Truckleborough Hall

Synopsis

Mr. North, a middle-aged and prosperous gentleman, who mistakes some common-places for the principles of civil liberty. He fancies himself democratical, because he is secretly impatient of aristocratical superiority. He stands for a borough, and makes speeches, such as professional patriots are wont to make, and sensible people love to laugh at. He comes up to London, ignorant of the proprieties of places, and attends, in the capacity of chairman, a meeting of the sovereign people, at the sign of the Pig's Foot and Pie Crust, where he meets such bad company, as gives his Jacobinism a shock which it never recovers, and where he is made extremely uneasy, by the seditious language used by some of the thinking party. The police eventually make their appearance, and Mr. North escapes by the window, leaving a paper behind him containing notes for a delicate domestic arrangement, a treaty of marriage which he contemplated. The whole kingdom is convulsed with terror at the frightful conspiracy discovered at the Pig's Foot and Pie Crust…


The Author

William Pitt Scargill, unitarian minister and author, was born in London in 1787. Originally intended for a business life, he attracted the notice of Hugh Worthington, minister at Salters' Hall, under whose advice he studied for the ministry at Wymondley academy. In 1812 he succeeded Thomas Madge as minister of Churchgate Street Chapel, Bury St. Edmunds, and held this charge for twenty years. His ministry was not successful, and he turned to literature as a means of augmenting a narrow income, contributing to periodicals, and producing original tales and sketches. He had been a liberal in politics, but displeased his congregation by becoming a writer for the tory press. Resigning his charge in 1832, he became an adherent of the established church. He made a precarious living by his pen, yet his sketches are brisk and readable, with a curious vein of paradox. He was famed as a punster. He died of brain fever at Bury St. Edmunds on 24 Jan. 1836. He married Mary Anne, daughter of Robert Cutting of Chevington, Suffolk, who survived him with two children.


Contemporary Reviews

This is an extremely piquant and ingenious satire on politicians of all parties and denominations. In its pages the aristocratical, gentlemanly, twaddling whig; the interested, profligate tory; the democratical declaimer; the pompous, empty man in office; and though last, not least, the surfeited and satisfied high churchman; all figure in their most ludicrous phases—nor should we omit to mention, that the conceited utilitarian comes in for his share of ridicule; which, though brief, is of a pleasant pungency. Such a book is much to our tastes, as we infinitely prefer laughing at the extravagances of the world, to bewailing them. - London Magazine, 1827


By drawing the portraits of a nobleman in possession of the patronage of a borough containing some fifty electors,his son, one of the members, Mr. Turnstile, a convenient politician, and Citizen North, one rather more stern and uncompromising, the author of this work has endeavoured to lash the system, and expose the motives which influence mankind. - The Literary Gazette, 1827


To those who love political novels the perusal of Truckleborough Hall may possibly be a treat. The work displays much satirical talent in its author, with a full knowledge of the subject. - La Belle Assemblée, 1827


Mr Hope begs me to read Truckleborough Hall. Of late novels he says it is that which has amused him most. ‘Both sides of the political question are reviewed most impartially; both quizzed a little, and the reader left in doubt to which the author leans. The transition in the hero from rank Radicalism to a seat on the Treasury Bench, while persuading himself all the time that he remains consistent, is exceedingly well managed. Like the high-finished Dutch pictures, mere truth, well and minutely told, makes all its merit.’ Letter from Maria Edgeworth to Charles Sneyd Edgeworth, 12 Apr 1827