Lockhart's 'Reginald Dalton' 1823

 

First edition - 1823

Lockhart could have entitled his book The Trials of Reginald Dalton, like his Blackwood's Magazine partner's Margaret Lyndsay. Certainly, his hero (who is not called that until Book VII - page 75 of the third volume*) tumbles from one misfortune to another; although they are mainly his fault, compared with the near-blameless Margaret. The great, and blessed, difference between the two novels is that Lockhart's is not saturated with irritating piety. True, Reginald's father is a fine, upstanding vicar, whilst his love Ellen 'Hesketh' has a guardian who is a devout Roman Catholic priest. But neither are sanctimonious, but rather fully sympathetic characters. There is a sense of worldliness in these admirable and gentle characters. As one critic has remarked: the vicar is capable or romantic self-delusion and self interest; Father Keith can momentarily be a snob and slightly drunk...in Lockhart, as in Ferrier, the satiric and the severely pious are closely linked.

We are revisiting a plotline of both Scott's Guy Mannering and The Antiquary, with the central role of the 'unknown orphan', although I guessed quite early on who Ellen's father was. Another link with another author, this time John Galt, threw up the importance of the 'Entail'; this time it is only thrown in at the very end, much to Rev Dalton's advantage, rather than dominating a whole tale. 

The baddies are Mr Frederick Chisney, a bold, gay, sprightly, and ardent youth...a considerable coxomb to boot. He was to be responsible for Reginald's early fall from grace at Oxford. Just when the reader thinks he will reform, his baser instincts regain control. He deserves his end. Sir Charles Catline, who absconded from his relationship with the teenage Lucy Lethwaite (Rev Dalton married her older sister Ellen) in St Andrews, which led to a birth of a child (the 'orphan' viz. Ellen 'Hesketh') and her death; and his partner in villainy, and overlarge and fond-of-a-drink Scotchman, Mr Macdonald; with a more understandable 'curate's egg' character in Miss Barbara Dalton.

The goodies are James Chisney, Frederick's older brother - soon to be Squire of Thorwold manor-house - albeit a rather sombre looking person (very sallow, and not a little marked with the small-pox) and his young wife whose tones of her voice were fortunately very soft and liquid, so that the frequent giggle in which she indulged was by no means so intolerable as that of a newly married young woman most commonly is; Mr Ward, who has made a decent, if not sizeable, fortune in India; and Thomas Macdonald, the painstakingly thoughtful and decent son of the old Scotchman. Others essentially on the right side of the gods, and brought to life by the author, are Squire Dalton of Grypherwast-Hall and his sister Elizabeth.

Rev John Dalton and Father Archy Keith, the old Jacobite Roman Catholic priest both have oodles of goodness to spread around. The relationship between Reginald and his father is finely drawn. Young Reginald was brought up with as much tender care as if he had not been motherless. While a child, he occupied the pillow of his dead parent by his father's side...as he grew up, he was with him almost all the hours of the day, either as a pupil, or as a plaything. It is a wrench for them both when the young man goes off to Oxford. The author is excellent at conveying the anguish felt by Reginald for letting his father down and the marvellous positive forbearance of the father.

The contrast between the placid vicarage of Lannwell and the hoary Grypherwast-Hall is well done. The Oxford scenes appear very much to lean on the author's own time spent there. Book V Chapter 1  has a very realistic account of the return of the young blood to their alma mater, and the town v gown fight is particularly life like. The withdrawn, bookish don, Mr. Burton, a very strange gentleman; 

the Principal's idiosyncracies; the misbehaviour of the students, all ring true.

There is plenty of humour lurking in the pages, from the description of  the disappointed young Rev Dalton, seemingly spurned by Barbara Dalton, his cousin, to the misunderstandings between the loquacious Mr Macdonald and the bewildered Lady Catline. Poor old Methodism is again fulminated against. Reginald is told by Squire Dalton not to come back from Oxford either a Whig or a Methodist. There is also a witty shaft against John Galt's The Steam-Boat...a stupid notion of his to write such a book! Only once did I wish for some pruning shears (Chapter VII Volume I), where Lockhart rambled to no consequence like his father-in-law often did.

 

* a mistake! Reginald is called a hero as early as page 7 in Volume 1.