Arrah Neil; or, Times of Old Read online

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  Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source https://books.google.com/books?id=4qdEAAAAYAAJ (University of Virginia) 2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe]. 3. Missing pages were provided by the 1844 edition.

  ARRAH NEIL

  BY

  G. P. R. JAMES

  LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS LIMITED MDCCCCIII

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  _The Introduction is written by_ LAURIE MAGNUS, M.A.; _the Title-pageis designed by_ IVOR I. J. SYMES.

  INTRODUCTION.

  George Payne Rainsford James, Historiographer Royal to King WilliamIV., was born in London in the first year of the nineteenth century,and died at Venice in 1860. His comparatively short life wasexceptionally full and active. He was historian, politician andtraveller, the reputed author of upwards of a hundred novels, thecompiler and editor of nearly half as many volumes of letters,memoirs, and biographies, a poet and a pamphleteer, and, during thelast ten years of his life, British Consul successively inMassachusetts, Norfolk (Virginia), and Venice. He was on terms offriendship with most of the eminent men of his day. Scott, on whosestyle he founded his own, encouraged him to persevere in his career asa novelist; Washington Irving admired him, and Walter Savage Landorcomposed an epitaph to his memory. He achieved the distinction ofbeing twice burlesqued by Thackeray, and two columns are devoted to anaccount of him in the new "Dictionary of National Biography." Eachgeneration follows its own gods, and G. P. R. James was, perhaps, tooprolific an author to maintain the popularity which made him "in someways the most successful novelist of his time." But his work bearsselection and revival. It possesses the qualities of seriousness andinterest; his best historical novels are faithful in setting and freein movement. His narrative is clear, his history conscientious, andhis plots are well-conceived. English learning and literature areenriched by the work of this writer, who made vivid every epoch in theworld's history by the charm of his romance.

  "Arrah Neil; or, Times of Old" is a characteristic mixture of historyand sentimental romance. The historical matters are concerned with anearly episode in the Great Civil War, which centred in the destiniesof the important town of Hull, the "magazine of the North." Sir JohnHotham was governor at the time that the King hoisted the RoyalStandard at Nottingham, and though he closed the gates against hisMajesty, it was felt by both sides that his defection from theParliament was not at all unlikely, especially if they persisted inextreme measures. This doubtful attitude of Sir John, the strainedrelations between him and his son, Colonel Hotham, and the hopes andfears of the Royalist party as to the possession of Hull, are thehistorical elements in the plot, and give rise to an intricate seriesof extremely entertaining as well as exciting events. The plot ishardly well put together; James does not trouble himself much abouthis "loose ends," and it looks as though the French mission, on whichthe King sends the Earl of Beverly and Captain Barecolt, were merely apretext for their subsequent adventures. On the other hand, the novelcontains one singular and striking success. James often attempts lowcomedy and frequently fails, but in the boasting, swaggering, andresourceful Barecolt, the indomitable Royalist soldier, who "mighthave become almost as great a man as he fancied himself if it had notbeen for his swaggering, drinking, drabbing, and lying propensities,"he has given us what, according to the limits of his genius,corresponds to Scott's Captain Dalgetty. Barecolt is a character inevery sense of the word, and his sayings and doings are as amusing asthe strange events that befall him are exciting. The story of ArrahNeil is--a rare thing for James--a tragic one; the mystery of the plotis happily solved, yet the end is pathetic. But the pathos is by nomeans bitter or unmitigated, since the parallel half of the story endssatisfactorily, and due retribution falls on the offenders. Jamestakes up the story of the Civil War again in "The Cavalier" and "HenryMasterton," both of which deal with a more disastrous period in thecareer of the Royalists. Sir John Hotham and his son ultimately paidthe penalty of their indecision, with their heads.

  ARRAH NEIL.