164
��NOTES BY THE WAY.
��Its Jubilee in
1882.
��Records death
of Scott: William and
Robert
Chambers
present at
funeral.
��1902, Jan. 11.
Rapid success
of the Journal.
��Robert Cochrane.
George Meredith's ' Chillian-
wallah.'
Payn's first novel.
��Stanley J.
Weyman,
Thomas
Hardy, and
Conan Doyle
contributors.
��Although Chambers' s Journal is still issued in weekly numbers, the monthly-part sale is far the larger. In 1882 its Jubilee was celebrated, when the publishers and booksellers of Edinburgh presented an address to William Chambers. To this nearly sixty firms appended their signatures, and in the number for the 28th of January of that year Mr. William Chambers gave ' Riminiscences of a Long and Busy Life,' including a history of the founding of the Journal and much interesting information concerning himself and his brother Robert. Seven months after the starting of the Journal literature had to mourn the death of Sir Walter Scott, which occurred on the 21st of September, 1832. At the funeral which took place on Wednesday, the 26th, the brothers were present, being amongst the ten or twelve persons who had come from Edinburgh for the purpose. William wrote of it : " The spectacle presented at the final solemnity the large concourse of mourners clustered under the trees near the ruins of the Abbey of Dryburgh, the sonorous reading of the funeral service amidst the silent crowd, and the gloomy atmosphere overhead is one never to be obliterated from remembrance. To the thirty-fifth number of Chambers's Journal he contributed, by way of supple- ment, the fullest account of Scott's life issued up till that time, which had a sale of over a hundred and eighty thousand copies.
Mr. William Chambers had formed high expectations as to the success of the Journal, but these were far exceeded. In a few days there was, for Scotland, the unprecedented sale of thirty thousand copies. An agency was established in London, and the circulation rose to fifty thousand, which in after years increased to eighty thousand. It has been the custom of the Journal from time to time to take its readers into its confidence and to give articles on its progress. Mr. Robert Cochrane has called my attention to these. On January 19th, 1895, ' Some Notable Beginners in Chambers' 's Journal ' mentions that on July 7th, 1849, George Meredith's first contribution, ' Chillian wallah,' appeared. This memorializes the bloody fight which took place at the village of that name in the Punjab during the second Sikh war, on the 13th of January, 1849. Mr. Payn also contributed his first novel, ' The Family Scapegrace.' He was editor from 1858 to 1871.
On November 6th, 1897, another contribution to the history of the Journal was made, and again on the 17th of November, 1900.
Its contributors have included, among many other well-known names, Robert William Jamieson, the father of " Dr. Jim," who contributed ' Who Wrote Shakespeare ? ' August 7th, 1852 ; Mr. Stanley J. Weyman on Oxford life ; Thomas Hardy, ' How I built myself a House,' March 18th, 1865 ; Sir A. Conan Doyle, whose first short story appeared in 1879, ' The Mystery of Sasassa Valley,' a South African story ; Mr. D. Christie Murray ; Sir Wemyss Reid ; and Sir Leslie Stephen.
�� �
