The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 3: 1813-15
John Gibson Lockhart to Jonathan Christie, 8 September 1813
“Innerkip, 8th
September 1813.
“My dear Christie,—In
this place of retirement you will easily perceive what a delightful variety the
Caledonian Sabbath, observed con
amore, must create. The minister of this place owed his
promotion to a cause no doubt very common, although seldom so barefacedly
exposed to the view of mankind. It seems the last minister left a solitary
daughter of eighteen. The patron had great compassion on her light purse, and
wrote to her in plain terms, that he referred the appointment of her
father’s successor entirely to her own judgment. The lady, having caused
this munificent offer of the ![]()
| 68 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. | |
![]()
laird’s to circulate on
the face of the earth, was speedily attended by a true Penelopean swarm of
suitors—each eager, by a display of his various talents, to make his
calling and his election sure. Miss S. very wisely gave the preference to him
who had the broadest back—a very Welshman as to
externals—toto
cœlo discrepant from our friend as to the weightier
matters. This sage apostle possesses, however, the rare power of amusing by his
sermons. He is so totally ignorant that he professes never to have bought or
borrowed a book since he cam’ to years o’ discretion! He found an
old system of logic in the manse when he was married, and has thought fit to
divide his discourses, logice, in
consequence. He always sets out with a definition. For instance, he has been
lecturing and preaching on the supper at Cana for these nine weeks, and the
first thing he did was to define wine and water for the elucidation of the metamorphosis performed
in his text. ‘Wine,’ quoth he, ‘is a pleasant,
exhilarating liquor, taken after dinner and at other times—by genteel people—in moderation most excellent,
but in excess odious. Water is a pure, perspicuous substance, useful in
cleansing or purifying of things defiled.’
“At another time, having occasion to make his masonic
audience comprehend what is meant by calling Christ the foundation of our
faith—‘A foundation,’ said he, ‘may thus
be defined, “that part ![]()
![]()
of a superstructure which the canny
artist first endeavoureth to make steadfast.”’ So much for
Presbyterian eloquence. We have the repenting stool here in all its glory. The
poor man almost went out of his wits last Sunday in rebuking a damsel who
appeared for the fifth time, in silk stockings. I suppose Traill is no longer with you. Connell was here lately, for a day or two,
and, according to him, Traill’s motions have been
totally different from his original intentions. Remember me to him and
Knight if they are in your
neighbourhood. I am sensible that you can find (little) amusement in such
letters as these. I hope I shall be able to atone in winter when I get among
the luminaries of Auld Reekie. Jeffray
(sic)—the cool-headed
Jeffray—was lately, I hear, taken and released
by Commodore Rogers on his way to
America—from the North of Scotland—and on what errand? to marry a
niece of John Wilkes, who lives at
Charlestown. The Commodore knew Jeffray’s kindred
soul, and treated him, it seems, with singular kindness. He got a letter from
Rogers to the Mayor of Charlestown, and various
friends of Republicanism with whom our ‘wee reekit deil’ of a
reviewer will, no doubt, participate in many dinners and many toasts from
which—Metu aut Montibus—we are unhappily
debarred.—Yours ever affectionately,
Jonathan Henry Christie (1793-1876)
Educated at Marischal College, Baliol College, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn; after slaying
John Scott in the famous duel at Chalk Farm he was acquitted of murder and afterwards
practiced law as a conveyancer in London. He was the lifelong friend of John Gibson
Lockhart and an acquaintance of John Keats.
Arthur Connell (1794-1863)
Son of Sir John Connell, advocate; he was educated at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Balliol
College, Oxford (Snell Exhibitioner) and was professor of chemistry in the University of
St. Andrews (1840-62).
Charlotte Jeffrey [née Wilkes] (d. 1850)
The daughter of Charles Wilkes, a New York banker, and great-niece of the radical John
Wilkes; in 1813 the became the second wife of the critic Francis Jeffrey. Their daughter
was also named Charlotte.
Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850)
Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the
Edinburgh
Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of
poetry.
William Knight (1789 c.-1878)
Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, he was rector of St. Michael's, Bristol
(1816-75).
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)
Editor of the
Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter
Scott and author of the
Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).
John Rogers (1772-1838)
American naval officer who fought off the Atlantic coast in the War of 1812.
James Traill (1794-1873)
Of Hobbister, Orkney; educated at Balliol College (Snell Exhibitioner) and the Middle
Temple, he was a police magistrate in London. Traill was John Christie's second in the duel
with John Scott.
