11627/5.

  37JB to Susie Grosvenor, 12 September 1906, NLS, Acc. 11627/1.

  38JB to Susie Grosvenor, 25 September 1906, NLS, Acc. 11627/1.

  39John Buchan, A Lodge in the Wilderness, William Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1906, p. 127.

  40JB to Helen Buchan, 14 November 1906, private collection.

  41JB to Anna Buchan, 5 November 1906, QUA, 2110, box 2.

  42JB to Helen Buchan, 12 No
vember 1906, private collection.

  43JB to Susie Grosvenor, 14 November 1906, NLS, Acc. 11164/19.

  44Anna Buchan to Susie Grosvenor, 21 November 1906, NLS, Acc. 111627/69.

  45Helen Buchan to Susie Grosvenor, 17 November 1906, NLS, Acc. 11627/69.

  46Willie Buchan to Helen Buchan, 13 December 1906, private collection.

  47Willie Buchan to Helen Buchan, 25 December 1906, private collection.

  48Buchan, A Lodge in the Wilderness, p. 44.

  49Ibid., pp. 340–1.

  50Dictionary of National Biography entry for John Buchan by Professor H. C. G. Matthew, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004–9.

  51Quoted in Janet Adam Smith, John Buchan: A Biography, Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1965, p. 162.

  52Ibid., p. 163.

  53Virginia Woolf to Violet Trefusis, 20 December 1906, Nigel Nicolson, ed., The Flight of the Mind: The Letters of Virginia Woolf, vol. I, 1882–1912, The Hogarth Press, London, 1975.

  54John Buchan, Midwinter, Chapter XI, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1923.

  55Buchan, Unforgettable, Unforgotten, p. 104.

  56Willie Buchan to Helen Buchan, 27 February 1907, private collection.

  57Willie Buchan to Anna Buchan, 20 February 1907, private collection.

  58St Loe Strachey to JB, 5 February 1907, QUA, 2110, box 2.

  59See Allan Ramsay, ‘New Blood’, in The John Buchan Journal, no. 4, autumn 1984, pp. 10–14.

  60JB to George Brown, 20 February 1920, University of Edinburgh Special Collections, Thomas Nelson Collection, Gen 1728/B/9/23.

  61Ramsay, ‘New Blood’.

  62JB to Susie Grosvenor, 5 February 1907, NLS, Acc. 11627/2.

  63W. Forbes Gray, ed., Comments and Characters, Thomas Nelson, London and Edinburgh, 1940, pp. xiv–xv.

  64Ibid., p. xxiv.

  65Ibid., p. xxxii.

  66JB to Susie Grosvenor, n.d. 1907, NLS, Acc. 11627/2.

  67Willie Buchan to Helen Buchan, 9 April 1907, private collection.

  68O. Douglas, Ann and her Mother, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1922, p. 240.

  69Buchan, Unforgettable, Unforgotten, p. 103.

  70Susie Grosvenor to Caroline Grosvenor, 11 May 1907, NLS, Acc. 11627/8.

  71Susie Grosvenor to Caroline Grosvenor, 15 May 1907, NLS, Acc. 11627/8.

  72Tweedsmuir, ed. John Buchan by his Wife and Friends, pp. 36–7.

  73Susie Grosvenor to Caroline Grosvenor, 16 May 1907, NLS, Acc. 11627/8.

  74Anna Buchan, Farewell to Priorsford, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1950, p. 45.

  75Susie Grosvenor to Caroline Grosvenor, 14 May 1907, NLS, Acc. 11627/8.

  76Janet Adam Smith interview with Lilian Killick (Mrs Hawley), 9 October 1958, NLS, Acc. 11164/4.