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THE MONASTERY
THE MONASTERY SIR WALTER SCOTT INTRODUCTION--(1830.)
It would be difficult to assign any good reason why the author of
Ivanhoe after using in that work all the art he possessed to remove
the personages action and manners of the tale to a distance from
his own country should choose for the scene of his next attempt the
celebrated ruins of Melrose in the immediate neighbourhood of his own
residence. But the reason or caprice which dictated his change of
system has entirely escaped his recollection nor is it worth while
to attempt recalling what must be a matter of very little consequence.
The general plan of the story was to conjoin two characters in that
bustling and contentious age who thrown into situations which gave
them different views on the subject of the Reformation should with
the same sincerity and purity of intention dedicate themselves the
one to the support of the sinking fabric of the Catholic Church the
other to the establishment of the Reformed doctrines. It was
supposed that some interesting subjects for narrative might be
derived from opposing two such enthusiasts to each other in the path
of life and contrasting the real worth of both with their passions
and prejudices. The localities of Melrose suited well the scenery of
the proposed story; the ruins themselves form a splendid theatre for
any tragic incident which might be brought forward; joined to the
vicinity of the fine river with all its tributary streams flowing
through a country which has been the scene of so much fierce
fighting and is rich with so many recollections of former times
and lying almost under the immediate eye of the author by whom they
were to be used in composition.
The situation possessed farther recommendations. On the opposite bank
of the Tweed might be seen the remains of ancient enclosures
surrounded by sycamores and ash-trees of considerable size. These had
once formed the crofts or arable ground of a village now reduced to a
single hut the abode of a fisherman who also manages a ferry. The
cottages even the church which once existed there have sunk into
vestiges hardly to be traced without visiting the spot the
inhabitants having gradually withdrawn to the more prosperous town of
Galashiels which has risen into consideration within two miles of
their neighbourhood. Superstitious eld however has tenanted the
deserted groves with aerial beings to supply the want of the mortal
tenants who have deserted it. The ruined and abandoned churchyard of
Boldside has been long believed to be haunted by the Fairies and the
deep broad current of the Tweed wheeling in moonlight round the foot
of the steep bank with the number of trees originally planted for
shelter round the fields of the cottagers but now presenting the
effect of scattered and detached groves fill up the idea which one
would form in imagination for a scene that Oberon and Queen Mab might
love to revel in. There are evenings when the spectator might
believe with Father Chaucer that the
--Queen of Faery
With harp and pipe and symphony
Were dwelling in the place.
Another and even a more familiar refuge of the elfin race (if
tradition is to be trusted) is the glen of the river or rather
brook named the Allen which falls into the Tweed from the northward
about a quarter of a mile above the present bridge. As the streamlet
finds its way behind Lord Sommerville's hunting-seat called the
Pavilion its valley has been popularly termed the Fairy Dean or
rather the Nameless Dean because of the supposed ill luck attached by
the popular faith of ancient times to any one who might name or
allude to the race whom our fathers distinguished as the Good
Neighbours and the Highlanders called Daoine Shie or Men of Peace;
rather by way of compliment than on account of any particular idea of
friendship or pacific relation which either Highlander or Borderer
entertained towards the irritable beings whom they thus distinguished
or supposed them to bear to humanity. [Footnote: See Rob Roy Note
p. 202.]
In evidence of the actual operations of the fairy people even at this
time little pieces of calcareous matter are found in the glen after a
flood which either the labours of those tiny artists or the eddies
of the brook among the stones have formed into a fantastic
resemblance of cups saucers basins and the like in which children
who gather them pretend to discern fairy utensils.
Besides these circumstances of romantic locality _mea paupera
regna_ (as Captain Dalgetty denominates his territory of
Drumthwacket) are bounded by a small but deep lake from which eyes
that yet look on the light are said to have seen the waterbull ascend
and shake the hills with his roar.
Indeed the country around Melrose if possessing less of romantic
beauty than some other scenes in Scotland is connected with so many
associations of a fanciful nature in which the imagination takes
delight as might well induce one even less attached to the spot than
the author to accommodate after a general manner the imaginary
scenes he was framing to the localities to which he was partial. But
it would be a misapprehension to suppose that because Melrose may in
general pass for Kennaquhair or because it agrees with scenes of the
Monastery in the circumstances of the drawbridge the milldam and
other points of resemblance that therefore an accurate or perfect
local similitude is to be found in all the particulars of the picture.
It was not the purpose of the author to present a landscape copied
from nature but a piece of composition in which a real scene with
which he is familiar had afforded him some leading outlines. Thus the
resemblance of the imaginary Glendearg with the real vale of the
Allen is far from being minute nor did the author aim at identifying
them. This must appear plain to all who know the actual character of
the Glen of Allen and have taken the trouble to read the account of
the imaginary Glendearg. The stream in the latter case is described
as wandering down a romantic little valley shifting itself after the
fashion of such a brook from one side to the other as it can most
easily find its passage and touching nothing in its progress that
gives token of cultivation. It rises near a solitary tower the abode
of a supposed church vassal and the scene of several incidents in the
Romance.
The real Allen on the contrary after traversing the romantic ravine
called the Nameless Dean thrown off from side to side alternately
like a billiard ball repelled by the sides of the table on which it
has been played and in that part of its course resembling the stream
which pours down Glendearg may be traced upwards into a more open
country where the banks retreat farther from each other and the vale
exhibits a good deal of dry ground which has not been neglected by
the active cultivators of the district. It arrives too at a sort of
termination striking in itself but totally irreconcilable with the
narrative of the Romance. Instead of a single peel-house or border
tower of defence such as Dame Glendinning is supposed to have
inhabited the head of the Allen about five miles above its junction
with the Tweed shows three ruins of Border houses belonging to
different proprietors and each from the desire of mutual support so
natural to troublesome times situated at the extremity of the
property of which it is the principal messuage. One of these is the
ruinous mansion-house of Hillslap formerly the property of the
Cairncrosses and now of Mr. Innes of Stow; a second the tower of
Colmslie an ancient inheritance of the Borthwick family as is
testified by their crest the Goat's Head which exists on the ruin;
[Footnote: It appears that Sir Walter Scott's memory was not quite
accurate on these points. John Borthwick Esq. in a note to the
publisher (June I1 1813.) says that _Colmslie_ belonged to Mr.
Innes of Stow while _Hillslap_ forms part of the estate of
Crookston. He adds--"In proof that the tower of Hillslap which I have
taken measures to preserve from injury was chiefly in his head as
the tower of _Glendearg_ when writing the Monastery I may
mention that on one of the occasions when I had the honour of being a
visiter at Abbotsford the stables then being full I sent a pony to
be put up at our tenant's at Hillslap:--'Well.' said Sir Walter 'if
you do that you must trust for its not being _lifted_ before
to-morrow to the protection of Halbert Glendinning: against Christie
of the Clintshill.' At page 58 vol. iii. the first edition the
'_winding_ stair' which the monk ascended is described. The
winding stone stair is still to be seen in Hillslap but not in either
of the other two towers" It is. however probable from the
Goat's-Head crest on Colmslie that that tower also had been of old a
possession of the Borthwicks.] a third the house of Langshaw also
ruinous but near which the proprietor Mr. Baillie of Jerviswood and
Mellerstain has built a small shooting box.
All these ruins so strangely huddled together in a very solitary
spot have recollections and traditions of their own but none of them
bear the most distant resemblance to the descriptions in the Romance
of the Monastery; and as the author could hardly have erred so grossly
regarding a spot within a morning's ride of his own house the
inference is that no resemblance was intended. Hillslap is remembered
by the humours of the last inhabitants two or three elderly ladies
of the class of Miss Raynalds in the Old Manor House though less
important by birth and fortune. Colmslie is commemorated in song:--
Colmslie stands on Colmslie hill.
The water it flows round Colmslie mill;
The mill and the kiln gang bonnily.
And it's up with the whippers of Colmslie.
Langshaw although larger than the other mansions assembled at the
head of the supposed Glendearg has nothing about it more remarkable
than the inscription of the present proprietor over his shooting
lodge--_Utinam hane eliam viris impleam amicis_--a modest wish
which I know no one more capable of attaining upon an extended scale
than the gentleman who has expressed it upon a limited one.
Having thus shown that I could say something of these desolated
towers which the desire of social intercourse or the facility of
mutual defence had drawn together at the head of this Glen I need
not add any farther reason to show that there is no resemblance
between them and the solitary habitation of Dame Elspeth Glendinning.
Beyond these dwellings are some remains of natural wood and a
considerable portion of morass and bog; but I would not advise any who
may be curious in localities to spend time in looking for the
fountain and holly-tree of the White Lady.
While I am on the subject I may add that Captain Clutterbuck the
imaginary editor of the Monastery has no real prototype in the
village of Melrose or neighbourhood that ever I saw or heard of. To
give some individuality to this personage he is described as a
character which sometimes occurs in actual society--a person who
having spent his life within the necessary duties of a technical
profession from which he has been at length emancipated finds
himself without any occupation whatever and is apt to become the prey
of ennui until he discerns some petty subject of investigation
commensurate to his talents the study of which gives him employment
in solitude; while the conscious possession of information peculiar to
himself adds to his consequence in society. I have often observed
that the lighter and trivial branches of antiquarian study are
singularly useful in relieving vacuity of such a kind and have known
them serve many a Captain Clutterbuck to retreat upon; I was therefore
a good deal surprised when I found the antiquarian Captain identified
with a neighbour and friend of my own who could never have been
confounded with him by any one who had read the book and seen the
party alluded to. This erroneous identification occurs in a work
entitled "Illustrations of the Author of Waverley being Notices and
Anecdotes of real Characters Scenes and Incidents supposed to be
described in his works by Robert Chambers." This work was of course
liable to many errors as any one of the kind must be whatever may be
the ingenuity of the author which takes the task of explaining what
can be only known to another person. Mistakes of place or inanimate
things referred to are of very little moment; but the ingenious
author ought to have been more cautious of attaching real names to
fictitious characters. I think it is in the Spectator we read of a
rustic wag who in a copy of "The Whole Duty of Man" wrote opposite
to every vice the name of some individual in the neighbourhood and
thus converted that excellent work into a libel on a whole parish.
The scenery being thus ready at the author's hand the reminiscences
of the country were equally favourable. In a land where the horses
remained almost constantly saddled and the sword seldom quitted the
warrior's side--where war was the natural and constant state of the
inhabitants and peace only existed in the shape of brief and feverish
truces--there could be no want of the means to complicate and
extricate the incidents of his narrative at pleasure. There was a
disadvantage notwithstanding in treading this Border district for
it had been already ransacked by the author himself as well as
others; and unless presented under a new light was likely to afford
ground to the objection of _Crambe bis cocta_.
To attain the indispensable quality of novelty something it was
thought might be gained by contrasting the character of the vassals
of the church with those of the dependants of the lay barons by whom
they were surrounded. But much advantage could not be derived from
this. There were indeed differences betwixt the two classes but
like tribes in the mineral and vegetable world which resembling each
other to common eyes can be sufficiently well discriminated by
naturalists they were yet too similar upon the whole to be placed
in marked contrast with each other.
Machinery remained--the introduction of the supernatural and
marvellous; the resort of distressed authors since the days of Horace
but whose privileges as a sanctuary have been disputed in the present
age and well-nigh exploded. The popular belief no longer allows the
possibility of existence to the race of mysterious beings which
hovered betwixt this world and that which is invisible. The fairies
have abandoned their moonlight turf; the witch no longer holds her
black orgies in the hemlock dell; and
Even the last lingering phantom of the brain
The churchyard ghost is now at rest again.
From the discredit attached to the vulgar and more common modes in
which the Scottish superstition displays itself the author was
induced to have recourse to the beautiful though almost forgotten
theory of astral spirits or creatures of the elements surpassing
human beings in knowledge and power but inferior to them as being
subject after a certain space of years to a death which is to them
annihilation as they have no share in the promise made to the sons of
Adam. These spirits are supposed to be of four distinct kinds as the
elements from which they have their origin and are known to those
who have studied the cabalistical philosophy by the names of Sylphs
Gnomes Salamanders and Naiads as they belong to the elements of
Air Earth Fire or Water. The general reader will find an
entertaining account of these elementary spirits in the French book
entitled "Entretiens de Compte du Gabalis." The ingenious Compte de
la Motte Fouqu? composed in German one of the most successful
productions of his fertile brain where a beautiful and even
afflicting effect is produced by the introduction of a water-nymph
who loses the privilege of immortality by consenting to become
accessible to human feelings and uniting her lot with that of a
mortal who treats her with ingratitude.
In imitation of an example so successful the White Lady of Avenel
was introduced into the following sheets. She is represented as
connected with the family of Avenel by one of those mystic ties
which in ancient times were supposed to exist in certain
circumstances between the creatures of the elements and the
children of men. Such instances of mysterious union are recognized
in Ireland in the real Milosian families who are possessed of a
Banshie; and they are known among the traditions of the Highlands
which in many cases attached an immortal being or spirit to the
service of particular families or tribes. These demons if they are
to be called so announced good or evil fortune to the families
connected with them; and though some only condescended to meddle
with matters of importance others like the May Mollach or Maid of
the Hairy Arms condescended to mingle in ordinary sports and even
to direct the Chief how to play at draughts.
There was therefore no great violence in supposing such a being as
this to have existed while the elementary spirits were believed in;
but it was more difficult to describe or imagine its attributes and
principles of action. Shakespeare the first of authorities in such a
case has painted Ariel that beautiful creature of his fancy as only
approaching so near to humanity as to know the nature of that sympathy
which the creatures of clay felt for each other as we learn from the
expression--"Mine would if I were human." The inferences from this
are singular but seem capable of regular deduction. A being however
superior to man in length of life--in power over the elements--in
certain perceptions respecting the present the past and the future
yet still incapable of human passions of sentiments of moral good and
evil of meriting future rewards or punishments belongs rather to the
class of animals than of human creatures and must therefore be
presumed to act more from temporary benevolence or caprice than from
anything approaching to feeling or reasoning. Such a being's
superiority in power can only be compared to that of the elephant or
lion who are greater in strength than man though inferior in the
scale of creation. The partialities which we suppose such spirits to
entertain must be like those of the dog; their sudden starts of
passion or the indulgence of a frolic or mischief may be compared
to those of the numerous varieties of the cat. All these propensities
are however controlled by the laws which render the elementary race
subordinate to the command of man--liable to be subjected by his
science (so the sect of Gnostics believed and on this turned the
Rosicrucian philosophy) or to be overpowered by his superior courage
and daring when it set their illusions at defiance.
It is with reference to this idea of the supposed spirits of the
elements that the White Lady of Avenel is represented as acting a
varying capricious and inconsistent part in the pages assigned to
her in the narrative; manifesting interest and attachment to the
family with whom her destinies are associated but evincing whim and
even a species of malevolence towards other mortals as the
Sacristan and the Border robber whose incorrect life subjected them
to receive petty mortifications at her hand. The White Lady is
scarcely supposed however to have possessed either the power or the
inclination to do more than inflict terror or create embarrassment
and is also subjected by those mortals who by virtuous resolution
and mental energy could assert superiority over her. In these
particulars she seems to constitute a being of a middle class between
the _esprit follet_ who places its pleasure in misleading and
tormenting mortals and the benevolent Fairy of the East who
uniformly guides aids and supports them.
Either however the author executed his purpose indifferently or
the public did not approve of it; for the White Lady of Avenel was
far from being popular. He does not now make the present statement
in the view of arguing readers into a more favourable opinion on the
subject but merely with the purpose of exculpating himself from the
charge of having wantonly intruded into the narrative a being of
inconsistent powers and propensities.
In the delineation of another character the author of the Monastery
failed where he hoped for some success. As nothing is so successful a
subject for ridicule as the fashionable follies of the time it
occurred to him that the more serious scenes of his narrative might be
relieved by the humour of a cavaliero of the age of Queen Elizabeth.
In every period the attempt to gain and maintain the highest rank of
society has depended on the power of assuming and supporting a
certain fashionable kind of affectation usually connected with some
vivacity of talent and energy of character but distinguished at the
same time by a transcendent flight beyond sound reason and common
sense; both faculties too vulgar to be admitted into the estimate of
one who claims to be esteemed "a choice spirit of the age." These in
their different phases constitute the gallants of the day whose
boast it is to drive the whims of fashion to extremity.
On all occasions the manners of the sovereign the court and the
time must give the tone to the peculiar description of qualities by
which those who would attain the height of fashion must seek to
distinguish themselves. The reign of Elizabeth being that of a maiden
queen was distinguished by the decorum of the courtiers and
especially the affectation of the deepest deference to the sovereign.
After the acknowledgment of the Queen's matchless perfections the
same devotion was extended to beauty as it existed among the lesser
stars in her court who sparkled as it was the mode to say by her
reflected lustre. It is true that gallant knights no longer vowed to
Heaven the peacock and the ladies to perform some feat of
extravagant chivalry in which they endangered the lives of others as
well as their own; but although their chivalrous displays of personal
gallantry seldom went farther in Elizabeth's days than the tilt-yard
where barricades called barriers prevented the shock of the horses
and limited the display of the cavalier's skill to the comparatively
safe encounter of their lances the language of the lovers to their
ladies was still in the exalted terms which Amadis would have
addressed to Oriana before encountering a dragon for her sake. This
tone of romantic gallantry found a clever but conceited author to
reduce it to a species of constitution and form and lay down the
courtly manner of conversation in a pedantic book called Euphues and
his England. Of this a brief account is given in the text to which
it may now be proper to make some additions.
The extravagance of Euphuism or a symbolical jargon of the same
class predominates in the romances of Calprenade and Scuderi which
were read for the amusement of the fair sex of France during the
long reign of Louis XIV. and were supposed to contain the only
legitimate language of love and gallantry. In this reign they
encountered the satire of Moliere and Boileau. A similar disorder
spreading into private society formed the ground of the affected
dialogue of the _Praecieuses_ as they were styled who formed
the coterie of the Hotel de Rambouillet and afforded Moliere matter
for his admirable comedy _Les Praecieuses Ridicules_. In
England the humour does not seem to have long survived the
accession of James I.
The author had the vanity to think that a character whose
peculiarities should turn on extravagances which were once universally
fashionable might be read in a fictitious story with a good chance of
affording amusement to the existing generation who fond as they are
of looking back on the actions and manners of their ancestors might
be also supposed to be sensible of their absurdities. He must fairly
acknowledge that he was disappointed and that the Euphuist far from
being accounted a well drawn and humorous character of the period was
condemned as unnatural and absurd. It would be easy to account for
this failure by supposing the defect to arise from the author's want
of skill and probably many readers may not be inclined to look
farther. But as the author himself can scarcely be supposed willing to
acquiesce in this final cause if any other can be alleged he has
been led to suspect that contrary to what he originally supposed
his subject was injudiciously chosen in which and not in his mode of
treating it lay the source of the want of success.
The manners of a rude people are always founded on nature and
therefore the feelings of a more polished generation immediately
sympathize with them. We need no numerous notes no antiquarian
dissertations to enable the most ignorant to recognize the sentiments
and diction of the characters of Homer; we have but as Lear says to
strip off our lendings--to set aside the factitious principles and
adornments which we have received from our comparatively artificial
system of society and our natural feelings are in unison with those
of the bard of Chios and the heroes who live in his verses. It is the
same with a great part of the narratives of my friend Mr. Cooper. We
sympathize with his Indian chiefs and back-woodsmen and acknowledge
in the characters which he presents to us the same truth of human
nature by which we should feel ourselves influenced if placed in the
same condition. So much is this the case that though it is
difficult or almost impossible to reclaim a savage bred from his
youth to war and the chase to the restraints and the duties of
civilized life nothing is more easy or common than to find men who
have been educated in all the habits and comforts of improved society
willing to exchange them for the wild labours of the hunter and the
fisher. The very amusements most pursued and relished by men of all
ranks whose constitutions permit active exercise are hunting
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