The times., 1898-10-30
KAILYARD SCHOOL.

One of the most curious of the minor
literary phenomena of the present day.
says Literature. is the appearance of that
band OF Scottish writer's who are familiar
ly known as the Kailyard School They
are still with US, and we cannot contem-
plate them with that impartial calm to
which posterity Will attain: but there are
signs of some remission of their extreme
industry, and there is even room to hope
that this particular manner of writing
is destined soon to disappear. One of the
things about this movement which will
probably strike future generations as
strange, suppposing future generations
concern themselves with the matter, is its
origin 1t is to be attributed 10 pervert-
ed worship of the memory OF Burns
The following lines were written a few
months ago in the visitors book of the
cottage where Burns was born:
Creation primal stands Gcd's greatest feat
His next when He His Son sent to this earth,
His next when He, mans genius 10 complete.
Ordained that Burns should in this cot have
birth.
This worship is Of kind which readily
turns to superstition. Such blind devotion
was certain to expend Itself on the least
essential attributes of the deity. all the
more so as these attributes-the dialect.
the manners, whatever smacked not of
humanity. but of Scotland-were already
the subject OF veneration to every patriot
ic Scot. The consequence has been that
the two religions have syncretized. Burns
has come to represent Scotland. and only
Scotland, to be adored in Burns. There
fore we have today not only a constant
and copious flow of tolerable dialect verse.
but also a local school of novelists. The
principle is the same The writer. wheth-
er of prose OF verse. is prevented by the
necessities of his market. no less than ths
limitations of his art, from straying out
side one range of subjects II he will in
terest his countrymen, he must write
about them: and everything tends to
make him dwell most upon the peculiari-
ties that distinguish them from other men,
to put his best work into observing and
describing these. and to slur over that
description of humanity which Is the only
subject of permanent literary work What
tends to confirm him in this bad manner
Of writing is the facility with which he
learns to write That wide diffusion OF
secondary education which is now pro-
ducing such a generation OF scribblers
in England Is a plant of far older growth
across the border. Ever since the Refor-
nation Scotland has been a nation of
! readers and a nation of theOlogians. Ey-
cry man has reason for the faith that
is in him, and is usually ready and even
/ eager to render it. For population con-
siderably less than that of London there
are four universities, and the sons of
peasants and clerks go to them. II IS
point worthy of note that practice in lit
erary composition does not in Scotland,
as it does here, make a tentative begin
ming at the university, but is taught In
every grammar school.
Therefore the whole nation is literary,
from its school days up. 1t takes an in
terest in sermons. 1t sees the bea43
of that blessed word MesopOtamia-'
But perhaps the commonest everyday
sign Of II is that every man tells stories.
and almost every man tells them well
Suffering Englishmen have complained
that there is no conversins with
Scot because he will only argue or mar
rate. That is a calumny. but what is
true Is that IL two Scotchmen should
foregather al the ends of the earth you
would find them half an hour later tell
ing each other Scotch stories. Now, tina
| man who with travail and toll works
out his own literary salvation is likely
TO be awkward and eccentric. but he has
a fair chance of being original But
one who grows up into a ready-mads
literary atmosphere, must have an un-
common strength of mind. II he is to re-
sist all the influences he feels. and to
write differently from every one around
him And the overwhelming tendency
in Scottish literature. above all in poetry
and fiction. is toward what Is provincial
and even what is parochial.