Certain Travellers in Old England

B&W Publishing, 265 p, plus iv p Introduction by Alan Massie.

Here is another Scottish novel which scratches the 1745 Rebellion itch but unusually this one is set entirely in England. Presented as a partially incomplete found manuscript it tells the story of Alastair Maclean who had lately been in the service of the King of France but had returned to British shores in order to facilitate the rising of Charles Edward Stuart’s supporters in Wales and the West of England.

Maclean’s mission is a dangerous one; a traveller on the byways in those days was always apt to come under suspicion. With the help of the Naked Men and their leader – the Midwinter of the book’s title – he escapes from apprehension by a man charged with taking any who can not give a good account of themselves to the local magistrate, and arrives at the house of Lord Cornbury, a known Jacobite sympathiser but also one who recognises the folly of the Prince’s enterprise. From then on Midwinter’s group pop in and out of the narrative.

The company at Lord Cornbury’s is supposed to be mainly Jacobite but later it transpires there is a traitor to the cause amongst them, one who thereafter continually dogs and frustrates – given the outcome of History how could he not? – Maclean’s efforts to get to Derby with supposedly good news. Lady Mary Conbury has an unusual take on Mary Queen of Scots. “‘Her frailties were not Stuart but Tudor. Consider Harry the Eighth. He had passions like other monarchs, but instead of keeping mistresses he must marry each successive love, and as a consequence cut off the head of the last one. His craze was not for amours but for matrimony. So, too, with his sister Margaret. So, too, with his great niece Mary. …. What ruined the fortunes of my kinsfolk was not the Stuart blood but the Tudor – the itch for lawful wedlock which came in with the Welsh bourgeoisie.”

A surprise visitor arrives in the form of a tutor to a seventeen-year old girl, Claudia Grevel. This ill-clad worthy is none other than Samuel Johnson, disturbed that Claudia has run off with a Mr Norreys and seeking help to catch the pair before they can be married, a task in which he is doomed to fail. Johnson and Maclean become friendly and travel together for the latter half of the book. Johnson’s appearance in the novel allows Buchan to insert into the text some of that gentleman’s aphorisms.

At a later point the pair fall into the hands of troops loyal to King George. Their commander is a General Oglethorpe whom they met at Cornbury. He berates Maclean on why Charles will not succeed. A new breed of belief, the Methodists, had arisen in the south – “with them is the key of the new England, for they bring healing to the souls of the people. What can your fairy Prince say to the poor and hungry?”

Maclean thinks both Midwinter and Oglethorpe spoke of England like a lover to his mistress and that the country was akin to a spell on sober minds. He tells Midwinter, “You in England must keep strictly to the high road, or flee to the woods – one or the other, for there is no third way. We of the Highlands carry the woods with us to the high roads of life. We are natives of both worlds, wherefore we need renounce neither,” and indeed Midwinter spends most of his time in that mystical realm, the greenwood.

This is a tale packed with adventure, incident, betrayal and peril, but also insight. And it displays an eye for landscape which, though in this case is the English countryside, is a hallmark of Scottish writing.

Pedant’s corner:- King Louis’ service (Louis is pronounced as if it had no ‘s’ at the end; therefore Louis’ will also be so and hence to make its meaning clear its possessive must have ’s at its end: Louis’s,) bourgeoisie (was this word in use in the late eighteenth century?) “Jack Norreys’ neck” (Norreys’s,) ditto Lady Norreys’, “The forest had woke up” (woken,) “came the gypsies crazy cackle” (gypsy’s.)

Recently I have been travelling quite frequently up and down the A1 from Edinburgh to Dunbar, mainly to visit Eric Brown.

I had always wondered what the prominent hill with the flag on it just off the road a few miles east of Edinburgh was. A few weeks ago detouring into Prestonpans on the return I found out. Coincidentally I was reading Violet Jacobs’s Flemington at the time.

On the B 1361 into Prestonpans there was a sign pointing to the Battlefield of Prestonpans, 1745, the first battle of the Jacobite Rebellion of that year. I had previously thought the battlefield would lie somewhat closer to the Firth.

The prominent hill is the battlefield viewpoint, a converted coal bing, seen here from its foot.

The flag flying at the summit is Bonnie Prince Charlie’s battle standard.

There is a cairn at the side of the B 1361 erected in memory of the dead of the battle:-

According to the information boards on the Battlefield Viewpoint this is the site of the 1745 battle:-

This is the approximate Jacobite position at the battle’s start. It has a golf range on it now.

The battle itself was over in about fifteen minutes. Most of the relatively inexperienced Hanoverian force fled at the first charge of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Highlanders. This left the more hardened government troops sandwiched between the rebel wings. After suffering heavy casualties they gave way. Their commander Sir John Cope led some stragglers down a lane which to this day is named Johnnie Cope’s Road, but couldn’t get them to fight and left the field.

The song Hey Johnnie Cope Are Ye Wakin’ Yet? was written – by Adam Skirving, a namesake of the good lady – to commemorate the Jacobite victory.

This version, by the Corries, is preceded by an account of the first singing of the fourth verse of the UK National Anthem – the one which is no longer officially recognised.