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- Herausgeber: Abela Publishing
- Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
- Sprache: Englisch
ISSN: 2397-9607 Issue 203 In this 203rd issue of the Baba Indaba’s Children's Stories series, Baba Indaba narrates the English folktale of “THE GENTLEMAN HIGHWAYMAN.” James Maclain (also spelt "Maclean", "MacLean", or "Mclane") was born in 1724 in Scotland. He was the second of two sons of a Scottish Presbyterian minister who moved to Monaghan in Ireland. The elder son became a minister while James was educated to become a merchant. MacLaine frittered away his inheritance in Dublin on fine clothes, gambling and prostitutes. He moved to London and married the daughter of an innkeeper and horse dealer. With a dowry of five hundred pounds (approx. £50,000 or US$67,000in 2016 ) he set himself up as a grocer in Welbeck Street. His wife died within 3 years, and he ruined his business by adopting the airs of a gentleman to attract a new wealthy wife. At that time the son of a clergyman would have all the true airs of a gentleman, though perhaps not the funds. He joined bankrupt apothecary William Plunkett as a highwayman. Plunkett and Maclain were responsible for around 20 highway robberies in six months, often in the then, relatively untamed, Hyde Park. Amongst their victims were Horace Walpole, son of first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole and Lord Elgington. The thieves were always restrained and courteous, earning Maclain the sobriquet "The Gentleman Highwayman". The proceeds enabled him to live the high life. Sought by the law, he fled to his brother in the Haque, the Netherlands, for sanctuary. He waited until the furore had died down before returning to London. Caught trying to pawn lace pilfered in one of his robberies, MacLaine was incarcerated at the notorious Newgate Prison, near St Paul’s Cathedral, where he reputedly received nearly 3,000 guests while imprisoned. Plunkett was not apprehended and made his escape to France. MacLaine's trial at the Old Bailey became a fashionable society occasion in September / October 1750. His brother, Archibald, a minister of religion and a translator, travelled from the Hague to intercede with the court for justice for his brother, but was he unsuccessful? You're invited to download and read the true story of the Gentleman Highwayman. Baba Indaba is a fictitious Zulu storyteller who narrates children's stories from around the world. Baba Indaba translates as "Father of Stories". Each issue also has a "WHERE IN THE WORLD - LOOK IT UP" section, where young readers are challenged to look up a place on a map somewhere in the world. The place, town or city is relevant to the story. HINT - use Google maps. 33% of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities. INCLUDES LINKS TO DOWNLOAD 8 FREE STORIES
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
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THE GENTLEMAN HIGHWAYMAN
A Tale from Old Ireland
Baba Indaba Children’s Stories
Published By
Abela Publishing, London
2016
THE GENTLEMAN HIGHWAYMAN
Typographical arrangement of this edition
©Abela Publishing 2016
This book may not be reproduced in its current format
in any manner in any media, or transmitted
by any means whatsoever, electronic,
electrostatic, magnetic tape, or mechanical
(including photocopy, file or video recording,
internet web sites, blogs, wikis, or any other
information storage and retrieval system)
except as permitted by law
without the prior written permission
of the publisher.
Abela Publishing,
London, United Kingdom
2016
Baba Indaba Children’s Stories
ISSN 2397-9607
Issue 203
Email:
Website:
www.AbelaPublishing.com
An Introduction to Baba Indaba
Baba Indaba, pronounced Baaba Indaaba, lived in Africa a long-long time ago. Indeed, this story was first told by Baba Indaba to the British settlers over 250 years ago in a place on the South East Coast of Africa called Zululand, which is now in a country now called South Africa.
In turn the British settlers wrote these stories down and they were brought back to England on sailing ships. From England they were in turn spread to all corners of the old British Empire, and then to the world.
In olden times the Zulu’s did not have computers, or iPhones, or paper, or even pens and pencils. So, someone was assigned to be the Wenxoxi Indaba (Wensosi Indaaba) – the Storyteller. It was his, or her, job to memorise all the tribe’s history, stories and folklore, which had been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years. So, from the time he was a young boy, Baba Indaba had been apprenticed to the tribe’s Wenxoxi Indaba to learn the stories. Every day the Wenxoxi Indaba would narrate the stories and Baba Indaba would have to recite the story back to the Wenxoxi Indaba, word for word. In this manner he learned the stories of the Zulu nation.
In time the Wenxoxi Indaba grew old and when he could no longer see or hear, Baba Indaba became the next in a long line of Wenxoxi Indabas. So fond were the children of him that they continued to call him Baba Indaba – the Father of Stories.
When the British arrived in South Africa, he made it his job to also learn their stories. He did this by going to work at the docks at the Point in Port Natal at a place the Zulu people call Ethekwene (Eh-tek-weh-nee). Here he spoke to many sailors and ships captains. Captains of ships that sailed to the far reaches of the British Empire – Canada, Australia, India, Mauritius, the Caribbean and beyond.
He became so well known that ship’s crew would bring him a story every time they visited Port Natal. If they couldn’t, they would arrange to have someone bring it to him. This way his library of stories grew and grew until he was known far and wide as the keeper of stories – a true Wenxoxi Indaba of the world.
Baba Indaba believes the tale he is about to tell in this little book, and all the others he has learned, are the common property of Umntwana (Children) of every nation in the world - and so they are and have been ever since men and women began telling stories, thousands and thousands of years ago.
Where in the World – Look it Up!
This next story was told to him by a man who hailed from the county town of Monaghan. Can you find Monaghan on a map? What country is it in?
THE GENTLEMAN HIGHWAYMAN
Captain James MacLean (1724 – 1750)
A story, a story
Let it come, let it go
A story, a story
From long, long ago!
Umntwana Izwa! Children Listen!
ONCE upon a time long, long ago, in a far, far away land, few people can have crowded more occupations into a life of twenty-six years than James Maclean.
His father, a Scot by birth, had settled in the Irish county of Monaghan, where the position of minister to a body of dissenters had been offered him. From the first moment of his coming amongst them Mr. Maclean was much liked by his congregation, who carried all their troubles to him, sure that if he could not help them, he would at least give them advice and sympathy, and there was not one of them who did not drink his health with his whole heart when the minister married the daughter of a gentleman in the neighbourhood.
More than twenty years passed away quietly and happily. The Macleans had two sons, and the elder one early showed a wish to follow his father's profession, and, at an age when most young men are still at the University, received a 'call' to a Protestant congregation at the Hague.
Old fashioned Counting House
James, the younger, was educated for a merchant, and as soon as he was eighteen was to go into a counting-house and learn his business. Unfortunately, just before he reached the date fixed, his father died, leaving the youth his own master—for as no mention is made of his mother, it is probable she was dead also. Without consulting anyone, James threw up the post which old Maclean had taken so much pains to get for him, and withdrawing the money left him by the will, from the bank, spent it all in a few months on racing and betting.
Of course he was not allowed to make himself a beggar in this silly way without an effort to save him on the part of his mother's friends. But from a child he had always thought he knew better than anyone else, and quarrelled with those who took a different view. Naturally, when the money had all disappeared without anything to show for it, he chose to forget how rude he had been, and expected his relations to support him in idleness, which they absolutely refused to do. At length, not knowing which way to turn, he was glad enough to become the valet of a certain Mr. Howard, who was on his way to England. When he liked, the young Irishman could make himself as pleasant as most of his countrymen, and Mr. Howard took a great fancy to him, and treated him with much kindness. But from first to last James never knew when he was well off, and after a while he returned to his old ways, and frequently stayed out all night, drinking and gambling.
