Major Weir's Coach: a Legend of Edinburgh

Major Weir's Coach: a Legend of Edinburgh

George Howell’s “Major Weir’s Coach” centres on a nocturnal Edinburgh legend and its effects upon Thomas Kerr, a Treasurer of an incorporation. During a season of fierce civic faction, Kerr accompanies Deacon Dickson home after a political supper. Both men, confused by drink and moonlight, mistake illuminated spaces in the High Street for a huge wall built by Provost Drummond. Dickson angrily blames the Provost and later convinces his wife of the story; her attempt to show the supposed wall to other women exposes the mistake, and “Deacon Dickson’s wall” becomes a public joke. Kerr, returning alone, meets Widow Horner grieving beside the Bow-foot Well. Her son has ruined and cast her out, and she longs to die near the graves of her family. Her sorrow awakens Kerr’s conscience, because he has permitted his own wife to humiliate and dispossess his mother. Kerr’s mother had made over her property to him, while his cunning, vindictive wife gradually poisoned him against her and reduced the old woman to misery in her own home. Tormented by remorse, Kerr hears the dreaded approach of Major Weir’s coach, a spectral carriage said to travel at night. He hides, but is seized and carried away. Inside the coach he sees apparently headless figures, whose detached heads hang above them. Ordered to confess before “the Major’s tribunal,” Kerr recounts his sins. A hollow voice declares that his repentance has saved him for the moment and commands him to become a dutiful son. He is left alone in darkness and eventually found near the Figgate Whins by Watty Clinkscales, the Berwick carrier, who takes him towards Edinburgh. At home Kerr begs his mother’s forgiveness and blessing. When his wife begins to scold him, he silences her with an authority she has never encountered. He soon falls dangerously ill and raves of the coach, Major Weir, and headless phantoms. The city is seized by renewed terror of the legendary carriage. The magistrates consider the affair a possible crime and arrange a watch, but several nights pass without any apparition. During an election celebration, Deacon Dickson and other tradesmen encounter the coach in the Cowgate. They try to stop it; detached heads are hurled at them, Dickson is struck down, and a wild fight follows. The occupants escape, but the crowd discovers disguises: coats designed to conceal the wearer’s head and artificial heads attached by cords. The abandoned coach and horses become prizes for Dickson and his companions. Though badly bruised, Dickson proudly presents himself as the victor who routed Major Weir’s devils. Dickson’s account helps Kerr realize that the apparition was a smuggling contrivance. His health and spirit recover. He firmly resists his wife’s manipulations, restores his mother to honour in the household, and becomes prosperous and respected. Years later, a grey-haired seaman seeking work identifies himself as Watty Brown, once the runaway apprentice of Kerr’s father. Brown relates how he fled Edinburgh after joining a crowd that broke into the jail and carried off Captain Porteous. He later worked at sea and in Holland, eventually investing his savings with smugglers who used a coach, horses, costumes, and the terror of Major Weir’s name to carry goods to associates in the Cowgate. Brown explains Kerr’s ordeal. The smugglers found Kerr unconscious near the stair and, thinking him a possible revenue officer, placed him in the coach while removing their goods. They intended to take him to Holland and sell him so that he could not reveal their secret. Yet one smuggler recognized Kerr as a former schoolfellow. Kerr’s terror, confession, and apparent belief in Major Weir moved him to pity, and he was released near the Figgate Whins. Brown remains in Kerr’s employment as foreman. Widow Horner dies of a broken heart in her son’s house, while her son Walter, once wealthier than Kerr, falls into poverty and dies a despised pensioner of his incorporation.

By George Howell · First published 1887 · Genre: Gothic fiction, Supernatural fiction, Scottish folklore and legend · 12,820 words

First lines

A legend similar to that here given was current in Glasgow a number of years ago, and for ages before. The hero's name was Bob Dragon, whose income, when alive, was said to have been one guinea a minute. His coachman and horses were said, as those of the Major, to want the heads. The most curious trait of the Glasgow goblin horses, was that they went to the river to drink, although they had no heads. The superstitions of most European countries have a similar origin; the Germans have their spectre huntsman; the coaches and horses of Major Weir and Bob Dragon are of the same character. The antiquary will find the trial of Major Weir in Pitcairn's "Criminal Trials; " and the lover of such stories may consult "Satan's Invisible World Discovered. "

Similar titles

Genres

Tags

Edinburgh legends · Scottish Gothic fiction · eighteenth-century Edinburgh · supernatural folklore · spectral coach · Major Weir · haunted carriage · urban legend · moral reformation · filial duty · mother-son relationship · family cruelty

What this Textopian page supports

Major Weir's Coach: a Legend of Edinburgh is listed on Textopian as a short story by George Howell, dated 1887 CE.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

More by George Howell