Lag's Elkgy and Othek Chap Bouks. 211 



" ' Beelzebub's Advice to the Forestallers of Victual,' another 

 piece composed by Irving in his old age, so closely resembles 

 ' Lag ' as at once to connect itself with that pas<|uil in the niind 

 of the reader. It has never been published, but I have a MS. 

 copy taken from the original in the possession of Mr Fairnie, 

 headmaster of Ecclefechan Public School. Satan is represented 

 as addressing the unscrupulous ' mealmongers,' Vi^ho were growing 

 rich through oppression, in these words : — ■ 



' Monopoly and forestalling 



Practise with all your might, 

 Do not regard the cries of those 

 That are in heart upright. 



That law of Love and Charity 



Which Christ Himself shall use 

 In judging of Mankind at last 



With all your hearts refuse.' 



" I have been able to glean some information regarding 

 William Irving from a fragment of his journal and common-place 

 book which Mr Fairnie kindly lent me some time ago, and now 

 permits me to e.xhibit in illustration of my paper. Where Irving 

 lived before he was placed, at the age of 42, in charge of the 

 school at Hoddom, is unknown to me ; but as he occasionally 

 visited Dumfries ' to see his relations ' (14) it may be conjectured 

 that he was a native of the county town or the neighbourhood. 

 Like most poets Irving was very poor, and he seems to have had 

 some difficulty in collecting the ' school wages,' which formed a 

 considerable portion of his small income, and were as often 

 received in the shape of butter or meal as in coin of the realm. 

 At Hoddom he devoted much time to church work, being at once 

 session-clerk and treasurer of the congregation. Amongst the 

 miscellaneous cont.ents of the little book owned by Mr Fairnie 

 are sundry jottings relative to I'eceipts and disbursements by the 

 elder on account of the church. The minister of Hoddom 

 during the greater part of Irving's residence in the parish was 

 the Rev. Alexander Orr — a fact in which the origin of Carlyle's 

 mistake as to the authorship of ' Lag's Elegy ' may possibly be 

 found. If Carlyle's informant first transferred the surname of 



14. MS. Journal. 



