Tales of the Wars of Montrose

Last updated

Tales of the Wars of Montrose is a set of six fictional narratives by James Hogg published in 1835. Each of them centres on the fortunes of an individual during the civil conflict of the 1640s in Scotland.

Contents

Background

Tales of the Wars of Montrose originated in 1826 when Hogg attempted to interest William Blackwood in a collection of tales to be entitled 'Lives of Eminent Men', the core of which consisted of three items with the titles (shortened) 'An Edinburgh Baillie', 'Colonel Peter Ashton' (completed on 7 January the previous year), and 'Sir Simon Brodie'. Blackwood turned the project down, and Hogg was unable to find another publisher. [1] During the next six years he contemplated publishing the stories individually, but he did not give up on the idea of a collection, and when in 1833 he finally broke with Blackwood, on 17 June he sent the London partnership of James Cochrane and John M'Crone 'Genuine Tales of the days of Montrose' [2] This was intended to be a single-volume publication with the three original core stories: it seems Hogg prepared fresh manuscripts, which suggests that substantial revision was involved. On 24 July Cochrane agreed to publish the collection, but he asked for additional material so that he could increase the size to two volumes, and by November 1834 Hogg had written two further tales, 'Julia M,Kenzie' and 'Wat Pringle', and the final title had been agreed. [3] However, Cochrane (who had now parted company with M'Crone) increased his demands to three volumes, and on 13 December Hogg reluctantly sent him a sixth tale, 'Mary Montgomery', originally intended for Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and now superficially revised to adjust the setting from the reign of James VII to that of Charles I. [4]

Editions

Tales of the Wars of Montrose. By James Hogg, Esq., Author of "The Queen's Wake." was published in 2 volumes in London by James Cochrane and Co. in 1835.

A critical edition by Gillian Hughes appeared in 1996 as Volume 4 in The Stirling/South Carolina Research Edition of The Collected Works of James Hogg published by Edinburgh University Press. This is based on Hogg's manuscripts rather than the printed edition, and it omits 'Mary Montgomery' in conformity with Hogg's preference: Gillian Hughes had edited this in its original version as 'A Genuine Border Story By the Ettrick Shepherd' in Studies in Hogg and his World, 3 (1992), [95]‒145.

Contents

'Some Remarkable Passages in the Life of An Edinburgh Baillie. Written by himself'

'The Adventures of Colonel Peter Aston'

'Julia M,Kenzie' (first published as 'A Horrible Instance of the Effects of Clanship' in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 28 (October 1830), 680‒87, and substantially revised here) [5]

'A few remarkable Adventures of Sir Simon Brodie'

'Wat Pringle o' the Yair'

'Mary Montgomery'

Reception

The reviewers received Tales of the Wars of Montrose with appreciation and disapproval in roughly equal measure. Hogg was praised for his story-telling power, but he was also found lacking in imagination in historical fiction, especially when it was compared with his poetry, and he was judged inferior to Walter Scott. [6]

Related Research Articles

Robert Baillie was a Church of Scotland minister who became famous as an author and a propagandist for the Covenanters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Hogg</span> Scottish poet and novelist (1770–1835)

James Hogg was a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist who wrote in both Scots and English. As a young man he worked as a shepherd and farmhand, and was largely self-educated through reading. He was a friend of many of the great writers of his day, including Sir Walter Scott, of whom he later wrote an unauthorised biography. He became widely known as the "Ettrick Shepherd", a nickname under which some of his works were published, and the character name he was given in the widely read series Noctes Ambrosianae, published in Blackwood's Magazine. He is best known today for his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. His other works include the long poem The Queen's Wake (1813), his collection of songs Jacobite Relics (1819), and his two novels The Three Perils of Man (1822), and The Three Perils of Woman (1823).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose</span> Scottish nobleman and soldier (1612–1650)

James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman, poet, soldier and later viceroy and captain general of Scotland. Montrose initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed. From 1644 to 1646, and again in 1650, he fought in the civil war in Scotland on behalf of the King. He is referred to as the Great Montrose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Inverlochy (1645)</span> Part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms

The Battle of Inverlochy occurred on 2 February 1645 during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms when a Royalist force of Highlanders and Confederate Irish troops under the overall command of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, routed and largely destroyed the pursuing forces of Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, who had been encamped under the walls of Inverlochy Castle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Kilsyth</span> Battle that took place during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms

The Battle of Kilsyth, fought on 15 August 1645 near Kilsyth, was an engagement of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The largest battle of the conflict in Scotland, it resulted in victory for the Royalist general Montrose over the forces of the Covenanter-dominated Scottish Parliament, and marked the end of General William Baillie's pursuit of the Royalists.

The Battle of Alford was an engagement of the Scottish Civil War. It took place near the village of Alford, Aberdeenshire, on 2 July 1645. During the battle, the Royalist general James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose defeated the forces of the Covenanter-dominated Scottish government, commanded by William Baillie.

A Legend of Montrose is an historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, set in Scotland in the 1640s during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It forms, along with The Bride of Lammermoor, the 3rd series of Scott's Tales of My Landlord. The two novels were published together in 1819.

<i>Blackwoods Magazine</i> British magazine

Blackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn. The journal was unsuccessful and Blackwood fired Pringle and Cleghorn and relaunched the journal as Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine under his own editorship. The journal eventually adopted the shorter name and from the relaunch often referred to itself as Maga. The title page bore the image of George Buchanan, a 16th-century Scottish historian, religious and political thinker.

Cumbernauld Bond was a pledge between eighteen Scottish noblemen who met at Cumbernauld in August 1640 to defend Scotland against extreme Presbyterians and to defend the National Covenant for the public good against those who used it predominantly for private gain. At political level it was an agreement to oppose the policies of Earl of Argyll who controlled the dominant political faction in Scotland. The most prominent pledger was the Earl of Montrose, others included Lord Fleming, the Earl of Marischal, and Lord Almond.

Colonel John Cockburn was an officer in the Scottish Covenanter army in the late 1640s and early 1650s during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In this capacity he led Lowland soldiers against Montrose's Scottish Royalist forces during the First English Civil War (1642-1646), when the Covenanter parliament of Scotland was allied with the English Parliamentarians against King Charles I. Colonel Cockburn led the colourfully defiant but futile Scottish resistance at Hume Castle during the Third English Civil War (1649-1651), when a Parliamentary army led by Oliver Cromwell invaded Scotland after its Covenanter government had made an uneasy alliance with King Charles II.

The Queen's Wake is a narrative poem by James Hogg, first published in 1813. It consists of an Introduction, three Nights, and a Conclusion, totalling over five thousand lines, and there are also authorial notes. The poem presents the contributions, in various metres, of a series of Scottish bards to a competition organised by Mary, Queen of Scots on her arrival in Scotland from France in 1561.

The Spy was a periodical directed at the Edinburgh market, edited by James Hogg, with himself as principal contributor, which appeared from 1 September 1810 to 24 August 1811. It combined features of two types of periodical established in the 18th century, the essay periodical and the miscellany. As an outsider, Hogg used his periodical to give a critical view of the dominant upper-class culture of Edinburgh, with Walter Scott and Francis Jeffrey as its leading lights, and to launch his career as a writer of fiction as well as poetry.

The Pilgrims of the Sun is a narrative poem by James Hogg, first published in December 1814, dated 1815. It consists of four cantos, totalling somewhat less than 2000 lines. In similar vein to 'Kilmeny' in The Queen's Wake (1813), it tells of a young woman's journey to an ideal world and her return to earth.

Mador of the Moor is a narrative poem by James Hogg, first published in 1816. Consisting of an Introduction, five cantos, and a Conclusion, it runs to more than two thousand lines, mostly in the Spenserian stanza. Set in late medieval Scotland, it tells of the seduction of a young maiden by a charismatic minstrel and her journey to Stirling in search of him, leading to the revelation that he is the king and finally to their marriage and the christening of their son.

Winter Evening Tales is a collection by James Hogg of four novellas, a number of short stories and sketches, and three poems, published in two volumes in 1820. Eleven of the items are reprinted, with varying degrees of revision, from Hogg's periodical The Spy (1810‒11).

Queen Hynde (1825) is an epic poem in six cantos by James Hogg. Set in western Scotland in the sixth century, it tells the story of the defeat of an invading Norwegian army by forces loyal to Queen Hynde, advised by Columba, and of the winning of her hand by the legitimate claimant of the throne Eiden. It is mostly in octosyllabic couplets.

Altrive Tales (1832) by James Hogg is the only volume to have been published of a projected twelve-volume set with that title bringing together his collected prose fiction. It consists of an updated autobiographical memoir, a new novella, and two reprinted short stories.

The Shepherd's Calendar (1829) is a collection by James Hogg of 21 articles, most of which had appeared in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine since 1819. They are set in, or deal with aspects of, the Scottish Borders, in particular Hogg's native Ettrick Forest.

A Series of Lay Sermons is a set of eleven moral and religious discourses by James Hogg published in 1834.

The Brownie of Bodsbeck (1818) is the first (short) novel by James Hogg. Set in the Scottish Borders in 1685 it presents a sympathetic picture of the persecuted Covenanters and a harsh view of the Royalists led by Clavers (Claverhouse). It draws extensively on local superstitions.

References

  1. ↑ A full account of the development of the collection is given in James Hogg, Tales of the Wars of Montrose, ed. Gillian Hughes (Edinburgh, 1996), xi‒xvi. For the composition of 'Peter Ashton' see Ibid., 248.
  2. ↑ The Collected Letters of James Hogg: Volume 3 1832‒1835, ed. Gillian Hughes (Edinburgh, 2008), 159: Hogg to John Macrone.
  3. ↑ Hughes (1996), xiii‒xiv.
  4. ↑ Hughes (2008), 246.
  5. ↑ Hughes (1996), 249‒50.
  6. ↑ For a short survey of the reviews see Hughes (1996), xxix‒xxx.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.