The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 2: 1808-13
John Gibson Lockhart to an anonymous correspondent, 20 February 1820
“I mentioned in my letters already that the Scotchmen
now are not in general so much to my mind as the others—the fact is, if I
except myself and two others, they are all connected with the Episcopal Church
of Scotland, and a great deal more bigoted than any Englishman I have yet met
with. Edinburgh and Glasgow they view in no other light than as so many nurses
of infidelity and scepticism. They are all very civil to me, however, and I am
very happy with one of them, a son of
M’Farlane, the Bishop of Ross.
I rather think you will remember a son of Cocky’s—John Young—who was an exhibitioner in
this college, and has now a curacy in Yorkshire. I met with him here very often
in the month of December, and think him a very pleasant man indeed. His father
has always behaved to him with his accustomed sourness, and I daresay he is
very ill off, with a small salary of £80 or so, for not a farthing will
the old boy give him, although we all know that with his wife’s portion,
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| 42 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. | |
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&c., &c., he might spare him a good deal more than
he would require. Dr. Hutchinson’s
son is a curate in Norfolkshire, and
esteemed stark mad by every man in Oxford. He made his appearance here at the
election, and behaved in a most absurd manner. The truth is, there cannot be a
more foolish thing than for any Scotchman in ordinary circumstances to enter
into the English Church. If he does, he has little chance for any better lot
than a chapel in Scotland or a curacy in England. All college preferment (and
in many instances a great deal of patronage, vested in the Master and Fellows)
is greedily swallowed up by those who have it to dispose of, and it would be a
thing quite contrary to etiquette to make a Scotchman a Fellow. Their reason
for this, they say, is, that such is the known partiality all Scotchmen have
for their own country, that if they once got a footing in any college they
would elect none but Scotchmen, and the whole power would shortly be confined
to them.
“Nearly half of the time is now spent during which I
must remain here. I have spent it much more happily than I could have expected,
but I must now begin to be very anxious for the month of July. . . .
—Yours affectionately,
Thomas Hamilton (1789-1842)
The son of Professor William Hamilton (1758–1790); educated at Glasgow University, he
served in the Peninsular War, befriended John Gibson Lockhart, and published a novel,
Cyril Thornton (1827) and
Men and Manners in
America (1833).
Alexander Hutchison (1738 c.-1821)
Educated at Glasgow University, where he was Dean of Faculties (1782-84, 1786-88,
1790-92, and 1794-96).
James Hutchison (1781-1857)
Educated at Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a Snell
Exhibitioner; he was an East India Company chaplain (1813-27) when he retired to
Scotland.
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).
Robert MacFarlane (1789 c.-1814 fl.)
The son of Andrew MacFarlane, Bishop of Ross; he was a Snell Exhibitioner who took his
M.A. from Balliol College in 1814, and apparently was a clergyman in the Church of England
who died young.
John Young (1747-1820)
The son of a cooper, he was educated at Glasgow University where he was professor of
Greek from 1774.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. (1817-1980). Begun as the
Edinburgh Monthly Magazine,
Blackwood's assumed the name of its proprietor, William Blackwood after the sixth
number. Blackwood was the nominal editor until 1834.
