OLD SATCHELS.
(Vol. vi., pp. 10. 160.)
Your correspondent Sigma having called attention in your pages to that respectable character Old Satchels, I should be sorry to see him dismissed with the dry bibliographical Note of T. G. S. If any proof were wanting of Captain Walter Scot's claim to more respectable notice, we have it in the fact of his book having reached a third edition: and, with your permission, I will take the liberty of supplying a few "jottings," furnished and suggested on turning over the reprint of 1776.
The whole title, or titles, of this curious production runs thus:
"A true History of several Honorable Families of the right honorable Name of Scot in the Shires of Roxburgh and Selkirk, and others adjacent. Gathered out of ancient Chronicles, Histories, and Traditions of our Fathers, by Captain Walter Scot,
An old Soldier and no scholler,
And one that can write nane,
But just the letters of his name.
4to., pp. 60. End of First Part. Edinburgh: Printed by the Heirs of And. Anderson, printer to his most sacred Majesty's City and College, 1688, and reprinted by Balfour and Smellie, 1776."
"Satchel's Post'ral, humbly presented to his noble and worthy Friends of the Names of Scot and Elliot, and others. Part II., 4to., pp. 97. Edinburgh as above, 1688 and 1776."
Lockhart, in his Life of Scott, has told us with what enthusiasm Sir Walter welcomed a copy of the first edition of this "True History," procured for him by Constable; and its rarity is accounted for by the author himself, when he says,—
"Therefore begone, my book, stretch forth thy wings and fly
Amongst the nobles and gentility:
Thou'rt not to sell to scavingers and clowns,
But giv'n to worthy persons of renown.
The number's few I've printed in regard
My charges have been great, and I hope reward;
I caus'd not print many above twelve score,
And the printers are engag'd that they shall print no more."—Post'ral, p. 97.
Sigma inquires why "this ancestor of Sir Walter's was called Old Satchels?" Hear the poet himself upon this point:
"Since the water of Ail Scots they are all chang'd and gone,
Except brave Whitslade and Hardin;
And Satchels his estate is gone,
Except his poor designation;
Which never no man shall possess,
Except a Scot designed Satchels."—Post'ral, p. 97.
As a further sample of this old soldier's poetry, take his dedication "To the truely Worthy, Honorable, and Right Worshipful Sir Francis Scot of Thirlston, Knight Baronet, wishes Earth's honor and Heaven's happiness:"
"This book, good Sir, the issue of my brain,
Though far unworthy of your worthy view,
In hope ye gently will it intertain,
Yet I in duty offer it to you;
Although the method and the phrase be plain,
Not art, like writ, as to the style is due,
And truth, I know, your favor will obtain:
The many favors I have had from you
Hath forc'd me thus to show my thankful mind;
And of all faults I know no vice so bad
And hateful as ungratefully inclined.
A thankful heart is all a poor man's wealth,
Which, with this book, I give your worthy self.
I humbly crave your worthiness excuse
This boldness of my poor unlearned muse,
That hath presumed so high a pitch to fly
In praise of virtue and gentility.
I know this task's most fit for learned men,
For Homer, Ovid, or for Virgil's pen;
These lines I have presum'd to dite;
It's known to your Honor I could never write.
"Your Honor's most obed. servant,
"Walter Scot of Satchels."
Satchels' chronicle deals largely in warlike matters. The Captain, indeed, seems to have a contempt for all not of his own honorable profession; consequently the book is full of the deeds, both foreign and domestic, of the "Bold Buccleugh," and the clans Scott and Elliott. Instigated, no doubt, by the example of John Barbour and Henry the Minstrel, the author aimed at doing for the Scotts what his prototypes so worthily achieved, respectively, for Robert Bruce and William Wallace.
As mentioned by T. G. S., there was another reprint of this curious book, that of Hawick, by Caw, 1784. I know not to whom we owe either. Looking, however, to the names of the printers and period of publication, I should say that the earliest of these may have been one of the publications of that friend to the literature of his country, Sir David Dalrymple; and as we know that Sir Walter Scott made his first appearance as a poet in the Poetical Museum, printed at Hawick, by Caw, in 1786, may he not, with his strong and early predilection for the honour of the clan Scott, and his special affection for this "True History" of his namesake, have prompted the worthy Mr. Caw to the enterprise? Any edition of the book is of rare occurrence; and it has often surprised me that Captain Walter Scot should have been overlooked, when the Bannatyne, Maitland, and Abbotsford Clubs were so nobly employed in resuscitating the old literature of Scotland.
J. O.