The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 3: 1813-15
John Gibson Lockhart to Jonathan Christie, 3 August 1815
“Inverkip, by Greenock, Aug. 3rd, 1815.
“My dear Christie,—The
summer is flying away, and not having heard lately from you, or anybody in the
southern parts, I am beginning to be ![]()
![]()
completely Scotchified. I don’t know how you go on in the important
concerns of medical lore. But the Deity of La Paresse has resumed over me with
redoubled vigour her antique sway. The place from which I write is a hamlet on
the coast of Renfrewshire, just where that county meets Ayrshire. The Clyde is
here a noble firth of seven miles breadth, running between the fertile hills of
Ayr on the one side, and the bleak-black mountains of Morven on the other. The
whole country is intersected with long arms of the sea—lochs,
&c.—which render this part of Scotland the most picturesque I have
seen.
Not contented with these beauties, the itch of rambling has
just been leading me away into the depths of Lochaber. My brother and I
foregathered with Hamilton on the banks
of Lochlomond, which flows into the Clyde about ten miles above this by means
of the water of Leven, and we have just returned from ten days of thorough
tramping. We had a horse with us for the convenience of carrying
baggage—but contemning the paths of civilised man, we dared the deepest
glens in search of trout. There is something abundantly
delightful in the naked-heartedness of the Highland people. Bating the article
of inquisitiveness, they are as polite as courtiers. The moment we entered a
cottage the wife began to bake her cakes—and, having portable soup with
us, our fare was really excellent. What think you of parritch and cream ![]()
| 86 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. | |
![]()
for breakfast? Trout, pike, and herrings for dinner,
ewe-milk cheese and right peat-reek whisky? and then at night a rushlight
illuminating the smoke-dried pages of Matthew
Henry’s Commentary on the Song of
Solomon—‘The Crook in the Lot,’
‘The Cloud of Witnesses, or The Martyrs’
Monument—wherein are the speeches and last words of all the
Presbyterian saints, burnt, hanged, and drowned for the glory of God. And
lastly, but almost universally—‘The Light and
Supple Whang for the Breeks of Declining
Faith.’ My brother being a little bit of the wag, gained the
affections of all these good folks by his graces, each a quarter of an hour
long, wherein he rang the commonplaces of young ravens crying for their food,
and of men not living by bread alone. . . . I have heard not a word of any of
our Oxonian friends. Don’t forget in your next to give me any
intelligence you possess about our friend Nicoll. Gordon MacCaul
was up in Oxford, and took his A.M. just after we left it. He says Miss Ireland has at last loosed her virgin
zone under the strength of Evans. Happy,
happy, happy pair. What a subject for an Epithalamium. Try your hand. I see you
say you are reading a great deal of French. If you can lay your hands upon the
works of Gresset, I promise you
exquisite pleasure. You will find a beautiful Eloge upon
him in the first volume of the ‘Discours et Memoires,’ by Bailly.
“There is a famous foreign library at Greenock, ![]()
![]()
in which I find everything I can
want for summer purposes. Compts. to Knight.—Yours most affectionately,
Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793)
French astronomer elected president of the Third Estate (1789); he was guillotined during
the Terror.
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.
George Sherwood Evans (1787-1853)
Educated at Pembroke College, Oxford where he held a fellowship until 1822, he was
afterwards rector of Hinton Waldrist, Berkshire.
Mary Ann Evans [née Ireland] (1787-1815)
The daughter of the Oxford apothecary John Ireland; in 1813 she married the Rev. George
Sherwood Evans following a successful breach of promise action; she died in
childbirth.
Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset (1709-1777)
French poet and dramatist, author of the comic
Vert-Vert (1734)
about a talking parrot, several times translated.
Matthew Henry (1662-1714)
Presbyterian minister in Chester, the author of
Exposition of the Old
and New Testament (1707-12).
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 Gordon M'Caul (1788 c.-1860)
The son of John M'Caul, Merchant in Glasgow; he was a Snell Exhibitioner at Balliol
College, Oxford, afterwards a merchant at Santa Cruz; he was a college acquaintance of John
Gibson Lockhart.
Alexander Nicoll (1793-1828)
Educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen before becoming a Snell Exhibitioner at Balliol
College, Oxford, he catalogued oriental manuscripts at the Bodleian and was regius
professor of Hebrew (1822).
