CHAPTER IIITHE BALLANTYNE BROTHERS
The business of Paul’s Work was immediately prosperous, and rapidly increased. James Ballantyne was an excellent man of business. He was also an artist in his profession, as is shown by many of his productions, and especially by the beautiful 1829 edition of Sir Walter Scott’s novels printed at his press. It is to this edition that Mr. Percy Fitzgerald makes particular reference, when he writes: “The press of the Ballantynes, under the inspiration of Sir Walter Scott, issued marvels of brilliant and effective printing, which seem to ripen with age.... There is a calm dignity, an unobtrusive harmony, in the large page and its proportions and tint, that at once excites admiration.... A more beautiful, legible, and satisfactory edition could not be well imagined than that ofthe long set of the Waverley Novels, published about ‘sixty years since.’ The size, paper, illustrations, and extraordinary brilliance of the type make it quite a favourite edition—indeed, the famous tales seem to read differently in this than in later editions of more show and pretence.”[9]
John Ballantyne, the next of the family to James, came to Edinburgh soon after the removal to Paul’s Work, and was employed as a clerk. He is described at a later date, in the famous “Chaldee Manuscript,” published inBlackwood’s Magazineof October 1817, as “John, the brother of James, a man of low stature, who giveth out merry things, and is a lover of fables from his youth up.” He was originally destined for a mercantile life, but after a brief business training in London he returned to Kelso, and remained there till 1805, when he joined his brother James in Edinburgh. Lockhart thus pictures the two brothers: “James was a short, stout, well-made man, and would have been considered a handsome one but for grotesque frowns, starts, and twistings of his features,set off by a certain mock-majesty of walk and gesture, which he had perhaps contracted from his usual companions, the emperors and tyrants of the stage. His voice in talk was grave and sonorous, and he sang well, in a fine rich bass. John’s tone in singing was a sharp treble; in conversation something between a croak and a squeak.” As a storyteller John was unrivalled, having an infinite fund of ludicrous and characteristic anecdote, which he set off with a humour endless in its variety of shades. “Scott used to call the one Aldiborontiphoscophornio; the other Rigdumfunnidos. They both entertained him; they both loved and revered him; and I believe would have shed their hearts’ blood in his service.”[10]“Fatsman” was another of Scott’s playful nicknames for James Ballantyne, as was also “Mr. Basketfill,” used by Constable, in allusion to the well-known printer Baskerville.
A favourite entertainment of Scott was the reciting or singing by John Ballantyne of the “Cobbler of Kelso.” On one occasion, when Scott, Constable, and the Ballantynes werediscussing at Abbotsford the arrangements for the publishing of “Rob Roy,” at the end of the business Scott turned to John, and said:—
“‘By-the-by, ’tis a long time, Johnny, since we have had the “Cobbler of Kelso.”’ Mr. Puff (a name sometimes given by Scott to John Ballantyne) forthwith jumped up on a mass of stone, and seating himself in the proper attitude of one working with his awl, began the favourite interlude, mimicking a certain son of Crispin—at whose stall Scott and he had often lingered when they were schoolboys—and a blackbird, the only companion of his cell, that used to sing to him, while he talked and whistled to it all day long. With this performance Scott was always delighted: nothing could be richer than the contrast of the bird’s wild sweet notes, some of which he imitated with wonderful skill, and the accompaniment of the Cobbler’s hoarse cracked voice, uttering all manner of endearing epithets, which Johnny multiplied and varied in a style worthy of the Old Women in Rabelais at the birth of Pantagruel.”[11]
John’s private residence was called Harmony Hall, a villa at Trinity on the Firth of Forth, surrounded by gardens, and about three miles distant from Paul’s Work. Here he kept up an expensive style of living—in all things showing a great contrast to the sober and staid conduct of his brother James.
After James Ballantyne’s removal to Edinburgh, he continued to edit theKelso Mailfor about three years, when the pressure of the printing-office compelled him to relinquish the editorial chair. He was succeeded by his youngest brother, Alexander, who conducted the paper with marked ability and success for the next twenty years. Alexander ultimately came to Paul’s Work, and was made a partner in the firm in 1829.[12]He was a good musician, and Sir Walter Scott, several times in his “Journal,” tells us how much he enjoyed his playing upon the violin and the flageolet. Here is an entry under May 31, 1827: “Dined at James Ballantyne’s, and heard his brother Sandy singand play on the violin, beautifully as usual. James himself sang the ‘Reel of Tullochgorum’ with hearty cheer and uplifted voice.” And again, on July 28 of the same year, he writes: “We heard Sandy’s violin after dinner—
‘Whose touch harmonious can removeThe pangs of guilty power and hopeless love.’
‘Whose touch harmonious can removeThe pangs of guilty power and hopeless love.’
‘Whose touch harmonious can removeThe pangs of guilty power and hopeless love.’
‘Whose touch harmonious can remove
The pangs of guilty power and hopeless love.’
I do not understand or care about fine music, but there is something in his violin which goes to the very heart.”
Alexander was an amiable and modest man, never connected with Scott in any business matters, but always his favourite in private. During some temporary financial difficulty of Scott in 1826, he was able to lend him £500. He was the father of Mr. John Ballantyne, R.S.A., a well-known artist in London, who died in May 1897, and of the late Mr. R. M. Ballantyne, celebrated for his tales of travel and adventure, published by Messrs. James Nisbet & Co., which are still popular with young people.