Redgauntlet: A Tale Of The Eighteenth Century

by Walter Scott

  NOTES

  NOTE 1.--THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

  In explanation of this circumstance, I cannot help adding a note notvery necessary for the reader, which yet I record with pleasure, fromrecollection of the kindness which it evinces. In early youth I residedfor a considerable time in the vicinity of the beautiful villageof Kelso, where my life passed in a very solitary manner. I had fewacquaintances, scarce any companions, and books, which were at the timealmost essential to my happiness, were difficult to come by. It was thenthat I was particularly indebted to the liberality and friendship ofan old lady of the Society of Friends, eminent for her benevolence andcharity. Her deceased husband had been a medical man of eminence,and left her, with other valuable property, a small and well-selectedlibrary. This the kind old lady permitted me to rummage at pleasure, andcarry home what volumes I chose, on condition that I should take, at thesame time, some of the tracts printed for encouraging and extending thedoctrines of her own sect. She did not even exact any promise that Iwould read these performances, being too justly afraid of involving mein a breach of promise, but was merely desirous that I should havethe chance of instruction within my reach, in case whim, curiosity, oraccident, might induce me to have recourse to it.

  NOTE 2.--THE PERSECUTORS

  The personages here mentioned are most of them characters of historicalfame; but those less known and remembered may be found in the tractentitled, 'The Judgment and Justice of God Exemplified, or, a BriefHistorical Account of some of the Wicked Lives and Miserable Deaths ofsome of the most remarkable Apostates and Bloody Persecutors, fromthe Reformation till after the Revolution.' This constitutes a sort ofpostscript or appendix to John Howie of Lochgoin's 'Account of the Livesof the most eminent Scots Worthies.' The author has, with considerableingenuity, reversed his reasoning upon the inference to be drawn fromthe prosperity or misfortunes which befall individuals in this world,either in the course of their lives or in the hour of death. In theaccount of the martyrs' sufferings, such inflictions are mentioned onlyas trials permitted by providence, for the better and brighter displayof their faith, and constancy of principle. But when similar afflictionsbefell the opposite party, they are imputed to the direct vengeance ofHeaven upon their impiety. If, indeed, the life of any person obnoxiousto the historian's censures happened to have passed in unusualprosperity, the mere fact of its being finally concluded by death,is assumed as an undeniable token of the judgement of Heaven, and, torender the conclusion inevitable, his last scene is generally garnishedwith some singular circumstances. Thus the Duke of Lauderdale is said,through old age but immense corpulence, to have become so sunk inspirits, 'that his heart was not the bigness of a walnut.'

  NOTE 3.--LAMENTATION FOR THE DEAD

  I have heard in my youth some such wild tale as that placed in themouth of the blind fiddler, of which, I think, the hero was Sir RobertGrierson of Lagg, the famous persecutor. But the belief was generalthroughout Scotland that the excessive lamentation over the loss offriends disturbed the repose of the dead, and broke even the rest of thegrave. There are several instances of this in tradition, but one struckme particularly, as I heard it from the lips of one who professedreceiving it from those of a ghost-seer. This was a Highland lady, namedMrs. C---- of B------, who probably believed firmly in the truth of anapparition which seems to have originated in the weakness of her nervesand strength of her imagination. She had been lately left a widow by herhusband, with the office of guardian to their only child. The young manadded to the difficulties of his charge by an extreme propensity for amilitary life, which his mother was unwilling to give way to, whileshe found it impossible to repress it. About this time the IndependentCompanies, formed for the preservation of the peace of the Highlands,were in the course of being levied; and as a gentleman named Cameron,nearly connected with Mrs. C--, commanded one of those companies,she was at length persuaded to compromise the matter with her son, bypermitting him to enter this company in the capacity of a cadet, thusgratifying his love of a military life without the dangers of foreignservice, to which no one then thought these troops were at all liable tobe exposed, while even their active service at home was not likely tobe attended with much danger. She readily obtained a promise from herrelative that he would be particular in his attention to her son andtherefore concluded she had accommodated matters between her son'swishes and his safety in a way sufficiently attentive to both. She setoff to Edinburgh to get what was awanting for his outfit, and shortlyafterwards received melancholy news from the Highlands. The IndependentCompany into which her son was to enter had a skirmish with a party ofcaterans engaged in some act of spoil, and her friend the captainbeing wounded, and out of the reach of medical assistance, died inconsequence. This news was a thunderbolt to the poor mother, who was atonce deprived of her kinsman's advice and assistance, and instructed byhis fate of the unexpected danger to which her son's new calling exposedhim. She remained also in great sorrow for her relative, whom she lovedwith sisterly affection. These conflicting causes of anxiety,together with her uncertainty, whether to continue or change her son'sdestination, were terminated in the following manner:--

  The house in which Mrs. C---- resided in the old town of Edinburgh, wasa flat or story of a land accessible, as was then universal, by a commonstair. The family who occupied the story beneath were her acquaintances,and she was in the habit of drinking tea with them every evening. It wasaccordingly about six o'clock, when, recovering herself from a deep fitof anxious reflection, she was about to leave the parlour in which shesat in order to attend this engagement. The door through which she wasto pass opened, as was very common in Edinburgh, into a dark passage. Inthis passage, and within a yard of her when she opened the door,stood the apparition of her kinsman, the deceased officer, in his fulltartans, and wearing his bonnet. Terrified at what she saw, or thoughtshe saw, she closed the door hastily, and, sinking on her knees bya chair, prayed to be delivered from the horrors of the vision. Sheremained in that posture till her friends below tapped on the door,to intimate that tea was ready. Recalled to herself by the signal, shearose, and, on opening the apartment door, again was confronted bythe visionary Highlander, whose bloody brow bore token, on this secondappearance, to the death he had died. Unable to endure this repetitionof her terrors, Mrs. C---- sank on the door in a swoon. Her friendsbelow, startled with the noise, came upstairs, and, alarmed at thesituation in which they found her, insisted on her going to bed andtaking some medicine, in order to compose what they took for a nervousattack. They had no sooner left her in quiet, than the apparition ofthe soldier was once more visible in the apartment. This time she tookcourage and said, 'In the name of God, Donald, why do you haunt one whorespected and loved you when living?' To which he answered readily, inGaelic, 'Cousin, why did you not speak sooner? My rest is disturbed byyour unnecessary lamentation--your tears scald me in my shroud. I cometo tell you that my untimely death ought to make no difference in yourviews for your son; God will raise patrons to supply my place and hewill live to the fullness of years, and die honoured and at peace.' Thelady of course followed her kinsman's advice and as she was accounteda person of strict veracity, we may conclude the first apparition anillusion of the fancy, the final one a lively dream suggested by theother two.

  NOTE 4.--PETER PEEBLES

  This unfortunate litigant (for a person named Peter Peebles actuallyflourished) frequented the courts of justice in Scotland about the year1792, and the sketch of his appearance is given from recollection. Theauthor is of opinion that he himself had at one time the honour to becounsel for Peter Peebles, whose voluminous course of litigation servedas a sort of assay-pieces to most young men who were called to the bar.The scene of the consultation is entirely imaginary.

  NOTE 5.--JOHN'S COFFEE-HOUSE

  This small dark coffee-house, now burnt down, was the resort of suchwriters and clerks belonging to the Parliament House above thirty yearsago as retained the ancient Scottish custom of a meridian, as it wascalled, or noontide dram of spiri
ts. If their proceedings were watched,they might be seen to turn fidgety about the hour of noon, and exchangelooks with each other from their separate desks, till at length some oneof formal and dignified presence assumed the honour of leading the band,when away they went, threading the crowd like a string of wildfowl, crossed the square or close, and following each other intothe coffee-house, received in turn from the hand of the waiter, themeridian, which was placed ready at the bar. This they did, day by day:and though they did not speak to each other, they seemed to attach acertain degree of sociability to performing the ceremony in company.

  NOTE 6.--FISHING RIGHTS

  It may be here mentioned, that a violent and popular attack upon whatthe country people of this district considered as an invasion of theirfishing right is by no means an improbable fiction. Shortly after theclose of the American war, Sir James Graham of Netherby constructed adam-dyke, or cauld, across the Esk, at a place where it flowed throughhis estate, though it has its origin, and the principal part of itscourse, in Scotland. The new barrier at Netherby was considered asan encroachment calculated to prevent the salmon from ascending intoScotland, and the right of erecting it being an international questionof law betwixt the sister kingdoms, there was no court in eithercompetent to its decision. In this dilemma, the Scots people assembledin numbers by signal of rocket lights, and, rudely armed withfowling-pieces, fish-spears, and such rustic weapons, marched to thebanks of the river for the purpose of pulling down the dam-dyke objectedto. Sir James Graham armed many of his own people to protect hisproperty, and had some military from Carlisle for the same purpose.A renewal of the Border wars had nearly taken place in the eighteenthcentury, when prudence and moderation on both sides saved much tumult,and perhaps some bloodshed. The English proprietor consented that abreach should be made in his dam-dyke sufficient for the passage of thefish, and thus removed the Scottish grievance. I believe the river hassince that time taken the matter into its own disposal, and entirelyswept away the dam-dyke in question.

  NOTE 7.--STATE OF SCOTLAND

  Scotland, in its half-civilized state, exhibited too many examplesof the exertion of arbitrary force and violence, rendered easy by thedominion which lairds exerted over their tenants and chiefs over theirclans. The captivity of Lady Grange, in the desolate cliffs of SaintKilda, is in the recollection of every one. At the supposed date of thenovel also a man of the name of Merrilees, a tanner in Leith, abscondedfrom his country to escape his creditors; and after having slain his ownmastiff dog, and put a bit of red cloth in its mouth, as if it had diedin a contest with soldiers, and involved his own existence in asmuch mystery as possible, made his escape into Yorkshire. Here he wasdetected by persons sent in search of him, to whom he gave a portentousaccount of his having been carried off and concealed in various places.Mr. Merrilees was, in short, a kind of male Elizabeth Canning, but didnot trespass on the public credulity quite so long.

  NOTE 8.--CONCEALMENTS FOR THEFT AND SMUGGLING

  I am sorry to say that the modes of concealment described in theimaginary premises of Mr. Trumbull, are of a kind which have been commonon the frontiers of late years. The neighbourhood of two nations havingdifferent laws, though united in government, still leads to a multitudeof transgressions on the Border, and extreme difficulty in apprehendingdelinquents. About twenty years since, as far as my recollection serves,there was along the frontier an organized gang of coiners, forgers,smugglers, and other malefactors, whose operations were conducted on ascale not inferior to what is here described. The chief of the party wasone Richard Mendham a carpenter, who rose to opulence, although ignoranteven of the arts of reading and writing. But he had found a shortroad to wealth, and had taken singular measures for conducting hisoperations. Amongst these, he found means to build, in a suburbof Berwick called Spittal, a street of small houses, as if for theinvestment of property. He himself inhabited one of these; another, aspecies of public-house, was open to his confederates, who held secretand unsuspected communication with him by crossing the roofs of theintervening houses, and descending by a trap-stair, which admitted theminto the alcove of the dining-room of Dick Mendham's private mansion.A vault, too, beneath Mendham's stable, was accessible in the mannermentioned in the novel. The post of one of the stalls turned round ona bolt being withdrawn, and gave admittance to a subterranean place ofconcealment for contraband and stolen goods, to a great extent. RichardMendham, the head of this very formidable conspiracy, which involvedmalefactors of every kind, was tried and executed at Jedburgh, where theauthor was present as Sheriff of Selkirkshire. Mendham had previouslybeen tried, but escaped by want of proof and the ingenuity of hiscounsel.

  NOTE 9--CORONATION OF GEORGE III

  In excuse of what may be considered as a violent infraction ofprobability in this chapter, the author is under the necessity ofquoting a tradition which many persons may recollect having heard. Itwas always said, though with very little appearance of truth, that uponthe Coronation of the late George III, when the champion of England,Dymock, or his representative, appeared in Westminster Hall, and inthe language of chivalry solemnly wagered his body to defend in singlecombat the right of the young King to the crown of these realms, at themoment when he flung down his gauntlet as the gage of battle, an unknownfemale stepped from the crowd and lifted the pledge, leaving anothergage in room of it, with a paper expressing, that if a fair field ofcombat should be allowed, a champion of rank and birth would appear withequal arms to dispute the claim of King George to the British kingdoms.The story is probably one of the numerous fictions which were circulatedto keep up the spirits of a sinking faction, The incident was, however,possible, if it could be supposed to be attended by any motive adequateto the risk, and might be imagined to occur to a person of Redgauntlet'senthusiastic character. George III, it is said, had a police of his own,whose agency was so efficient, that the sovereign was able to tellhis prime minister upon one occasion, to his great surprise, that thePretender was in London. The prime minister began immediately to talk ofmeasures to be taken, warrants to be procured, messengers and guardsto be got in readiness. 'Pooh, pooh,' said the good-natured sovereign,since I have found him out, leave me alone to deal with him.'--'Andwhat,' said the minister, 'is your Majesty's purpose, in so important acase?'--'To leave the young man to himself,' said George III; 'and whenhe tires he will go back again.' The truth of this story does not dependon that of the lifting of the gauntlet; and while the latter could bebut an idle bravado, the former expresses George Ill's goodness of heartand soundness of policy.

  NOTE 10.--COLLIER AND SALTER

  The persons engaged in these occupations were at this time bondsmen; andin case they left the ground of the farm to which they belonged, and aspertaining to which their services were bought or sold, they were liableto be brought back by a summary process. The existence of this speciesof slavery being thought irreconcilable with the spirit of liberty,colliers and salters were declared free, and put upon the same footingwith other servants, by the Act 15 Geo. III chapter 28th. They were sofar from desiring or prizing the blessing conferred on them, that theyesteemed the interest taken in their freedom to be a mere decree on thepart of the proprietors to get rid of what they called head and harigaldmoney, payable to them when a female of their number, by bearing achild, made an addition to the live stock of their master's property.