Today is Saint Andrew's Day, the national day of Scotland.* With that in mind, I cast around for something Caledonian to blog about. Luckily, my nefarious Macedonian friends came through with nice scans from the Scribner's edition of The Scottish Chiefs. From the original 1921 edition, no less.

Jane Porter published her novel about William Wallace, The Scottish Chiefs, in 1809. From all accounts a tall, fine-looking woman, Porter was born in England, but spent several of her formative years in Edinburgh, where the mighty Sir Walter Scott was a frequent visitor to her mother's house.

Scott's Scottish antiquarianism and patriotism may have been a spark for Porter to write her novel, but The Scottish Chiefs preceded Walter Scott's first historical novel, Waverley, into print by half a decade. This is an important point, since Waverley is generally considered to be the first modern historical novel.

To put it bluntly, I've always meant to read The Scottish Chiefs but have never gotten around to it. The reviews on Goodreads and Amazon are mixed, which is exactly what I would expect regarding a novel written over two hundred years ago. I have read that the novel remains popular in Scotland. I've even seen it bruited about that The Scottish Chiefs was one of the sources used for Gibson's Braveheart, but I've found no solid confirmation of that.**

In 1921, Charles Scribner's Sons reissued an edited version of Porter's novel. They gave it the deluxe treatment , with a dustjacket, endpapers and interior illustrations by the legendary N.C. Wyeth. This would be one of Wyeth's last illustrated books and he is in rare form. The scans I have are large and of good quality, but the copy they were scanned from does have a bit of wear on it. Still, I consider these some of the best out there, overall. Since I have not read The Scottish Chiefs, I will forego any individual commentary on the plates. I can say that NCW did a good job regarding period-accurate arms and armor. As always, his paintings kick ass.

Scots Wha Hae!

*Al Harron, over at The Blog That Time Forgot, takes a entertaining look at the legendary wanderings of Saint Andrew here.

**Nor do I know whether the lovely Ms. Porter's name was an inspiration for that of Jane Porter, Lady Greystoke.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these righteous scans, sword-brothers. Who knows? I might post some of them again when/if I review the novel itself. Rest assured, there will be more Wyeth art on the DMR blog in the future.