JAMES THOMSON CHAPTER I EARLY CAREER JAMES THOMSON was the fourth child of Thomas Thomson, minister of Ednam, in the north-eastern corner of the county of Roxburgh, and was baptized on the 15th of September, 1700. In spite of the doubts raised by some of his biographers, there seems every reason to accept the statement of his friend Murdoch, that he was born on September 11th (22nd by the new style), which was certainly regarded by his family as his birthday. His father, a native of Ednam, was the son of Andrew Thomson, a gardener in the service of a Mr. Edmonston of that place, and several other members of the poet's family followed this vocation. The Rev. Thomas Thomson had married Beatrix, daughter of Alexander Trotter of Widehope, whose wife Margaret was descended apparently from a branch of the noble family of Home. Thomas Thomson was a minister of good repute, and devoted to his spiritual charge his wife is described for us, by one who knew her, as a person of uncommon natural endowments, "with an imagination for vivacity and warmth scarce inferior to her son's, and which raised her devotional exercises to a pitch bordering on enthusiasm." It is of some interest to note what the scenery and A surroundings were, in which the future poet of The Seasons grew up. These, however, are not to be sought for at Ednam; for within two months of James Thomson's birth his father accepted a call from the more important parish of Southdean, situated close to the Cheviots, on the upper stream of the "sylvan Jed," a locality which combines bleak mountain scenery with the charm of prettily wooded valleys; and it was here that the first impressions of external nature were received by the growing boy. Thomson is not very apt to describe particular localities, but it is partly on the scenery of Southdean that the descriptions are based which appeared in the first-published poem of The Seasons, and the poem is introduced by a passage which refers to his early experiences : "Welcome, kindred glooms! Cogenial1 horrors, hail! with frequent foot And sung Pleas'd have I wander'd thro' your rough domain, Heard the winds roar, and the big torrents burst, The manse is described as a straw-thatched house, "clinging with a nestling snugness to the base of Southdean Law," and commanding a view of the valley. The river Jed sweeps round its garden, and in the distance is seen "the clear-cut sky-line of Carter Fell, whose heathland slopes retain the eye of the spectator above surrounding objects, as the storm-drift "Cogenial" is Thomson's word, though it has been altered in all modern editions. He meant, of course, "familiar from birth." careers along them, or as the sunbeam reddens their purple beauty."1 Carter Fell rises in fact to a height of about 1800 feet, and there are other considerable hills in the immediate neighbourhood. Young Thomson was sent to school at Jedburgh, where the classes were held in an aisle or chapel of the partly ruined Abbey; and as the distance from Southdean is about eight miles, he probably resided in the town during the week. He made no very brilliant impression on his schoolmaster: an early biographer says that he was considered stupid, "really without a common share of parts." He was probably judged by his progress in Latin grammar, while he was chiefly devoting his attention, even at this early age, to English poetry. He very soon attracted the attention of some persons who were competent to judge of his literary ability, and were ready to give help and encouragement. It is generally agreed by Thomson's biographers, and gratefully acknowledged by Thomson himself, that a very important influence was exercised upon him by Robert Riccaltoun, a resident in the neighbourhood of Southdean, afterwards minister of the adjoining parish of Hobkirk. Riccaltoun was nine years older than James Thomson, and is described as a man of excellent literary taste and some original talent. He seems to have supplied the boy with books, and to have directed his early reading and his first essays in poetry; and Thomson, at the time when he was engaged on his own poem of Winter, wrote thus: "Mr. Riccaltoun's poem on Winter, which I still have, first put the design into my head; in it are some masterly strokes which awakened me." The poem referred to is generally assumed to be that entitled A Winter's Day, published in Savage's 1 Description communicated in 1891 to Mr. J. Logie Robertson by Dr. John Mair, minister of Southdean. |