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BALLANTYNE, JOHN. Of all
the remarkable men, by whom this name, in its various orthographical
appearances, has been borne, not the least worthy of notice is John
Ballantyne, who died on the 16th of June, 1821, about the age
of forty-five years. This gentleman was the son of a merchant at Kelso,
where he was born and educated. In his youth, he displayed such an
extraordinary quickness of mind, as sufficiently betokened the general
ability by which he was to be distinguished in after life. While still a
young man, his mind was turned to literary concerns by the establishment
of a provincial newspaper, the Kelso Mail, which was begun by his
elder brother James. The distinction acquired by his brother in
consequence of some improvements in printing, by which there issued from a
Scottish provincial press a series of books rivaling, in elegance and
accurate taste, the productions of a Bensley or a Baskerville, caused the
removal of both to Edinburgh about the beginning of the present century.
But the active intellect of John Ballantyne was not to be confined to the
dusky shades of the printing-house. He embarked largely in the bookselling
trade, and subsequently in the profession of an auctioneer of works of
art, libraries, &c.
The connection which he and
his brother had established at Kelso with Sir Walter Scott, whose Border
Minstrelsy was printed by them, continued in this more extensive scene,
and accordingly during the earlier and more interesting year of the career
of the author of Waverley, John Ballantyne acted as the confidant of that
mysterious writer, and managed all the business of the communication of
his works to the public. Some of these works were published by John
Ballantyne, who also issued two different periodical works, written
chiefly by Sir Walter Scott, entitled respectively the Visionary and the
Sale-room, of which the latter had a reference to one branch of Mr
Ballantyne’s trade. It is also worthy of notice, that the large edition
of the works of Beaumont and Fletcher, which appeared under the name of Mr
Henry Weber as editor, and which, we may presume to say, reflects no
inconsiderable credit upon the Scottish press, was an enterprise
undertaken at the suggestion and risk of this spirited publisher.
Mr. Ballanyne himself made
one incursion into the field of letters: he was the author of a tolerably
sprightly novel in two thin duodecimos, styled, "The Widow’s
Lodgings," which reached a second edition, and by which, as he used
to boast in a jocular manner, he made no less a sum than thirty pounds!
It was not, however, as an author that Mr Ballantyne chiefly shone – his
forte was story-telling. As a conteur, he was allowed to be
unrivalled by any known contemporary. Possessing an infinite fund of
ludicrous and characteristic anecdote, which he could set off with a
humour endless in the variety of its shades and tones, he was entirely one
of those beings who seem to have been designed by nature for the task, now
abrogated, of enlivening the formalities and alleviating the cares of a
court: he was Yorick revived. After pursing a laborious and successful
business for several years, declining health obliged him to travel upon
the continent, and finally to retire to a seat in the neighbourhood of
Melrose. He had been married, at an early age, to Miss Parker, a beautiful
young lady, a relative of Dr Rutherford, author of the View of Ancient
History and other esteemed works. This union was not blessed with any
children. In his Melrose rustication, he commenced the publication of a
large and beautiful edition of the British Novelists, as an easy
occupation to divert the languor of illness, and fill up those vacancies
in time, which were apt to contrast disagreeably with the former habits of
busy life. The works of the various novelists were here amassed into large
volumes, to which Sir Walter Scott furnished biographical prefaces. But
the trial was brief. While flattering himself with the hope that his frame
was invigorated by change of air and exercise, death stepped in, and reft
the world of as joyous a spirit as ever brightened its sphere. The
Novelist’s Library was afterwards completed by the friendly attention of
Sir Walter Scott.
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