St. Ronan's Well

St. Ronan's Well
First edition title page.
Author(s)	Sir Walter Scott
Country	Scotland
Language	English
Series	Waverley Novels
Publisher	Archibald Constable and Co.
Publication date	27 December 1823
Media type	Print (Hardback)

St. Ronan's Well is a novel by Sir Walter Scott. It is the only novel he wrote with a 19th century setting.

Plot introduction

The novel concerns the rivalry of two men: Valentine Bulmer, the Earl of Etherington, and his half-brother Francis Tyrrel. Both wish to marry Miss Clara Mowbray, who is the sister of John, the laird of St. Ronan's.

St. Ronan's Well is a spa at Innerleithen, a town near Peebles in southern Scotland.

Plot summary

Saint Ronan's Wells, Innerleithen.

Valentine Bulmer and his half-brother Francis Tyrrel had been Mrs Dod's guests at Cleikum Inn when they were students from Edinburgh, and she gladly welcomed Francis when he arrived, some years afterwards, to stay at the inn again, that he might fish and sketch in the neighbourhood. A mineral spring had in the meantime been discovered at St Ronan's, and he was invited by the fashionable visitors to dine with them at the Fox Hotel, where he quarrelled with an English baronet named Sir Bingo Binks. On his way back to the Cleikum, he met Clara Mowbray, to whom he had been secretly engaged during his former visit; he had been prevented from marrying her by the treachery of Bulmer, who had now succeeded to the earldom, and was expected at the spa. Tyrrel having been waited upon by Captain MacTurk, accepted a challenge from the baronet, but failed to keep his appointment, and was posted as an adventurer by the committee of management. He also disappeared from the inn, which led his hostess to consult Mr Bindloose, the sheriff's clerk, under the belief that he had been murdered. Their conference was interrupted by a certain Mr Touchwood, who came to change a bill, and talked of having been abroad for many years. He also evinced great interest in the affairs of the Mowbray family, and having taken up his quarters at the Cleikum, made friends with Rev Mr Cargill, who had been disappointed in love, and startled him with a rumour that Clara was about to be married.

Soon after the earl's arrival it was reported that he had been shot in the arm by a foot-pad; and, while his wound was healing, he spent his time in gambling with John Mowbray, the young laird of St Ronan's, who had borrowed his sister Clara's money for the purpose of retrieving his luck. Having allowed him to win a considerable sum, his lordship made proposals for Clara's hand, explaining that his grand-uncle had disinherited his only son, and devised his estate to him, on condition that he chose as a wife a lady of the name of Mowbray. In a letter to his friend Jekyl, the earl confessed that he had been winged in a duel with Tyrrel, whom he met on his way to fight Sir Bingo, and that he had wounded his brother. A few days afterwards the company at the Well assembled at Shaw's Castle to take part in a dramatic entertainment, and Mr Touchwood persuaded Rev Mr Cargill to accompany him as one of the guests. While they were walking in the grounds the minister took an opportunity to remind Clara of a secret in his keeping, which made it impossible for her to marry. He also encountered the earl, and, believing him to be Bulmer, attempted to warn him.

The next morning, as John Mowbray was endeavouring to induce Clara to consent to the match, he received an anonymous communication that the earl was an impostor; and, in an interview with him, she rejected his suit with loathing and scorn. His lordship then wrote to Jekyl, telling him the circumstances under which, when he was only sixteen, he had arranged with Mr Cargill for a secret marriage between her and Tyrrel; but, learning subsequently the contents of his uncle's will, had incurred their life-long hatred by personating his brother at the ceremony. Tyrrel, who after the duel had retired to an adjacent village to be cured of his wound, reappeared just in time to rescue Mr Touchwood from drowning; and, at an interview with Jekyl, who undertook to clear his character, offered to forego his claim to the earldom, of which he had proofs, if his brother would refrain from molesting Clara any further. This proposal the earl sneered at, and, as he was forming fresh schemes for attaining his end, he discovered that Hannah Irwin, who had been Clara's companion, was dying at St Ronan's, and anxious to confess her share in the secret marriage. Solmes, the earl's valet, was instructed to carry her off, while his master got the brother into his power by ruining him at play, and then promised to cancel the debt if Clara consented to acknowledge him as her husband within four-and-twenty hours.

Mowbray believed he had prevailed with his sister, when Mr Touchwood unexpectedly arrived, and announced himself as Scrogie, the disinherited son, who by bribing Solmes, and in other ways, had learnt everyone's secrets, and was ready with his fortune to arrange all their difficulties. But he was too late. Clara had escaped from her room during the night, and, after appearing at the manse to forgive her cousin, who had been confided to Mr Cargill's care, had made her way to the Cleikum, where, in a seeming trance, she had a final interview with Tyrrel, and died soon afterwards from congestion of the brain. Mowbray, meanwhile, in his search for her, encountered the earl and his companions engaged in a shooting match, and killed him in a duel arranged on the spot by Captain MacTurk, with whom he fled to the Continent to escape imprisonment. Mr Touchwood had consequently to seek some other outlet for his wealth, and the Etherington estates were never claimed by the rightful heir, who determined to pass the remainder of his life in a Moravian mission.

Characters in St. Ronan's Well

• Meg Dods, hostess of the Cleikum Inn, an old landlady of consistently inconsistent qualities
• Valentine Bulmer, afterwards Earl of Etherington
• Francis Tyrrel, his half-brother
• Master Bindloose, sheriff's clerk and banker
• Mr John Mowbray of Shaw's castle, laird of St Ronan's
• Clara Mowbray, his sister
• Hannah Irwin, their cousin
• Nelly Trotter, a fishwoman
• Lady Penelope Penfeather
• Mrs Margaret Blower, a widow
• Miss Maria Digges
• Sir Bingo Binks, an English baronet
• Miss Rachel Bonnyrigg, afterwards Lady Binks
• Managing committee at St Ronan's spa
  • Dr Quackleben
  • Mr Philip Winterblossom
  • Mr Saunders Meikleham
  • Captain Hector MacTurk
  • Rev Simon Chatterley
  • Mr Michael Meredith
• Mr Beregrine (Scrogie) Touchwood
• Rev Josiah Cargill, minister of St Ronan's
• Captain Jekyl, the earl's friend
• Solmes, the earl's valet

Quote

"My gude name! If ony body touched my gude name I would fash neither council nor commissary. I would be down upon them like a sea-falcon amang a wheen wild geese, and the best of them that dared to say onything o' Meg Dods, but what was honest and civil, I would soon see if her cockernonie was made o' her ain hair or other folks."

External links

• St. Ronan's Well at Project Gutenberg
• St. Ronan's Well at Walter Scott Digital Archive, the University of Edinburgh library

This article incorporates text from the revised 1898 edition of Henry Grey's A Key to the Waverley Novels (1880), now in the public domain.