SCOTLAND FROM 1295 TO 1689.* Tins is one of the
most delightful and instructive books relating to Scotland that have been published in recent years. Mr. Hume Brown, whose admirable work on George Buchanan recently established his reputation as a painstaking historical investigator, professes to have discharged only the duty of "editing." In a sense, of course, he is correct ; that is to say, the bulk of his work has consisted in collecting the narratives of travellers who visited Scotland during the four centuries which may be said to have constituted the dark ages of its history, and preparing these for publication. But when con- ' sideration is given to the plan of the book, to the introduction, which is clearly the result of a great amount of laborious investigation, to the brief biographies of the travellers whose tales are included in the body of the work, and
• to the notes by which these biographies are elucidated, Mr. Hume Brown may fairly be claimed as the painter of a thoroughly original picture of Scotland during a period when it was hardly considered to be within the pale of civilisation. Till after the middle of the sixteenth century, it was a general belief on the Continent that Scotland was a separate island from England—and a larger island— and that it lay, not north of England, but east of it, in the direction of Denmark and Norway. La Popeliniere, in his Histoire de France (1531), wrote of "Lea Catholiques des deux Isles "—of England and Scotland; and, indeed, it was not till the publication of Mercator's Atlas in 1595, that even geo- graphers were able to demonstrate that they had reasonably accurate impressions of the conformation of Scotland. The travellers of almost all nationalities who before then had penetrated into Scotland, had of course been able to rectify their own essentially Ptolemaic views of the country. But, unfortunately, they had practically no facilities for letting their light shine before other men.
Mr. Hume Brown gives the Scotch experiences of twenty. four travellers, from Edward I. in 1295, to Thomas Morer, an English clergyman and chaplain to a Scotch regiment, who visited the North the year after the Revolution. It is im- possible, however, not to regret that some of the more dis- tinguished and keenly observant of early travellers in Scotland made no record worth mentioning of what they must have seen and heard. It is by no means absolutely certain that Shake- speare did not find his way into Scotland as a member of some travelling company of players. But it is absolutely certain that Ben Jonson did find his way thither in 1618, although the old idea that he travelled expressly to visit his acquaintance Drummond of Hawthornden, has been exploded. He intended to write both a pastoral poem on Loch Lomond, and a narra- tive of his travels "that should combine topographical with historical matter in a fashion that would make it of solid value to those who really wished to know the true character of the Northern Kingdom." But it would seem, on his own showing, that his papers perished in the fire that burnt his lodgings in 1620. But long before jonson's time, Scotland had • Early Travellers in Scotland. Edited by P. Hume Brown. Edinburgh : I:arid Douglas. 1891. many remarkable visitors, who might have said a great deal about the country, but said practically nothing. These include Georg von Ehingen, a German traveller who may fairly be said to have been the first of the globe-trotters, and who reached Scotland in 1455; Jerome Cardan, "the half-genius, half-charlatan," whose cures and scientific acquirements made him one of the wonders of his century, and who in 1552 was summoned professionally to Scotland by John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews; and Salluste du Bartas, the most famous poet of his period on the Continent, who journeyed to Scotland in 1587, on the special invitation ,of King James. The silence of certain of these travellers is the more to be regretted because some of the narratives thatatre given here would obviously have been the better.for rectifica- tion or verification, especially as regards the manners nod social characteristics of the Scotch people. Some of the very early tales, such as those of Froissart, may be put aside, although it is rather curious—considering the evil reputation for drunkenness that Scotland has had recently—to learn that in the fourteenth century "their [the Scots'] habits of sobriety are such in time of war, that they will live for a long time on flesh half- sodden, without bread, and drink the river-water without wine." The first of the socially interesting narratives of travel in Scotland is that of Aneas Sylvins
that extraordinary clerical adventurer and Humanist, who rose to be Pope Pius II., and who visited Scotland in the reign of the first James Stuart. "The common people are poor," he says, "and destitute of all refinement. They eat flesh and fish to repletion, and bread only as a dainty. The men are small in stature, bold and forward in temper ; the women fair in complexion, comely and pleasing, but not distinguished for their chastity, giving their kisses more readily than Italian women their hands." After lEneas's stay comes that of Don Pedro de Ayala, who was the Ambassador of Ferdinand and Isabella to the Court of James, and who in 1498 wrote a letter describing Scotland and its Kings. Don Pedro's geography was hazy, for he says :—" In the same proportion that England is longer than Scotland, Scotland is wider than England ; thus the quantity of land is the same." He hardly takes the same view as 2Eneas of the Scotch people generally, and of the women in particular :—" The people are
handsome The women are courteous in the extreme. I mention this because they are really honest, though very bold. They are absolute mistresses of their houses, and even of their husbands in all things concerning the administration of their property, income as well as expenditure. They are very graceful and handsome women. They dress much better than in England, and especially as regards the head-dress, which is, I think, the handsomest in the world." In all the early reports about the Scotch, they are represented as being the reverse of industrious, and as fond of war for its own sake.
It is about the beginning of the seventeenth century that Scotland really became known to its neighbours in England. In 1618 it was visited by Taylor, the water-poet, whose rather too diplomatic but detailed statement of his experiences in the North is tolerably well known. He was followed in 1636 by Sir William Breret,on, a Cheshire gentle- man who subsequently became a General in the Parlia- mentary army. Brereton may be trusted, for he was filled with Puritan veracity. When he has to call a spade a spade, he does it with a vengeance. Speaking of Edinburgh, he says :—" This city is placed in a dainty, healthful, pure air, and doubtless were a most healthful place to live in, were not the inhabitants most sluttish, nasty, and slothful people. I could never pass through the hall but I was constrained to hold my nose." At the same time, he does ample justice to the public spirit of the Scotch people, and their interest in such matters as the higher education. Brereton's story is followed by others much more detailed, such as that of Tucker, who, as Register of the Commissioners for the Excise in England during the Cromwellian Protectorate, received orders in 1655 to proceed "unto Scotland to give his assist- ance in settling the excise and customs there." Tucker's report is especially valuable for the information given in it as to the Scotch seaports, which were then, to all intents and purposes, in their infancy Even more important from the sociological point of view, is the "short account of Scotland" by Thomas Morer, which has already been alluded to. It is the first really successful attempt by an Englishman to distinguish between Highlanders and Lawlanders in Scotland. Edin- burgh was the leading city in the country at this time, the second being Perth. Yet, even in Morer's statement, the future importance of Glasgow as the chief commercial centre of Scotland is more than foreshadowed. Glasgow," he says, is a place of great extent and good situation ; and has the reputation of the finest town in Scotland, not excepting Edinburgh, though the royal city." But we must confess that the Scotland of the twilight is much more attractive than the Scotland of the early daylight of civilisation. These later travels ought to be of great interest to Scotchmen, for in them is given a picture of almost every town in the country while it was yet in its teens. But for the charm of romance, of illusion, of ignorance, even of myth, commend us to the earlier. All things considered, however, Mr. Hume Brown has produced a book which forms the necessary companion of all authentic Histories of Scotland, and which in effect, if not in form, supersedes several.
Previous page
