Let the road be long and dreary, And its ending out of sight; Foot it bravely, strong or weary: "Trust in God, and do the right!" Perish policy and cunning! Perish all that fears the light! Whether losing, whether winning, "Trust in God, and do the right!" Trust no forms of guilty passion; Trust no party, church, or faction; "Trust in God, and do the right!" Some will hate thee, some will love thee, Some will flatter, some will slight; Cease from man, and look above thee: "Trust in God, and do the right!" Simple rule and safest guiding; Inward peace and inward light; Star upon our path abiding: "Trust in God, and do the right!" JAMES HEDDERWICK 1814-1897 BETWEEN the years 1840 and 1880 literary genius in Glasgow and the West of Scotland owed more to the fine lettered taste and enterprise of James Hedderwick than to anything else. In his publications Alexander Smith, Hugh Macdonald, David Wingate, David Gray, James Macfarlan, William Black, and others, all found their first audience and road to fame. He is entitled to affectionate remembrance, therefore, not only as a poet himself, but as a Mecenas of poets in his time. Born in Glasgow, 18th January, 1814, he was early apprenticed to the business of his father, who was afterwards Queen's printer in the city, and who believed the printing office an excellent school. Even as a boy, however, he had a strong literary bent, and on one occasion made a pilgrimage to Edinburgh to see Sir Walter Scott sitting as Clerk of the Court of Session. At the age of sixteen he spent a year at London University, won first prize in the Belles Lettres class, and read Shakespeare with Charles Kemble. On returning to Glasgow, while still in his teens, he edited what is now a literary curiosity, the Saltwater Gazette, and when the Argus was launched in 1832, he gained valuable newspaper experience in connection with it, his father being its printer. So well did he improve his opportunities, and so promising were his contributions to the press, that before he was twenty-three he was appointed assistant-editor of the Scotsman. During the following years in Edinburgh he made acquaintance with most of the Scottish men of letters of the time, and of many of them-Francis Jeffrey, James Ballantine, the brothers Chambers, and others-he had at a later day highly interesting memories to relate. Among his other literary performances at that period he wrote one number of Wilson's "Tales of the Borders," and some political articles which were much quoted and commented on. And when at last he left Edinburgh, in 1842, he was entertained at a public dinner, at which Charles Maclaren, editor of the Scotsman, presided, and John Hill Burton, the future historian of Scotland, was croupier. He then, with his brother Robert, started the Glasgow Citizen, a 41⁄2d. weekly paper. In its columns the native literary taste of the editor became at once evident, and, the final series of "Whistle-binkie" having been issued in that year, the new paper gathered about it the literary traditions and aspirations of Glasgow. Hedderwick's Miscellany, another weekly periodical begun in 1862, had a more purely literary character, but much the same set of contributors. It ceased to appear two years later when, the new daily papers having undermined the position of his weekly journals, Hedderwick launched the Glasgow Evening Citizen. The American Civil War was then at its height, and interest in Transatlantic news intense. By meeting this interest the new paper at once attained a brilliant and lasting success, and to its example is largely due the popular afternoon press of the United Kingdom. In 1878 Glasgow University recognised Hedderwick's services to literature by conferring on him the degree of LL.D. To the last his house in town retained something of the character of a salon of letters, among others who were frequently entertained there being the members of the Ballad Club, of which he was honorary president. For many years he was subject to distressing attacks of heart palpitation. This affection rendered imprisonment in a train a natural dread to him, and he travelled regularly to and from his country house at Helensburgh by road. Only twice in these years did he make a journey by rail, going once to Peebles and once to Edinburgh, on the latter occasion to give evidence regarding a brother killed in the disastrous Winchburgh accident. At Rockland, his Helensburgh residence, on 1st December, 1897, he died. He was twice married, and was survived by a widow and four sons and a daughter. As a journalist Dr. Hedderwick wielded to the end one of the most shrewd and charming pens. He possessed also a singularly happy manner of address, and but for his heart affection must have left his mark as an orator in a much wider sphere. On the occasions when he did make an appearance, as at the founding of the Western Burns Club in 1859, he made a memorable impression. As a poet, not less than a friend of poets, he has assured his place. His first volume of poems appeared in 1844. It was followed by "Lays of Middle Age" in 1859, enlarged thirty years later, and "The Villa by the Sea, and other Poems" in 1891. His ode on the jubilee of Queen Victoria was read to the Queen by his old friend Sir Theodore Martin, and was ordered to be included among the odes selected for preservation. Its feature was the absence of the usual adulation and flattery of Royalty for royalty's sake. Among his efforts for the fame of others must be recorded the highly effective prologue which he wrote for the dramatic performance given in 1860 for the widow of Hugh Macdonald, the memoir which in 1862 he prefixed to the first edition of the poems of David Gray, and the very beautiful epitaph inscribed on the public monument to John Henry Alexander, the actor-manager, erected in Glasgow Necropolis. His witty, kindly, and altogether delightful volume of "Backward Glances," besides, published in 1891, contains many of the most interesting reminiscences of literary Edinburgh and Glasgow during sixty years. Dr. Hedderwick left some brief MS. notes of his life in the hands of his sons, from which a number of details have been included in the present short account. A memorial to him has been erected in the nave of Glasgow Cathedral. BY THE SEA-SIDE On thy fancy, gentle friend! come listen while I paint The noon is faint with splendour; the sails are hanging slack; The steamer, passed an hour ago, has left a foamy track ; The tall ship in the offing has been idling all the day There is not breath enough to wake an infant wave from sleep; A dreamy haze is on the hills and on the shimmering deep; The rower slackens in his toil, and basks within his boat; On the dry grass the student sprawls, too indolent to note The glory that's afloat. Round my throne of rock and heather the fat bee reels and hums; The liquid whistle of some bird from the near hillside comes; All else is silence on the beach and silence on the brine, And tranquil bliss in many a heart, yet sudden grief in mine, To mark a stranger pine. He is young, with youth departed; moist death is on his cheek; They have borne him out into the sun a little health to seek An old man and a mother and a maid with yearning eyes; They smile whene'er they talk to him; he smiles when he replies; Despair takes that disguise. |