Jules Verne's Scotland E-Book

Ian Thompson

• Herausgeber: Luath Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 306

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

This book weaves in all the reasons why the residents of Scotland love to live here; landscape, beautiful scenery, an air of mystery and the great history of the land. Thompson conveys Verne's deep fascination with Scotland and takes the reader on a journey with Verne from his beloved Heart of Midlothian' to exploring in the Highlands. This book also explains how Verne's love for Scotland flooded into his literature. Jules Verne, pioneer in the science fiction genre, wrote world- famous books including Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Around the World in 80 Days. His literary legacy is still celebrated today, his books have scarcely been out of print and have spawned a host of films and TV adaptations. BACK COVER I still see, as in a vision, beautiful picturesque Edinburgh, with its Heart of Midlothian, and many entrancing memories; the Highlands, world-forgotten Iona, and the wild Hebrides. JULES VERNE, 1895Jules Verne's first visit to Scotland lasted a mere five days, but that was enough to instil within him a lifelong passion for the small country; a passion which had a profound impact on his literary work and fuelled his creative imagination. Two journeys, 20 years apart, and five novels set partly or wholly in Scotland, show how the influence of the country rippled all the way through his life. Jules Verne's Scotland guides the reader through Verne's journeys, first in 1859 and again in 1879, where he witnessed the majesty of Edinburgh and the industrial buzz of Glasgow together with the unspoilt beauty of the Highlands and Islands. As well as providing insights into Verne's travels in Scotland, Ian Thompson provides analysis of novels such as The Underground City and The Green Ray that immortalise Scotland in their pages. Thompson evokes the history of the land, the rugged scenery and the enduring spirit of Scotland, which remained in Verne's memory all his life and was evoked with passion in his storytelling.

Leseprobe

Jules Verne’s Scotland

In fact and fiction

There is only one country that was given by

God! It is Scotland to the Scottish.

Jules Verne, Sans dessus dessous,1889

IAN THOMPSON

LuathPress Limited

EDINBURGH

www.luath.co.uk

First published 2011

eBook 2014

ISBN: 978 1 906817 37 4

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-909912-81-6

The publisher acknowledges subsidy from Creative Scotland towards the publication of this book

Maps © Mike Shand

Cover images: sketch of Jules Verne reading proofs: © National Portrait Gallery; theRMSColumbamoored at Ardrishaig for passengers to connect with the Crinan Canal: courtesy University of Aberdeen Library

Author photograph: Les Hill

Jules Verne(front flap): from Jules Claretie’s ‘Jules Verne’, Paris 1883. Courtesy of the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland

The author’s right to be identified as author of this book under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.

© Ian Thompson

Contents

Acknowledgements

Prologue

PART ONE – SCOTLAND VISITED

CHAPTER ONE First Impressions, 1859

CHAPTER TWO Return Visit, 1879

PART TWO – THE SCOTTISH FICTION OF JULES VERNE

CHAPTER THREE The ‘Scottish’ Novels

CHAPTER FOUR The Blockade Runners

CHAPTER FIVE The Children of Captain Grant

CHAPTER SIX The Underground City

CHAPTER SEVEN The Green Ray

CHAPTER EIGHT The Fabulous Adventures of Master Antifer

CHAPTER NINE Then and Now: In the Scottish Footsteps ofJules Verne

Epilogue

Reading on

LIST OF FIGURES

FIG. 1 Location of maps

FIG. 2 Nantes, Verne’s birthplace

FIG. 3 The 1859 itinerary

FIG. 4 Jules Verne’s Edinburgh

FIG. 5 The only known document of the 1859 Scottish journey

FIG. 6 Jules Verne’s Glasgow

FIG. 7 Charleston Harbour at the time ofThe Blockade runners

FIG. 8 The itinerary ofTheUnderground City

FIG. 9 The itinerary ofThe Green Ray

FIG. 10 Jules Verne’s Stirling

FIG. 11 Jules Verne’s Oban

FIG. 1 Location of Maps

Acknowledgements

THANKS ARE DUE TO a large number of individuals and institutions for help and encouragement in the preparation of this book. Amongst ‘Vernians’ special thanks are due to the late Zvi Har El for access to the Jules Verne Forum, an invaluable source of feedback via this website. Philippe Valetoux provided me with information on Verne’s second journey to Scotland derived from Verne’scarnets de voyagesand Piero Gondolo della Riva similarly with documentary evidence with respect to the 1859 journey. William Butcher, Geoff Woollen and Tim Unwin gave encouragement especially at the very early stages of my interest in Verne and Scotland. Marie Buckley and other residents kindly gave access to Inzievar House, while Kari Petrie and Marianne Chalmers gave assistance with the family histories of the Smith-Sligo and Bain families respectively. At the Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences at the University of Glasgow, Yvonne Finlayson and Les Hill provided help with illustrative material while Mike Shand lent his outstanding cartographic talents. Among the institutions that have given direct help, thanks are due to staff at the National Library of Scotland, especially Yvonne Shand, the National Archives of Scotland, especially Leanne Swallow, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments Scotland, especially Dr Miles Oglethorpe, and staff at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. At Glasgow University Library, grateful thanks are due to staff at the Special Collections, especially the Keeper, David Westen, and at the Business Archives, George Gardner. The Carnegie Library, Dunfermline and the William Patrick Library, Kirkintilloch provided helpful local detail. Thanks are due to Edinburgh Central Library, especially Mr James Hogg, for provision of 19th century photographs of Edinburgh. On transport issues, the Ships of Calmac Society, particularly Steve Hurst, and David Blevens, and David Hinds of the Caledonian Railway Association, provided clarification of rail transport issues. Dr Robert McCulloch provided valuable information on the demise of the original Caledonian Hotel in Oban. Kerr Doig and Sheila Pitcairn of Dunfermline City Archives helped with local detail in the Oakley area. In England, Douglas Herdson, Information Officer at the National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth, gave information on the range of the Hammerhead Shark. Emma Butterfield of the National Portrait Gallery in London facilitated access to a previously unpublished portrait of Verne and Anne Crowne, of Lloyds Yacht Register, gave permission to include the entry of theSt-Micheliii.At Aberdeen University, Kim Downie aided the reproduction of images from the Washington Wilson Collection. Thanks are also due to Valerie Boa, Curator of the McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock, for permission to reproduce an image of the RMSColumba. In France, Professeur Jean Bastié, President of the Société de Géographie, facilitated access to the archives of the Society and M. Alain Marquer arranged consultation of the archives of theAlliance Françaisein Paris, of which Verne was a founder member. M. Bernard Sinoquet, Curator of the Verne Collection at La Bibliothèque Centrale d’Amienspermitted consultation of thecarnets de voyagesof Verne’s 1879 visit to Scotland. I am grateful to the Strathmartine Trust for funding archival visits to France.

Above all, I am grateful to Gavin MacDougall, Managing Director of Luath Press, for his support for this and other Jules Verne projects.

Ian Thompson

Prologue

TOWARDS MIDNIGHT ON Friday 26 August 1859, the Caledonian Railway express train from Carlisle pulled into Edinburgh’s spartan Lothian Road Terminus. As the smoke and steam cleared, two figures emerged on the platform. One was a musician, Aristide Hignard. The other was his friend, Jules Verne, then aged 31. For Verne, setting foot on Scotland’s soil was the realisation of a dream, for he claimed descent on his mother’s side from a 15th century Scot, Allott, who had enlisted in the Scottish regiment of King Louis XI of France. With the creation of the Auld Alliance signed in Dunfermline in 1296, essentially a military alliance against England, it was not uncommon for Scottish mercenaries to serve in the French Army. After loyal service, Allott was ennobled and assumed the title of Allotte de la Fuÿe, signifying the substantial privilege of owning a dovecote on his land. From boyhood, Jules Verne had revelled in his Scottish connection, further enhanced by his passion for the works of Sir Walter Scott, which he had read in translation since he had no competence whatever in the English language. In an interview given in 1895, he pointed to the well-worn copies of Scott’s books in his library and stated:

All my life I have delighted in the works of Sir Walter Scott, and during a never-to-be-forgotten tour in the British Isles, my happiest days were spent in Scotland. I still see, as in a vision, beautiful picturesque Edinburgh, with its Heart of Midlothian, and many entrancing memories; the Highlands, world-forgotten Iona, and the wild Hebrides. Of course, to one familiar with the works of Scott, there is scarce a district of his native land lacking some association connected with the writer and his immortal work.1

Although Verne had boundless pride in his distant Scottish ancestry, it is unlikely that he would have visited Scotland and produced his Scottish books without the inspiration of Scott’s works .

Having been born a Breton, albeit on the extreme south-east margin of Brittany, Verne had an instinctive empathy with Celtic nations, which he regarded as being subdued by more powerful neighbours. Thus Scotland and Ireland evoked his sympathy and provided fertile ground for his creative imagination.

Verne’s arrival in Edinburgh was more than just his first journey abroad. Having been born in Nantes and struggled to achieve a literary career in Paris, it was his first encounter with lakes and mountains as immortalised in the writings and paintings of the Romantic Movement. In fact, in correspondence and writing, he mentioned his visit to ‘the Scottish Lakes’, referring primarily to Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine. It was the fulfilment of his ambition to set foot in ‘his’ Scotland, the land of his ancestors. Moreover, he had acquired a vast compendium of knowledge of Scotland, especially its history, from voracious reading which he was now to transform into first-hand experience.

This first visit to Scotland was brief, a mere five days, but it was sufficient to instil in him a love of the country and its people which was to be sustained throughout his life. It was to inspire a travelogue and five novels set entirely or partly in Scotland. Moreover, countless Scottish characters populate his other books. They range from aristocrats to simple seamen, rich businessmen to modest servants, all characterised by qualities of loyalty, endurance and fortitude. The female characters display charm and intelligence but no lack of determination.

After this first visit, Verne returned to Scotland 20 years later in 1879. By then, having achieved fame and relative fortune, Verne arrived not by train, a struggling and unknown writer, but as a world famous author sailing into the port of Leith in his own handsome steam yacht with a crew of ten. Berthing his yacht, Verne not only revisited his favourite haunts in Edinburgh, The Trossachs and Loch Lomond, but by train and steamer extended his travels in Scotland to Argyll, Oban and the islands of Mull, Iona and Staffa. His Scottish novels therefore span Verne’s personality from excitable but frustrated and unfulfilled young man to successful author, with sufficient wealth to travel in style and comfort in early middle age.

My decision to write this book sprang from the fact that very few people with whom I had discussed Verne had any idea that he had both visited Scotland and used this experience to write books set in the country. This may be a result of the language barrier, since modern high quality English translations of some of his Scottish novels have only recently appeared. Accordingly references to material in French have largely been omitted but can easily be accessed by consulting appropriate biographies and collections recommended at the close of the work. This book therefore chronicles Verne’s travels in Scotland, his impressions and experiences, and demonstrates the influence that this had on the writing of his ‘Scottish’ novels. It is thus an account of Jules Verne’s Scotland, in fact and fiction.

Ian Thompson, Glasgow 2011

Note

1 Belloc, M, ‘Jules Verne at home’,Strand Magazine, February 1895.

PART ONE

Scotland Visited

CHAPTER ONE

First Impressions, 1859

JULES VERNE WAS BORN in the French city of Nantes, at the head of the estuary of the Loire on the south-east margin of Brittany, on 8 February, 1828. His father was a successful lawyer who anticipated that Jules, as the elder son, would in the fullness of time inherit the practice. This intention was never fulfilled, for at an early age Jules viewed such a prosaic profession as being utterly incompatible with his imaginative and romantic nature. These qualities were enhanced in his childhood by the bustle of the port on the River Loire, with its vessels trading with far-off and exotic sounding countries.

The port of Nantes, and indeed the city’s bourgeoisie, had thrived on the slave trade and colonial commerce. It was thus no ordinary port that entranced the young Jules, for its vessels traded with distant lands and in exotic products. In addition it was one of France’s major whaling ports. This was a heady mix for a young boy with an overactive imagination. Before Jules had reached the age of ten, his father rented a substantial summer residence in Chantenay, at that time a rural commune on the north bank of the Loire to the west of Nantes. The young Jules and his brother Paul spent magical times there for the property overlooked the Loire, a tempestuous river flooding the adjacent meadows in winter and reduced to braided channels between sandbanks when the river level fell during the summer. He had a grandstand view not only of the shipping, but also the huge factories on the river banks. The foundries of Indret-sur-Mer and the Basse-Indre factory produced marine components from anchors and chains to the metal forgings for shipbuilding. Jules gaped at the monstrous machines, and the almost nightmarish power of modern technology induced in him a fascination with industrial production and its potential for both good and ill, which was to be reflected decades later in his writing. [FIG. 2]

FIG. 2 Nantes, Verne’s birthplace

He grew up in this nautical wonderland and dreamed of voyaging himself. This yearning to explore the world’s oceans was further excited by the tales of an uncle, a retired sea captain, who lived in the countryside south of the Loire1. The summer holidays were often spent at his home and in addition to regaling Jules with his seafaring adventures, his uncle also repeatedly reminded him of his Scottish ancestry. Alas for Jules it was his younger brother Paul who was allowed to join the merchant navy while he, at least in his father’s mind, was destined for the legal profession. Given his day-dreams of faraway lands reached by daring sea captains, and his determination that one day he too would sail the seas in search of adventure, a more unsuitable candidate for the life of a provincial lawyer is difficult to imagine.

At school, Jules was a satisfactory if not brilliant scholar who showed particular promise in literature, music and geography, all of which were to be the backbone of his adult creative life. On leaving senior school, after a short period of apprenticeship in the family practice in Nantes, Jules was enrolled in the Law Faculty in Paris in 1848 aged 20 as a necessary step towards joining the family legal practice. Such a fate could not have been further from Jules’ mind for he was determined to follow a literary career. To the grief of his father, Jules spent his time on the fringe of the literary and theatrical milieu in relative poverty, writing a prolific amount of short plays andlibrettifor operettas and working briefly as a theatre secretary. Although he made the acquaintance of several major literary figures, his own work was largely unsuccessful and did not provide him with a livelihood. He spent entire days in public libraries reading and making notes in comfort and warmth as opposed to his cold garret apartment. He dined regularly with a group of ten other unmarried young men, but as one by one they succumbed to matrimony, Jules himself began to fret for a wife, and preferably a wealthy one. In spite of his impecunious position, he never lost faith in his own destiny to be a famous author, and although he gained his law degree, his parents had to accept that he would never succeed his father in the family practice and that his literary ambitions tied him to Paris.

It was at this stage in 1856 that, when attending the wedding in Amiens of one of his friends, he met and was enamoured of a young woman of 26, Honorine Deviane. Already a widow with two young daughters, Verne courted her and marriage followed in January 1857, the match being eased on Verne’s part by the fact that Honorine had a substantial dowry. In spite of his wife’s resources, which enabled the newly-weds and their daughters to settle into more comfortable accommodation in Paris, Verne went through the motions of working for a living as a dealer in a bank. If the truth be known, his appearances at the bank were far from regular and the urge to write still dominated his psyche. It was at this stage, in 1859, that his dream of seeing Scotland became a reality.

His school friend Aristide Hignard, like Verne, had settled in Paris; he launched a musical career and they shared a similar circle of acquaintances. Hignard’s brother Alfred was a shipping agent who regularly chartered vessels exporting French cargoes to Britain. He was able to offer Aristide free passage on a steamer sailing from St-Nazaire, at the mouth of the Loire, headed for Liverpool. Hignard invited Verne to accompany him and he immediately accepted. His excited correspondence with his parents shows that Liverpool was not his intended destination but merely a stepping stone en route for Scotland!

The journey to Liverpool was not without complications. The sailing schedule was changed and the two friends were obliged to sail from Nantes to Bordeaux and wait for several days until the arrival of the British steamship, thessHamburg. In effect, they had set off in the opposite direction to their intended destination and hence when Verne’s account of their journey was published it was entitledVoyage à reculons en Angleterreet en Ecosse2, which was subsequently translated into English asBackwards to Britain3. In fact this book is the main source of information on Verne’s first visit to Scotland. It is written in a lively and humorous style and is no doubt a little embroidered and lightly fictionalised. Nevertheless, it is possible to verify much of the content and to establish that it is in fact an authentic autobiographical account. Verne disguised his identity in the book by adopting the name of ‘Jacques Lavaret’ while Hignard became ‘Jonathan Savournon’.

It is important to understand what kind of man, at age 31, was to land on the shore of Britain for the first time. Certainly, as we know from a letter written to his father dated 15 July 1859, Verne was excited by the prospect of visiting Scotland;

In a week or so, I’ve got a chance to go to Nantes, alone this time… Alfred Hignard has offered his brother and me a free trip to Scotland and back on one of his ships. So I’m grabbing the chance to make such a lovely trip.

His young wife of only two years was left behind to join family in her home town of Amiens while Verne set off on his adventure; a precedent for future negligence including his absence in Copenhagen at the birth of his only son in August 1861. This is one of many examples of Verne’s paradoxical character. He was extremely well-educated, both as a result of his rigorous school studies to obtain hisbaccalauréatand his somewhat unenthusiastic legal studies in Paris. But arguably Verne owed his remarkable intellectual versatility and polymath erudition to his own efforts. From youth he had been an avid reader of fiction and had also composed poems on a variety of topics, ranging from bitter recrimin-ations due to unrequited romance to wicked humorous parodies and double entendre of an explicit nature. If Walter Scott had inspired his passion for Scotland, he was also a devoted admirer of Charles Dickens, whose vivid evocation of urban poverty was confirmed by his own observations in the poorer parts of Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. He also appreciated James Fenimore Cooper and Edgar Allan Poe, who inspired his later novels set in America. His zest for literature was accompanied by a passionate interest in music and he was an accomplished pianist. In his early years in Paris he had devoured the contents of libraries, making copious notes carefully classified for future reference. Equally important, he had mingled with both the literary and scientific milieus in Paris and had absorbed all that this had to offer. By the time he set sail Verne was thus a sophisticated and ambitious young man, convinced of his vocation to be a famous author, but as yet unrecognised and financially insecure. His one practical deficiency was a lack of modern foreign languages, his education having been based on the classical languages.

His intellectual resources were, however, not entirely matched by an equivalent experience of social conditions. Although in Paris he was far from unaware of the seamier aspects of urban living, his bourgeois family background had sheltered him from exposure to the scale of squalor and poverty that he was to witness in the docks area of Liverpool, the pestilential courtyards of Edinburgh or the overcrowded and unhygienic quarters of the old town in Glasgow. He thus arrived in Scotland with a head full of romantic images, gleaned from Sir Walter Scott and the Celtic legends, but his eyes were opened when he was confronted with the less congenial side of urban life in mid-19th century Scotland.

Ashore in Britain

After a three day journey from Bordeaux, the SSHamburgdocked in Liverpool at 5am on 25 August. Verne was astonished at the scale of the port at Liverpool, which dwarfed that of his home city of Nantes. The docks extended as far as the eye could see and the density of the moored vessels almost obscured the water.

In spite of the squalor, violence and ugliness that he witnessed in Liverpool, Verne remained attached to the city and stated that it was the English city he knew best. He was to revisit it in 1867 with his brother Paul, en route to New York aboard Brunel’s giganticGreat Eastern, which inspired his bookUne ville flottante, 1869, (A Floating City) and he sited the opening of one of his best known novels,Voyages et aventures du capitaineHatteras,1866, (The Adventures of Captain Hatteras) in the port of Liverpool4. In fact Verne later expressed the opinion that the port was superior to that of Glasgow, in spite of the latter being Scottish!

After lunch on 26 August, the companions made their way to Liverpool Lime Street railway station, the terminus of the London and North Western Railway, to board the express to Edinburgh5. The train would have been hauled by a steam-powered cable up the steep incline from the station through the long tunnel to Edge Hill. Verne admired the speed of the train, which exceeded that of French railways, but had some concern for its safety. This was a shrewd observation since the speed of the express was not accompanied by adequate braking power, especially when running on steep downhill gradients. The locomotive was probably a 2-2-2 Cornwall class, its giant single driving wheel accounting for its rapid speed across the level plains of central Lancashire. Passing through Wigan and Preston, the express continued along the main line from London and headed north through Lancaster to reach Carlisle. Here the Caledonian Railway carriages would have been detached and taken over by a handsome Caledonian engine. Given that the Carlisle to Scotland route was the Caledonian Railway Company’s prestige run, it is likely that the locomotive would have been the company’s latest acquisition, the brand new Connor 2-2-2, with massive eight feet two inch driving wheels. Soon after leaving Carlisle, to Verne’s great excitement, the train crossed the border at Gretna. Verne’s spirits rose further as the train threaded its way through the hills of the Southern Uplands, which in Verne’s eyes were ‘mountains’, to reach Carstairs. Here the train split, with the front coaches continuing to Glasgow and the rear ones branching eastwards to Edinburgh. The Edinburgh coaches were hauled by an older and smaller 2-2-2 engine. The combination of excitement and fatigue proved too much for the pair and as darkness enclosed the train they fell fast asleep for the last stage of the journey.

Scotland at last! – Arrival in ‘Auld Reekie’

Disembarking from the train in pouring rain around midnight at Caledonian’s unprepossessing terminus at Lothian Road6, the pair hailed a cab and ordered the coachman to take them to Lambré’s Hotel, 18 Princes Street. The hotel was owned by a Frenchman, Nicolas Lambré, and had possibly been recommended to them or discovered in a French guide book7. Exhausted and ravenous after their long journey from Liverpool, they ate cold meat washed down with two pints of frothing ale before retiring at one o’clock. The subsequent travels of Verne and Hignard in 1859 are summarised in FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 The 1859 itinierary

Although spending only three days in the city, by dint of continuous exploration on foot, by horse-drawn omnibus and carriage, they witnessed the essence of mid-19th century Edinburgh. By 1859 the essential features of the core of the city had been established. For centuries it had been a ‘one street town’ along the hilltop axis of the High Street. This ‘Royal Mile’, rich in historical and literary associations, made a deep impression on Verne. Built on the steep-sided ridge from the Castle to Holyrood Palace, the confined site imposed a very high density of buildings, often ten storeys high, and a lack of open space other than the street itself. The congested and animated street, except on Sundays as Verne was to discover to his cost, resonated with him more than the magnificent monumental public buildings, which he almost ignored. For Verne it was the throbbing life of the street itself, the skyscraper tenements and dingy noisome back closes of the Canongate, the coffee houses and taverns, the scenes evoked by Walter Scott, that most captured his imagination.

The view of Edinburgh’s Old Town from Lambré’s Hotel in 1859.In the foreground is the General Railway Station and in the background,the ‘skyscraper’ tenements lining the High Street. City of Edinburgh Council

Edinburgh’s New Town, developed from the mid-18th century onwards, seems to have interested him less, other than the vista it afforded across the Princes Street Gardens to the Old Town and to Arthur’s Seat. The geometrical layout of streets and squares, and above all the pseudo Grecian High School building and the ‘reproduction’ monuments on Calton Hill were regarded with disdain.

In particular Verne disparaged the Nelson Monument. InBackwards toBritainhe states;

At the top of the hill stands the Nelson Monument which is of great height and topped by a signal for the ships that sail up and down the Forth. This tower has a dismal shape and is so inelegant it is painful to contemplate.

Backwards to Britain(Chapter 25)

For Verne, the New Town lacked the colour and bustle of the Old Town. It was a bourgeois domain of wealth and privilege as compared with the social warp and weft of the High Street.

At this time, Edinburgh was in rapid expansion, the city itself housing over 160,000 inhabitants and beginning to merge physically with the adjacent settlements on the coast and inland. Verne was to witness this spread at first hand. In his visit to Lauriston he saw a prototype inner suburb being created for the burgeoning business and professional classes. At the seaside resort of Portobello, he observed growth resulting from the recreational demand of an urban population and its hinterland. By contrast, Granton and Newhaven represented the absorption into the agglomeration of specialised ‘villages’, a ferry port and fishing village respectively. In comparison, Leith was a substantial port and provided Edinburgh with a maritime outlet to the North Sea.

Edinburgh explored

At the first light of dawn on 27 August, Verne could contain his excitement no longer and threw open the window of his room and peered over the balcony. His eyes feasted on the animation of Princes Street and across the gardens to the Old Town with its castle surmounting the crag and tenements lining the crest of the hill. His gaze scoured the horizon and lighted on the extinct volcano of Arthur’s Seat, which he declared to Hignard would be their immediate ascension. The less impetuous Hignard demurred and insisted that their first exploration would be the Old Town and to defer climbing the summit until fortified by a hearty lunch.

To follow the itinerary of the two friends in Edinburgh and throughout the remainder of their stay in Scotland, it is essential to readBackwards to Britain, especially to appreciate Verne’s reaction to the sights and sounds, but also to enjoy some of the comic episodes he describes and which were almost certainly invented. Here, we will concentrate on those aspects of his journey which were to sum up his experience of Scotland and which were to provide him with material and ideas for his Scottish novels. FIG. 4 indicates the locations in Edinburgh named by Verne inBackwards to Britainand in his subsequent novels.

FIG. 4 Jules Verne’s Edinburgh

On leaving their hotel, the companions retraced the steps of the previous evening by strolling along Princes Street to Lothian Road. They admired Scott’s Memorial, the Royal Academy, the gardens and the general harmony of the buildings. Deciding to take a circular route around the Castle Rock, they climbed up to the Grassmarket and gained the High Street near St Giles’ Cathedral. Strangely, the Castle did not hold their attention nor were they impressed by St Giles, an example of ‘heavy’ Anglo-Saxon Gothic, nor Parliament House. These architectural reservations were, however, offset by Verne’s identification of the locales of scenes from Scott’sTheHeart of Midlothian.

On readingThe Heart of Midlothian, Jacques [Verne] had developed an archaeological passion for the old Tolbooth, where poor Effie Deans was imprisoned and suffered so bitterly. He had studied that part of the novel carefully and intended to show off his knowledge; by now he reckoned they should have reached the sinister prison.

Backwards to Britain(Chapter 19)

Passing John Knox’s House, they paused for lunch in a tavern near the Tron Kirk8before continuing their traverse of the Old Town towards the Palace of Holyrood. Following the Canongate, the pair encountered the ugly side of the city.

The area that leads to the royal palace is one of utter misery. Naked children, barefoot women and girls dressed in rags, beggars with hats, jostle, pass, drag themselves along and slink past the tall tenements with their pinched, starved features. And yet, in the middle of that abject populace, in the foul, diseased-ridden atmosphere, on the muddy pavement and down those dark, dank horrid lanes or closes which lead to revolting slums, slithering down stepless ramps towards the ravines on either side of the Canongate, one is gripped by the terrible poetry of old Scotland!

Backwards to Britain(Chapter 20)

Verne’s favourite Edinburgh street, the High Street, looking towards the Canongate. This view dates from Verne’s second visit in 1879 and features the supposed house of John Knox, close to which was the fictional residence of the Reverend Tyrcomel inThe Fabulous Adventures of Master Antifer(1894). City of Edinburgh Council

Relief from this depressing spectacle was provided by the broadening of the Canongate as Holyrood Palace was approached. In fact Holyrood impressed Verne less as a building than as the scene of dramatic and tragic historical events and his eyes continued to be drawn to the summit of Arthur’s Seat. Verne made straight for the Salisbury Crags, followed by a struggling Hignard. The strenuous climb to the summit was rewarded by a panorama which took Verne’s breath away.

The whole city was spread out below, with the modern districts and regular streets of the New Town contrasting withAuld Reekie’sconfused tangle of houses and crazy network of alleys. Two landmarks dominated the skyline, the Castle on its basalt rock, and Calton Hill, with the ruins of a Greek temple on its rounded summit. Splendid tree-lined avenues converged on the capital. To the north, an arm of the sea, the Firth of Forth with the Port of Leith at its mouth, cut deeply inland. North of the Firth lay the harmonious coastline of the kingdom of Fife; to the east stretched the boundless expanse of sea which always looks blue and calm when viewed from such heights. A road as straight as the one to Piraeus linked this new Athens to the North Sea, as Charles Nodier observed. The distant peak of Ben Lomond was visible to the west and below, to the right of Arthur’s Seat,stretched out the beaches of Newhaven and Portobello, with their bathing resorts. No pen can do justice to this breathtaking scene.

Backwards to Britain(Chapter 20)9

Holyrood Palace and Arthur’s Seat. Salisbury Crags are visible on the right.The view from the summit was one of Verne’s most enduring memories. Anonymous postcard

Verne was so overwhelmed by the spectacular panorama that he was to exploit it twice more in his novels. However exciting the view Verne was determined to press on with their exploration and the aerial view of the coast guided their descent to Portobello. At this time an active resort, the beach was thronged with bathers and in spite of having no bathing suits the two friends plunged naked into the chilly sea and then rushed back to the security and modesty of their changing cabin. Exhausted by the ascension of Arthur’s Seat and by their swim, they repaired to a seafront inn and restored themselves with a glass of ale. A horse-drawn omnibus took them past the prison and beneath Calton Hill to the New Town. Here they descended and retraced their steps to Lambré’s Hotel to rest and to consult a map, for a further excursion awaited them. Hignard’s brother had married the niece of a Scottish businessman, a certain Mr B who lived in the New Town, and it was sure that a warm welcome awaited them at his house. Accordingly they set off in the direction of Leith, crossing the handsome squares and town houses of the New Town until they reached Inverleith Row. At that time, this impressive avenue was in the course of development. Bisecting the Botanic Gardens to the west and Lauriston Cemetery to the east, it was a fitting district for a bourgeois family.

Verne disguised the name of Mr B, the original manuscript blotting out all but the capital letter of the surname. However, by a variety of means we can identify him as William Bain, Manager of the Edinburgh Branch of the City of Glasgow Bank. This conclusion is reached by an examination ofSlater’s Directory of Scotlandfor 1859, which reveals no other surname beginning with ‘B’ resident in Inverleith Row. Moreover, the description of the house provided by Verne corresponds exactly with number 6 Inverleith Row identified in the Directory, with a front and rear garden and a location at the entry to the Botanic Gardens and opposite the entry to Warriston Cemetery. The Census of 1861 indicates the Bain family as residing in a fourteen apartment house with five children and two resident servants10.

Verne and Hignard were admitted by a maid to the first floor drawing room of the Bain house where they met Mrs Bain and her daughter Margaret, who Verne disguises as ‘Amelia’ inBackwards to Britain. At the time of their visit, she would have been almost 18 and Verne was immediately smitten both by her charm and her fluent French, spoken with a fetching Scottish accent. As Mr B was not at home, the companions were invited to stay to dinner and in the meantime Margaret proposed a walk in the neighbourhood, to which they immediately agreed. They promenaded in the Botanic Gardens, created some 40 years earlier and thus offering a mature landscape of lawns and trees. The magnificent rotunda hothouse was filled with tropical plants and its balcony provided a magnificent view over the city. After spending an hour walking and in conversation, Amelia led them across Inverleith Row to Warriston Cemetery. To his surprise Verne found this far from mournful. As compared with the gloom of French mausoleums, this newly-created cemetery, with its neat paths, box hedges, view of the Dean valley and of the city skyline, delighted Verne.

William Smith who Verne referred to as ‘The Reverend Mr S’ inBackwards to Britainshown here in his vestments as Archbishop of Edinburgh and St Andrews. Studio Portrait acquired by the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland

It was just a short step across the road back to 6 Inverleith Row and the two friends were ushered into the presence of William Bain and a Catholic priest whom Verne identifies as the ‘Reverend Mr S’, and who was also to be a dinner guest. In fact the priest was William Smith, the 39-year-old brother of a wealthy property and mine owner, Archibald Smith, who in addition to a handsome town house with nine servants in Drummond Square in Edinburgh’s New Town, had recently built a baronial mansion in Fife on his estate, close to his coal mine and ironworks at Oakley. The 1861 Census defines William Smith as a ‘Catholic priest without a parish’ although archives show that, for a short time at least, he served the parish of St Margaret in Dunfermline. He also had the official status of Chaplain to the wife of Archibald Smith, the former Lady Harris. To secure this appointment, she had promised the Bishop of Edinburgh that she would finance the construction of a chapel in Oakley. No doubt this was nepotism, but also a service to the Catholic community of Oakley which was without a local place of worship. He was later to rise through the Catholic hierarchy to become Archbishop of the St Andrews and Edinburgh diocese in 1878, and died in office in 189211. He was buried in St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh.