Thanks to recovery via Google Book Search, one can now read a digital copy of Edward's book on the internet: click Attic Stories |
| Foreword Edward Hazelrig addressed his "townsmen" in a series of periodical papers with intent of "pointing out to a people those faults that belong to themselves more than to their neighbours." He entertained some hope that his project had "the best chance of effecting reformation." In addition, however, he proposed to write "not for immortality, but merely to create a little amusement for myself and the town" (pp. 8, 9). His plan was to publish a paper "every alternate Friday"--the first dated 31 January 1817--and he succeeded through No. 25, which was written in the same year but published early in 1818, shortly before his death. In view of the letters generated by his observations and scolds, Edward's "attic stories" gained considerable audience in Glasgow, his town, and out into the Clydesdale. Writing a foreword to a book initially published nearly two centuries ago is not a usual activity. It was prompted in this instance by Edward's own imagination--of "a time, perhaps two hundred years distant, when a solitary copy [of his papers] may be discovered by some antiquary, and esteemed as a document conveying a few hints of the talk and mode of thinking which prevailed in Glasgow at the beginning of the nineteenth century" (p. 9). Edward's insights into the habits and tendencies of his compatriots were probably short of extraordinary, and his "corrections" are sometimes more revealing than the diagnosis of fault. But these fruits of his view from the attic--"sixth flat from the ground"--retain interest not only to antiquarian eyes nor only to those who share his surname. They offer us amusement along with Edward's, and they remind us of a world both far and not so far long gone. Born on the second day of June, 1765, Edward, second son of "the laird of Craigheuch," descended from a line of the Hazelrig (Hazlerigg, Hesilrige) family that had lived in Scotland for several generations. After the Norman Conquest many of the landowning families of the Scottish Lowlands were, like the Hazelrig family, relative newcomers, part of the Norman invasion, and some of these families, the Hazelrig family among them, held land on both sides of the border, in Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Cumbria on the English side, as well as in Lanarkshire and elsewhere on the Scottish side. Edward was no doubt aware of the fact that a late thirteen-century Hazelrig (Heselrig) had been sheriff of the Clydesdale, local representative of King Edward I, and charged by the king with the task of bringing William Wallace to justice. Since that episode still rankled in Scotland, Edward surely thought silence superior to remembrance. But he did recall later episodes, when one of his ancestors "took an active part in the cause of the Presbyterians, in the reign of Charles the Second, ... had the honour of being concerned in the Battle of Bothwell Brig [i.e., Bothwell Bridge, Lanarkshire, 22 June 1679, on the side of the Presbyterians against the restored House of Stuart], and was fined a thousand pounds Scots, by Middleton's parliament, for non-conformity" (p. 10). [John Middleton, created the 1st Earl Middleton in October 1660, reconvened the Scottish parliament, which he mostly controlled for some time. Note that a Scottish pound was then worth one-twelfth a pound sterling--still a substantial sum in those days.] Edward further recalled that "after the Revolution [i.e., the "Glorious Revolution," 1688] the politics of the house of Craigheuch took a change. From a love of national independence, the laird opposed the union of the kingdoms, though in doing so he joined with a party composed chiefly of Jacobites, the former enemies of his house. But the Stuart family were now in misfortune." Thus, Edward's near ancestors had supported the Jacobite Rebellions (or Risings, as Scots more often say) of 1715 and 1745 because of opposition to union between Scotland and England. To most Glaswegians of 1817, Edward's recollection would have secured his badge of loyalty. Edward's writing contains a smattering of expressions peculiar to Scottish culture. Some combine English, Scots English (which is close to Middle English), and Gaelic. In his No. 23, admiring "the language of Scotland," he laid out a side-by-side comparison of Icelandic and Scots renditions of "The Battle of Largs" in order to demonstrate linguistic resemblance, and the effect for most readers of present-day English will be a mixture of the strange and the familiar. [The battle of Largs was the main battle of the Scottish-Norwegian War, 2 October 1263, fought near the town of Largs in North Ayrshire, west of Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde. The contest was for sovereignty of the western isles--Skye, etc.--then Norwegian territory.] If one wants to go hunting for the Gaelic words that appear now and again in Edward's sentences, Alexander McBain's Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language is now available on the internet [click McBain]. At Edward's birth, Glasgow numbered about 30,000 inhabitants, an increase of more than 70 percent since 1750. The city was beginning to thrive, mainly because of river commerce. By 1800 Glasgow's population had grown to 77,385, and at Edward's death, on 13 January 1818, it was nearing 150,000. [These population data are from Robert Chambers' Picture of Scotland (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1827) volume 1, page 390).] This rapid growth implied important changes in the social fabric of daily life, which no doubt circulated in the background of many of Edward's observations. It is telling that he still thought of Glasgow as a town, its inhabitants his fellow "townsmen," as if most adults knew or at least knew of most other adults (within the bounds of class, of course). But Edward's observation post in his attic apartment was well situated for the bulk of traffic. Nearly all of Glasgow then lay on the north side of the River Clyde, which was crossed by three bridges. One was a wooden footbridge. Next was the Old Bridge; made of stone in 1345, it had been "modernized" to accommodate more and heavier traffic. [It was pulled down in 1850 and replaced by Victoria Bridge.] The third, known as the New Bridge, was erected in 1767. Edward's flat was at the north end of Old Bridge, near the intersection of Clyde Street (parallel to the river) and Stockwell. His building was surely one of those shown in James Brown's 1776 etching, "North End of the Old Bridge of Glasgow." Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine gave notice of Edward's death with this (volume 2, page 609): "At his lodgings in Park's land, north end of the Old Bridge, Glasgow, in the 53d year of his age, Edward Hazelrig, Esq., author of those popular papers, entitled "The Attic Stories." Thus, cousin Edward, your imagination has been realized, albeit a sliver short of its bicentennial year. --Lawrence Hazelrigg 1 November 2008 |
| If you want to purchase a printed copy of Edward's book, click reprint. |