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THE GREEN HAND
THE GREEN HAND
Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant
BY GEORGE CUPPLES AUTHOR OF "THE TWO FRIGATES"
SANDS & COMPANY 23 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C. AND EDINBURGH.
LIFE OF GEORGE CUPPLES
(AUTHOR OF "THE GREEN HAND")
Excepting for one short episode--that, indeed, to which we owe "TheGreen Hand"--the life of George Cupples was almost devoid of thoseexternal incidents and vicissitudes which lend the interest of romanceto biographical narrative. It is therefore possible, even within thenarrow limits assigned to the present sketch, to satisfy reasonablecuriosity regarding the mere facts of this distinguished author'scareer.
Cupples was, by virtue of two or three generations, a son of the manse.His grandfather, the Rev. George Cupples, was the minister of Swinton;and his father, who bore the same name, was also a minister. The GeorgeCupples with whom we have to do was born at Legerwood, in Berwickshire,on the 2nd of August 1822. He was the eldest of the family, whichconsisted, including George, of three sons and one daughter. The fatherwas a clergyman of orthodox views, and from the descriptions of him thathave been left we may infer that the severity of his Calvinism hadimparted a decided severity to his character. "He was much respected,"says his son Joseph, "and, indeed, a good deal feared." The childrenwere accordingly treated by him with rigid strictness, modified by theirmother's greater leniency.
This stern master was George's only teacher during the first ten yearsof his life. His books were an Arithmetic, Cordery, Ruddiman'sRudiments, and Cornelius Nepos. In his tenth year he and his brotherJoseph went to school at Earlston, "walking daily a weary four and ahalf miles and back again--to lessons at home!"
George was in his twelfth year when his father was "translated" toStirling. While the family was settled here, the wish to go to seaseems to have grown in the boy's mind to a settled determination,fostered, it appears, by his reading of novels, of which he wasextremely fond. He was sixteen years of age when his father, probablymuch against his will, allowed him to be apprenticed as a sailor. So itcame about that the minister's son, nurtured on the classics andCalvinism with quite different purposes in view, made a voyage to Indiaand back--an eighteen months' affair it turned out--as a ship's boy.
On the nature of his experiences we need not speak here, for whoeverreads "The Green Hand" will understand it without further aid. As hisbiographer strikingly says: "It had a physical effect on him ... madehim quiet and still in every expression, in every externality of lifeafterwards." At all events, the young adventurer returned home perfectlycured of his taste for the sea, petitioned his father to get hisindentures cancelled, and declared he would content himself for thefuture on land.
Resuming his interrupted studies, he proceeded to Edinburgh University,where he took the Arts course. One of the professors was Wilson, thefamous "Christopher North," for whom Cupples felt an admiration scarcelyshort of hero-worship, and of whom he afterwards wrote a "MemorialSketch." Later on he went through the Divinity course, and had theprivilege of sitting at the feet of the great Chalmers, of whom healways writes with enthusiasm.
But though prepared and equipped for the paternal calling, Cupples"recoiled from the stairs of the pulpit," more, it would seem, from agrowing inclination to literature than from any heterodoxy in hisreligious views. He became a contributor to _Blackwood's Magazine_,where his essay on Emerson appeared in 1848. In _Maga_ also was firstpublished "The Green Hand," that magnificent story of the sea which weare now sending forth, to delight and enthral, we feel sure, a newgeneration of readers. Two opinions may here be quoted of the story, towhich each of our readers may afterwards add his own. George MacDonaldpronounced it "the best sea-novel I have ever read"; and Clark Russell,whose right to speak on such a subject will scarcely be disputed,declares "it is the colours of 'The Green Hand' that I have nailed to mymast."
Cupples was a constant and unwearied writer. Much of his work was donefor newspapers and periodicals, but even the most ephemeral of hisproductions bore testimony to the earnest and solid qualities of theman. That these qualities were duly appreciated is proved by thefrequent kindly mention of him by men of the highest literary repute.
He was married, in 1858, to Ann Jane Douglas, an Edinburgh lady, who,though much younger than her husband, was singularly congenial in hertastes and pursuits. She has written a large number of books, mostly forchildren.
Even before the time of his marriage, Cupples suffered from the_sequelae_ of hip-joint disease, and all the remainder of his life heseems never to have been quite free from the burden of ill-health. Hishome during his literary career was in different parts of Edinburgh orits vicinity, latterly in Newhaven, where he succumbed to heart-diseaseon the 17th of October 1891. His tombstone testifies to the admirationof his friends for his "varied literary gifts, and his simple, upright,and reverent character."
One of the literary projects which Cupples had long cherished has beenhappily carried out since his death in the publication, by MessrsBlackwood, of a splendid volume on "Scotch Deerhounds and theirMasters." This volume contains a fine portrait of the author, and alsoan interesting memoir, written by Dr. Hutchison Stirling, which is initself at once a tribute and a testimony to the lasting impression whichboth the works and the character of George Cupples made upon culturedand critical minds.