Tales of a Grandfather is a series of books on the history of Scotland, written by Sir Walter Scott, who originally intended it for his grandson. The books were published between 1828 and 1830 by A & C Black. In the 19th century, the study of Scottish history focused mainly on cultural traditions and therefore, in Scott’s books, while the timeline of events is accurate, many anecdotes are either folk stories or inventions. [1]
In May 1827, Scott came up with the idea of writing the History of Scotland addressed to his six-year-old grandchild, John Hugh Lockhart. The project was partly inspired by the success of John Wilson Croker's Stories for Children Selected from the History of England. [2]
The First Series comprised the period between the reign of Macbeth (1033) and the Union of the Crowns (1603), and it was published in December 1827 with the intention of introducing it to the Christmas market. The sales were so high that, before the end of the month, Cadell had already ordered a revised and enlarged edition. [2]
In May 1828, Scott decided to write a Second Series of Tales. He ended the series on the Union of England and Scotland (1707), which was completed in September 1828 and published two months later. The Third Series, which lead up to the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden (1746), came out in December 1829. [2]
In July 1830, he agreed to write a fourth series dealing with French history from Charlemagne to Louis XIV. Published in December 1830, the Fourth Series was as well-received by the public as the earlier Tales. [2]
The success of the Tales was accompanied by almost unanimous critical approval. In particular, according to the magazine The Athenaeum, the Tales were recognized as an important step towards encouraging writers to write for children. Scott was widely praised for being objective towards different political factions. However, Walter Scott was criticized for drawing insufficiently clear moral lessons from the described events (e.g. by Andrew Bisset in The Westminster Review ). The Edinburgh Literary Journal accused Scott of avoiding controversial topics in order to gain popularity. [2]
The manuscript of the incomplete Fifth Series of Tales of a Grandfather was published by University of Illinois Press in 1996. [2]
First Edition, First Impression:
The books were also published in France in 1828 and subsequent years, in English, by the publisher John Anthony Galignani, printed by Jules Didot of the Didot Family of French printers.
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish historian, novelist, poet, and playwright. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels Ivanhoe (1819), Rob Roy (1817), Waverley (1814), Old Mortality (1816), The Heart of Mid-Lothian (1818), and The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), along with the narrative poems Marmion (1808) and The Lady of the Lake (1810). He had a major impact on European and American literature.
John Gibson Lockhart was a Scottish writer and editor. He is best known as the author of the seminal, and much-admired, seven-volume biography of his father-in-law Sir Walter Scott: Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart
Archibald David Constable was a Scottish publisher, bookseller and stationer.
Henry Mackenzie FRSE was a Scottish lawyer, novelist and writer sometimes seen as the Addison of the North. While remembered mostly as an author, his main income came from legal roles, which led in 1804–1831 to a lucrative post as Comptroller of Taxes for Scotland, whose possession allowing him to follow his interest in writing.
James Thomson was a Scottish poet and playwright, known for his poems The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence, and for the lyrics of "Rule, Britannia!"
Henry Glassford Bell was a Scottish lawyer, poet and historian.
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder of Fountainhall, 7th Baronet, FRSE FSA(Scot) LLD was a Scottish author. He served as Secretary to the Board of Manufactures (1839–), on the Herring Fisheries Board, at the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, and as Deputy Lieutenant of both counties of Moray and Haddington.
John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, known as Sir John Campbell, 5th Baronet from 1670 to 1681, was a member of Scottish nobility during the Glorious Revolution and Jacobite risings and also known as "Slippery John". An astutely political man, Campbell was one of the men implicated in the Massacre of Glencoe.
Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field is a historical romance in verse of 16th-century Scotland and England by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1808. Consisting of six cantos, each with an introductory epistle, and copious antiquarian notes, it concludes with the Battle of Flodden in 1513.
The Bannatyne Club, named in honour of George Bannatyne and his famous anthology of Scots literature the Bannatyne Manuscript, was a text publication society founded by Sir Walter Scott to print rare works of Scottish interest, whether in history, poetry, or general literature. The club was established in 1823 and printed 116 volumes before being dissolved in 1861.
James Maidment was a British antiquary and collector. He passed through Edinburgh University to the Scottish bar, and was chief authority on genealogical cases.
The Waverley Novels are a long series of novels by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832). For nearly a century, they were among the most popular and widely read novels in Europe.
William Miller was a Scottish Quaker line engraver and watercolourist from Edinburgh.
The Battle of the North Inch was a staged battle between the Clan Chattan and the "Clan Quhele" in September 1396. Thirty men were selected to represent each side in front of spectators, including King Robert III of Scotland and his court, on land that is now the North Inch park in Perth, Scotland.
Colonel Thomas Butler of Garryricken, also known as Thomas Butler of Kilcash was an Irish Jacobite soldier. He commanded a regiment, Thomas Butler's foot, during the Williamite War and fought at the Battle of Aughrim in 1691 where he was taken captive. His son John would, de jure, become the 15th Earl of Ormond.
Arthur Clifford (1778–1830) was an English antiquarian.
Robert Pitcairn was a Scottish antiquary and scholar who contributed to works published by Walter Scott and the Bannatyne Club. He was the author of Criminal Trials and other Proceedings before the High Court of Justiciary in Scotland (1829-1833). He was head of the Edinburgh Printing and Publishing Company and secretary of the Calvin Translating Society Pitcairn was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and a Writer to His Majesty’s Signet, and a member of the Maitland Club.
The Journal of Sir Walter Scott is a diary which the novelist and poet Walter Scott kept between 1825 and 1832. It records the financial disaster which overtook him at the beginning of 1826, and the efforts he made over the next seven years to pay off his debts by writing bestselling books. Since its first complete publication in 1890 it has attracted high praise, being considered by many critics one of the finest diaries in the language.
Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect was issued during the poet's lifetime In Two Volumes. The Second Edition Considerably Enlarged. It is a collection of poetry and songs by the poet Robert Burns, printed for T. Cadell, London, and W. Creech, Edinburgh. M,DCC,XCIII The date of publication for this edition was 16 February 1793 as advertised in the Edinburgh Courant. The successful demand for the 1787 Edinburgh Edition seems to have encouraged Creech to publish this new edition as the 1787 volume had been sold out since around 1791.
Hugh Mackail, Scottish martyr, was born about 1640 at Liberton, near Edinburgh. His father was Matthew Mackail who was minister at Bothwell before being deprived of his ministry by the government in 1662. At an early age he went to reside with an uncle, Hugh Mackail, one of the ministers of Edinburgh. He entered the University of Edinburgh, studying divinity, where he distinguished himself, graduating, as the records show, in 1658 under Thomas Crawford. Shortly afterward he became chaplain and tutor in the family of Sir James Stuart of Coltness and Goodtrees, then Lord Provost of Edinburgh. In 1661, being then in his twenty-first year, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh and afterward preached several times with much success. A sermon which he delivered in the High Church, Edinburgh, in September 1662, in which he declared that "the church of Scotland had been persecuted by an Ahab on the throne, a Haman in the state, and a Judas in the church," gave such offence that a party of horse was sent to apprehend him. He escaped, however, and, after lying concealed in his father's house in Bothwell for some time, retired into Holland, where he improved his time by studying for several years perhaps near Rotterdam. Then, returning to Scotland, he lived chiefly at his father's house, until in November 1666 he joined a rising of the covenanters. After nine days' marching, however, his weak health obliged him to leave the insurgents, and on his way back to Liberton he was arrested, carried to Edinburgh, and committed to the Tolbooth. He was several times brought before the council and tortured with the boot. Finally, after trial, despite the efforts of his cousin, Matthew Mackail, an apothecary, who interceded with James Sharp, archbishop of St. Andrews, on his behalf, Hugh was hanged at the market-cross of Edinburgh on 22 December 1666, amid "such a lamentation," says Kirkton, "as was never known in Scotland before, not one dry cheek upon all the street, or in all the numberless windows in the market-place." According to MS. Jac. V. 7. 22, in the Advocates' Library, "immediately after the execution of the aforementioned four men there came a letter from the king, discharging the executing of more; but the Bishop of St. Andrews kept it up till Mr. Hew was executed," Mackail behaved with great fortitude on the scaffold, addressing the crowd with singular impressiveness. He was buried in Greyfriars churchyard. Wodrow describes him as "universally beloved, singularly pious, and of very considerable learning."