Allan Ramsay

Scots poet Allan Ramsay, who died on January 7, 1757, was best known for his pastoral, "The Gentle Shepherd".  This work, which later inspired John Gay's "The Beggar's Opera".  Ramsay was not a career poet, having established himself as a wig maker in Edinburgh.  In 1712, he founded the Easy Club, which was a Jacobite literary society.  It was here that his writing skills gained an audience.

Ramsay was well known to Walter Scott.  Scott references Ramsay in his "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border", crediting Ramsay as the source of a Presbyterian march, called Lesly's March, which was first published in Ramsay's "Evergreen".  Scott created a parody of Lesly's March, and included it in his novel "The Monastery":

I.
March, march, Ettrick and Teviotdale,
 Why the deil dinna ye march forward in order!
March, march, Eskdale and Liddesdale,
 All the Blue Bonnets are bound for the Border.
       Many a banner spread,
       Flutters above your head,
 Many a crest that is famous in story.
       Mount and make ready then,
       Sons of the mountain glen,
 Fight for the Queen and our old Scottish glory.        

II.
Come from the hills where your hirsels are grazing,
 Come from the glen of the buck and the roe;
Come to the crag where the beacon is blazing,
 Come with the buckler, the lance, and the bow.
       Trumpets are sounding,        
       War-steeds are bounding,
 Stand to your arms, then, and march in good order;
       England shall many a day
       Tell of the bloody fray,
When the Blue Bonnets came over the Border.

Twelfth Day

Twelve days after Christmas, Christians celebrate the visit of the Three Wise Men.  This feast was a much more festive occasion in the years preceding the English Civil Wars.  One English custom was to elect a "King of Beans", where a bean was placed inside a cake, and whoever ended up with the piece with the bean was honored as king (or queen) for the day.  Twelfth day was celebrated at all levels of society, with reports of Charles II, Mary Queen of Scots, and many others enjoying the festivities.

Walter Scott reports a more superstitious aspect of this feast in his "Letters on demonology and witchcraft".  The story involves floating dishes, glasses, etc., which excited an English village:

"In 1772, a train of transactions, commencing on Twelfth Day, threw the utmost consternation into the village of Stockwell, near London, and impressed on some of its inhabitants the inevitable belief that they were produced by invisible agents.  The plates, dishes, china, and glass-ware and small movables of every kind, contained in the house of Mrs. Golding, and elderly lady, seemed to become animated, shifted their places, flew through the room, and were broken into pieces...Amidst this combustion, a young woman, Mrs. Golding's maid named Anne Robinson, was walking backwards and forwards, nor could she be prevailed on to sit down for a moment excepting when the family were at prayers, during which time no disturbance happened..."

Saxon + Norman = English

From Scott's Ivanhoe:

"...it was not until the reign of Edward the Third that the mixed language now termed English, was spoken at the court of London, and that the hostile distinction of Norman and Saxon seems entirely to have disappeared..."

The last king of the House of Wessex, Edward III, died on January 5, 1066.  Edward reigned for roughly 24 years.  Edward favored Normans at his court, which was a cause of discontent with his powerful father-in-law, Godwin, Earl of Wessex.  Wessex is the traditional stronghold of the Anglo Saxon monarchy.  Edward himself was the son of Emma of Normandy, and he had spent time in Normandy in his youth.

Edward's death led to the short-lived reign of Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king before the Norman invasion.  Harold reigned from Edward's death to October 14, 1066, when he was killed at the Battle of Hastings, and William the Conqueror took England.

Five to be Arrested in Parliament

" I am convinced the spirit of Pym or Hampden has transmigrated into the rogue, and continues to demonstrate his hatred against royalty and all its adherents."

The above is from Scott's Woodstock.

An act which was a prelude to the English Civil War occurred on this day (January 4) in 1642.  Parliamentarians Pym, Hampden, Hollis, Haselrig and Strode were on Charles I's short list of enemies after the king was served by the Long Parliament with the Grand Remonstrance - a list of grievances against Charles.  In addition to being critical of Charles' actions, Parliament's complaints were strongly anti-Catholic.  Charles' wife was the French Catholic Henrietta Maria.

Charles may have feared that Parliament was considering impeaching his Queen, when he entered the Parliament with an eye toward arresting five of its members.  But the intended prey escaped before Charles reached Parliament.  It was a terrible miscalculation on the King's part, turning some of his existing supporters against him.  The English Civil War ensued, beginning on October 26, 1642 (Battle of Edgehill).

George Monck

From Scott's "Woodstock":

At length Cromwell died, his son resigned the government, and the various charges which followed induced Everard, as well as many others, to adopt more active measures in the king's behalf...After this, although the estate was terribly unsettled, yet no card seemed to turn up favorable to the royal cause, until the movement of General Monk from Scotland.

George Monck (or Monk), who died on January 3, 1670, is notable for having maneuvered politically through several regimes.  One constant in his life was his military success.  Monck fought against the Scots (1639-1640) and Irish (1641) under Charles I, again against the Irish under Cromwell, and at Cromwell's side against the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar (1650).  Charles II appealed to Monck while he was in Cromwell's employ, but Monck was too close to the Protector to switch sides at this time.  After Cromwell's death, Charles again approached Monck, who now saw an advantage in supporting Charles and the ultimate Restoration.  Charles raised Monck to Duke of Albemarle in gratitude for his support, and gave him the Province of Carolina in America.

Woodstock

Yesterday's post referenced the novel "Woodstock".  Walter Scott often moved from one project ot another.  Sometimes these breaks provided an opportunity to move forward while waiting for source material for the first project.  Other times they seem to have been an outlet when Scott ran into a creative roadblock.  In late 1825, Scott took a break from working on his Life of Napoleon Buonaparte to start the novel Woodstock.  From Scott's Journal of January 2, 1826:

Weather clearing up in Edinburgh once more, and all will, I believe, do well. I am pressed to get on with Woodstock, and must try. I wish I could open a good vein of interest which would breathe freely. I must take my old way, and write myself into good-humour with my task. It is only when I dally with what I am about, look back, and aside, instead of keeping my eyes straight forward, that I feel these cold sinkings of the heart. All men I suppose do, less or more. They are like the sensation of a sailor when the ship is cleared for action, and all are at their places—gloomy enough; but the first broadside puts all to rights. Dined at Huntly Burn with the Fergusons en masse.

Scone

The last coronation to be held at Scone took place this day, in 1651, with Charles Stuart (Charles II of England) accepting the crown.  Six months later, the English marched north, moving into Fife and Perth.  Scottish forces headed south, ultimately losing at the Battle of Worcester (Sept 3, 1651).  Charles made a famous escape after this battle.

Scott covers Charles' escape in Woodstock.  This novel is set in 1651.  From Woodstock:

"Well then, go to.--When the young man Charles Stewart fled from the

field of Worcester, and was by sharp chase and pursuit compelled to
separate himself from his followers, I know by sure intelligence that
this Albert Lee was one of the last who remained with him, if not indeed
the very last."