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James Grahame

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Rev James Grahame

Rev. James Grahame (1765-1811), engraving by S. Freeman. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Rev. James Grahame (22 April 1765 - 14 September 1811) was a Scottish poet.[1]

Life[]

Overview[]

Grahame, son of a lawyer, was born and educated in Glasgow. After spending some time in a law office in Edinburgh, he was called to the Scottish Bar. His health being delicate, and his circumstances easy, he early retired from practice, and taking orders in the Church of England in 1809, was appointed curate successively of Shipton, Gloucestershire, and Sedgefield, Durham. He died on a visit to Glasgow in his 47th year. He wrote several pleasing poems, of which the best is The Sabbath (1804). His poems are full of quiet observation of country sights expressed in graceful verse.[2]

Youth and education[]

Grahame was born in Glasgow. His father was a prominent lawyer and an ardent whig.[3]

After a distinguished school and college career in Glasgow, Grahame, against his own inclination to study for the church, was apprenticed to his cousin, Laurence Hill, W.S., Edinburgh. Although disliking his work, and having somewhat uncertain health to contend with, he completed his apprenticeship.[3]

Career[]

In 1791 he was admitted a member of the Society of Writers to the Signet.

His father dying this year, Grahame meditated a change of profession, and at length, in 1795, became an advocate. In 1802 he married the eldest daughter of Richard Grahame, town-clerk of Annan, and for several years pursued his profession and took recreation in literature.[3]

His success as an advocate being limited, Grahame resolved on realizing his early intention of being a clergyman. Accordingly in 1809 he went to London, and shortly afterwards, ignoring his original position and reputation as ‘a westland whig,’ was ordained by the Bishop of Norwich.[3]

Presently he was appointed curate of Shipton Moyne, Gloucestershire, which he left in April 1810 to attend to certain family interests in Edinburgh. There was a vacancy that year in St. George's Chapel, Edinburgh, for which Grahame was an unsuccessful candidate. Mrs. Grant of Laggan, in a letter, tells of hearing him preaching for the post, and pleasantly describes and criticises both himself and his sermon.[3]

In August of that year Grahame was appointed sub-curate of St. Margaret's, Durham, from which he was shortly transferred to the curacy of Sedgefield in the same diocese. This he soon left, owing to declining health.[3]

He went for advice to Edinburgh, whence, after a short stay, he and his wife proceeded to his brother's residence at Whitehill, Glasgow. Here Grahame died, 14 September 1811, leaving his widow and 2 sons and a daughter.[3]

Writing[]

While at the university Grahame printed some verse for private circulation, and in 1797 he published his Rural Calendar. To 1799 belongs Wallace: A tragedy, of which 6 copies were printed. In 1801 appeared an unsuccessful dramatic poem on Mary Queen of Scots.[3]

When married Grahame discovered that his wife thought but meanly of his poetry, and this, no doubt, was his main reason for publishing The Sabbath anonymously in 1804. It charmed him to find Mrs. Grahame in raptures over the descriptive beauty, the vivid historical illustrations, the moving, sentimental pictures, and the deep religious earnestness of a poem that is Scottish to the core; and he then avowed the authorship. 3 new editions were called for in a year, and to these Grahame added descriptive and thoughtful "Sabbath Walks."[3]

In 1806 he wrote a pamphlet advocating trial by jury in civil causes, and in the same year he published his Birds of Scotland, exemplifying both ornithological knowledge and descriptive ingenuity and ease. In 1808 he issued his poems in 2 volumes, publishing the following year in quarto his British Georgics, of which the most poetical portions are not didactic. In 1810 he published Poems on the Abolition of the Slave Trade.[3]

As poet of The Sabbath Grahame is much respected and admired by Scott, while he is the object of a gratuitious sneer from Byron in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, and supplies Wilson with the theme of a very warm poetical eulogy.[3]

Publications[]

Poemsintwovolume02grahiala 0011

Poetry[]

Plays[]

  • Wallace: A tragedy. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, 1799.
  • Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots: An historical drama. Edinburgh: Mundell / London: Longman & Rees, 1801.


Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[5]

See also[]

References[]

  • PD-icon Bayne, Thomas Wilson (1890) "Grahame, James" in Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 22 London: Smith, Elder, p. 366 . Wikisource, Web, Jan. 19, 2018.

Notes[]

  1. ↑ "Grahame, James", Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, 1911, 12, 319. Wikisource, Web, June 29, 2016.
  2. ↑ John William Cousin, "Grahame, James," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910, 165. Web, Jan. 19, 2018.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 Bayne, 366.
  4. ↑ James Grahame, English Poetry, 1579-1830, Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Web, Apr. 2, 2022.
  5. ↑ Search results = au:James Grahame, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Aug. 19, 2013.

External links[]

Poems
Books
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PD-icon This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, the Dictionary of National Biography (edited by Leslie Stephen). London: Smith, Elder, 1885-1900. Original article is at: Grahame, James

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