"MARRIAGE"

MARRIAGE owed its origin to the friendship which Miss Ferrier contracted with Miss Charlotte Clavering, a relation of the Argyll family, and it was by Miss Clavering that the initial step in the production of the book was taken. She proposed to Miss Ferrier that they should write a novel jointly, and although Miss Ferrier did not accept the proposal it was destined to bear fruit in due process of time. The second step was also taken by Miss Clavering, who composed a tale, or part of a tale, of her own which unhappily never saw the light. It must have been quite terrific in character, but all that we know about it is that the heroine was named Hermensilde, and that she was crammed by a wicked Count into an old empty beerbarrel, which was projected into the sea through a cabin window which was apparently too small to have rendered the projection a possible event by any natural means. Miss Ferrier, however, was not favourably impressed by this tragedy, as we discover from a letter which she addressed to her friend in February 1810. Miss Clavering's work had

apparently reached an advanced stage when this letter was written, and Marriage itself must also have been commenced, though it is not clear how far it had progressed. The first notion of the story had occurred to Miss Ferrier before she declined to co-operate in the writing of a novel, and it is mentioned in one of her letters which bears no date, but which is earlier than that in which she pours scorn upon the catastrophe of poor Hermensilde. In this earlier letter Miss Ferrier says: "I do not recollect ever to have seen the sudden transition of a high-bred English beauty who thinks she can sacrifice all for love to an uncomfortable solitary Highland dwelling among tall red-haired sisters and grim-faced aunts. Don't you think this would make a good opening of the piece? Suppose each of us try our hands on it." Miss Clavering, as we have seen, preferred a subject of an order more sublime, but Miss Ferrier carried out her own suggestion, and by the year 1810 Lady Maclaughlan had entered the world, and Sir Sampson had been introduced to Lady Juliana. By the end of the same year Lady Charlotte Campbell had pronounced that the new story far surpassed Fielding, and had laughed over it so much that Miss Clavering feared she would fall into a fit.

No novel I should imagine can ever have been upon the stocks for a longer period than Miss Ferrier's first venture. She had begun it in 1810,

if not before, and the highly amusing correspondence in the "Memoir" contains frequent allusions to the course of the story up to its publication in 1818. It was actually still unfinished in December 1817, as we see from a letter which Mr. Blackwood, who ultimately purchased the book, wrote in that month. We must suppose that Miss Ferrier, who avowedly regarded writing as an amusement, only indulged herself in the pursuit at rare intervals. It is curious that the copy-right of of Marriage should have been sold for exactly the same sum (150) as that which was paid to Miss Austen for Sense and Sensibility, which was the first of her works to be published. Miss Austen was delighted with her bargain, apparently thinking that it was great fun to receive money for having done something that was agreeable to herself, and we may hope that Miss Ferrier had the same feelings.

She had certainly ample reason to be gratified at the reception that Marriage encountered. It was praised in Edinburgh and it was praised in London. Mrs. Piozzi called it "a very comical thing," and Sir Walter Scott spoke of it as a "very lively work." What have we to say about it now when eighty years have gone by, and when so much of the world which the book describes has passed away?

In respect of plot the book is nowhere. The story is strung together in a loose and inartistic

fashion, and possesses no real interest whatsoever, while it contains some incidents which must be condemned for their improbability. A very brief sketch of it will be likely to prove convincing.

Lady Juliana was the daughter of the Earl of Courtland, and was as she imagined of a romantic disposition. Acting on this erroneous impression she eloped with a young Scottish officer of the name of Henry Douglas, and thereby offended her father for life. The happy couple took refuge in the husband's Highland home, which is described in great detail and with splendid vivacity. It excited of course the disgust of Lady Juliana, but she remained there discontentedly enough until her sorrows culminated in the birth of two twin daughters. Both children were annoyances, but for one of them she conceived a peculiar dislike, and she ultimately handed it over to the care of her very estimable sister-in-law, who was the wife of Henry's elder brother. At this conjuncture of affairs a certain General Cameron to whom Henry had always been an object of affection intervened and settled the sum of £700 a year upon his favourite. On the strength of this settlement Henry and Lady Juliana, with one of their babies, set off to London, and there established themselves. Extravagance was the rule in their household, and the crash was not long in coming. Henry was arrested for debt and conveyed to prison, but was almost immediately