To judge Dougal’s character by any fastidious standard of manners and morals would be unfair; but, making a reasonable allowance for the unfavourable nature of the times, and his surroundings, there is nothing known of him inconsistent with the character of a well-intentioned, self-respecting citizen; who thought it no sin to make his lines pleasanter for himself, by contributing to the enjoyment of his fellow-countrymen. His History of the Rebellion abounds with instances of the fairness and impartiality of his judgment, and the humanity of his sentiments; and is full of examples of his quaint and grotesque, yet mostly shrewd reflections on events which he seldom fails to place distinctly before his readers. Dr Robert Chambers, whose opinion, as the writer of an excellent history of the Rebellion, is entitled to all respect, in his Lives of Eminent Scotsmen, says of it:—“The poetry is of course in some cases a little grotesque, but the matter of the work is valuable. It contains—and in this consists the chief value of all such productions—many minute facts, which a work of more pretensions would not admit.”
Sir Walter Scott, writing to Dr Strang, of Glasgow, in 1830, in reference to his notice of Graham, says:—“Neither had I the least idea of his being the author of so much of our Bibliotheque Blue as you ascribe to him, embracing, unquestionably, several coarse, but excessively meritorious, pieces of popular humour. The Turnimspike, alone, was sufficient to entitle him to immortality. I had in my early life a great collection of these chap books, and had six volumes of them bought before I was ten years old, comprehending most of the rare and curious of our popular tracts.” Motherwell, besides calling him the “Scottish Rabelais” and the “Vulgar Juvenal of his age,” in the article already referred to, reviewing his history and his tracts, says:—“However slightingly we esteem his metrical power, we really believe he has conscientiously and honestly detailed the events that came under his observation. It is not, however, on the merits of this work that Graham’s fame rests. Had he written only it, we believe he never would have occupied our thoughts for a moment; but as one who, subsequently, contributed largely to the amusement of the lower classes of his countrymen, we love to think of the facetious bellman. To his rich vein of gross comic humour, laughable and vulgar description, great shrewdness of observation, and strong though immeasurably coarse sense, every one of us, after getting out of toy books and fairy tales, has owed much. In truth, it is no exaggeration, when we state that he who desires to acquire a thorough knowledge of low Scottish life, vulgar manners, national characteristics, and popular jokes, must devote his days and nights to the study of John Cheap, the Chapman, &c., &c., &c., all the productions of Dougal’s fertile brain, and his unwearied application to the cultivation of vulgar literature. To refined taste Dougal had no pretensions. His indelicacy is notorious, his coarseness an abomination, but they are characteristic of the class for whom he wrote. He is thoroughly imbued with the national humours and peculiarities of his countrymen of the humblest class; and his pictures of their manners, modes of thinking, and conversation, are always sketched with a strong and faithful pencil. Indeed, the uncommon popularity his chap books have acquired, entitles them in many a point of view to the regard of the moralist and the literary historian. We meet them on every stall and in every cottage. They are essentially the library of entertaining knowledge to our peasantry; and have maintained their ground in the affections of the people, notwithstanding the attempt of religious, political, or learned associations to displace them by substituting more elegant and wholesome literature in their stead.” It is now about fifty years since Motherwell wrote the article quoted; and the Waverley Novels, Chambers’ Journal, and The Tales of the Borders have accomplished what the religious and learned societies failed in doing.
Of Dougal’s personal appearance some particulars have been already noted, but an edition of John Falkirk’s Cariches, which appeared soon after his death, contains a prefatory notice, in which, under the cognomen of John Falkirk, commonly called the Scots Piper, the popular contemporary ideal of him is given as “a curious, little, witty fellow, with a round face and a broad nose. None of his companions could answer the many witty questions he proposed to them—therefore he became the wonder of the age in which he lived. Being born of mean parents, he got no education; therefore, his witty invention was truly natural; and being bred to no business, he was under the necessity of using his genius in the composition of several small books, of which the following Cariches was one, which he disposed of for his support.”
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Glasgow and its Clubs.
[B] Scottish Chap-Books, by John Fraser, New York, 1873.
[C] Motherwell calculates his age to have been 65, supposing him to have lived to 1787.
