Another line of thought is suggested by the indelicacy of expression so frequently to be found in Graham’s works. That such indelicacy exists in his works must be admitted; but in this respect they are no worse than, and will compare favourably with, the writings of many of the most prominent Scottish authors, such as Sir David Lindsay, and others. Indeed, it is worthy of notice, that men such as Fielding, Sterne, Swift, and Smollet, highly educated, and moving in a better circle of society in the same age with Dougal Graham, have tainted their writings with the grossness which has been noticed, and which, in their case, is less easily excused. The fault was in the time when plain speaking took the place now occupied by inuendo. Notwithstanding this, it cannot but be noticed that in his writings there is a native manliness not often discovered in works having greater pretensions; that there is no mawkish sentiment or sickly prudishness; and that in the presentation of pictures of life, they have no artificial draperies more suggestive than nature itself. There is a tendency on the part of those who have written upon this subject, to deplore the indelicacy of many passages of Graham’s works. We do not feel ourselves under any obligation to do so, for had the author toned down the colouring of some of his chap-books, they would have been untrue to nature to the extent of the suppression. What should be regretted was the immorality and coarseness so prevalent among the lower classes in Scotland during last century; and he who wishes to further the improvement and condition of the people will welcome Graham’s chap-books as showing distinctly what required reformation a century ago. It would hardly be too much to say, that in some parts of Scotland a state of matters very little different from what Graham frequently describes, may still be found. Any one who is at all acquainted with life among the lower classes, must admit that these descriptions are true to nature, and that a study of them is necessary before we can know thoroughly upon what the present superstructure of Scottish civilisation has been built. Graham, perhaps unintentionally, has held ‘the mirror up to nature,’ has shown ‘virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.’
It would be difficult, again, to over-estimate the value of Dougal Graham’s works as affording illustrations of the folk-lore of Scotland. Almost all the superstitions that obtained among the common people of his time he has touched upon either directly or indirectly; and in many instances he has given information upon this and kindred subjects which it would be difficult to find anywhere else. While all his chap-books may be found useful in this direction, a few of them stand out as perfect storehouses of folk-lore. Among the most notable of these are The History of Buckhaven, The History of the Haveral Wives, Jockey and Maggy’s Courtship, the three parts of Leper the Taylor, and even Pady from Cork. In the first-mentioned chap-book there are some particularly valuable notes about the opinions current regarding the Arch-enemy and all his supposed representatives on earth, such as witches, kelpies, fairies, and ‘bogles’ of all kinds. The folk-lore of the hare, or ‘mauken,’ in this work is also very full, and has given Mr. William George Black, F.S.A., Scot., a valuable illustration for his able article on ‘The Hare in Folk-Lore,’ in a recent issue of The Folk-Lore Journal. Similar remarks could be made about the other chap-books specially named, but enough has been said in a general way to indicate their value in this direction. In the notes to the chap-books themselves some attempt may be made to show, in a manner more detailed than is possible here, their worth as throwing light upon the superstitions prevalent during the eighteenth century.
How far the genius of Dougal Graham would have been affected by an education superior to that which he obtained, it would be difficult to say. Possibly greater culture might have raised him to the rank of a Scott; perhaps it might only have left him in the ranks of mediocrity. In the one case he would have produced works of greater literary value; in the other, possibly, none at all. One thing is evident, however, that a series of writings which discover the under-currents of Scottish life in a busy century, would have been lost to literature, and that whatever gain there may have in one direction, it could hardly counter-balance the loss another way. Taking Dougal Graham all in all, his uncultured energy, his ‘hameliness,’ and his ready wit, have won for him a place in Scottish literature it would be difficult to supply, and which no one but himself was qualified to occupy. What that place was we shall endeavour to show in the following pages, when dealing with the chap-literature of Scotland.
[III.—THE CHAP-LITERATURE OF SCOTLAND.]
Fully half a century ago, William Motherwell, whose name has been frequently mentioned in these pages, penned this sentence:—‘A History of Vulgar Literature, from the earliest of the present times, we believe, would form a valuable acquisition to the libraries of the curious.’ About thirty years later Dr. Strang expressed the same idea in terms somewhat similar:—‘A history of the vulgar literature of Scotland has been long and is unquestionably still, a desideratum, for certainly nothing could tend to throw so much light on the manners and tastes of the great body of the people as such a work.’ Notwithstanding the lapse of time the work so much desired has yet to be done; though Professor Fraser within recent years has brought together, in a concise form, material regarding chap-literature, which, before his work on the Humorous Chap-Books of Scotland, was only to be found in fragments in various books and magazines. By his own confession, however, his work is merely an instalment, and, as we have indicated, a history of the chap-literature of Scotland has yet to be written. It is a matter to be regretted that the popular works of last century—the works which found most favour with the great mass of the people, and which, with the addition of the Bible, was the bulk of their reading—should have been over-looked. No complaint can be made of any neglect of the higher walks in the profession of letters in the eighteenth century. The philosophers, poets, novelists, and historians of Scotland in the last century, have had at least justice done them. But their works, for the most part, were addressed to the educated, then a small proportion of the population. Those who wrote for the people—for the uneducated peasantry—have been ignored, a notable exception being Burns, whose works were popular with all classes. Their works were long considered to be unworthy of notice; and out of a very large issue, there can now only be found a few stray leaflets. With such material as can be had, a short sketch of that literature is given in the following pages, for the purpose of showing the place occupied in it by Dougal Graham.
‘Our fathers have told us,’ could the mediæval Scot say as well as the ancient Israelite, for the traditions of former days in ballad, song, and story, were handed down from generation to generation. In the good old times, the gaberlunzie man would rehearse, by the peat fire of some remote farm-house, tales of the present and the past; or the discredited minstrel of the ‘iron time’ would tune—
—— ‘To please a peasant’s ear,
The harp a king had loved to hear.’
From these, celebrated by royal and knightly poets, and encircled by the halo of romance, we must descend to the more prosaic, because better known, chapman, who, in a latter age, filled their places. Travelling over the country with a pack composed of haberdashery goods of the most varied kind, and with coarsely printed specimens of the literature to which his profession has given a name, he retailed at each farm-house the news he had heard on his journeys; and on a winter’s evening, by the kitchen fire, he could make the time seem to pass swiftly, as he drew upon his experience for stories of the most wonderful description, or recalled the days of chivalry by his old-world tales. He was thus admitted to the inner circle: he mixed with the people as one of themselves.