Duke Of Argyll Research Articles

Scribleriana Transferred, 2019 to January 2020

Scribleriana Transferred, 2019 to January 2020 James E. May • Having acquired it many years ago from an Irish collector, Sophie Dupre listed a onepage manuscript (5½ x 3½ inches) with two autograph receipts signed by Swift (c. $18,810). At the top, after the date "Octr 26th 1734," the MS reads "Then Received from the Revd James Stopford Visr [for "Vicr"] of Finglas thirty Pounds sterl on account of the Rectorial Tythes of the Parish of Finglas for the Year 1733 three due to the Revd Doctor Delany. I say, receivd by me Jonath: Swift." Then on the bottom half of the sheet, in the same hand with smaller characters, dated "Febr. 8th. 1734," a similar receipt "from the Reverend Mr James Stopford Vicar of Finglas, [for] thirty twenty two Pounds sterl, on account of the Rectorial Tythes … for the Year 1733 three; due to the Revd Doctr Delany. I say, receved by me Jonath Swift." Both dates are near the left margin, and the signatures are placed near the right. Swift had what Ehrenpreis calls "an avuncular intimacy [End Page 237] and affection" for the youthful Stopford, thirty years Swift's junior. Stopford was comfortably genteel; his half-sister was married to Knightley Chetwode; and there is no record in recent Swift biographies or David Woolley's edition of Swift's Correspondence of Stopford's owing money to Patrick Delany, Chancellor of Christ Church and St. Patrick's Cathedrals, then flush from his marriage to a wealthy widow in 1732. It is curious that the two payments differ and that both are recorded on the same slip. • At Sotheby's New York's sale on December 5, 2015, a book collector in New England acquired a miniature portrait of Swift facing left by Rupert Barber, the poet Mary Barber's son, described as "a trompe l'oeil of a miniature resting upon a stack of books, in giltwood frame with label 'Earl of Charlemont #44,' signed, height 2¾ in.; 7 cm. circa 1745" (Lot 190, sold $6875). The portrait is illustrated at Sotheby's site (seen on p. 121 of Representations of Swift, ed. Brian Connery, 2002). Another portrait of Swift facing left by Barber, that in pastel, nearly two feet tall and sold in 2012, was reported here in spring 2013. Regarding the dating, note that Barber had studied art in the mid-1730s in Bath, while in his mother's company, and then, after marrying, returned by 1743 to Dublin. • The Bodleian bought from Christopher Edwards's List 75 (2019) the fifth known copy of The Constellation: Poems, on Several Occasions ("Printed, and Sold by S. Keimer," 1715), 8vo: 40 pp., ESTC N55536. Foxon reported that Richard Rawlinson's MS notes for a revision of Anthony a` Wood's Athenœ Oxonienses identify this as by "Mr. Bland" with a few more pieces by John Locker (I.66). Edwards cannot trace Bland, but Locker, he notes, attended Merton College, Oxford, and "became a barrister and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries," dying in 1760. Edwards surveys the topics in the poems, such as the celebration of Orinda's memory and Marlborough's victory at Ramillies. • Also from Edwards 75 Stanford bought one of three recorded copies of the sole edition of A Pastoral Elegy on the Death of Lady Hilaretta. In a Dialogue between Two Lords ("for A. More, near Temple-Bar" [1730?]), a six-page folio, ESTC N10957, Foxon C10, by Archibald Campbell, later an ally of Walpole, distinguished bibliophile, and third duke of Argyll. This copy, formerly owned by John Brett-Smith, contains the MS identification of the poem as "by Ld Isla" [i.e. Ilay] that Foxon used for its attribution (illustrated by Edwards). The dialogue stresses how "Hilaret" was admired by all for her beauty until "one slip": "lying down" after failing to "shut the Door." Edwards offers a good discussion of the subject, not "a courtesan" as the ESTC noted, but Lady Abergavenny, wife to the fifteenth baron (1724) and a year later to his brother the sixteenth, prior to dying in December 1729 with three children and the shame of an adultery...

‘Sick Nature Blasting’: The Ecological Limits of British Imperialism in Thomson's The Seasons

This article argues that James Thomson depicts the 2nd duke of Argyll's methods as a counterpart to Britain's rapacious imperial ventures as epitomized by Edward Vernon. It supplements scholars' efforts to reassess Thomson's treatment of Scotland and its cultural practices. Argyll's many affiliations with the region authorize his rule; his sensitivity to his surroundings influences traditional pursuits – agricultural labour, for example – industry, and wider enterprises that reverberate across Scotland and the globe. This article considers the ways in which Thomson moderates his tribute to Britain as a benevolent colonial power. The article examines: the interplay between robust British commerce and the preservation of healthy ecologies; Thomson's poem The Castle of Indolence to analyze the responsibilities of the georgic poet; and the anxieties and responsibilities that attend supplementing and even replacing the energy of the sun.

Clan Chief, Clan Embarrassment: The Seventeenth-Century Campbells

The following discussion explores the reciprocal relationships between Campbell chiefs and their kindreds during the particularly fraught era of the three Gilleasbuigs each of whom, disastrously for their clan, defied their Stewart kings, until a fourth, the tenth earl, became first Duke of Argyll in 1703.

Special Issue of The Aeronautical Journal, marking the 150th Anniversary of the Founding of the Royal Aeronautical Society

This special issue is one of a number of activities taking place this year to celebrate the founding of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1866. The decision to form the Society was taken on 12 January 1866 at a meeting of distinguished people held in London and chaired by the Duke of Argyll. One of those present, James Glaisher, addressed the gathering and it is interesting to revisit an extract from his statement: “The first application of the balloon as a means of ascending into the upper regions of the atmosphere has been almost within the recollection of men now living but with the exception of some of the early experimenters it has scarcely occupied the attention of scientific men, nor has the subject of aeronautics been properly recognised as a distinct branch of science. . .”. The meeting resolved “that it is desirable to form a Society for the purpose of increasing by experiments our knowledge of Aeronautics and for other purposes incidental thereto and that a Society be now formed under the title of the ‘Aeronautical Society of Great Britain’ to be supported by annual subscriptions and donations.”

The 8th Duke of Argyll, the Economics of Land Tenancy, and Stigler's "Coase Theorem"

The 8th Duke of Argyll, the Economics of Land Tenancy, and Stigler's "Coase Theorem"

A West Highland Census of 1779: Social and Economic Trends on the Argyll Estate

A document from Inveraray Castle, published in 1963 by the Scottish Record Society, and entitled ‘List of Inhabitants on the Argyll Estate, 1779’, is probably the earliest known Scottish census. The List records in varying detail something like 14,000 inhabitants resident on the Duke’s west Highland estate. Tacksmen and common tenants, ministers and cottars, chamberlains and wood-rangers, merchants, paupers and pedlars, ferrymen, bowmen and drovers, weavers, coopers and servants, these men of Argyll appear, most of them by name and age, many with their wives and families in detail, each under his own township and district. The List concludes with the grand sentence: ‘These are independent of His Grace’s vassals in nine different counties, who are very numerous’. The List constitutes an incomparable gazetteer to the communities and to the social structure of the west Highlands in the late eighteenth century, a rich quarry for the genealogist, the historian and the student of philology, and a tribute to the enlightenment of its compiler, John, fifth duke of Argyll. The fifth duke (b. 1723, d.1806) has suffered comparative neglect at the hands of historians. He has been over-shadowed by the massive figures of the second and third dukes, who so dominated Scotland’s life and politics in their time. To be remembered as the husband of a celebrated beauty, Elizabeth Gunning, is a measure of the lack of general recognition for his own great merits. Duke John was in fact a considerable figure in his own right. He was trained as a soldier, served in the ’45 (whilst his father, the fourth duke, exerted and worried himself over the raising and provisioning of the Argyllshire militia), twice commanded the army in Scotland, and rose to the rank of field marshal. At his death he was, with the exception of the Duke of York, the senior field officer in the British Army. Before succeeding to the dukedom he represented the Glasgow burghs in Parliament (1744–1761) and later sat for Dover. But the fall of the Whigs broke

Notes on Contributors

Notes on Contributors

The founding of the Edinburgh medical school.

This article seeks to show that the usual accounts of the founding of the Edinburgh Medical Faculty in 1726 give undue prominence to John Monro, an Edinburgh surgeon, and to George Drummond, later Lord Provost of Edinburgh. They do so because their authors have ignored the ways in which patronage appointments, such as medical professorships, were and had been dispensed in the city of Edinburgh and in its university. There the Town Council was only nominally independent when it came to making professors. Medical historians have been equally cavalier in their treatment of the roles of leading politicians, especially of Archibald Campbell, first Earl of Ilay and later third Duke of Argyll, who was the most important Scottish politician working between c. 1716 and his death inl 1761. A more realistic view of the history of Scottish medicine would not ignore the realities of politics and the relation of these to institutions, such as the Edinburgh Medical Faculty.

The Scientific Interests of Archibald Campbell, 1st Earl of Ilay and 3rd Duke of Argyll (1682-1761)

Amateur scientists were important in the science of the eighteenth century as patrons, investors in talent and new equipment, as the maintainers of gardens and libraries, and, occasionally, as men who could and did make discoveries or significant innovations. The article shows that the 3rd Duke of Argyll was one of these men. He was also much more. Ilay's interests in science, because of his important political position in Scotland, touched not only his immediate friends but helped to reshape Scottish culture itself. This essay looks at his scientific interests, his political career, and his patronage to argue that the results of his long career in politics were to institutionalize a new set of modern values in most Scottish institutions.

Robert Mylne at Pitlour House

Robert Mylne (1733–1811) never had the social standing, and subsequent ability, to secure the prestigious architectural commissions of his Edinburgh contemporary Robert Adam (1728–1792). Consequently, despite his numerous worksforthe Duke of Argyll and other successes such as St Cecilia's Hall in Edinburgh, 1761–3, his career was predominantly involved with civil engineering projects. Pitlour House in Fife represents one of his few complete house commissions and offers an opportunity to consider Mylne's severe, puristform of neo-classicism in an architectural context.

Tennyson, Ireland, and "The Powers of Speech"

WHEN TENNYSON AND GLADSTONE MET FOR THE FINAL TIME, THE POET was in a bad mood. He initially refused to come down to dinner, angry at the politician's continued support of Home Rule for Ireland, but once the two men got talking the Laureate changed his tune: It was not long before it became obvious, from the energetic actions of Gladstone, that the two had got upon the Home Rule Bill, and some two hours went by before they rose from their seats. Shortly afterwards Gladstone took his departure. 'He has quite converted me,' said Tennyson. 'I see it all; it is the best thing if one looks at it from all sides.' ... The following morning when the poet came down to breakfast his first words were, 'It is all right, he spellbound me for the time and I could not help agreeing with him, it was the extraordinary way he put it all; his logic is immense, but I have gone back to my own views. It is all wrong, this Home Rule, and I am going to write and tell him so.' (1) Tennyson's interest in the finer points of contemporary political debate, and Gladstone's willingness to discuss them with him at some length, attest to the intimate, vexed relations between the two men. (2) The anecdote alerts us to the Laureate's simultaneously appreciative and wary sense of how a politician's eloquence can be both a powerful tool for altering affairs and also a medium which can simplify or distort the complexity of those affairs. The statesman's vocal art of persuasion is met by the poet's need, after thinking things through, to put pen to paper, and such an exchange offers an instructive starting-point for a study of Tennyson's public engagements during the late 1870s and 1880s. This article has a dual concern. First, I want to situate Tennyson's late poetry in relation to political debate over the Irish question, and to argue that the Laureate's attentiveness to the emphases of public rhetoric helped to shape the rhetorical structures of his poems. Secondly, I want to use the Irish issue to examine how forms of political rhetoric and literary endeavor could meet and part company in this period. Tennyson's entry into Parliament in 1884, and his close relationships with two Liberal orators--Gladstone and the Duke of Argyll--were to be important points of focus for these men when they considered how the public should be addressed through speech and print. (3) 1 At the end of the nineteenth century, the reporter Michael MacDonagh devoted a chapter of his book on Ireland to the Irish politicians who had entered the House of Commons as a result of the Act of Union in 1801. In it he recalled a debate between George Campbell and the Irish MP, Major O'Gorman: SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL said he had some experience of the Glasgow Irish. MAJOR O'GORMAN (indignantly) -- Mr. Speaker, Speaker, I rise to order, sir! I wish to know, sir, whether the hon. member is justified in stigmatizing my beloved country-people as 'the blasted Irish'? ... THE SPEAKER -- Order, order! But if the expression was used, it is certainly unparliamentary and most improper (hear, hear). SIR G. CAMPBELL -- Mr. Speaker, it is an entire misconception of my remarks on the part of my honourable and gallant friend. What I said was 'Glasgow Irish,' and not 'blasted Irish' (much laughter and cheering). (4) The laughter inspired by O'Gorman's mishearing is owed in part to his apparent readiness to perceive an insult, but it also acknowledges that such a mishearing has read between the lines of Sir George's parliamentary expressions and given voice to an attitude held by many MPs in the Commons. O'Gorman's interruption encapsulates two qualities that were prevalent in nineteenth-century conceptions of Irish politicians: namely, an inclination to quarrel, and an imaginative way with words. Such qualities were often perceived as a link between violence and verbosity, and--as Perry Curtis has shown--Victorian depictions of the Irishman in England frequently stressed his animosity as well as his animal spirits. …

A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE IONA COMMUNITY

NORMAN SHANKS [*] I am very pleased to have the chance to contribute to this consultation from the perspective of the Iona Community (referred to as the Community). First of all, this is because the Iona Community's whole purpose is missionary and is a particular understanding of and approach to ecclesiology implicit in all our concerns and activities. Secondly, it is because within the Community we do not discuss these matters quite as often as we should, and it has therefore been very helpful to me to have had the chance to reflect on them now! Perhaps I should provide just a little factual background about the origins and current work of the Community in order to provide the context for the perspectives I want to explore. Iona is a very small island off the west coast of Scotland. In earlier years when people travelled mostly by sea it stood, in a sense, at the crossroads of the nations. To get to Iona now from Glasgow, where I live and where the Community's headquarters are situated, takes about six hours by public transport (train, ferry, bus, and then another small ferry). In the year 563 St Columba arrived from Ireland to found a monastery which became an important missionary base for the carrying of the gospel all over Scotland, into the north of England, and indeed into parts of Europe too Ever since then Iona has been regarded as a place of special significance within the life of the church. It is a place of pilgrimage to which people come from all over the world. Columba's followers were driven off the island by the Vikings in the ninth century. However, in the early 13th century the Benedictines founded a monastery on Iona. It fell into ruins at the time of the Reformation in the second half of the 16th century but in the first decade of the 20th century the Abbey church was restored by trustees into whose ownership the historic buildings had been transferred by the Duke of Argyll. The Community owes its origins to the vision, energy, passion and persuasiveness of one man, George MacLeod. In so many ways, he was a walking paradox. He had served in the first world war and was decorated for gallantry; later he became a committed pacifist. His background was upper-class and he used his contacts and connections to good advantage in developing the work of the Community, yet he had the common touch and related easily to people whatever their background. He was autocratic and opinionated, yet a man of deep compassion and pastoral sensitivity with a wicked sense of humour. Through his parish work, latterly in Govan, a part of Glasgow renowned at that time for its shipbuilding (it has almost all gone now), MacLeod became increasingly convinced that the church's approach to mission and the way in which ministers were trained was no Longer adequate. He believed the church was out of touch with the ordinary people: its culture was unfamiliar and unwelcoming; the gospel was not reaching them. To Cut a long story very short, and to omit a string of anecdotes that have become the Community's folk-lore as to how the money was raised and the task accomplished, George MacLeod gathered a group of men who rebuilt the monastic buildings of the Abbey. The project began in 1938, and was truly a sign of hope in dark times when unemployment was high and the storm clouds of war were gathering again. The rebuilding work was completed in 1967. In the process many lives were changed, and I suspect that few people believed that the Community would still exist to this day, least of all George MacLeod, who led the Community until 1967, and remained a thorn in many people's flesh throughout his life for his commitment to pacifism and ecumenism, among other significant causes. He was Church of Scotland Moderator in 1957, made a life peer in Britain's House of Lords in 1967, and died only ten years ago at the age of 96. All the evidence suggests that MacLeod did not intend the Community to be the kind of body or movement that it has become, viz, a dispersed community, rather like a religious order, with a continuing existence and a common commitment to a rule. …

“Cam Ye O'er Frae France?” Exile and the Mind of Scottish Jacobitism, 1716–1727

On 14 February 1716 at Ruthven in Badenoch, the remaining officers of the Jacobite army in Scotland gathered to decide their next move. They had turned out the previous autumn in high hopes of restoring the Stuart dynasty to the throne it had lost in 1689 and forcing an end to the union with England, but their confidence and enthusiasm had long since evaporated in the face of the defeat of the English rising at Preston and failure on their own part at Sherrifmuir. Their king and his chief minister had fled the country just after the army began its retreat from Perth. Now the weather had deteriorated, and desertion had reduced their once impressive force to a shadow of its former self. Not surprisingly, given the circumstances, the officers drafted a letter to the duke of Argyll, the commander of the British army in Scotland, asking for an indemnity and ordered their men to make their own way home. Then they themselves dispersed. It was the final act in the botched complex of conspiracies and uprisings that has gone down in history as the Jacobite Rising of 1715.Reflecting on the consequences of the Jacobites' failure, the earl of Mar, by then the Old Pretender's secretary of state, sadly remarked: “I much doubt if ever a [rising] can be established there again.” It was a percipient observation. For over a generation, it was to prove extremely difficult to persuade most of the leaders of Scottish Jacobitism even to contemplate another uprising.

The Duke, The Professors, And the Great Coral Reef Controversy of 1887-1888

In September 1887 the Duke of Argyll published an article entitled ‘A great lesson’ denouncing Darwin's coral reef theory and alleging that it continued to be supported in the face of new evidence contradicting it because of the authority of Darwin's name and the status of his disciples in British science. His attack touched off a robust correspondence in The Nineteenth Century which soon spread to Nature, and in which T. H. Huxley was the chief defender both of Darwin's views and of scientific procedures. Partly this controversy revolved around the interpretation of coral reefs themselves, but partly also it sprang from the resentment of scientists at the Duke's charge that they were swayed in their judgements by other than objective scientific criteria and modes of argument. The Duke was, in effect, anticipating later interpretations of science as a social activity, but as a result of the exaggerated and polemical nature of his contributions this insight was lost sight of as the scientists defended both their methods and Darwin's views. On the substantive question of the origin of coral reefs the Duke and his supporters were later shown to be largely wrong and Darwin largely right, and the incident did nothing to advance the understanding of the reefs. Had this discussion not eclipsed the Duke's point about the nature of reasoning and judgement in science, he might have made a more lasting contribution to the understanding of science itself.

12.—TheChallengerExpedition and Geology

SynopsisIn exploring the results of the voyage of H.M.S.Challengerit is interesting to look at its impact on the science of geology. The expedition provided the first general picture of the topography and character of the sea bed, and though the actual working up of the results of this and of many subsequent voyages was done in Edinburgh by Murray and Renard, and there was no further development of marine geology as a speciality in this country at that stage, their work had an impact that far exceeded the confines of the group. This paper looks briefly at the development of two of the main ideas to arise from the Challenger studies and at their reception by the geological community in the United Kingdom.Murray and Renard (1884) concluded that their results pointed to the likelihood that ocean basins had occupied their present positions since early geological time. They based this idea on the differing character and slower rate of deposition of the deep ocean sediments as compared to the terrigenous sediments from which sedimentary strata on land are derived and which are deposited close to the shore. Other people produced evidence from different sources, pointing to the same conclusion but its validity was strongly debated by geologists holding the opposite point of view. Both sides were, however, hampered in developing their arguments by lack of understanding of the basic processes which had led to the differentiation of the continents and the oceans and which determine why mountain building should take place in one area and not in another.Controversy also surrounded Murray's theory of coral reefs. This too was partly associated with more fundamental issues since Darwin's theory which it was intended to supplant, though this did not happen as things turned out, was founded on the idea that general subsidence had taken place in the oceans, which would have been incompatible with the idea of permanence. Murray's theory was designed to account for the various coral formations without invoking subsidence.The Duke of Argyll was right in thinking that Murray's theory had not had the response for which he hoped, but the probable cause seems not to have been geologists' undue reverence for Darwin's pronouncements, as he supposed, though this may have been a minor factor in the situation, but rather the able defence of his theory by Dana and others, and the fact that geologists, while alive to the need for their science to provide an explanation of the basic earth processes, were unable to find a paradigm within which they could work. In its absence they had no framework to suggest answers to these individual questions or to indicate fruitful lines of enquiry to pursue for their solution. They tended therefore to continue working along accustomed lines and, unless well established in traditional areas, to avoid involvement in tangential issues. In spite of the support which they received from Archibald Geikie, neither of these ideas, permanence of ocean basins or the formation of coral reefs without recourse to subsidence, ever came to enjoy anything like universal assent, though both appear as accepted points of view in scientific and general works published at and after the turn of the century.

Advancement in Aeronautics

THE history of the Society is a fascinating subject and one worthy of considerable study. On January 12, 1866, six men met at the London home of the eighth Duke of Argyll to found, the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain. They declared their belief in the achievement of human flight and their determination to advance it scientifically. Of the six founders, the three who contributed most to its advancement were James Glaisher, astronomer and meteorologist and a Fellow of the Royal Society, F. H. Wenham, a marine engineer, and F. W. Brearey, convenor of the first meeting, who was neither scientist nor engineer but an enthusiast who was to be the Honorary Secretary of the Society until 1896. These three played complementary parts, but it is probable that the contribution of Wenham exerted most practical influence on the Society's progress.

The Royal Aeronautical Society The First Fifty Years—1866 and All That

“ God bless the Duke of Argyll!”In the Lecture Hall at Hamilton Place, London, of the oldest aeronautical society in the world, that Duke of Argyll, who became its first President in 1866, looks silently down upon those members who, less than a century later, succeeded so noisily to fly faster than the sounds of their own triumphant cries of success.

Henry Ward Beecher and the english press of 1863∗

HISTORIES of oratory place alongside Demosthenes' triumph over Aeschines in ancient Greece the triumph of Henry Ward Beecher over hostile newspapers and unsympathetic ruling classes in England in 1863. How interesting it would be to study the newspaper editorials on The Oration, on the Crown if there were such. Fortunately, we do have the newspaper editorials on Beecher's addresses to the mass' meetings in Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London. To date these editorials have not been explored to discover their attitude toward Beecher and his cause. In some respects Beecher's conquest calls forth more admiration from the student of oratory than the ancient classic. For one thing Beecher was on foreign soil, away from all those who might be sympathetic to him because of past associations. And for another, Beecher had a press that was, with few exceptions, hostile to the North, and, finally, Beecher was not defending himself but his country. The attitude of most of the newspapers of oligarchic England in 1863 towards Henry Ward Beecher and his cause will be made clear if the lines of current thought in 1863 are reviewed. The primary cause of the war, as we know, was slavery; the secondary cause was Union. Lincoln in prosecuting the war thought it best to emphasize the political cause rather than the moral. In America, this emphasis fooled no one, but in England the ruling classes, which were more familiar with European than with American policies, believed that the cause of the war was political. On the other hand the masses of British people who had relations in America were informed through letters of the true situation. And there were men like John Bright, Richard Cobden, Forster, Goldwin Smith, Leslie Stephen, and the Duke of Argyll, who understood the conflict, who helped the unenfranchised masses to proclaim their sympathy with freedom across the Atlantic. But to men like Palmerston, Gladstone, and Russell the political cause was not sufficient to coerce the South-

Sir George Cayley the Founder of British Aeronautical Science

It is, I suppose, known to most of those present in this lecture hall that the Royal Aeronautical Society was founded in 1866–to be exact the first preliminary meeting was held, under the chairmanship of the Duke of Argyll, on January 12th, though the first meeting of members did not take place until the 27th of June following. It is, therefore, within a few days of 70 years ago that the Society came into being. That is a full and honourable age, and with it goes the distinction–in which we are entitled to take some pride–of being the oldest Aeronautical Society in the world. The anniversary may not arouse the enthusiasm usually associated with the more youthful glamour of a silver or a diamond jubilee. On the other hand it denotes another decade of progress in the growth of aeronautical science, and of even more marked developments in the application of that science, on which grounds alone it deserves passing notice.

Some charters belonging to the Duke of Argyll

Some charters belonging to the Duke of Argyll