Illustrations of the Author of Waverley / Being Notices and Anecdotes of Real Characters, Scenes, and Incidents Supposed to Be Described in His Works

by Robert Chambers

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

A resemblance will be discovered between the following passages—one being part of Bailie Jarvie’s conversation with Owen, in “Rob Roy,” and the other an extract from a work entitled, “A Tour through Great Britain, &c., by a Gentleman, 4th ed. 1748”—a curious book, of which the first edition was written by the celebrated De Foe:—

“We found the liquor exceedingly palatable, and it led to a long conversation between Owen and our host, on the opening which the Union had afforded to trade between Glasgow and the British colonies in America and the West Indies, and on the facilities which Glasgow possessed of making up sortable cargoes for that market. Mr. Jarvie answered some objection which Owen made on the difficulty of sorting a cargo for America, without buying from England, with vehemence and volubility.

“‘Na, na, sir; we stand on our ain bottom—we pickle in our ain pock-neuk. We ha’e our Stirling serges, Musselburgh stuffs, Aberdeen hose, Edinburgh shalloons, and the like, for our woollen and worsted goods, and we ha’e linens of a’ kinds, better and cheaper than you ha’e in London itsel’; and we can buy your north o’ England wares,—as Manchester wares, Sheffield wares, and Newcastle earthenware—as cheap as you can, at Liverpool; and we are making a fair spell at cottons and muslins.’”—Rob Roy, vol. ii., p. 267.

“Glasgow is a city of business, and has the face of foreign as well as domestic trade,—nay, I may say it is the only city in Scotland that apparently increases in both. The Union has indeed answered its end to them, more than to any other part of the kingdom, their trade being new-formed by it; for as the Union opened the door to the Scots into our American colonies, the Glasgow merchants presently embraced the opportunity; and though, at its first concerting, the rabble of the city made a formidable attempt to prevent it, yet afterwards they knew better, when they found the great increase of their trade by it, for they now send fifty sail of ships every year to Virginia, New England, and other English colonies in America.

“The share they have in the herring-fishery is very considerable; and they cure their herrings so well and so much better than they are done in any other part of Great Britain, that a Glasgow herring is esteemed as good as a Dutch one.

“I have no room to enlarge upon the home-trade of this city, which is very considerable in many things. I shall, therefore, touch at some few particulars:—

“1. Here there are two very handsome sugar-baking houses, carried on by skilful persons, with large stocks, and to very great perfection. Here is likewise a large distillery for distilling spirits from the molasses drawn from sugars, by which they enjoyed a vast advantage for a time, by a reserved article in the Union, freeing them from English duties.

“2. Here is a manufacture of plaiding, a stuff crossed with yellow, red, and other mixtures, for the plaids or veils worn by the women of Scotland.

“3. Here is a manufacture of muslins, which they make so good and fine that great quantities of them are sent into England, and to the British plantations, where they sell at a good price. They are generally striped, and are very much used for aprons by the ladies, and sometimes in head-clothes by the meaner sort of Englishwomen.

“4. Here is also a linen manufacture; but as that is in common with all parts of Scotland, which improve in it daily, I will not insist upon it as a peculiar here, though they make a very great quantity of it, and send it to the plantations as their principal merchandise. Nor are the Scots without a supply of goods for sorting their cargoes to the English colonies, without sending to England for them; and it is necessary to mention it here, because it has been objected by some that the Scots could not send a sortable cargo to America without buying from England, which, coming through many hands, and by a long carriage, must consequently be so dear, that the English merchants can undersell them.

“It is very probable, indeed, that some things cannot be had here so well as from England, so as to make out such a sortable cargo as the Virginia merchants in London ship off, whose entries at the custom-house consist sometimes of two hundred particulars, as tin, turnery, millinery, upholstery, cutlery, and other Crooked-Lane wares—in short, somewhat of everything, either for wearing or house furniture, building houses or ships.

“But though the Scots cannot do all this, we may reckon up what they can furnish, which they have not only in sufficient quantities, but some in greater perfection than England itself.

“1. They have woollen manufactories of their own,—such as Stirling serges, Musselburgh stuffs, Aberdeen stockens, Edinburgh shalloons, blankets, etc.

“2. Their trade with England being open, they have now all the Manchester, Sheffield, and Birmingham wares, and likewise the cloths, kerseys, half-thicks, duffels, stockens and coarse manufactures of the north of England, brought as cheap or cheaper to them by horse-packs as they are carried to London, it being at a less distance.

“3. They have linens of most kinds, especially diapers and table-linens, damasks, and many other sorts not known in England, and cheaper than there, because made at their own doors.

“4. What linens they want from Holland or Hamburgh, they import from thence as cheap as the English can do; and for muslins, their own are very acceptable, and cheaper than in England.

“5. Gloves they make cheaper and better than in England, for they send great quantities thither.

“6. * * * * * *

“I might mention many other particulars, but this is sufficient to show that the Scots merchants are not at a loss how to make up sortable cargoes to send to the plantations; and that if we can outdo them in some things, they are able to outdo us in others.”—Tour, vol. iv., p. 124.

Though only the latter part of the preceding description of Glasgow trade refers to the passage from “Rob Roy,” we have extracted it all for various reasons. First, because it gives, independent of allusion to the novel, a very distinct and simple account of trade in Scotland forty years after the Union, when the reaction consequent upon that event was beginning to be felt in the country. Secondly, because it details at full length the sketch of the rise and progress of Glasgow, which Mr. Francis Osbaldistone gives in the sixth chapter of the second volume of “Rob Roy,” on his approach to the mercantile capital. Thirdly, for the sake of presenting the reader with a very fair specimen of the use which the Author of “Waverley” makes of old books in his fictitious narratives.

CHAPTER V.

The Black Dwarf.