Here's Tae Us # 4: The Wizard of the North
Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the West,
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best,
And, save his good broadsword, he weapon had none,
He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone...
I could go on... though I can hardly believe that it's now almost 50 years since I learned these lines from Walter Scott's epic poem, Marmion. Scott is of course famous as the originator of historical fiction, and so is a hero of print and publishing history because of his pioneering role in the narrative of this. During his lifetime, his writing output was prodigious, and immensely popular; this popularity endured even after his death in 1832 with many reprints of his works continuing to emerge in both cheap and collectable editions. Yes, Scott made a bawbee or two for many publishers, both in Scotland and across the world. And even if you have never read a Scott novel, whether you know it or not, his tales have made it in to a wide range of other popular media - in everything from cartoons to opera!
In my schooldays in south west Scotland, he was something of the bane of any potential excitement that might be felt in the learning of 'English' literature. Put shortly, despite being the original exponent of many a ripping yarn about the past, his ponderous description and romantic meanderings curbed the enthusiasm of many a young reader. By the 1960s and 70s, it all just seemed like terribly old-fashioned stuff and although I can still recite the ballads, I don't think I ever managed to get to the end of a Scott novel. So what? Scott fell out of literary vogue, it happens to many best sellers... Indeed, this process started happening some decades before I was born, even as early as the 1920s (a long time before I was born!) Nonetheless, even if people had stopped reading the books and were unaware that the action film they'd paid good money to see was based on a Scott story, his influence still carried on, although the man himself increasingly fell out of view.
In 1932, when many Scottish cities and towns proposed to commemorate the centenary of the death of Scott, they had a bit of hard sell on their hands. Younger generations of Scottish readers wouldn't pick up Scott from the library and for Scott's remaining, more elderly fans, it was this generation's apathy about the writer that was of concern. Why? Well, where Scott still really mattered was as an effective conduit for a particular version of Scottish history and perforce, for the continuation of a particular version of Scottish identity that was both highly influential and successful. One where the Scottish people could remain culturally separate, but peacefully settled in equal partnership within a British union. Scott the writer shored up the cultural side, and Scott the historical figure by example, promoted the notion that the Union was in our interests...
In 1932, Scotland was in the midst of Depression, although from the lavish ceremonials that took place across Scotland to commemorate Scott, you'd never have guessed this. Letters to the press complained that money spent on floodlighting the Scott Monument in Edinburgh's Princes Street, could have been better spent... but many towns and cities celebrated nonetheless, and no surprises, some did this with a pageant. Even if Scott were no longer flavour of the month, pageants were popular, and it was hoped that pageants would once again raise the profile of one of Scotia's favoured sons.
In 1930s Scotland, 'the Wizard of the North' and all his works proved to be a rich seam for pageants that celebrated Scottish identity. Because while there was no doubt about Sir Walter's Scottish patriotism, he was also a loyal British subject and indeed, was an influential architect of Scottish unionism at the time when industrialisation had begun to take off, and tradition in Scotland had been put under the pressure of change. Scott's ability to blend nostalgia for the Scottish past with unionist expediency would have been easily resonant in the interwar period.
Commemoration of Scott took the form of many different types of events: lectures, the publication of commemorative volumes, religious services, processions, concerts and so forth. But among the most spectacular and well received were a host of Scott centenary pageants. Many of these, sadly, must be consigned to the realm of 'forgotten' pageant performances. The programmes have not survived and because they were small, there was little news coverage (please get in touch if you have any info on these!) However, three pageants did leave behind ephemera and plenty of newspaper reviews. These provide a slightly different take on the world of historical pageantry, because they were part literary and part historical enactments. Two were held in Edinburgh and one in Perth, both cities that Scott helped publicise through his writing as places of unique heritage and historical significance. They work as historical pageants because people (and not only Scots) trusted old Walter as an interpreter of the past in everything from the bygone romance of the Clan system to the ill-fated end of the Jacobite cause, and from the lawlessness of the Scottish Borders to the cynicism of land clearances. Scott influenced popular interpretations of the past and let's not forget, his works were a clear inspiration in many a Scottish pageant, in return Scottish pageant makers paid homage to him through this same medium.
The Scott pageants themselves are testimony to the flexibility of historical pageantry: for while this type of popular theatre often presents as a fairly predictable format (what more Druids?!) it is sufficiently broad to absorb an endless array of local and specific interests. In the Scott pageants everything from the English Crusaders to the Glasgow merchants that populated his widely diverse historical tales, made an appearance. Plus, they often did so alongside easily recognisable pageant favourites, the real historical figures who were also a part of his many works of fiction.
I've mentioned before that discussion of Scottish culture is being side-lined in our current 'interesting times'. Scott himself provides a clue as to why this is happening. As the alleged inventor of tartan pageantry many would argue he has a lot to answer for, and it's clear that today's politicians on both sides of the independence debate are still running scared of even accidentally invoking this. The potential cringe factor around Scottish culture arose most recently with the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games where Scottish kitsch was unequivocally celebrated. Well guess what, the world didn't end, the games were a success, and we all loved the Scottie dugs! The same thing happened within the wider pageant movement in Scotland. Pretty much all pageants held in Scotland, provide some testimony to the ways in which Walter Scott had popularised certain aspects of Scottish history and purveyed 'traditional' Scottish culture to a readership that spanned the globe. So we had pipers and sword dances and battles of the clans in our pageants, and people connected with these symbols but still understood that there was more to our past than tartan and shortbread.
So why be so scared?
Let's be brave and ask, what would Sir Walter Scott make of current developments in his beloved Caledonia? Well, it's too easy just to say he'd of course be voting 'NAW'! One of the things Scott was excellent at was documenting change and communicating how when this happened there were always winners and losers, rights and wrongs. Plus, even if his writing is romantic, he himself was a good old Scots pragmatist, and never more so than in his attitude to the Union. So I'm not so sure really... perhaps he would take the view that all things must pass... one to ponder before next month!
The next Here's Tae Us blog will come in the wake of the televised debate between Messrs Salmond and Darling. On the telly tonight! If you won't get it where you are, it can be viewed online.
Linda Fleming 5/8/14