Chronicles of the Canongate is a collection of stories by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1827 and 1828. It is the 23rd book in the Waverley novels series and is named after the Canongate, in Edinburgh.
1st series (1827): 'Chrystal Croftangry's Narrative' 'The Highland Widow' 'The Two Drovers' The Surgeon's Daughter 2nd series (1828): St Valentine's Day, or, The Fair Maid of Perth
Composition After his financial ruin at the beginning of 1826, Scott committed himself to writing works that would produce funds for the Trustees of James Ballantyne & Co., including the massive Life of Napoleon. However, he retained the right to produce less substantial works for his own benefit, and the first result was the collection of shorter fiction known as Chronicles of the Canongate. This was in two volumes, rather than the three occupied by most of the Waverley Novels, and its disparate nature meant that it would not interfere with his official writing project. The first mention of the two-volume publication actually envisages it being totally occupied by the tale which was to be entitled The Surgeon's Daughter: in his diary for 12 May 1826 Robert Cadell records a proposal from Scott to write 'a small Eastern Tale', which he agreed to publish as part of his strategy to set up as an independent publisher after the crash which had ruined Archibald Constable, Ballantyne, Scott, and himself. In the event The Surgeon's Daughter was to share the two volumes of the first series of Chronicles of the Canongate with 'Chrystal Croftangry's Narrative' and two short stories, 'The Highland Widow' and 'The Two Drovers'. The 'Narrative' and more than half of 'The Highland Widow' were composed between May and July 1826, but for almost a year Scott then devoted his full energies to the Life of Napoleon which he finished on 7 June 1827. He apparently resumed 'The Highland Widow' on the 20th and finished it before the end of the month, as well as writing an Introduction in his own name (he had officially acknowledged his authorship of the Waverley novels on 23 February). 'The Two Drovers' was probably composed in the first half of July, completing the first volume, but while he was waiting at the end of June to find out how long that story needed to be, he had already begun The Surgeon's Daughter, the sole occupant of the second volume, resuming it on 27 July and completing it on 16 September.Walter Scott, Chronicles of the Canongate, ed. Claire Lamont (Edinburgh, 2000), 294–308.
Editions The first series of Chronicles of the Canongate was published in Edinburgh by Cadell and Co. on 30 October 1827 and in London by Simpkin and Marshall on 5 November. The print run was 8750 and the price one guinea (£1 1s or £1.05).Ibid., 315–17; William B. Todd and Ann Bowden, Sir Walter Scott: A Bibliographical History 1796–1832 (New Castle, Delaware, 1998), 657. Scott revisited the collection in August and early September 1831, providing it with brief introductory material and notes and introducing a few textual changes. The 'Narrative' and the two short stories appeared posthumously in October 1832 in Volume 41, supplemented with three additional stories which had appeared in 1828 in the 1829 number of the annual The Keepsake. The Surgeon's Daughter was deferred to the final Volume 48 in April 1833 where it appeared along with the conclusion of Castle Dangerous.Chronicles, ed. Lamont, 325–30.
The standard modern edition of the first series of Chronicles of the Canongate, by Claire Lamont, was published as Volume 20 of the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels in 2000: this is based on the first edition with emendations mainly from the manuscript; the 'Magnum' material appeared in Volume 25b (2012).
Chrystal Croftangry's Narrative Chapter summary Ch.1: Forced to live in the debtors' sanctuary in the Canongate, Croftangry is restored to freedom with the help of a legal friend. Returning from abroad some years later he finds his friend senile and turns to family research.
Ch. 2: A manuscript history of the family leads Croftangry to pine for his lost country estate, and his lawyer Fairscribe discovers that it is for sale.
Ch. 3: Croftangry finds the Glentanner estate ruined by modern development and resolves to stay at the Treddles Arms, run by Christie Steele, his later mother's servant.
Ch. 4: Croftangry doesn't identify himself to Christie, and hears no good of himself. Returning to Edinburgh, he buys the lease of the inn for her and abandons the idea of a country life.
Ch. 5: Croftangry returns to the Canongate and turns to fiction, with the help of Mrs Bethune Baliol and his old landlady, Janet MacEvoy, now his housekeeper.
Ch. 6: Croftangry describes Mrs Baliol and gives an account of her agreement to provide him with material.
The Highland Widow Sources Scott heard the story told by Anne Murray Keith (1736–1818), a friend of his maternal aunt, but he was also influenced by a similar tale in Caledonian Sketches (1809) by Sir John Carr (1772–1832). For details of military discipline he drew on Sketches of the Character, Manners, and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland with details of the Military Service of the Highland Regiments (1822) by David Stewart of Garth.
Plot summary The MacTavish family lived near Oban in 1775. Hamish MacTavish Mohr ("Senior"), a daring freebooter, had met his death in an encounter with the Saxon red-coats, by whom the Highlands were garrisoned after the battle of Culloden. His wife, who had shared all his dangers, strove to inspire their only son with his father's love of adventure and hatred of servile toil; but as he grew up the lad evinced no inclination for lawless pursuits, and, unable to endure his mother's taunts at his want of spirit, enlisted in one of the regiments formed in Scotland to oppose the French in the American War of Independence. Before sailing he sent her some money by Phadraick, and returned to spend a few days with her, when she fiercely reproached him for daring to act in opposition to her will, and, failing to alter his purpose, drugged his parting-cup, thus causing him to exceed his furlough, and render himself liable to the lash as a deserter. She then urged him to flee to her kinsmen, while she baffled his pursuers; but he resolved to await the arrival of the sergeant and men of his regiment who, he felt sure, would be sent to arrest him. They came and summoned him to surrender, but because they could not assure him against the lash, and provoked by his mother, he shot the sergeant dead. The other soldiers secured him, and he was marched as a prisoner to Dumbarton castle, where he was tried by court-martial and condemned to be shot. His captain and a Presbyterian minister interceded for him; but the English general in command was determined to make an example, and the next morning his sentence was carried out in the presence of his comrades.
His mother, who had attempted to follow him, was met by the minister wandering in a wild glen, and on hearing her son's fate, she uttered terrible imprecations, and renounced all further intercourse with the world. She lived, however, for many years in her lonely cottage, regarded with awe and pity by her neighbours as the victim of destiny, rather than the voluntary cause of her son's death and her own wretchedness. At length, while two women, who had been set to watch her last moments, were sleeping, she disappeared from her bed, and was never heard of again.
Characters Hamish MacTavish Mohr, an outlaw Elspat, his wife Hamish Bean ("Junior"), their son Miles Phadraick, a farmer Rev Michael Tyrie, a Presbyterian minister Green Colin, captain of Hamish Bean's regiment Allan Break Cameron, his sergeant
The Two Drovers Sources Scott heard the story from George Constable (1719–1803), an Edinburgh lawyer and a friend of his father.
Plot summary In 1795, Robin Oig was just starting from Doune with a drove of cattle for England, when his father's sister, who was supposed to be gifted with second sight, drew his dirk from the folds of his plaid, and, exclaiming that there was Saxon blood on it, induced him to entrust the weapon to Morrison, who undertook to return it when asked for. At Falkirk the Highlander met his bosom friend, Wakefield, and they travelled southwards together. Having reached Cumberland, they separated to hire pasturage for their beasts, and it happened that while the Englishman bargained with the bailiff, the Highlander came to terms with the squire, and they thus both secured the same enclosure. On discovering this, Wakefield reproached his comrade with having played him false, and, angrily refusing his offer that they should share the field, had to be content with a barren moor belonging to the landlord of the alehouse, where they had agreed to pass the night.
The squire had invited Oig to sup with him, and mentioned having passed Morrison a few miles off. On reaching the inn the Highlander met with a cold reception from the assembled company, who sided with Wakefield, and egged him on to challenge Oig to a Cumberland tussle. But the Highlander would have shaken hands, and, refusing to fight except with swords, he attempted to leave the room. Wakefield, however, opposed his doing so, and struck him senseless to the ground. Frantic with rage when he revived, and prevented by the hostess from attacking his comrade, Oig sullenly went out, warning him to beware. Striding over the moonlit moor to meet Morrison, he obtained his dirk on the pretence that he had enlisted, and, returning to the alehouse, he stabbed Wakefield through the heart.
At his trial the judge made every allowance for the provocation Oig had received, but pointed out to the jury that, as he went to recover possession of his weapon, there was ample time for his passion to have subsided, and for him to have reflected on the guilt of his meditated revenge. He was, accordingly, convicted of murder, and having been sentenced to be hanged, he met his fate with the observation, "I give a life for the life I took, and what can I do more?"
Characters Robin Oig MacCombich, a Highland drover Janet of Tomahourich, his aunt Hugh Morrison of Glanae, a Lowland drover Harry Wakefield, an English drover Mr Ireby, a Cumberland squire John Fleecebumpkin, his bailiff Ralph Heskett, host of an alehouse Dame Heskett, his wife Hortence Bennet, his lover
The Surgeon's Daughter Sources The main story of The Surgeon's Daughter was transmitted to Scott by a regular informant, a Galloway excise officer Joseph Train. For details of life in India, Scott owned three useful publications: A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan (1775‒78) by Robert Orme; Narrative Sketches of the Conquest of Mysore (the second edition, published in 1800); and Captivity, Sufferings, and Escape of James Scurry, who was detained a prisoner during ten years, in the dominions of Hyder Ali and Tippoo Saib (1824). While he was composing the novel, Scott realised that he needed more information about India than these books provided, so he enlisted the help of James Ferguson (1778‒1859), who had served with the East India Company, and who furnished him with a set of sketches of Indian life and manners that proved very helpful: they are sometimes quoted almost verbatim.
Plot summary