GALT, JOHN, a popular Scottish novelist, born in 1779 at Irvine in Ayrshire—a small town that enjoys the triple literary distinction of having been the birth-place of Galt and James Montgomery, and the residence of Burns during an interesting portion of his early career. From the same place, too, Galt derived the prototypes of some of his best Scottish characters. Having received his education at
Greenock, and acquired a knowledge of mercantile affairs, Galt proceeded to London to push his fortune. He was unsuccessful in a partnership scheme, and afterwards entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, intending to study the law. He was tempted abroad, however, partly by delicate health and partly to carry out some mercantile speculations. At Gibraltar he met with Lord Byron and Mr Hobhouse, and sailed in the same packet with them to Sardinia and Malta. This accidental acquaintance, which was afterwards slightly renewed, led Galt to write a life of Byron after the decease of the noble poet, but the work did not add to his reputation. After three years' residence and wanderings in Sicily, Greece, and Turkey, during which he was engaged in several commercial enterprises of importance, though not of profit, Mr Galt returned to England, published his travels, and entered on what may be called a professional literary life. A Scottish tale, The Ayrshire Legatees, published in Blackwood's Magazine, was highly popular; and this was followed by a series of works of a similar character—The Annals of the Parish, The Provost, The Steam-Boat, Sir Andrew Wylie, The Entail, and The Last of the Lairds. In these novels Galt opened up views of Scottish life and character scarcely touched upon by Scott, yet as true to nature as the portraits of that great master. They were types of classes fast disappearing—old-fashioned ministers, magistrates, and lairds, whose oddities are portrayed in lively colours, interspersed with scenes of genuine pathos and winning simplicity. Another charm in these works was their rich and copious Scottish diction—the fine old quaint Doric, so simple yet figurative and expressive—which is now rarely heard in the same unsophisticated purity and force even among the village elders. The Annals of the Parish stands at the head of these works, and there is little hazard in predicting that it will form Galt's best passport to a durable fame. He wrote many other novels, several plays and poems, the life of Cardinal Wolsey, and that of Benjamin West the artist. No author was ever more unequal than Galt—extravagant improbable fictions followed some of his happiest creations, and much of what he published must be considered as mere task-work written to meet the exigencies of the day. In one other novel he was eminently successful. He was appointed agent for the Canada Land Company, and was placed among the woods and wildernesses of the new world, and amidst settlers and squatters of various descriptions. New phases of life and strange adventures were thus brought before him, and he embodied his observations in a tale entitled Laurie Todd, founded on the real experiences of a pawk Scottish emigrant. This is a powerful and interesting work, resembling the fictions of De Foe in its life-like reality and teeming variety of incidents. The latter years of this ingenious writer were clouded by poverty and disease. All his splendid commercial and trading schemes had failed, his inventions, like those of most inveterate projectors, brought him only trouble or disappointment, and though his mind and pen were still as facile and ready as ever, he had exhausted his fine original vein, and had to contend with confirmed ill-health. Repeated attacks of paralysis reduced his frame to a helpless wreck, but still left his restless and energetic mind to work on its way eager and unsubdued. Having attained his sixtieth year, he died at Greenock, April 11, 1839. (R. C.—S.)