A Guid Gangin’ Pleadetails

[Picture: A Guid Gangin’ Plea]
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A Guid Gangin’ Plea

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A Guid Gangin’ Plea, From a water-colour drawing by Henry W. Kerr, A.R.S.A., R.S.W.

An older gentleman sits at a writing desk with a quill pen in his mouth; he is holding what appears to be an opened letter between his hands reading, and smiling. I did not find the passage in the text, but the following passages do indicate the use of the word “ganiging” clearly.

An old Mr. Erskine of Dun had one of these old retainers, under whose language and unreasonable assumption he had long groaned. He had almost determined to bear it no longer, when, walking out with his man, on crossing a field, the master exclaimed, “There’s a hare.” Andrew looked at the place, and coolly replied, “What a big lee, it’s a cauff.” [I think, “What a big lie, it’s a calf!” – Liam]

The master, quite angry now, plainly told the old domestic that they must part. But the tried servant of forty years, not dreaming of the possibility of his dismissal, innocently asked, “Ay, sir; whare ye gaun? I’m sure ye’re aye best at hame,” supposing that, if there were to be any disruption, it must be the master who would change the place.

An example of a similar fixedness of tenure in an old servant was afforded in an anecdote related of an old coachman long in the service of a noble lady, and who gave all the trouble and annoyance which he conceived were the privileges of his position in the family. At last the lady fairly gave him notice to quit, and told him he must go. T he only satisfaction she got was the quiet answer, “Na, na, my lady; I druve ye to your marriage, and I shall stay to drive ye to your burial.” Indeed, we have heard of a still stronger assertion of his official position by one who met an order to quit his master’s service by the cool reply, “Na, na; I’m no gangin’. If ye dinna ken whan ye’ve a good servant, I ken whan I’ve a gude place.” (p. 98)


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Dimensions:

92 x 86mm (3.6 x 3.4 inches)

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Added by neil barnett on Sun Oct 18 06:52:22 2009

We have a print of the same name by the same artist, but in this one he is standing up reading the letter. There is the end of a bookshelf to his left. Also he appears to have less hair than in the other ones. Underneath it says ‘painted for The National Guarantee and Suretyship Association’
Any ideas as to its history?

Added by Ankh on Tue Oct 20 12:14:40 EDT 2009

Sounds like the Association commissioned the artist to make a painting similar to one he’d already painted.
One reason to do this is so that they had rights to use the image in any way they wanted (and a consequence is that it had less copyright protection, and also that the artist would probably have received a one-time fee and no royalty).
Liam

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152-A-Guid-Ganging-Plea-q95-1157x1108.jpg

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800 dots per inch

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