DEC 19 1925' ^G/CALS PR 5110 .N4 Z5 1925x Nicoll, W. Robertson 1851- 1923. William Robertson Nicoll Section WILLIAM ROBERTSON NICOLL Photo. T. J. Brookes William Robertson Nicoll, ll.d. Aberdeen DEC 1 3' 132 WILLIAM U. ,? & Logical st* ROBERTSON NICOLL LIFE AND LETTERS BY I T. H. t)ARLOW HODDER AND STOUGHTON LIMITED LONDON First Impression . . September 1925 Second Impression . September 192J Third I*>tpressior. October 1925 Made and Printed in Great Britain T. and A. Constable Ltd., Printers, Edinburgh PREFACE When Lady Robertson Nicoll, her husband's other executors and his children entrusted me with the task of preparing this book, they placed at my dis- posal the great mass of his letters, papers, and other documents, besides private letters in their own posses- sion. They have also given me most willing help throughout the work, and their corrections and suggestions have been carried into the proof sheets by the aid of Mrs. Elystan Miles. Sir Ernest Hodder- Williams has allowed me full liberty to consult his files of personal as well as business correspondence with Nicoll. Apart from his unfailing counsel and encouragement, the biography could hardly have been written. My warm gratitude is due also to Sir J. M. Barrie, who has read the proofs and sanctioned the inser- tion of letters written by himself. To Lord Riddell I am deeply indebted not only for a number of letters, but for much valuable per- sonal information and sagacious revision. The Rev. W. M'Robbie has generously lent me many intimate and revealing letters, and has also furnished recollections of his old friend. I have to thank Mr. Clement K. Shorter for a number of letters, as well as for friendly criticisms and suggestions. vi WILLIAM ROBERTSON NICOLL To the Rev. Innes Logan, Nicoll's nephew, my sincere thanks are due for the facts and family details which he has supplied. Miss Jane T. Stoddart and Mrs. Wyatt-Smith have given me most kind and valuable help from their own intimate knowledge, and also in correcting the proof sheets. To Mr. Horace Morgan and to Mr. W. Grinton Berry, I am much indebted for their valuable sugges- tions and for reading the proofs. For a number of important personal letters I am deeply obliged to each of the following : — the Rev. Professor H. R. Mackintosh, of Edinburgh ; the Rev. Professor James Moffatt, of Glasgow ; Professor A. S. Peake, of Manchester ; the Rev. Dr. J. D. Jones, of Bournemouth ; Dr. D. Hay Fleming, of Edinburgh ; Mr. Robert Denney, of Glasgow ; Mr. J. Macniven, of Edinburgh ; Mr. James Drummond, of Stirling ; Mr. Arthur E. Waite ; Mr. Cecil A. Stoughton ; and Canon Anthony C. Deane. To the following ladies I also owe sincere acknow- ledgments : — the Duchess of Hamilton (for letters from the late Lord Fisher) ; Lady Frances Balfour ; Lady Lucy (for letters to the late Sir H. W. Lucy) ; Lady Adam Smith ; Lady Reid ; Mrs. Watts- Dunton (for letters to and from the late Mr. Theodore Watts-Dunton) ; Mrs. Burnett Smith ; Mrs. Hastings ; Mrs. Forsyth ; Mrs. Milne, Miss Mary Symon, and Miss Meta Grant, of Dufftown. For personal reminiscences, or letters, or both, I most gratefully record my obligations to the Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George ; the Rt. Hon. Reginald M'Kenna ; Dr. Henry Stephen, of Calcutta Uni- versity ; the Rev. Charles Green, of Eastbourne ; the Rev. Dr. W. S. Bruce, of Banff ; Mrs. Marie Connor PREFACE vii Leighton ; Mr. Joseph Hocking ; Mr. David William- son ; the Rev. George Henderson, of Monzie, Crieff ; the Rev. Professor George Jackson, of Didsbury ; the Rev. Professor James Stalker ; Sir John Adams ; Professor Leslie Elmslie ; the Rev. Hubert L. Simp- son ; Sir A. T. Quiller- Couch ; Sir Robert Donald ; Sir Hedley Le Bas ; Sir Arthur Spurgeon ; Mr. Coulson Kernahan ; Mr. Robert Cochrane, of Edinburgh ; the Rev. W. S. Crockett ; Dr. J. M. Bulloch, formerly editor of the Graphic ; Mr. A. St. John Adcock, editor of the Bookman ; Mr. David Pae, editor of the People's Friend, Dundee ; Mr. T. D. Crichton Smith, of Kelso ; Mr. J. Crowlesmith ; Mr. J. Grigor ; and Mr. Edward H. Dodd, of New York. I must also thank for their valued assistance Dr. A. Shewan, of St. Andrews ; Dr. W. Keith Leask, of Aberdeen ; Mr. J. Hugh Edwards, M.P. ; Mr. T. J. Wise ; Mr. A. J. Mundella ; Mr. T. H. Stockwell, of Croydon ; Mr. J. Milne, of the Graphic ; Mr. D. Matz ; Mr. Percy Hodder- Williams ; Mr. J. H. Apted ; Mr. A. Mackintosh ; the Rev. E. F. Russell ; Pastor J. K. Popham, of Brighton ; the Rev. A. J. Anderson, of Rhynie ; the Rev. Neil Conley, of Dufftown ; the Rev. Dr. D. Burford Hooke ; and Mr. T. S. Wilm- hurst, of Redhill. For six months I was fortunate enough to obtain the regular help of Miss Evelyn Smith, who had acted as NicolPs private secretary from October 1 91 4 down to the end of his life. By her personal knowledge, her skill and accuracy, combined with her sympathetic insight and interest, she rendered invaluable service in the heavy preliminary work which the biography entailed. My friend Mr. David Williamson and his accom- plished daughter have in sheer goodness of heart undertaken the labour of compiling the index. viii WILLIAM ROBERTSON NICOLL Thus generously aided, the book has been brought to completion. For the result, no one is responsible except the author. To this biography of Nicoll I may apply his own sentences 1 in regard to another biography which he wrote himself : — c All attempts to describe or report him must be sadly inadequate. But for the friendship with which he honoured me and for the love I bore him, I have done my best. ... I have thought it my duty to set him forth as he was, and to give his own views as nearly as possible in his own words.' It was my privilege to enjoy my friend's intimacy for nearly half a lifetime. As a rule we met every week, and talked for hours without reserve. In these pages I have tried to set down some imperfect impres- sions of perhaps the most remarkable person I ever knew. T. H. DARLOW. North wood, Middlesex, Wltitsuntide, 1925. 1 From the preface to ' Ian Maclaren,5 by W. Robertson Nicoll. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE 'THE HILLS WHERE HIS LIFE ROSE' .... I CHAPTER II AT ABERDEEN 13 CHAPTER III AT DUFFTOWN ........ 29 CHAPTER IV AT KELSO 36 CHAPTER V ORDERED SOUTH 47 CHAPTER VI RELIGIOUS JOURNALISM IN ENGLAND 57 CHAPTER VII THE BRITISH WEEKLY ...... 67 CHAPTER VIII PROGRESS . . -83 CHAPTER IX AT HAMPSTEAD ....... 90 CHAPTER X THE BOOKMAN ........ 98 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE William Robertson Nicoll, LL.D., Aberdeen . Frontispiece The Rev. Harry Nicoll 8 The Old Manse, Lumsden, Seventy Years ago . . 16 W. R. Nicoll, at the age of Twenty-one ... 24 Facsimile Autograph of the Editor's opening Article in the First Number of the British Weekly, November 5, 1886 72 Bay Tree Lodge, Frognal, Hampstead .... 96 In the Library at Bay Tree Lodge .... 96 Aged 45 136 Aged 57 200 November 1909 216 Aged 62 232 With his Grandson, in 1915 248 At Hampstead, December 30, 1920 296 Sir William Robertson Nicoll, C.H., and Sir Ernest Hodder- Williams, C.V.O., July 19, 1921 . . 440 A. Rust, W. R. Nicoll, W. M'Robbie, at Lumsden, August 9, 1922 ....... 440 BIOGRAPHICAL TABLE 1851. Oct. 10. 1859. 1866. Oct. 30. April. Nov. 1870. April. Nov. 1872. 1874. April. Nov. 18. 1877. Sept. 6. The ideal biography should begin zvith a very clear chronological table, show- ing at a glance hew the life teas divided. For want of this we misconceive — we do not see hozc events are spread about or crowded together in a space of years. W. Robertson Nicoll : ' Letters on Life,' p. 227. Born at Lumsden, Aberdeenshire. Death of his mother. Entered Aberdeen Grammar School. Entered Aberdeen University. Graduated M.A. Entered the Free Church Divinity Hall, Aberdeen. Licensed to preach. Completed Course at Divinity Hall. Ordained minister of the Free Church, Dufftown. Inducted minister of the Free Church, Kelso. Married Miss Isa Dunlop. Appointed editor of Expositor. Serious illness. Resigned charge at Kelso. At Dawlish and in the Engadine. Settled at Norwood. British Weekly appeared. Removed to Bay Tree Lodge, Hampstead. LL.D. Aberdeen. Bookman appeared. Woman at Home appeared. Death of his wife. Visited U.S.A. with J. M. Barrie. Married Miss Catherine Pollard. Education Bill controversy began. 1 New Theology ' controversy began. 1878. Aug. 21. 1884. Summer. 1885. Autumn. 1886. Jan. Spring. June. Nov. 5. 1889. Feb. 1890. March. 1891. Oct. 1. 1893. Oct. 1. 1894. June 2. 1896. Sept.-Nov 1897. May 1. 1902. 1907. xvi WILLIAM ROBERTSON NICOLL 1909. Nov. Knighthood. 1 91 6. Nov. ' Thirty years of the British Weekly.' 1921. July 19. Investiture as Companion of Honour. 1922. May. Hon. LL.D. conferred by St. Andrews. 1923. May 4. Died at Hampstead. May 8. Buried in Highgate Cemetery. CHAPTER I 'THE HILLS WHERE HIS LIFE ROSE' To produce a life-like and coherent portrait of William Robertson Nicoll is no easy task. His brilliant per- sonality seemed perplexing by reason of its strange combination of gifts. People were baffled by a man in whom such contrasted faculties could unite. Here was a powerful editor, continually hampered by frail health ; a stalwart politician, steeped in literature ; a deeply-read theologian, who outstripped his rivals in business ; a writer of tireless industry, whose talk overflowed with humour ; a mystic, who had mastered the whole craft of journalism ; a catholic-minded humanist, who kept his fervid Puritan faith. Even to the friends who knew him best his character appeared complex, and at times they felt puzzled to reconcile all his multifarious interests, his intense activities, his ardent convictions. Outsiders were often tempted to imagine him ' like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once.5 We discover clues to the problem when we explore the ground out of which it grew. To begin with, Nicoll was a Scot — first and last and all the time. It is one of the glories of Scotland that she has held so tenaciously to her own history and traditions, and to a national form of religion which involves ecclesiastical sub-divisions that no Englishman can properly under- stand. Scottish dialect, again, is as distinctive as Scottish thrift, and Nicoll himself never lost his native accent and intonation. In his company you felt at once the curious difference between North Britons and South. He had Caledonian prejudices and sympathies in his marrow, and cherished a peculiar tenderness for his own countrymen. For him there A 2 WILLIAM ROBERTSON NICOLL were no hills like the Grampians and there was no university like Aberdeen. His father and mother both came of old Highland blood. Yet we must qualify their son by the words which Lord Morley once wrote of Mr. Gladstone : he was ' a Highlander in the custody of a Lowlander.' In his being the idealism and poetry and passion of the northern temperament mingled with a strain of those dour, canny, commercial instincts which belong to so many southern Scotsmen. Again, Nicoll was a son of the soil, and in Aberdeenshire the soil is rocky and stubborn as the skies are austere. Then he was a son of the manse in a remote village, and grew up to minister in the Free Kirk, and died in its com- munion. Last, but not least, he had been surrounded with books from his cradle ; he drew breath in a home bare of all luxuries beyond the many thousands of volumes which his father half-starved himself to collect. Variegated threads like these blended in the warp and woof of NicolPs nature, and before we can understand him we must take them separately and collectively into account. By ancestry he was a pure Celt. He would recall proudly that his kinsmen on both sides had fought at Culloden for Prince Charlie. His mother's family, the Robertsons, came of the Robertsons of Struan, a Highland house which counts among its members the famous preacher, F. W. Robertson of Brighton. His mother's uncle, the Rev. William Robertson, claimed, though unsuccessfully, to be head of the Struan clan. The Nicolls themselves were a branch of the Macleods, settled originally in the Braes of Cromar. Early last century one of them held a little farm near Lumsden, in West Aberdeenshire, and in that village his son Harry was born in 1 812. By dint of Spartan endur- ance Harry Nicoll contrived to graduate at Aberdeen, and was appointed in 1 834 schoolmaster of his native parish of Auchindoir, of which Lumsden is the centre.1 1 The family had produced one distinguished scholar, Alexander Nicoll, D.C.L., F.R.S., a cousin of Harry Nicoll, who was born in 1793 at Monymusk, an Aberdeenshire village. His father was a wheelwright 1 THE HILLS WHERE HIS LIFE ROSE ' 3 The schoolmaster had set his heart on the ministry. A born lover of books, he plunged deep into theological study and obtained licence to preach. During those early years when the Tractarian movement was agitat- ing the Church of England a kindred controversy rose in the Scottish Kirk, and finally resulted in the Disruption of 1843 — one °f tne her°ic episodes in ecclesiastical history. At such a crisis c the pecuniary poverty and spiritual opulence of Scotland were seen at their best.' The Rev. Harry Nicoll took the Free Church side, and so forfeited his position as schoolmaster. He became instead the first Free Church minister of Auchindoir, and continued in that office till his death in 1891. He preached to about a hundred people in a plain, barn-like building with whitewashed walls and bare deal pews. ' He knew every house, every individual — it might almost be said every tree, every flower, every stone of the " primitive, russet, remote country " in which he lived and died.5 x Lumsden itself is a bleak, lonely little village, which in those days sheltered five or six hundred people. The scent of peat-smoke clings round its cottages, and the nearest railway station is eight miles away. The place lies high among rolling hills, wild and beautiful, whose streams drain northwards into the river Bogie, or southwards into the river Don which coils and curves to reach the sea above Old Aberdeen. Through- out that district of Strathbogie and Strathdon the and belonged to the Scottish Episcopal communion. From Aberdeen Grammar School he entered the University when only fourteen, but obtained a Snell Exhibition at Balliol and proceeded to Oxford. An expert linguist, he specialized in Semitic languages, and became Sub- Librarian of the Bodleian, where he devoted himself to cataloguing Oriental manuscripts. In 1822 Lord Liverpool appointed him Regius Professor of Hebrew and Canon of Christ Church. He had gained a very high reputation for learning before his death at the age of thirty-five. Dr. Pusey succeeded him as Regius Professor. A volume of his sermons, with a biography prefixed, was published after his death by the Rev. J. Parsons, editor of the 'Oxford Septuagint.' There is a memorial to him in the Cathedral at Oxford, on the north wall ; it bears a long Latin inscription, and has a medallion profile, showing a rather thin, intellectual face with a prominent nose. These last particulars are due to the kindness of the present Dean of Christ Church. 1 Much of this section is taken from ' My Father : an Aberdeenshire Minister, by W. Robertson Nicoll,' — 'a little book which I wrote at the suggestion of Lord Rosebery.' 4 WILLIAM ROBERTSON NICOLL scattered population earn their bread as tillers of the ground and keepers of cattle and sheep. It is a land of small farmers and crofters. In the valleys they grow barley and oats and turnips on fields divided by grey stone dykes, while their flocks wander grazing over the moors and high ground. Eighty or ninety years ago the region was full of smugglers, and no particular discredit attached to the practice. In fact it would have been impossible for those crofters to live, if they had not been able to add the gains of smuggling to the pittance they could win from the sterile soil.1 When Nicoll was a child Lumsden had no butcher's shop. Through its brief summer the rugged landscape brightens and the hills blush with purple heather. But in that latitude the long, black winter months are bitterly severe. Nicoll knew how to describe his native climate and its effects. ' Looking back, it is the winter that strikes me as the dominant influence of the region. It was very long and very rigorous. The countryside was famous for its snowstorms, the huge drifts they left behind them often impeding traffic for days. It was impossible to work out of doors during the dark and roaring nights and the scarcely brighter days. People were thus thrown upon their own resources, and were either made or marred by their use of the winter. i In those days people either yielded to their cir- cumstances or heroically overcame them. The hard manual toil by which daily bread was earned indis- posed men to intellectual exertion ; base temptations were always at hand, and many relapsed into stark animalism. This was especially true of the agri- cultural labourers. The life of the bothy with its lewd songs and its gross talk, the fights at the " feeing markets," the deadness of aspiration, above all perhaps the miserable intemperance of the class, present pro- blems which are still unsolved. But those who escaped all this usually did so by complete separation and strict adherence to a lofty and rigorous code of self- discipline. Religion, in most cases, had laid its strong 1 Cf. 'James Macdonell, Journalist,'' by W. R. Nicoll, pp. 8, 14, 25, 26.