The Military Kailyard: The Iconography of the Nineteenth-Century Soldier

Abstract

From the mid-nineteenth century a powerful iconography of the Scottish soldier is projected in the periodical press, especially Blackwood's Magazine, and elsewhere. Strong Scottish pride in the martial image is reflected not only on and through the regular Scottish regiments of the British army, but in volunteer militia units. This martial mythology is a powerful repository of Scottish identity through the nineteenth century, but complicated international conflicts such as the Indian Mutiny and the Crimean War ensure that this ultimately must reside within the context of British identity. The Kailyard fiction of James Grant is exemplary of this trajectory.Keywords: The Scottish martial myth; Scottish regiments in the British army; John Blackwood; Blackwood's Magazine; Crimean War; Indian Mutiny; Laurence Oliphant; Laurence Lockhart; Volunteer militia; James Grant; Kailyard.At the end of the Crimean War in 1856 the Edinburgh publisher John Blackwood decided to form what he called an informal military staff of writers from army backgrounds to produce material for Blackwood's Magazine. The intention was to enter the debate about the much-needed reforms of the army in the wake of the widespread and well-publicised mismanagement which had been revealed during the conflict, but Blackwood was also keen to benefit from the accompanying interest in literature that had blossomed in the middle of Queen Victoria's reign. He was well placed to make this move because among his stable of regular contributors were some of the best known writers of the mid- Victorian period and, being a shrewd publisher, Blackwood also understood that literature, fiction as well as non-fiction, sold well. Although Blackwood considered himself to be a British publisher in that his firm had offices in Edinburgh and London and his list included a wide range of authors, including the novelists George Eliot and R.D. Blackmore, there were a number of Scots amongst his military staff. Among the most notable were Sir Archibald Alison, the soldier son of the historian; G.R. Gleig, the author of The Subaltern (1826), one of the most entertaining fictional accounts of life in Wellington's army; James Hope Grant, a general turned historian; Laurence Lockhart, nephew of Walter Scott's biographer John Gibson Lockhart; and Laurence Oliphant, who had written about the fighting in Circassia for The Times during the Crimean War. Along with writers such as A.W. Kinglake, George Chesney, Edward and William Hamley they kept Blackwood's Magazine and the publishing house of William Blackwood at the forefront of contemporary writing for most of the nineteenth century.John Blackwood was one of the most successful entrepreneurial publishers of his day. Not only did he possess business acumen, but from an early age he demonstrated editorial flair and he had the happy knack of being able to spot literary talent, but also to develop it to his own and the author's benefit. In addition to Eliot and Blackmore, he fostered the work of a large number of mid- and late- Victorian writers, many of whom became personal friends and lifelong associates of his publishing house. Amongst them were William Edmonstoune Aytoun, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Charles Lever, Charles Reade, Thomas Hardy, Margaret Oliphant, George Henry Lewes and Anthony Trollope. He also understood the need to produce good narrative fiction and, in addition to his writers, he encouraged the publication of work by explorers and adventurers, men such as Richard Burton, who had visited the forbidden city of Mecca in disguise, and James Augustus Grant and John Hanning Speke, who had both been involved in expeditions to discover the source of the River Nile. Later, by the twentieth century, the publishing house of Blackwood became - to its great detriment - over-dependent on this kind of writing, but under John Blackwood it seemed to have captured the spirit of the age with its interest in exploration and warfare. …