KELSO IN 1797
James Ballantyne was the son of a merchant in the Border town of Kelso, and was born in 1772. He was educated at the grammar-school of that town, then kept by Lancelot Whale, an admirable scholar and teacher, who is said to have resembled Dominie Sampson in “Guy Mannering.” For a short time in 1783 James had as schoolfellow and companion the youthful Walter Scott, who was staying at Rosebank for the benefit of his health. The two became associated, perhaps to the neglect of their tasks during school hours, through the story-telling propensities of Scott.[1] After school they would wander along the banks of the Tweed, and these rambles had many pleasant associations—the one happy in drinking in the romantic stories and legendary lore which the other was equally happy in pouring out. This school friendship was never broken off, as Scott paid frequent visits to the Border town for some years afterwards; and when James Ballantyne went to Edinburgh to complete his legal training, after finishing his apprenticeship in Kelso, it is more than probable that he would meet Walter Scott, who was then attending the law-classes of the University. The intercourse would be renewed in the class-rooms and also in the monthly symposiums of the Teviotdale Club, to which they both belonged. On the conclusion of his legal studies, James Ballantyne commenced business as a lawyer in Edinburgh, but success proving slow he returned in 1795 to his native town; and here, whatever legal or other work he may have carried on, he seems, according to an advertisement in No. 1 of the Kelso Mail, to have acted as agent for the Sun Fire Insurance Co. Being a young man of literary ability as well, he soon attracted the attention of the county people, who prevailed upon him, in 1796, to become the editor and manager of a new weekly newspaper, the Kelso Mail, which they were promoting in opposition to the Kelso Chronicle, a paper of advanced democratic principles, circulating in Roxburgh and the other Border counties. In this way he established his first practical connection with printing.
Transcriber’s Note: image is clickable for larger version
REDUCED FACSIMILE OF THE FIRST PAGE OF THE FIRST NUMBER OF THE “KELSO MAIL”
In the prospectus of the paper given in No. 1, April 13, 1797, there occurs this paragraph: “In the Miscellany we present to the Public, it shall be our endeavour to combine amusement with information. Literary speculations, poetical productions of merit, extracts from popular works, and interesting anecdotes, shall occasionally be called in to relieve the more important details, which they shall not, however, in any instance be suffered to supersede. In this department of our undertaking, we hope from the arrangements we have made, to be able to furnish to the Public a species of entertainment, which will be a source of innocent and agreeable relaxation, while it will afford an opportunity for those of our young countrymen who are partial to the lighter species of literature, to indulge the excursions of their fancy, and ascertain, without abusing their time, how far they may be qualified to succeed in pleasing the Public.”
The somewhat lengthy Prospectus does not parade the usual phrase about “the felt want,” but it implies it all the same, and it is pleasant to record that the Kelso Mail is still flourishing, having published its centenary number in April 1897. By the courtesy of the present proprietor, there is given here a reduced facsimile of the first page of No. 1.
For the purposes of the new paper James Ballantyne had to make several journeys—first to London, to arrange for correspondents, and also to Edinburgh and Glasgow, in order to obtain type and other printing appliances—Glasgow at that time having one of the best type-foundries in the country.
In October 1799, when Walter Scott was returning from a ballad-hunting raid through Ettrick Forest and Liddesdale, he stayed at Rosebank in Kelso for some days, and the school friends again met. Scott had recently published translations of the German ballads of Bürger—“Lenore” and “The Wild Huntsman,”—through the publishing house of Manners & Miller of Edinburgh. This little book had been well received in Scotland, but had gained no general acceptance in the south. It had led, however, to a correspondence with a few who were interested in ballad lore, especially with Matthew Gregory Lewis (known generally as “Monk” Lewis), who was then engaged upon a similar work called “Tales of Wonder,” but who had delayed its progress in such a way as to cause considerable annoyance to Scott and to others who had promised their aid.[2] In the meantime it happened that, while Scott was at Rosebank, James Ballantyne called one morning and asked him to supply a few paragraphs on some legal question of the day for his newspaper. Scott complied, and, carrying his manuscript to the printing-office, took with him also some ballads of his own composition designed to appear in “Monk” Lewis’s collection of “Tales of Wonder.” “With these, especially the ‘Morlachian fragment after Goethe,’ Ballantyne was charmed. Scott talked of Lewis with rapture; and, after reciting some of his stanzas, said: ‘I ought to apologise to you for having troubled you with anything of my own, when I had things like this for your ear.’ ‘I felt at once,’ says Ballantyne, ‘that his own verses were far above what Lewis could ever do, and though, when I said this, he dissented, yet he seemed pleased with the warmth of my approbation.’”