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Calvin University 2

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

E-text prepared by Henry Flower and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (https://archive.org/details/americana)

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

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The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

See 44573-h.htm or 44573-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44573/44573-h/44573-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44573/44573-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

See https://archive.org/details/entailorlairdsof1913galt Transcriber's note:

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Text enclosed by tilde characters is in bold face (~bold~).

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

THE ENTAIL by JOHN GALT Oxford:

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Horace Hart Printer to the University [Illustration] THE ENTAIL Or

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Lairds of Grippy by JOHN GALT With an Introduction by John Ayscough

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

[Illustration] Henry Frowde Oxford University Press London, Edinburgh, Glasgow New York, Toronto, Melbourne & Bombay JOHN GALT Born, Irvine, Ayrshire May 2, 1779 Died, Greenock April 11, 1839 _'

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Entail' was first published in 1822.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

In 'The World's Classics' it was first published in 1913.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

_ INTRODUCTION For many years I have been wondering why John Galt's works are fallen into such neglect: that they should be almost wholly forgotten, even by readers to whom Scott and Jane Austen, Fanny Burney and Miss Edgeworth are indispensable, is what I cannot understand.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

If his Autobiography were not a rare book, an explanation might suggest itself.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

For supposing that the public, before reading _The Entail_, _Annals of the Parish_, or _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Ayrshire Legatees_, had been so unfortunate as to attempt the reading of the Autobiography, no one could be surprised that it made up its mind to read no more of him.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

A more tedious, flat, and dull book was never written by a man of genius: it is never interesting, never amusing, and always exasperating to any one who knows what he could do, and has done.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

To wade through it is very nearly impossible, and there is nothing to be gained by the achievement.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Galt's life was not particularly interesting in itself, but many lives less eventful have been so written as to be worth reading, and easy to read.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

There is, however, little danger of Galt's now losing possible admirers by the unlucky accident of their stumbling on his Autobiography before making his acquaintance in the right way--by reading his really excellent works of fiction: for copies of the Autobiography are not at all easy to come at.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

I suppose they have mostly been burned by his admirers.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

There is not much to be told about him; his life does not matter to my purpose.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

John Galt was one of the sons of a sea-captain, in the West India trade, and was born on May 2, 1779, at Irvine in Ayrshire.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

When he was ten years old the family moved to Greenock, where the boy had his schooling and became a clerk in the Custom House.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

At five and twenty he carried himself and an epic poem to London, in quest of literary fame.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The epic, on the Battle of Largs, he had printed, but it did not establish his repute as a poet, and, to judge by the specimens I have read, the indifference of the public was not a malicious affectation.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Later on he produced half a dozen dramas, which deserved, and met with, as much success as the epic.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Falling into bad health he made a tour through the Mediterranean and Levant, and had Byron and Hobhouse for fellow-travellers during a part of it.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

In the Autobiography he does not heap flattery on either 'Orestes or Pylades': perhaps, though he does not confess it, he extracted from his brother poet an opinion on his own muse.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

His experiences of travel were given to the world in _Letters from the Levant_, and the book was by no means a failure, and is much easier reading than the Autobiography.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

In 1820 appeared, in _Blackwood_, _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Ayrshire Legatees_: and in it he first showed the real power that was in him.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

It has been reprinted in recent years and can easily be read, and should be read by every one.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The book has the rather tiresome form of letters: and the letters of the young lady and young gentleman are not always particularly entertaining: those of Dr. Pringle and his wife are invariably excellent.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

None better of the sort exist anywhere in fiction.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

It is astounding that a man of genius, whose fiction is so extraordinarily real, could, when writing of his own real life, make it inhumanly dull and artificial.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

In the Autobiography there is nothing quaint, and nothing witty: Dr. and Mrs. Pringle are inimitably quaint and funny.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

It would seem that when Galt looked at life, at men and manners, and things, through imaginary eyes he could see everything there was to be seen, and see it in a light intensely simple and vivid and real: that when he looked at anything through his own eyes he saw nothing at all.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The doctor and Mrs. Pringle are indispensable to all readers who love dear oddities, and they are Galt's very own: you shall not find them anywhere else.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

He borrowed them nowhere, but made them himself in a jocund humour of affectionate creation.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

In 1821 _

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The Ayrshire Legatees_ was followed up by the _Annals of the Parish_, which displayed Galt's singular and original genius in fuller perfection.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

That his epic failed, and the _Annals_ marked a literary success, is much to the credit of his contemporaries.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Perhaps if Crabbe had not perversely insisted on being a poet we might have had country tales of his as worthy of immortality as the _Annals of the Parish_.

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The book is commonly said to be Galt's masterpiece: which it is not.

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But it is unique and perfect.

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That _

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The Entail_ is really Galt's masterpiece seems to me clear: nevertheless there are weak parts in it, and the less good chapters are lamentably unequal to the best: whereas the _Annals of the Parish_ has no weak chapters, and the balance of excellence is maintained throughout.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

But there is no story in the _Annals_; and, though it is a long gallery of perfect portraits, it has no characters that can even be compared with Watty and the Leddy o' Grippy.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Where the _Annals_ peculiarly excel is in the rare quality of _charm_:

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

it has no hero, and the central figure is enriched with foibles that do not lean to heroism's side: but they are quaintly attractive, and no one but Galt has given to literature any one like him.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Of pathos Galt is shy in the _Annals_; nowhere is he at all disposed to 'wallow' in it: but he draws reverently near, and moves away as reverently.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Nor is he boisterously funny: his wit is all his own, and it crops up at every corner, but not noisily: it cuts few capers, and has a pawky discretion.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

It is singularly void of malice and haughtiness, and has a Shakespearian humanity and blandness that fails to remind one of Thackeray.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The _Annals of the Parish_ prove that a great writer can make a whole book intensely amusing and extraordinarily amiable: that perfectly clear sight need not be merciless, nor wit remorselessly cruel.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The great and just success of the _Annals of the Parish_ made Galt prolific: and in rapid sequence came _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Sir Andrew Wylie_, _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Entail_, _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Steamboat_, _

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The Provost_, _Ringan Gilhaize_, _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Spaewife_, _Rothelan_, and _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Omen_.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Almost all of these are worth reading, and to read them is no trouble: but they are of very unequal merit: and only one of them is worthy of being grouped with _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Ayrshire Legatees_ and the _Annals_.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

_

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Sir Andrew Wylie_ is extremely good, and much of it shows Galt in his best vein.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The more romantic tales, _Ringan Gilhaize_, _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Spaewife_, _Rothelan_, and _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Omen_, have the defects of their qualities, and the more Galt submits to those qualities the less we are pleased.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

To be romantic was, perhaps, a pardonable compliance with fashion: but Galt had little to make with romance, and idealism was his easiest road to failure.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

To be Ossianic may have seemed to him a literary duty, but the performance of some duties is hard on the public: as the district-visited might plead, to whom the perfecting of district-visitors appeals less than it ought.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Galt had not a rich imagination; what he possessed in a rare degree was the faculty of representation.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

In his works of fiction we find a gallery of portraits of singular variety and perfection: of all of them he had seen the originals.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

When he chose to add characters invented by himself his success was not great.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

It must not, however, be supposed that he could only reproduce with pedestrian fidelity: there can be no doubt that from a mere hint in actual experience he could draw a vivid portrait of absolute and convincing reality.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

He himself placed _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Provost_ higher than the _Annals of the Parish_ and _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Ayrshire Legatees_, but no one will agree with him.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Almost the only interesting thing he tells us in the Autobiography is that the _Annals_, though published in 1821, the year following the appearance of _The Ayrshire Legatees_, were written in 1813, and laid aside and forgotten.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Of _

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Entail_

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he tells us little, except that the scene of the storm was introduced to admit of the description of a part of Scotland he had never seen.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

He speaks complacently of the praise accorded to that description, but betrays no pride in Watty or the Leddy, whom, indeed, he does not mention.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

He has plenty to say about _Ringan Gilhaize_, and evidently believes that the book was not accorded its due proportion of praise; chiefly, it would seem, because the thing he tried to do in it was difficult, and success the more meritorious.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Probably Watty and the Leddy were thoroughly spontaneous, as they are inimitably real, and Galt thought the less of them on that account.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

He left England for Canada in 1826, _

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The Last of the Lairds_ appearing just before his departure.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Three years later he came back ruined, and set to work again, his pen being as industrious as ever.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

_

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Lawrie Todd_ was followed by _Southennan_, and these two novels by his _Life of Lord Byron_.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

In 1839, on April 11, he died at Greenock.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Anthony Trollope injured himself with critics of a certain class by a too frank disclosure of his methods of production: and Galt may well have done his literary reputation harm by his oft-repeated assertion that with him literature was always a secondary interest.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Commerce, he would have us believe, was what came first.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

He never depreciates his own literary work, but he so speaks of it as to tempt others to belittle it: this was not modesty but sheer blundering.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Congreve in his old age was more eager to shine in Voltaire's eyes as a social personage than as a famous dramatist; and Galt appears to have cared more to be regarded as a statistician than as an unequalled master of fiction in his own region of it.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

These perversities in men of genius are not so rare as they are provoking.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

_

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

The Entail_ was published in 1822, and, disregarded as it has long been, its merit was not ignored then.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

Gifford, Mackenzie, Lord Jeffrey, and Sir Walter Scott helped to spread its fame.

The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy

In January, 1823, 'Christopher North' reviewed it at great length in _Blackwood_, and declared it 'out of all sight the best thing he [Galt] has done'--_The Ayrshire Legatees_ and the _Annals of the Parish_, be it remembered, having already appeared.