Text: James H. Whitty, “Edgar Allan Poe in England and Scotland,” Bookman (New York, NY), September 1916, pp. 14-21

[page 14, continued:]

THERE remain no incidents in the life of Edgar Allan Poe better known than the published episodes at Bransby's Manor House School, located in the London suburb, Stoke Newington, England. All biographers of Poe have drawn their conclusions of his early life abroad almost entirely from his tale of “William Wilson,” taking it for granted that Poe's descriptions of Schoolmaster Bransby and of the Manor House School were real, instead of fiction. The fact is, that this was the only thread the earlier Poe writer had in sight out of which to weave any story. [column 2:]

Where Poe told so much, some suspicion might have been excited, for it was not his way to enter into minute particulars of his life. “That later on he briefly wrote in a memorandum intended for “Griswold's Poets,” that his five years’ stay about London was spent at the Bransby school, was more like Poe's methods. It was hardly to be expected under the circumstances, however, that Poe would have mentioned a small London boarding-school, or a stay for school in Scotland, when writing for public effect, and with limited space at his command.

In his tale of “William Wilson,” Poe [page 15:] styles the schoolmaster, “Doctor” Bransby, but recent investigation fails to reveal such an academical degree for Bransby. The description of the Manor House School is drawn along ideal lines in Poe's own imagination, and so good an English authority as the late Mr. Ingram, Poe's biographer, was led into error. His picture of the Bransby school building, published in his biography of Poe, has recently been shown to be the former dwelling of a well-known banker named Twells, instead of where Poe went to school. The portrait of Mr. Bransby in Gill's and other biographies of Poe have also proven spurious. A portrait of Bransby at an advanced age, however, exists and is in circulation. As Poe introduced Bransby, the schoolmaster, in his tale of “William Wilson,” likewise he has apparently taken his early London school-mistress for a character in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” giving her real name of Pauline Dubourg. ‘The records among the Ellis and Allan manuscripts, in the Library of Congress, now show that Poe's time spent at Bransby's school dates only from the latter years of his residence abroad, or from the autumn of 1817 until the sum- mer of 1820, when he returned to America. Other records there also show that he attended a small London school kept by Miss Dubourg, located on the site of No. 146 Sloane Street, adjoining which now stands the Holy Trinity Church. Poe was a pupil there from about April, 1816, until probably early in December, 1817. ‘This leaves a hiatus in his school history of several months during the latter part of the year 1815 and a brief period early in the year 1816.

It must have been some time during one of these periods that Poe went for a short stay to the old grammar school at Irvine, Scotland, in which John Allan, his patron, had been a pupil, and where all his sons afterward attended school.

The story of Poe's Scotland visits has never been told until now, It has [column 2:] hitherto been a mooted question whether Poe ever crossed over into Scotland from England. But there can no longer remain any doubts upon that point. Poe went to Scotland, and was there a sufficient length of time for his visits to leave vivid marks of remembrance upon his memory of that classic region of which so many scenes and incidents are sketched with truth and beauty.

Who now knows but that the whisper of genius came into Poe's soul in the land of Burns? If not Scotland, it must have been England, for the leaven had already risen when he arrived home in America. It has been well said that “true genius is a mind of large powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.”

Among the English poets, Cowley, Milton, and Pope, might be said to “lisp in numbers,” and have shown such early proof, not only of powers of language, but of comprehension of other things, as to more tardy minds seem scarcely credible. Cowley had a volume of his poems printed in his fifteenth year, and Poe's first book of verse appeared when he was eighteen. There is sufficient evidence, however, to show that Poe while yet at school, seven years previous to the publication of his poems, was writing poetical compositions.

The confusion shown by biographers in the early events of Poe's life is now being gradually cleared away, and with newly discovered facts the future biographer of Poe may be able to point out with accuracy, like in Cowley's case, the circumstances that produced the particular designation of Poe's mind.

That Poe's mind was charmed and centred at an early age on some one of the earlier writers seems almost certain. Among the new discoveries is a letter written by John Allan, and dated October 15, 1815, in which he pictures Poe, then but six years of age, sitting before a snug fire in their London home, reading a story book.

There are also recent new records showing Poe, while a mere stripling, and [page 16:] before his advent into the world of letters, with copies of Goldsmith, and Byron at his elbow trying to cheer his disconsolate spirits, which were much disheartened by enforced work in Ellis and Allan's establishment at Richmond, Virginia, as a salesman of “‘calicoes and dimities.” It is now clear from Allan's letters that Poe arrived at Liver- pool the latter part of the year 1815, and with the Allan family proceeded at once to Scotland, to visit the Allan relatives. While the visit was partly one of pleasure, Allan was about to establish a London commission house, with tobacco as a main staple, and there were important connections to be made in Scotland.

The first journey was to Irvine, Ayrshire, the birthplace of John Allan, where Poe and the family stopped with a spinster sister of Allan's named Mary Allan. ‘There were other near relatives of the Allans in Irvine named Galt. Among them was James Galt, then about fifteen years old, who came to America with the Allan family when they returned home. He settled in Virginia, and was afterward John Allan's executor and the progenitor of the well-known family of Goldsboroughs of Maryland. He lived to a ripe old age, and a son named after Allan, Major John Allan Galt, not so long deceased, has left interesting unpublished reminiscences of his father, which also throw new light upon Poe's early career.

Irvine is a seaport, twenty-three miles southeast of Glasgow, and has a present population of upward of five thousand. At the time of Poe's visit the town differed somewhat from the present day. An idea of Old Irvine, and how it looked at the period of Poe's visit, may be had from the accompanying illustra- tion shown here, in which is to be seen the house where John Allan was born in 1780. This house faced the High Street, the main thoroughfare of the town, and was also the Kirkgate, an old rambling street leading to the Parish church. This locality remains practically the same as in Allan's day. [column 2:] In one of the houses on the opposite side of the street to the Allan house was born Henry Eckford, who constructed the American Navy during the War of 1812. Not far distant was the Blue Bell tavern, and upon its steps stood the town crier twice a week, who after tapping his old-fashioned drum, read aloud the news-letter, just arrived with the coach, for the benefit of the motley crowd about him.

At the head of the old Kirkgate was the ancient grammar school, where Allan was educated with John Galt, the novelist, father of the Kailyard School, and Henry Eckford. The school was famous in its day, and the masters had many pupil boarders from America. Within its confines Poe's stay must have been brief. ‘The school was a continuation of the Pre-Reformation School in connection with the Church, with which it was no doubt coeval.

The Kirk was there in 1205, but for how long before is not known. James VI, of Scotland, by a deed of June 8, 1572, granted to the magistrates and community of Irvine certain revenues belonging to the Church for the support of a school to be called “The King's Foundation of the School of Irvine.” This was continued until July, 1816, when a new Academy was erected.

It was John Allan's early hopes to have Poe remain there while abroad for his education, but his wife demurred, and Poe was also opposed to being left so far away from the family. James Galt expected to go to London at a later date, so it was arranged that he was to bring back Poe to Irvine for school.

Nearly opposite to the Allan house stood, as may be seen in the print, the old ‘Townhouse and Tollbooth, now removed. James Montgomery, the Christian poet, was a native of Irvine, but left for the Morvia school at Falmouth, Yorkshire, shortly before Allan was born. Only a few doors from the Allan house was the printing office and book-shop of David Macmillan, the founder of the well-known publishing house of that name. He served his apprenticeship [page 17:] under the erratic publisher, Maxwell Dick. Judge Hughes, author of Tom Brown's School Days, in his life of David Macmillan refers to the town of Irvine.

In this same square was ‘Templeton's book-shop, where Burns, the poet, delighted to browse among old sheets of song. It was in the year 1781 that Burns went to Irvine to learn flax dressing, and the old shop stands within a stone's throw of where Allan was born. It was two years later that the strange sect, The Buchanites, arose at Irvine. Elspeth Simpson Buchan believed that she was the woman of Revelation xii, in whom the light of God was restored to man. ‘The sect was expelled a year later, and became extinct in 1848. John Galt, the novelist, whose writings, by the way, are becoming more in vogue, in his autobiography tells that he followed the erratic crowd, till his mother brought him back by the “lug of the horn.” Galt's well-known book, Annals of the Parish, is taken from old Irvine, and the parish minister of Galt's day mentioned the town “as dry and well aired, with one broad street running through it from the southeast. On the south of the river, but connected with the town by a stone bridge, there was a [column 2:] row of houses on each side of the road, leading to the harbour. ‘These were mostly of one story with finished garrets and occupied by seafaring people. To the northwest of the town there was a commonty of three hundred acres of a sandy soil and partly covered with whin and broom.”

The town of Irvine in the seventeenth and succeeding century was a port of some consequence, being at these periods the third port in Scotland and port for Glasgow, goods being transferred to and from Glasgow on pack horses. In the days of the so-called ‘Tobacco Lords, it did a considerable trade to America, and it was the ambition of the town lads to fill a position in Virginia. With the rise of Greenock, and Port Glasgow the trade gradually left Irvine. In the earlier days Irvine was a veritable “Sleepy Hollow” for smugglers, and filled with retired ship-masters.

In an illustration here is shown the river Irvine, and on the rise the parish church. Alongside the church is the graveyard, in which all the Allan ancestors are buried. The Allan section adjoins that of “Dainty Davie,” the friend of Burns. The first graveyard Poe probably ever entered was the historic [page 18:] St. John's at Richmond, Virginia, where Patrick Henry delivered his patriotic speech, and where Poe's mother is buried. The Irvine churchyard was the second, and the third, Shockoe Cemetery at Richmond, Virginia, where pleasant legends relate he kept vigils during his youth with the spirit of his first Helen.

“Of all melancholy topics,” Poe once asked himself, “what, according to the universal understanding of mankind, is the most melancholy?” “Death,” was the obvious reply.

There was much about this old Scotch kirkyard to inspire Poe with awe, and with his love for the odd; the rhyming tombstones, and the “dregy,” or lengthy funeral services must have left lasting impressions on his mind. The epitaphs on the tombstones hereabouts are most original, and in the olden time the grammar school scholars are said to have vouched for by Galt, which may have met with Poe's gaze:

In Irvine, near the printing office of Maxwell Dick, was a house where Dr. Robertson “the poet preacher,” lodged. [column 2:] Here one day the well-known writer, De Quincey, came from Glasgow to visit him, but unfortunately the genial doctor was out. The canny Scots land-lady took De Quincey, with a suspicious looking volume he usually carried under his arm, for a tramp book carried under canvasser, and would not permit him to come in and await Robertson's return. De Quincey in high dudgeon returned to the station and took the first conveyance back to Glasgow. On the way to and from the station De Quincey had to pass the house where Poe stopped.

In this connection it might be recalled that Poe later on proved an admirer of De Quincey, whose declamatory interpolations may be detected in his writings, especially in the tale of “William Wilson.”

While in Irvine, Poe lived at the Bridgegate house, shown in the illustration. It was a two-story tenement dwelling owned by the Allan family. It was taken down about thirty years ago to make room for a street improvement. At the time of Poe's visit it was occupied by Mary Allan, who afterward removed to the Seagate house, which had been previously tenanted by Dr. John MacKenzie, the friend of Burns, and who is reputed to have been a connection of William MacKenzie, of Virginia, into whose family Richmond, Poe's sister Rosalie was adopted. [page 19:]

The next visit made by Poe in Scotland was to Kilmarnock, about seven miles distant from Irvine. He remained at that town about two weeks, and while there stopped with another of Allan's sisters, named Agnes, but called Nancy, who married a nurseryman, named Allan Fowld. ‘The site of the old nursery is now Fowld, Clark and Prince Streets. In the illustration shown herewith the smaller of the two houses was Fowld's, where Poe lived. The house stood on Nelson Street, on the present site of the building occupied by the Kilmarnock Standard; and opposite was the Townsend house, occupied by a family named Gregory, who perfectly remembered the visit of John Allan and his family, and little Edgar Allan Poe. In the rear of the Nelson house ran the grounds of Kilmarnock House, the residence of Lord Kilmarnock, executed for his share in the ‘45 Rebellion. There stands near by a large grove of trees, and a beautiful walkway, where the Lord's widow passed much of her time after his death. Here is iso what was afterward called the Ghosts’ Walk, and there it is said the Lord's widow might be seen after sundown in her pensive perambulations lone, and again in company with her [column 2:] murdered husband. No doubt Poe heard of this incident, and perchance looked himself for what they called the “Allagrugous bawsy-broon,” or the ghastly, grim hobgoblin.

Nelson Street extended by a crooked lane to the cross of Kilmarnock, in the croon of which was the shop where Burns's first edition of his poems was issued, a copy oft which now fetches about two thousand dollars. There are relics of Burns's still exhibited by the town, which was once also noted for its manufacture of Kilmarnock cowles.

One end of Nelson Street led to the old Irvine road, and a number of visits to and from Irvine were made by Allan during his stay, on which occasions Poe invariably accompanied him. The old red riding carts, then abounding about Irvine and Kilmarnock, with — their creaking wheels, are said to have had a special attraction for Poe. He was most happy in one of them, sitting alongside of the driver, usually attired in a coarse woollen cloth “green duffle apron,” and thick nap “red Kilmarnock cap.”

Close to the Fowld house in Kilmarnock lived William Anderson, an intimate neighbour of the family. His son, James Anderson, died December 26, [page 20:] 1887, aged eighty-four years. In early life he was an accountant in the Union bank and for a long period auditor for the corporation of Kilmarnock, as well as chairman of the Bellford Trust. He had vivid recollections of Poe's visit to Kilmarnock and spoke with pride of having played in the streets of the town with Poe. He recalled Poe as “much petted by the Allans, and a ‘curmudgeon,’ or forward, quick-witted boy, but self-willed.” A portrait of Anderson is preserved in the art gallery of the Dick Institute at Scotland.

Poe went from Kilmarnock with the Allan family to Greenock, situated on the Clyde. ‘There remains a letter of Allan's written from there September 21, 1815, in which he says: “Edgar says, ‘Pa, say something for me; say was not afraid coming across the sea.’” The family with Poe went from Greenock to Glasgow, thence to Edinburgh, and also called at New Castle and Sheffield, as mentioned in a letter of Allan's, dated Blake's Hotel, London, October 10, 1815, where he arrived on the 7th, and wrote also of the attractions of the Scotland trip as “high in all parts.”

Among Poe's boyhood journeys no [column 2:] other scenes could have left deeper impressions on his young mind than what he saw and heard in Scotland. In a land so full of the oldentime and among people so enthusiastically devoted to their “ain mither-land” and full of reverence for “days o’ auld syne,” it is but natural that lasting impressions would be left on his memory. He might well have said:

When Poe published his tale, the “M. Valdemar Case,” a druggist at Stonehaven, Scotland, named Alexander Ramsay, to make sure the story was true, wrote a letter to Poe. This letter of Ramsay's to Poe has been published, but no reply of Poe's has ever appeared in print until now. The writer found a relative of Ramsay's still occupying the old Stonehaven warehouse. He had many of his relative's old letters, but none from Poe. ‘The search, however, was continued and finally the reply from Poe was found with another relative in the same town. This letter is now first published, and is interesting in connection with this story of Poe's Scotland visits. It reads:

The postscript to this letter, written at so late a day in Poe's lifetime, in which he claims relationship with the Allans, reads a bit odd. It is said that Poe felt bitterly until the end that Allan should have brought him up, and educated him as an only child, until he had reached the advanced age of fifteen years, and then turn suddenly against him and make him feel a menial instead of a member of his family. This was the view Poe gave to “Mary,” his Baltimore sweetheart of the year 1832, who published her recollections in Harper's Magazine, many years after Poe's death. Her identity has recently been discovered by Professor Killis Campbell, as a Miss Deveraux, mentioned in the writer's latest, Complete Poems of Poe.

She stated that Poe read her a letter from Allan, in which he threatened to disown him if he married would indicate that Allan showed some disposition at that late date to lead Poe to be hopeful for some final recognition. John Allan told his sister, Mrs. Fowld of Kilmarnock, that he had willed his money to his sisters in Scotland, after providing for his wife during her lifetime and making adequate provisions for Edgar.

It is a curious fact that there are now families named Poe in and families, in turn, are also connected with the Allan family. The mother of John Spiers, who presented a statue of Burns to the town of Irvine, was named Poe.

There is reason to believe that Poe must have met John Galt, the novelist, while visiting Scotland. Galt was a connection of John Allan's, and a school companion. There are many persons [column 2:] now in Irvine who have heard the about statement handed down from. their ancestors, that Edgar Allan Poe, the American poet, was a pupil in the old Irvine grammar school. ‘This is confirmed by James Galt, although the stay of Poe must have been brief. James Galt lived in Irvine while Poe was on his first visit there. It had been the original intention of Allan to leave Poe at the school there for his education. To this Poe and Mrs. Allan did not take kindly. As there were further holiday journeying it was decided to postpone school matters, and allow Poe to finish out the trip with the family, and return later to Irvine with Galt, who had planned to be in London later on.

The exact time of this second trip to Scotland was not mentioned, but there are several gaps in Poe's school record. It is presumed that the visit was toward the close of the year 1815.

There were pleadings from the women folks, as well as Poe, “not to go,” when the time for departure for Scotland arrived. It was the opinion, however, that Poe would be better satisfied after settling down, and out of sight of the home folks. The start on the part of Poe was unwilling and Galt said that he kept up “an unceasing fuss all the way over.” His foster aunt Mary sent him to the school, but there he sulked, and no manner of coaxing or threats could induce him to enter into any studies. At Miss Allan's home he talked boldly about returning home to England alone, and tearing that he might carry out his threat young Galt, a typical tall highlander, was required to remain there on guard. He slept in the same room with Poe in the Bridgegate house; was impressed with Poe's old-fashioned talk for one so young, and believed that if he had not been restrained, that he would have attempted to make the trip to England alone.