John Buchan
4. Ill Health.
In 1912 it was thought that John Buchan had a duodenal ulcer which was causing him extreme pain - a condition that plagued him for the rest of his life. The ulcer had been diagnosed but it is probable that there was something else. It was also thought the ulcer had been brought on by overwork. (The photograph of John Buchan on the Contents page was taken in 1906 several years before the ravages of his illness took it's toll). In 1917 he had an unsuccesful operation for the complaint. Buchan gave one of his favourite characters, the American John S. Blenkiron, the same afflication which was cured by an operation. Blenkiron appeared in several of Buchan's novels - Greenmantle, Mr Standfast, The Courts of the Morning, and Sick Heart River. Blenkiron when ill was on a strict diet and no doubt so was Buchan particularly after his illnes drove him to bed in 1914 at Broadstairs. This diet would appear to exclude bacon/eggs, certainly the bacon aspect of it, which seems to have irked Buchan no-end which has resulted in some of his Scottish based books including many references to this food - see below.
JOHN BUCHAN AND HAM/EGGS
Several of John Buchan's books have references to either ham, ham and eggs and or their variations. In his early life John Buchan spent a lot of time walking and cycling in Southern Scotland particularly in the South West. This was sometimes by himself but on many occasions accompanied by his good friend Charles Dick. They lodged where they could find a bed. It would appear that ham and eggs was a staple in rural Scotland and this is mentioned many times in the Buchan novels set in this part of the country.
Charles Dick relates in John Buchan by his Wife and Friends the following encounter with this staple when they were cycling through Lanarkshire on their way to Broughton. "On entering Carnwath we saw a notice-board above the door of "a decent window" who was one day to do for Dickson McCunn in Huntingtower what she now did for us. The legend in home-made lettering announced
We were rather tired and very hungry and were relieved to find that we could fare adequately on ham and eggs."
On this occasion Buchan enjoyed Mrs brockie's ham and eggs but eventually he must have tired of them because in the Dickson McCunn novel of Castle Gay the characters are spared "the tyranny of ham and eggs" at the Green Tree Inn in Portaway (Newton Stewart). (This Mrs Brockie must be the Elizabeth Brockie who in the 1891 census for Carnwath was a Grocer in the Main Street - Ed.)
John Buchan suffered from what at the time was diagnosed as a duodunal ulcer, possibly brought on by over work. This came to light in 1912 and was to cause him considerable pain for the rest of his life. It was this illness that caused him to be in bed during the summer of 1914 at Broadstairs.
As the result of this ulcer he was on a pretty strict diet but it would appear that one of the many foods that he missed most was ham, ham and eggs etc. He may not have missed the Scottish rural ham and eggs all that much but he certainly did miss "fragrant shavings of bacon, shapely poached eggs, and also that particular ham on the cold-table at his Club!
It was at Broadstairs in 1914 that he penned his first Richard Hannay novel The thirty-nine steps. This is a fast moving short novel but Buchan managed to get into the pages four references to ham or ham and eggs!
The following is a list of ham/eggs references that I have come across, so far, in books by John Buchan commencing with The thirty-nine steps.
Richard Hannay Novels.
The thirty-nine steps.
At the shepherd's cottage in Galloway. "She set before me a hearty meal of ham and eggs."
With Sir Harry. " I had a cup of coffee and some cold ham"
Very hungry In the Upper Tweed Hills. "There were Paddock's crisp sausages and fragrant shavings of bacon, and shapely poached eggs --- and a particular ham that stood on the cold table, for which my soul lusted."
At the Bald Archaeologist's House "Bacon and eggs would content me, but I wanted the better part of a flitch of bacon and half a hundred eggs."
Greenmantle
At the Savoy Grill. "I ordered an omelette and a chop"
At Col. Stumm's house. " The servant presently brought me a ham omelette"
On the road to Constantinople. "She sold me -- the better part of a ham."
At The Front. "He gave me coffee and ham"
Mr Standfast.
At Andrew Amos's flat in Glasgow. "a plate which had once contained ham and eggs."
Ibid. " I consumed the inevitable ham and eggs"
Onboard the Tobermory. "where the odour of ham and eggs hung like a fog."
At Macmorran's cottage on Skye. "supper - braxy ham and oatcake." (Braxy is mutton, Ed.)
At the hotel at Kyle. "ham and eggs and cold salmon for supper."
At the pub in Muirtown (Inverness). "the promised ham and eggs proved impossible."
At the Aerodrome. "cooked us some bacon and an omelette."
The Three Hostages.
Sandy at the Silent Woman inn. "I ordered eggs, kidneys, sausages, and cold ham."
Turpin in captivity. "A good meal it looked -- cold ham and gelatine, an omelette."
The Blanket of the Dark.
Description of King Henry VIII. "The face was vast and red as a new ham, a sheer mountain of a face, for it was as broad as it was long, and the small features seemed to give it a profile of an egg"
The Island of Sheep.
At the Inn in Northumbria. " bacon and eggs in a quarter of an hour"
Haraldson. "He woke ravenous - ate the better part of a ham."
Dickson McCunn Novels.
I am sure that Buchan invented the character of Dickson McCunn, so that as a retired grocer he would be a Purveyor of Fine Hams.
Huntingtower
McCunn at home in Glasgow. "a dish of ham and eggs frizzling near the fire"
Mrs brockies Inn in Cloncae. "There he supped handsomely off ham and eggs".
McCunns tuck-boxes. "two perfect hams."
Archie Roylance. "inroads on one of your divine hams"
Castle Gay
McCunn at Blaweary. "Ham and eggs and a bit of salmon -- the eggs are our hens', the ham my own rearing curing."
Mr Craw at the Back House. " regarding distastefully a large dish of bacon and eggs."
The Inn at Meeting Waters. " ham and eggs were sizzling on the fire."
Mr Craw. "How unlike the crisp shavings of bacon and the snowy puff-balls of eggs to which he was accustomed."
The Green Tree Inn. " The two travellers escaped from the tyranny of ham and eggs."
At the Hydropathic. " Plate of cold chicken and ham"
The House of the Four Winds.
In Buchan's ficticious Tyrolean country of Evalonia it was not ham/eggs that was the scourge!
At the Inn at Kremich. "A supper of cold ham, an omelette."
At the Castle. "There was an omelette a dish of trout"
At the Hotel. "An omelette and some more beer"
At the Camp. "Mushroom omelette."
At the Turk's Head. "Omelette of kidneys and mushrooms."
Miscellaneous References.
John Macnab.
At Crask. "Mrs Lithgow's scones were so succulent, the bacon so crisp."
At Castle Raden. ""was doing good work on ham and eggs. Breakfast he used to declare, should consist of no kickshaws like kidneys and omelettes; only bacon and eggs and plenty of 'em."
Midwinter.
Preface - I remember that he commended a great ham.
The Half Hearted
At Glenavelin. "It is a pity to waste a really fine hunger on the inevitable ham and eggs."
The Path of the King.
At Hightown under Sunfell. "a place that smelt of hams and meal"
Mr Lovel at Brampton. " a noble ham, two virgin pies."
The above are the ham/agg references that I have come acoss so far. I have probably missed quite a few.
It is a pity that Dr Suess was not around when Buchan was alive as Buchan would really have enjoyed the story of Green Eggs and Ham - particularly the translation into Latin of this story. Virent Ova! Viret Perna!
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