The Long Pack; or, The Robbers Discovered: A Scottish Story.

The Robbers Discovered

Hogg, James, 1770-1835; Ettrick shepherd

Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers

ca. 1850 per National Library of Scotland

24 pages

16 cm

Chapbook #20 in a bound collection of 20 chapbooks (s0231b06)

supernatural & ghost stories

This 24 page chapbook contains a print of James Hogg’s tale, The Long Pack, originally published under his pseudonym, the Ettrick Shepherd. In this tale, a peddler arrives at the country home of a wealthy Colonel who is absent on a visit to London. The peddler tries to convince the servants of the house to let him spend the night, but upon being asked to leave, he asks if he can at least leave his pack for the night, which is abnormally large and heavy. Alice, the servant, reluctantly agrees and soon regrets her decision when she observes the pack moving as it rests in the parlour. She seeks help from the other workers on the property, a farm-hand and a rash young man who has a bit of a gun obsession. When the young man, Edward, likewise observes the pack moving, he shoots it with his gun, Copenhagen, but to the company’s horror, the pack gushes bloods and they discover that the pack is actually a man in disguised to look like a pack. At first repentant, they are both relieved and scared to discover the man was armed and likely meant to kill them all and rob the house with the assistance of other criminals. The party of three rouse the peasants of the property, organizing and arming the company and hiding in the house in wait. Much later, a large company of men on horseback arrive, and the defenders release a volley, killing several men and successfully driving off the invaders. Cold and fear keep the men inside until the morning when they discover the bodies of the dead had been carried off under cover of night by their associates. By the time the Colonel is alerted and returns to his home, the trail is cold and the criminals fled or hidden. Nonetheless, the characters of the story are rewarded with full lives after their roles in the adventure of the Long Pack.

Northumberland, England

Crime

Chapbooks - Scotland - Glasgow

Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph Library, Guelph, Ontario

National Library of Scotland http://www.nls.uk/

JPEGs and PDF derived from master file, which was scanned from the original book in 24-bit color at 600 dpi in TIFF format using an Epson Expression 10000XL scanner.

In the public domain; For higher quality reproductions, contact Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph. libaspc@uoguelph.ca 519-824-4120, Ext. 53413

Archival and Special Collections, University of Guelph Library, Guelph, Ontario, Canada