W. Donaldson, Popular literature in Victorian Scotland; W. Alexander, The laird of Drammochdyle, ed. W. Donaldson

Abstract

Popular literature in Victorian Scotland: language, fiction and the press. By William Donaldson. Pp. xii, 186. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press. 1986. £13.95 hard back, £8.95 paper back. The laird of Drammochdyle and his contemporaries; or random sketches done in outline with a burnt stick. By William Alexander. Edited with an introduction by William Donaldson. Pp. xxi, 164. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press. 1986. £13.50 hard back, £8.90 paper back.In Popular literature in Victorian Scotland, Dr Donaldson has written a book of considerable importance. It combines literary criticism with social, economic and cultural history, and his work opens up many possibilities of further research. His subject is the world of Scottish news papers as they flourished after the repeal in 1855 of stamp duty on newspapers. More specific ally, he is concerned with the characteristic fiction which blossomed in their pages. The heart of his message is simply that there was so much of this fiction, until now completely lost sight of: at one point he calculates that there must have appeared in Victorian newspapers 'even at a conservative estimate . . . more than five thousand full-length Scottish novels'. This fact, he suggests, has considerable implications for our picture of the development of the novel in Scot land and, more broadly, for our ideas on Scottish culture in modern times.A large part of his purpose is to tell the story of nineteenth-century Scottish newspaper publishing and his account is of interest to anyone concerned with modern Scottish society. His mastery of the detailed intricacies of the economic and technical processes involved is striking. After a sketch of conditions in a newspaper office while the Stamp Act held the press in a som nolent trance, he illustrates the explosion following its repeal by surveying the rise of John Leng's Dundee-based group of newspapers, with special emphasis on his all-conquering People's Journal and People's Friend. He then discusses the prominent place given in their pages to Scots vernacular prose. This is especially fascinating, and he provides, through copious illust ration, ample evidence to substantiate his claim that 'a whole new vernacular prose came into being with a range and diversity unknown for centuries'. Seen through Dr Donaldson's eyes, the Victorian age ceases to be a period when Scottish verbal culture was in the doldrums and, in stead, seems vibrant and important.

Relation of certain morphological characters and root lodging in oats

“…A thick culm (7, 12, 13, 29, 34, 35, 42, 50, 55, 61, 75, 76, 80, 102, 118, 119), short strong lower internodes (12,29,35), and a spread ing, well-developed root system (13,23,35,42,50,63,92,102,113) are the attributes which have been most consistently related to lodging resistance in oats. Investigators have disagreed on the association of plant height (7,12,34,35,61,76,92), number of coronal roots (13,42,63,76,102), culm wall thickness (12,13,34,55,75,80), number of vascular bundles (12,29,34,35,50,55,76), thickness of sclerenchyma layer (12,29,34,35,50,55,76,118,119), and cell wall thickness of sclerenchyma (12,13,…”