Cottagers of Blenburnie

The author of “The Cottagers of Glenburnie”, Elizabeth Hamilton, was born this day, July 25^th, in either 1756 or 1758. She lived nearly until her 70th (or 68th) birthday, in 1816.  The 1859 Chambers edition of this work included a bio of Ms. Hamilton.  From that bio:

 ‘Mrs Elizabeth Hamilton, the accomplished authoress of the present work, was a native of Ireland, having been born in Belfast, in the year 1758. She was descended from a respectable Scottish family, which had emigrated to Ireland, in consequence of the religious persecutions in the time of Charles II. Mrs Hamilton's grandfather, however, had re-established himself in Scotland, where he had procured a civil appointment, and became the father of several children. He died at a comparatively early age in distressed circumstances, and his only son, Elizabeth's father, was left with his two sisters to struggle for themselves in the world. Fortunately, their connections were able and willing to assist them; and while the sisters were received into tho families of their friends, young Hamilton was placed in a commercial house in London, in accordance with his wish to enter into trade. Ultimately ho went over to Ireland, and engaged in business in Belfast…’

Sir Walter Scott is quoted as having said of “The Cottagers of Glenburnie”, that it is "a picture of the rural habits of Scotland, of striking and impressive fidelity."  By her later years, according to the biography already quoted, Ms. Hamilton was traveling in some of the same circle as Scott.

‘…Miss Hamilton's health had become of late years exceedingly precarious, and after the return of her sister to Ireland, she passed some time in Gloucestershire and at Bath. The illness under which she occasionally laboured, assumed now the appearance of gout in the limbs, of the use of which she was sometimes entirely deprived. This disease continued with her, more or less, for the rest of her life. It did not, however, paralyse her mental activity. In 1800, she gave to the public her work, in three volumes, termed the Modern Philosophers, which reached at once a very high degree of popularity. Being published anonymously, in order to give a stronger zest to the humour it contains, it had the honour of being successively ascribed to several of the first authors of the day. The true author, however, was not long in being discovered, and she became at once the admired of the witty, the fashionable, and the great. Among these she easily distinguished the proper objects of friendship; and perhaps no one was ever more fortunate in acquiring the love and esteem of those whose regard she sought. In the number wero Dugald Stewart, Miss Edgeworth, Bishop Watson, Hector M'Neill, Miss Elizabeth Smith, and many other individuals, noted for their virtues and their genius. The frequent excursions which were thought advisable for her health, brought her into contact with many whom she might not otherwise have known…’

John Jamieson of the Scottish Dictionary

July 25.—Terry and wife arrived yesterday. Both very well. At dinner-time to-day came Dr. Jamieson of the Scottish Dictionary, an excellent good man, and full of auld Scottish cracks, which amuse me well enough, but are caviare to the young people. A little prolix and heavy is the good Doctor; somewhat prosaic, and accustomed to much attention on the Sunday from his congregation, and I hope on the six other days from his family. So he will demand full attention from all and sundry before he begins a story, and once begun there is no chance of his ending.

John Jamieson became pastor in a Forfar Secessionist congregation in 1779.  Somewhat like Samuel Johnson, Jamieson published a dictionary, with Jamieson’s focused on the Scottish language rather than English.  Jamieson’s dictionary was published in 1825, and Dr. Jamieson visited Scott on July 25, 1826, as Scott recorded in his journal.

James I of Scotland

July 25, 1394 is the date ascribed to James I's birth by rampantscotland.com.  James was born in Dunfermline to King Robert III and Anabella Drummond.  James was indirectly impacted by circumstances that Walter Scott employed in his "The Fair Maid of Perth".   James' older brother David was the Duke of Rothesay, who Scott has trying to abduct the maid Catherine Glover.  Rothesay himself later falls afoul of his uncle Robert Stewart, the Duke of Albany, who kills him in hiscastle.  In real life, Rothesay died in Albany's Falkland Castle.

In the novel and in real life, Albany was exonerated by parliament of involvement in Rothesay's death, but James' life was nonetheless considered endangered, and he was sent to France for his safety.  He made it as far as Bass Rock in the Forth where he spent several months in hiding, then tried to sail to France, only to be captured and turned over to King Henry VI of England.  James was detained in England for the next 18 years, before ransom was paid, and James freed.

From "The Fair Maid of Perth": 'Far different had been the fate of the misguided heir of Scotland from that which was publicly given out in the town of Falkland. His ambitious uncle had determined on his death, as the means of removing the first and most formidable barrier betwixt his own family and the throne. James, the younger son of the King, was a mere boy, who might at more leisure be easily set aside. Ramorny's views of aggrandisement, and the resentment which he had latterly entertained against his masters made him a willing agent in young Rothsay's destruction. Dwining's love of gold, and his native malignity of disposition, rendered him equally forward. It had been resolved, with the most calculating cruelty, that all means which might leave behind marks of violence were to be carefully avoided, and the extinction of life suffered to take place of itself by privation of every kind acting upon a frail and impaired constitution. The Prince of Scotland was not to be murdered, as Ramorny had expressed himself on another occasion, he was only to cease to exist. Rothsay's bedchamber in the Tower of Falkland was well adapted for the execution of such a horrible project. A small, narrow staircase, scarce known to exist, opened from thence by a trapdoor to the subterranean dungeons of the castle, through a passage by which the feudal lord was wont to visit, in private and in disguise, the inhabitants of those miserable regions. By this staircase the villains conveyed the insensible Prince to the lowest dungeon of the castle, so deep in the bowels of the earth, that no cries or groans, it was supposed, could possibly be heard, while the strength of its door and fastenings must for a long time have defied force, even if the entrance could have been discovered. Bonthron, who had been saved from the gallows for the purpose, was the willing agent of Ramorny's unparalleled cruelty to his misled and betrayed patron....'