The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham, "Skellat" Bellman of Glasgow, Vol. 1 of 2

In Short

This first volume of Dougal Graham’s collected works centers on his celebrated rhyming chronicle of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, prefaced by an extensive editor’s study of eighteenth-century Scottish chapbooks. Graham, a street pedlar who became Glasgow's official town-crier, follows Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s Highland army across England and Scotland. His verse offers a vivid, grassroots account of troop marches, chaotic skirmishes, brutal battlefield aftermaths, and the royal fugitive’s eventual escape through the Hebrides. It endures as an indispensable, plain-spoken historical source that captures the raw, everyday reality of eighteenth-century war.

The Story

The narrative opens with editor George Mac Gregor framing the life and literary legacy of Dougal Graham, Glasgow's "skellat" bellman. Mac Gregor surveys the ephemeral world of popular Scottish chap literature, tracing how cheap, paper-bound booklets of folk humor, satirical courtships, and bawdy tales circulated by the hundreds of thousands among the common people before falling into neglect.

The historical heart of the volume then unfolds through Graham’s famous metrical history of the Jacobite Rising. The story begins as Prince Charles Edward Stuart mobilizes the Highland clans and moves south into Lothian. Government forces under General Cope assemble near Dunbar to face the rebellion. Cope encamps his troops near Tranent, foolishly mocking the undisciplined Rebel rabble. The Jacobite forces quickly outmaneuver him, catching the Hanoverian forces hemmed in by marshland at Prestonpans and routing them in a sudden charge.

Flushed with victory, the Prince’s forces march deep into England, advancing all the way to Derby before retreating back toward the Scottish border. As the Jacobite army pulls back through Carlisle, an Irish officer named Sullivan convinces a small contingent, including the Lancashire regiment, to stay behind and defend the town's iron-and-oak gates. The main army makes a desperate, dangerous river crossing at the swollen River Esk, constantly fearing the English pursuers on their heels.

Returning to Scotland, the Jacobite forces clash again with government troops at Falkirk Muir. The battle descends into chaos under stormy skies. Plundering camp followers and savage boys roam the muddy battlefield stripping the dead, while ruthless looters dispatch wounded soldiers with daggers. Following the bloody victory, an accidental gun discharge in the streets kills a Glengarry chief, prompting an immediate lynching of the unfortunate shooter.

The rebellion’s fortunes decline rapidly as siege operations fail across the country. The Jacobites attempt to besiege Stirling Castle and Fort William, but government garrisons vigorously repel them, destruction of powder stores, and swift counter-sallies. Simultaneously, a siege at Blair Castle led by Lord George Murray collapses when the Jacobites are recalled north. The entire army retreats toward Inverness, setting up the ultimate disaster.

After the total collapse at Culloden, Prince Charlie becomes a hunted fugitive in the Western Isles. Accompanied by loyal companions like Donald MacLeod, Ned Burke, and Flora Macdonald, the Prince hides in swine styes, desolate island huts, and mountain caves, living off roasted fish and raw meal. Government officers, led by Captain Ferguson, relentlessly harass locals like Kingsborough, dragging loyalists off to dungeons and prison ships. Eventually, Charles reunites with a battered, barefoot Lochiel in the woods of Lochaber before escaping to sea, leaving behind a devastated Highlands subject to rampant burning, plunder, and public executions in London.

How It Unfolds

The editor introduces the bellman George Mac Gregor outlines Graham’s eccentric life as a Glasgow town-crier and pedlar, providing a bibliographical study of his immensely popular chapbooks, which preserved the genuine dialect and everyday culture of eighteenth-century Scotland.

The battle of Prestonpans Highland forces catch General Cope’s government troops unprepared in a swampy field, using superior position and sudden aggressive movement to smash the Hanoverian army and claim Edinburgh.

The retreat from Carlisle Faced with advancing English forces under the Duke of Cumberland, the Jacobite army leaves a doomed garrison behind at Carlisle and risks a perilous crossing of the swollen River Esk to regain Scottish soil.

Chaos at Falkirk Muir A confused battle fought in bad weather yields a grim victory for the rebels, followed by horrific scenes of battlefield looting and the summary execution of a man who accidentally shoots a Highland chieftain.

Failed sieges and northwards retreat Rebel forces exhaust their ammunition and momentum trying to take Stirling, Fort William, and Blair Castle, forcing them to abandon their artillery and march north toward their eventual doom at Inverness.

Hunted in the Hebrides Following Culloden, the Prince wanders the outer islands disguised and starving, dodging English warships while loyalist women and crofters face arrest, imprisonment, and harsh interrogation for aiding his flight.

Reunion and aftermath Charles meets the wounded Lochiel in a rustic hideout before escaping Scotland, while back in England, captured rebel lords like Kilmarnock and Balmerino walk to the scaffold on Tower Hill to meet the axe.

The People

• Dougal Graham: The author and observer; a working-class Glasgow pedlar and later municipal bellman whose rhyming verse provides a gritty, first-hand populist chronicle of the 1745 rebellion.
• Prince Charles Edward Stuart ("The Pretender"): The ambitious young Catholic claimant to the British throne; he leads the Highland rising with grand hopes, only to end up a ragged, barefoot fugitive hiding in swine styes and mountain huts.
• General Sir John Cope: The government military commander in Scotland; confident and arrogant, his poor tactical planning leads to a humiliating defeat at Prestonpans.
• Sullivan: An Irish officer serving Prince Charles; his questionable advice convinces the rebels to leave a brave but doomed garrison trapped behind the reinforced gates of Carlisle.
• Sir Andrew Agnew: The staunch military governor defending Blair Castle; a clever old soldier whose cunning tactical ruses prolong the defense until English reinforcements arrive to break the siege.
• Flora Macdonald: A courageous young Highland woman; she risks her freedom to assist the fugitive Prince in his island escape, resulting in her swift arrest and imprisonment on board a government warship.
• Lords Kilmarnock and Balmerino: Condemned Jacobite noblemen; they face their public execution on Tower Hill with contrasting demeanors, one showing humble repentance and the other defiant loyalty to King James.

In Its Own Voice

"Cope shamm’d it till another day, / In hope ’twould prove a cheaper way:"

Graham dryly mocks the hesitation of the government general right before the sudden Jacobite charge at Prestonpans.

"The plund’ring wives, and savage boy / Did many wounded men destroy; / With durks and skians they fell a sticking,"

The verse captures the gruesome brutality that immediately followed the battlefield action at Falkirk Muir.

"The Prince was now in a poor dress, / Poverty’s picture in distress, / A black coat with many patches, / Barefooted, and wanting breeches,"

Graham paints a startlingly unglamorous portrait of the royal fugitive hiding out in the Highland wilderness.

What It's Really About

Beyond the military maneuvers of the Forty-five, the book serves as an unvarnished social history of ordinary people caught in the crossfire of civil war. Graham is not concerned with high-minded ideological speeches or romantic myth-making; he focuses on the logistical misery, cold hunger, opportunistic theft, and sudden violence endured by common soldiers, camp followers, and peasants. The collection also operates as a monument to popular Scottish chap literature—the cheap, street-level printing tradition that fueled the working class's imagination. Through both the editor's bibliographical history and Graham's doggerel verse, the work asks how common folk construct their own history away from official state narratives, exposing the gritty, unromantic machinery of war and regional culture.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to readers of military history, Scottish lore, and raw eighteenth-century popular culture. Rather than reading like a polished, formal history, it feels like listening to a blunt, sharp-witted street crier telling war stories over a pint in a crowded Glasgow tavern. It offers a rare, ground-level view of the Jacobite Rising stripped of Victorian romanticism.

Readers should prepare for genuine period difficulties. Graham writes in rhyming couplets that frequently employ broad Scots dialect, rustic phonetics, and irregular meter. Furthermore, the narrative contains unsparing depictions of war's grim realities—plundering, harsh reprisals, and summary violence—along with fierce anti-Popish religious biases typical of eighteenth-century Presbyterian Scotland. Yet for those willing to navigate the archaic verse, the reward is an authentic, energetic encounter with a voice that lived through history rather than merely studying it.