London in the Jacobite times, Volume IIDoran, Dr. (John)
History
London in the Jacobite times, Volume II
Doran, Dr. (John)
London (England) -- History -- 18th century
On that evening Alexander Carlyle was with Smollett in the Golden Ball
coffee-house, Cockspur Street. ‘London,’ he says, ‘was in a perfect
uproar of joy. About nine o’clock I asked Smollett if he was ready to
go, as he lived at May Fair’ (Carlyle was bound for New Bond Street on
a supper engagement). ‘He said he was, and would conduct me. The mob
were so riotous and the squibs so numerous and incessant that we were
glad to go into a narrow entry to put our wigs into our pockets, and
to take our swords from our belts and walk with them in our hands, as
everybody then wore swords; and after cautioning me against speaking a
word lest the mob should discover my country and become insolent, “John
Bull,” says he, “is as haughty and valiant to-night, as he was abject
and cowardly on the Black Wednesday (Friday?) when the Highlanders were
at Derby.” After we got to the head of the Haymarket through incessant
fire, the doctor led me by narrow lanes where we met nobody but a few
boys at a pitiful bonfire, who very civilly asked us for sixpence,
which I gave them. I saw not Smollett again for some time after, when
he showed Smith and me the manuscript of his “Tears of Scotland,” which
was published not long after, and had such a run of approbation.’
[Sidenote: ‘_TEARS OF SCOTLAND._’]
Smollett was one of those Tories who, like many of the Nonjurors, were
not necessarily or consequently Jacobites. They were more willing to
make the best of a foreign king than to risk their liberties under
an incapable bigot like James Stuart, who, save for the accident of
birth, was less of an Englishman and knew less of England (in which,
throughout his life, he had only spent a few months) than either of the
Georges. But Smollett felt keenly the sufferings of his country, and
out of the feeling sprung his verses so full of a tenderly expressed
grief,――‘The Tears of Scotland!’ How that mournful ode was written in
London in this year of mournful memories for the Jacobites, no one can
tell better than Walter Scott. ‘Some gentlemen having met at a tavern,
were amusing themselves before supper with a game of cards, while
Smollett, not choosing to play, sat down to write. One of the company
(Graham of Gartmoor), observing his earnestness and supposing he was
writing verses, asked him if it was not so. He accordingly read them
the first sketch of the “Tears of Scotland,” consisting only of six
stanzas, and on their remarking that the termination of the poem being
too strongly expressed might give offence to persons whose political
opinions were different, he sat down without reply and, with an air of
great indignation, subjoined the concluding stanza:――
[Sidenote: _INDIGNATION VERSES._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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