The two songs already discussed, are now without quibble regarded as the work of Dougal Graham; but there are two others probably from his pen, which bear the mark of his genius, were published in his time, but which have not yet been generally regarded as his by literary antiquaries. The first of these is Tugal M‘Tagger, unhesitatingly ascribed to Dougal by the venerable M‘Vean. It has been suggested that this work has traces of Alexander Rodger, on the ground that the rhythm has a flow similar to that characteristic of Rodger’s poems; but this reason of itself cannot be taken as evidence in favour of the suggestion, in view of the fact that Graham’s style was itself very uneven, and, probably on account of carelessness, some of his pieces are as bad as others are good. M‘Vean’s statement, also, must be allowed to go a considerable length in a matter of this kind. The song is in Dougal’s best vein, and may be regarded as a worthy counterpart to Turnimspike. The following extract, by pointing to the occasion and probable date of the composition, helps towards the conclusion that it was the work of Graham:—‘The Court of Session, in 1754, made an Act of Sederunt, establishing an equality of ranking among all arrestors and poinders within a certain period of bankruptcy. But this was a mere experiment; and upon the expiration of the Act, which was in force for only four years, it was not renewed. The law fell back into its old state of imperfection; priority gave preference, and, on the slightest alarm, creditors poured in with diligence against the unhappy debtor, and the most unjust preferences took place among the creditors. In this position it continued until 1772, when the first Sequestration Act, 12 Geo. III., c. 72, was passed. It enacted that, on a debtor’s bankruptcy, and upon a petition to the Court of Session by any creditor, a sequestration of his personal estate should be awarded, which should have the effect of equalising all arrestments and poindings used within thirty days of the date of petition; that the estate should be vested in a factor proposed by the creditors, and be distributed by him according to the directions of Court; or, if it should seem more eligible to the creditors, extrajudicially by a trustee elected by them, as under a private trust deed. When, in 1783, this statute came to be renewed, the alarm occasioned by the novelty of the arrangements had given way to a conviction that bankruptcies were much more beneficially administered under the new system, imperfect as it was, than under the Common Law.’[16] Such a radical alteration on the law would afford excellent opportunity for a popular ballad, and as there is no good reason for doubting M‘Vean’s statement that Graham was the author of Tugal M‘Tagger, it must in the meantime be accepted as his production. The Act being passed in 1772, the ballad would probably be published in the same year. That it retained its popularity for a long time, is attested by a note written upon it in 1869:—‘Tugal M‘Tagger was a very popular song in Glasgow about forty years ago. It used to be sung by Mr. Livingstone at the Theatre Royal there.’[17] Even yet, it is not unknown to the people, and may be found in some penny collections.
Another song, believed to be by Graham, but which has not yet met with general approval, is an old version of Had awa frae me, Donald. Stenhouse has indirectly suggested it as Dougal’s work, by saying that it was probably by the same hand that produced Turnimspike, and he mentions it as appearing in Herd’s Collection in 1769. This song appears also in The Blackbird, a collection of songs, ‘few of which,’ according to the title-page, ‘are to be found in any collection,’ published in Edinburgh in 1764. The likeness which struck Stenhouse must also force upon every reader of the piece the same suspicion; and without being dogmatic upon the point, the editor of these sheets sees no reason why the version of Had awa frae me, Donald, given in this volume, should not be admitted into the list of works ‘probably’ written by Graham.
This includes, so far as can be discovered, the metrical works, still existing, which have been attributed to Graham. There are others, M‘Vean mentions, but none of them appear to have been seen since his time; and in the hope that they may be ultimately discovered, their names, or, perhaps it may be more proper to say, the subjects of which they treat, are here given:—Verses on the Popular Superstitions of Scotland, Rhythmical Dialogue between the Pope and the Prince of Darkness, An Epitaph on the Third Command, and Verses on the Pride of Women. As for the second of these pieces, it may be interesting to note that a twelve-page pamphlet was issued in 1792, bearing a similar title—Dialogue between the Pope and Devil, on the present political state of Europe. This, however, refers to the events immediately preceding the French Revolution, and cannot, therefore, be looked upon as the work of Graham. A passing reference is made by the Devil to the beginnings of the Reform movement in Glasgow, in these words:—
‘In Glasgow freedom sounds in every mouth;
And if I could but deign to tell the truth,
Not since the day I first saw Paradise,
Did earth maintain such a respectful race.’
But the works upon which the fame of Dougal Graham chiefly rests, are his chap-books. On this matter Motherwell said that if Graham had only written the History of the Rebellion, ‘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.’[18] It has already been stated that the period during which the most of these chap-books were written and published, was probably between 1752 and 1774, although the first editions of several are known to have appeared subsequent to the latter date. On a subject in which he took so much fruitful interest, no apology is needed for again quoting Motherwell, who says:—‘Of some of Graham’s penny histories we had a fair assortment at one time, principally printed by J. & M. Robertson, Saltmarket, Glasgow, which we believe might well be esteemed first editions, but some unprincipled scoundrel has bereaved us of that treasure. There are a number of infamous creatures, who acquire large libraries of curious things, by borrowing books they never mean to return, and some not unfrequently slide a volume into their pocket, at the very moment you are fool enough to busy yourself in showing them some nice typographic gem, or bibliographic rarity. These dishonest and heartless villains, ought to be cut above the breath whenever they cross the threshold. They deserve no more courtesy than was of old vouchsafed to witches, under bond and indenture to the Devil.’[19] Out of the ‘scanty wreck’ left him, Motherwell was able to furnish the list given in a previous page.[20] This was probably the nearest that any collector ever attained to having a collection of first or very early editions of Graham’s chap-books; but even in 1828 it was hardly possible to state when the first editions were issued. It would be worse than useless to endeavour to trace the chronological order of their publication, or to fix definitely dates for one or all of them. The fact seems to be that the first editions have either all disappeared, or else bear in their title-page the vague, but not uncommon intimation—‘Printed in this present year.’ The danger of attempting such an arrangement may be best shown by a statement made by the late Sheriff Strathern, a learned local antiquary, in a paper on ‘Chapman Literature,’ delivered before the Glasgow Archæological Society, on the 6th April, 1863. Mr. Strathern, in the course of a somewhat exhaustive sketch, says:—‘It is difficult to give them in the order of publication; but I have, at some little trouble, collected a few of the editions, and, as near as I can reach it, this is the order in which the works appeared. His earliest was “The Whole Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy,” in five parts. It was published in 1783.... “The Comical Sayings of Paddy from Cork” followed, and was printed for George Caldwell, Paisley, in 1784,’ etc. Then follows a long list of chaps by Graham, which, according to Sheriff Strathern, were published subsequent to 1784. The learned Sheriff may possibly have been correct in his surmise that the works he had enumerated were published in the order he had given them, but surely not on the understanding that Graham’s ‘earliest’ was issued in 1783? It is not at all likely that Graham left his works for publication after his death. Indeed, there is positive evidence that they were in the market long before 1783, and any edition of that date must be a reprint. This incident of itself shows the danger of attempting to fix dates for Dougal’s ‘penny histories,’ or even the order of their publication, without the absolute evidence of the books themselves, if they bear any, or the testimony of any one who, like Mr. Caldwell, actively took part in their issue to the public. Even Caldwell offers no information on the matter. The only statement in this direction, upon which any reliance can be placed, is one by Motherwell, when he states that the editio princeps of the second part of Leper the Taylor was published in 1779. Sheriff Strathern may have fallen into error by trusting the date, 1787, at which Motherwell fixed Graham’s death. That date, however, was only a surmise; and the true date was supplied by Strang.
It is a matter of some interest to notice that while many of Graham’s most popular chap-books have been issued to the public subsequent to the period to which literature of this class is assumed to belong, these modern editions, if they may be so called, have for the most part been greatly mutilated. Nearly all of them have been cut down, not apparently because of a desire to keep out the indelicate allusions which most of them contain—for comparatively few of these have been taken out—but on account of the exigencies of printing. In some cases a chap-book, originally of twenty-four or thirty-six closely printed pages, has been compressed into twenty-five, sixteen, or even eight pages of much larger print. The consequence is, that most of the modern editions are utterly useless for all practical purposes, and, like most other abridgments, the souls of their originals have been driven from them. The truth of this remark will be indicated in the following pages; but it will be borne out to its fullest extent by a comparison between the early editions the editor has been able to reprint in these volumes, and those now in circulation.
The Whole Proceedings of Jockey and Maggy, admitted by all authorities to have been written by Graham, may be noticed first, as being one of his ablest and most characteristic works. It is written with great dramatic power, and affords many curious insights into manners and customs about the middle of last century. In respect of language, also, it possesses considerable value. Professor Fraser suggests that the first edition was in all likelihood published as early as 1755, but, as has already been seen, it would be inadvisable to fix any date, in the absence of either evidence or reasonable suspicion. In the work itself there is nothing but what might have been written at any time during the whole period of Dougal’s life. The edition, reprinted in this collection, bears the imprint:—‘Glasgow: Printed and Sold by J. & J. Robertson. MDCCLXXIX’—and is the earliest of which any mention has yet been made. It was thus published in the year of Graham’s death, and as the title-page states that it was ‘Carefully Corrected and Revised by the Author,’ it was probably one of the latest works upon which he was engaged. While most certainly not a first edition, it has the advantage of being, to a certain extent, fresh from the author, and on that account possesses a special value and interest. Motherwell’s copy was dated 1783, and also bore to have undergone the author’s revision. These editions both occupy thirty-six pages, and are in five parts; but in 1793 an edition, consisting only of three parts, was published. Since then, the three-part edition has been the one most commonly issued to the public, and it may still be found for sale. In 1823, however, the complete edition was reprinted, and a few copies of it may be seen occasionally. The abridgment, it must be noted, has seriously marred Graham’s production. In it the first two parts are so far almost literal transcripts of the earlier editions, but parts three, four, and five, are omitted, a short and very imperfect summary of part five being inserted for part three. In addition, an epitaph and elegy on Jockey’s mother, whose death and burial are graphically described in the last part, are consistently left out.