Mrs. Blackford's 'The Scottish Orphans' and 'Arthur Monteith' 1822

 

W. Wetton second edition - 1823

Only last month, I read Mrs. Blackford's  The Eskdale Herd-Boy (1819) and commented on its didacticism  (see my Blog of 23 April). These two related tales, here published bound together, are in the same vein. The sub title includes the phrase and calculated to improve the minds of young people. Mrs. B lays it on with a trowel.

The story begins with a Chapter devoted to the aftermath of the 1745 Scottish Rebellion on behalf of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Mr. Monteith, being brought up in principles of firm attachment to the house of Stuart felt in honour obliged to support the doomed insurrection. Captured in the aftermath of Culloden, taken prisoner to Stirling Castle and about to be transported to Carlisle for an inevitable execution, he persuaded his loyal retainer, William Mathieson, to secrete his three young children away to safety. The reason - Monteith knew his dastardly uncle Colonel Monteith, who had supported the Government side, would undoubtedly wrest the forfeited estates away from his offspring. The escape is successful, but Mrs Monteith, naturally seized with a deep melancholy on her husband's demise, followed him to the grave one short week afterwards. Hence The Scottish Orphans - 5-year-old Arthur, his younger brother Allen and sister Jessie. The tale swiftly jumps to six years later. A Colonel and Mrs. Jane Beaumont have recently purchased a small estate at the foot of the Pentland Hills, 12 miles to the south of Edinburgh. They are childless, so when they see a group of young children playing on part of their estate they start to watch. The upshot is neat. We are, in fact, meeting William and his siblings again; this time, they have been joined by William and Jane Mathieson's own children, Annie and Jamie. All five youngsters believe the Mathiesons are their parents, although Arthur, now nearly a teenager, has a dim recollection of the escape from Stirling.

Mrs Beaumont is so taken with Jessie that she persuades Jane to let her come and be a companion to her, with a promise to educate her as a genteel young lady. Arthur, who has high hopes of going into the army, much to his 'father's' dismay, refuses the chance to be educated with Colonel Beaumont, although this, too, would have helped him to bridge the cultural gap between the apparent son of a small farmer and a well-to-do laird. The reason? In one of his many rambles in the nearby hills, he links up with an old man who is clearly in some sort of hiding. They get on so well, that the latter agrees to help Arthur's education, especially in learning Latin. No-one else knows about this relationship. These arrangements go on for some years - Jessie being brought up at the Beaumonts, being regularly visited by her 'sister' Annie; Arthur delighting in learning from his secret friend; and the two young boys helping on the Mathieson's smallholding. So pleased is Col. Beaumont with William's farming prowess that he settles the family in a much improved estate.

Throughout the novel, the author makes it clear that class matters and is God's plan. When Arthur suggests that Jamie learn Latin with him, William says of his real son, He will be a farmer, like myself, and as much information and knowledge as is required with the rank of life it has pleased Providence to place him in... your birth entitles you to look higher than any son of mine has a right to do. (By now, Arthur has been told about his origins). A boost come Arthur's way, when Col. Beaumont, on the strength of a pamphlet he has written on Indian affairs, is offered a promotion to General and a five-year posting to the sub-continent. Arthur eventually persuades him to take him with him as his aide-de-camp. The 13-year-old Allen, who is destined for the church, now becomes the confidant and pupil of the old man in the hills, known to Arthur simply as Robert. Thus ends The Scottish Orphans. Apart from the unmet uncle Col. Monteith and his ghastly son, everyone is so brimming with Christianity and goodness, it makes the reader feel rather unworthy.

The Author of the "Scottish Orphans", grateful for the very flattering reception which the first part of that tale has received from an indulgent public, hastens to redeem her pledge of publishing a Second Part of the same History. Thus begins Arthur Monteith, although the ensuing tale is as much about the rest of the family as it is about Arthur. The story-telling is in the same mould as the previous book - sentimental, occasionally cloying and certainly with a determination to improve young readers' minds. General Beaumont and Arthur thrive in India; however, cousin Colin Monteith, attached to the General's party, is as bad and dissolute a character as his father Col. Monteith. 

The years roll by. Allen has now been at  University for three years; Old Robert still lives+-, in splendid isolation in the hills; Mrs Beaumont is now receiving regular notes from the latter (it turns out he is her father, presumed dead after Culloden!); Jamie is steadfastly learning the farming trade; 17-year-old Jessie is now tall and elegant in her person, with features perfectly regular and beautiful. Well, class will tell. Annie, however, is declining in health. Taken to Edinburgh by Mrs Beaumont and her father, she is examined by physicians who could give no hope of her recovery. Annie is to die a Christian death: "Oh! weep not for me, my beloved parent. I trust, that in the mercy of God I may be pardoned, and received, through the intercession of his dear Son, into everlasting peace..."  Later, as she declines further, she says to Jessie: "Be steady, my beloved Jessie in pursuing the race you have begun, whatever temptations may yet be thrown in your way. Remember always, that without perseverance in godliness, there can be no safety for a Christian..." Mrs Blackford, clearly, wants not only Jessie but also her young readers to take note. Annie holds up to the very end: she grasped Mrs Beaumont's hand hastily, saying, "Lord Jesus receive my spirit!" and sunk down upon her pillow, a lifeless corpse.

Three more years pass. General (now Sir Charles) Beaumont writes regularly home, as does Arthur. One day, Sir Charles surprises Arthur hurriedly hiding a packet with a seal on it. Sir Charles exclaims:  That seal belonged to my wife's father, Sir Alexander M'Donald. and since his death, I have never seen it. Over the next 90 pages, all is to be happily revealed. Both uncle Colonel Monteith and his dissolute son Colin - who had been sent home from India in disgrace - die. But before doing so, in pangs of shame the former makes a Will leaving the whole Monteith inheritance to Arthur. There is an overlong explanation of the years before and after Culloden, explaining the Colonel's behaviour. By now, Sir Charles and Arthur are also back in England and, once the Will is proved and the King restores Arthur to his attainted inheritance, they make the way north. 'Old Robert' is indeed unmasked as Sir Alexander, leading to a tearful reunion with his daughter and son-in-law. Jane Mathieson, on returning to the Monteith estates, is also reunited with her brother and father; James marries and takes over his father's farm; Allen gets a living on the Monteith estate and marries the sister of James' wife; Jessie resides with the  Beaumonts until, aged 24, she marries a nephew of Sir Charles; Arthur himself married an amiable young woman in the neighbourhood;

William and Jane settle in their old home on Monteith land; and the author spends the last few pages writing up a few more moralistic bon mots. Thus have I brought to a conclusion the history of ARTHUR MONTEITH. If I have related it properly, it must have carried its own moral in it...we will begin with the first foundation of all those good and honourable feelings, which distinguished our hero throughout the course of his life. "Honour thy father and thy mother", was the law early and deeply imprinted on his young heart...in comparing Annie's death with that of Colonel Monteith, my young friends will learn the inestimable value of a well-spent life. It is this that smooths the pillow of the dying Christian...if any child be taught to imitate the active virtues of Arthur, and so to live, as at last to die like Annie...the author will not have laboured in vain. A book for 1822 - 204 years ago.