Young Folks Paper Issue 807
"When I came back into the round-house, I found the gentleman had taken a money-belt from around his waist and poured out a guinea or two upon the table. The captain was looking at ten guineas, and then at the belt, and then at the gentleman's face, and I thought he seemed excited."
-----Young Folks, no. 807, p. 306
Illustration in Literary Context
The illustration in issue 807 of Young Folks Paper, depicts the moment in the text when David first meets Alan Breck Stewart. In the text, the author spends a great deal of time detailing Alan's appearance. Therefore, this illustration attempts to relay that appearance in visual form. David describes Alan's appearance as "smallish in stature, but well set and nimble as a goat; his face was of a good expression, but sunburnt very dark, and heavily freckled and pitted with the small-pox" (Young Folks, no. 807, p. 307). Additionally, David takes great care in describing Alan's clothing as "a hat with red feathers, a red waistcoat, breeches of black plush, and a blue coat with silver buttons and handsome silver lace: costly clothes" (307). Therefore, if readers are not from that time period and are unfamiliar with the status and meaning of different articles of clothing, this illustration can aid in envisioning the appearance of the important characters. Furthermore, the illustration also helps the readers visualize Alan's belongings on the table that consist of "a pair of silver-mounted pistols" along with his coins (307). The reader can also see David in the left corner of the illustration as he serves "Mr. Riach and the captain at their supper" (307). This illustration ultimately portrays the moment when the two main characters of David Balfour and Alan Breck Stewart first meet one another prior to beginning their journey together across the Scottish Highlands.
Jacobite Clothing
In the narrative, the character of Alan Breck Stewart is based off of a non-fictional man of the same name. Alan is a Jacobite and describes himself as "one of those honest gentlemen that were in trouble about the years forty-five and six" and if he "got into the hands of any of the red-coated gentry, it's like it would go hard with' him" (307). One of the reasons as to why one can decipher Alan as a Jacobite is due to the way that he dresses because the non-fictional man was a "deserter from the Army, had been ' out' in the Jacobite rising of 1745-1746, and since then in the French service, but had visited Scotland several times as an emissary of the exiled and forfeited Stewart of Ardsheal" (Fergusson 116). Therefore, this illustration not only signals that Alan is a Jacobite, but it also allows for readers who are unfamiliar with the Jacobite fashion to place a depiction to Stevenson's detailed descriptions.
The blue coat (pictured to the left) was a common article of clothing that was often worn by Jacobite rebels living in France following the unsuccessful Rebellion of 1745 (Reid). The character of Alan Breck Stewart was an actual, non-fictional rebel that would have worn a coat similar to the one pictured on the left while he was speaking to the crew of the Covenant. This from of dress helps highlight the "visual incongruity inherent to Alan Breck because he identifies as a proud Highland Scotsman while dressing like a pompous Continental European" (Gangnes 204). This style of dress helps put into perspective how Jacobite Highlanders had to leave their homeland due to the threat of capture by the British. However, in doing so, their Highlander culture mixes with other European cultures (such as the French culture) depending on where the rebels decide to take refuge.
Captain Hoseason discovers this intermixing of cultures within Alan when he remarks in the moments following the scene illustrated in issue 807, “Ye’ve a French soldier’s coat upon your back and a Scotch tongue in your head” to underscore that Alan is a Highlander (Young Folks, no. 807, p. 307). However, because of his involvement in the Jacobite uprising, he must take hiding in France. Furthermore, this line emphasizes how Alan's clothing is a "strange mix of European and Highlander, colonial and colonized" because "the buttons of Alan’s French coat are of Highland origin," whereas the coat is French in nature (Gangnes 205). Therefore, this illustration by Boucher shows how Alan is caught in between "two cultures," the French and the Scottish Highlander (Gangnes 205). Overall, this illustration by Boucher allows the readers to visualize the clothing of David's time, while also providing context to the historical background of Jacobite clothing. Furthermore, this illustration also demonstrates how the diaspora following the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 not only influenced fashion, but also influenced the lives of the main characters and livlihood of late 1700s Highland society as a whole.
Statue of Alan Stewart (left) and the fictional David Balfour (right), from Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped.