Wiseman, Andrew

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     Edinburgh Research Explorer                                      “There’s ink in the blood of the Macdonalds”Citation for published version:Wiseman, A 2013, '“There’s ink in the blood of the Macdonalds”', Scottish Islands Explorer.Link:Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research ExplorerDocument Version:Publisher final version (usually the publisher pdf)Published In:Scottish Islands ExplorerPublisher Rights Statement:© Wiseman, A. (2013). “There’s ink in the blood of the Macdonalds”. Scottish Islands ExplorerGeneral rightsCopyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s)and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise andabide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.Take down policyThe University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorercontent complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright pleasecontact openaccess@ed.ac.uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately andinvestigate your claim.Download date: 20. Feb. 2015‘Ink in the the blood of the Macdonalds’In his acceptance speech for the award of LL.D. by theUniversity of Edinburgh on Friday 9 July 1920, RudyardKipling jocularly downplayed his Scottish ties when ‘hehastened to dissociate himself at once from anythingcomplimentary that might have been said about Scotland upto date.’ Although raising a laugh from the audience,Kipling’s maternal line of descent came from theMacdonalds, a branch of Ostaig and Capsill of Sleat, fromwhom he took immeasurable pride.The Chairman addressing the recipients of their honorarydegrees, who were to be capped on the following day,referred to Kipling as ‘a poet, a prophet, and a seer.’ Hecontinued that it ‘seemed almost ridiculous to bring MrKipling to a University, because he was surely a university inhimself. To him the students of any art or craft might learnalmost all that they wanted to know.’Kipling deemed that although the speeches were good theLord Provost’s comments concerning local politics were atrifle parochial. Nevertheless, the Moderator in replying toKipling’s speech on behalf of the university spoke ofEdinburgh having annexed an Englishman! Kipling was notbest pleased and would later recall the incident:…said nought but watched him deliver himself deeply intomy hands. Next morn, he comes to me and says: “Am I rightlyinformed that your grandmother was a Macdonald?”  “No,” Isaid, “It was my mother, but how should you lowlanders knowthese things?” He was out of Midlothian and in a temperateway I danced on his carcass.Surely a ‘Celtic’OneAlice Kipling, Sheffield-born, was Kipling’s Macdonaldmother - something the Moderator found out the hard way.Kipling’s ancestry was surely a ‘Celtic’ one for in his veinscoursed many ‘native’ ethnicities including, of course, hisHighland Macdonalds.At an evening dinner reception, held after the formalconclusion of the morning graduation ceremony, Kiplingmet a more congenial man of the cloth, Dr NormanMacLean (1869 -1952), who remarked, on being introducedto the renowned man of letters, that he was a native of Skye.MacLean later recalled that Kipling’s eyes, under theirshaggy eyebrows, suddenly lit up, and his face radiatedgoodwill. “I also,” said he, “hail from the Isle of Skye.” In vividwords, Kipling then told the minister of how an ancestor ofhis, John Macdonald, having fought for Prince Charlie,deemed it wise to emigrate, and how the ship on which heembarked was wrecked on the north coast of Ireland.The Highland ancestry of Kipling, on his maternal side,begins with this clansman and his wife, Macdonald Jacobiteswho after the failed ’45 Rising considered it prudent toemigrate from their native Skye to Canada; but their shipwas wrecked off Ireland, where they landed and settled inFermanagh. The son of that Skyeman was born inBallinamallard, near Enniskillen, in 1764. James, in time,converted to Methodism and became a well-respectedWesleyean minister and was ordained in 1784. 44 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER JULY/AUGUST 2013Andrew Wiseman investigates Rudyard Kipling’s Skye Connection‘Ink in the the blood of the Macdonalds’Rudyard Kipling by William StrangJuly_August.qxd  3/6/13  11:57  Page 44JULY/AUGUST 2013 SCOTTISH ISLANDS EXPLORER 45Mixture of Highland, Irish and WelshHe married Anne Browne in 1789 and their eldest son,George Browne Macdonald (1805 -1868), was born inStockport. He too, in turn, became a minister and was twicemarried, his second wife being Hannah Jones (1809 -1875),Manchester-born but of Welsh stock. From that mixture ofHighland, Irish, and Welsh, their eldest daughter, AliceMacdonald (1837 -1911), married Yorkshireman JohnLockwood Kipling (1837/8 -1911). Their first-born, inBombay, was Rudyard Kipling (1865 -1938).Kipling is renowned for his short stories and poetry,particularly those about India, and was awarded the Nobel Prizefor Literature in 1907. His popular writings include some lateradapted for the cinema, such as The Jungle Book (1967) and hisshort story of the same name The Man Who Would Be King(1975). His childhood and his early working years were passedin India; and although his schooling was in England and hiscareer cosmopolitan, he never forgot his heather roots.A columnist, Ion S Munro, met one of Kipling’s relatives at alunchtime gathering of the Kipling Society in London duringthe early 1950s and found himself sitting next to a demure andshy elderly lady. She was Miss Florence Macdonald, a first cousinas well as his playmate in his early years, and often his companionin later days. Intrigued why Kipling’s Skye connection had neverreally been written about despite a great deal of articles beingpublished about him, Munro enquired whether or not Kiplingever took stock of his Macdonald lineage and how much couldbe attributed to his Celtic forebears.The reserved diffidence of my neighbour vanished at myquery. She turned to me with an altered gaze. “Of courseRudyard and all of us were deeply conscious and proud of ourclanship with the Macdonalds.” She declared, “It was the Celt inhim which lay behind the visions and dream-realities of verymuch of his writings in prose, poetry, and verse. But don’t forgetthat to those influences were added the Yorkshire qualities of hisfather’s descent.Scottish DescentWhen Kipling went over some of Florence’s own poeticalefforts, his comments could be blunt as well as constructive.While he dismissed one poem by saying “Not a good line init, my dear,” he then picked up another piece and was full ofpraise: “But this is damned good.” He concluded by dint ofhard work and practice that she would someday write goodverse, adding: “You see, there’s ink in the blood of theMacdonalds.” Here Kipling was tracing back his literacyskills to his Scottish descent.To Alice, the Macdonald lineage was so vital that her finalrequest was that the legend on her tombstone should read,‘Alice Macdonald wife of John Lockwood Kipling.’ Alicealong with her younger three sisters, Georgina (1840 -1920),Agnes (1843 -1906) and Louisa (1845 -1925) wereuntypical Victorian women. These four sisters married intowell-to-do and influential families. Georgina, the most famous of the Macdonald sisters anda talented woodcut artist in her own right, married SirEdward Burne-Jones, a pre-Raphaelite painter. Agnes’shusband, Sir Edward Poynter, became the director of theNational Gallery and later the president of the RoyalAcademy. Louisa married Alfred Baldwin and was themother of the British Prime Minister, Sir Stanley Baldwin.Edith (1848 -1937), the youngest, remained a spinster.Literary LegacyAlthough Kipling’s father could be more indulgent with hisson, Rudyard looked to his mother for inspiration as he begancrafting his literary skills. She acted as reader, editor, censorand critic of his earliest attempts. Recent scholarship has triedto downplay her influence on Kipling’s life and work. Thiswould be understating her sheer determination to make notonly her husband’s career a success, but also that of her son.She expected nothing less than the very highest of standardsand as a result Kipling strived to do his best and his literarylegacy in no small way pays dividends to her early influence.It was not from the potters of Staffordshire that Kiplingderived his genius, but from his mother whose vitality andimaginative power were such that of her a Viceroy of Indiaonce said, “Dullness and Mrs Kipling cannot exist in the sameroom.” Perhaps it may be an overstatement to say thatKipling’s mother had a Macdonald trait with her independentnature and steely determination to succeed. Clearly, though,her forebears came partly from a line of antecedents who maybe described as over-achievers, people who wanted to elevatethemselves by talent, drive and utter ambition to succeed.Kipling himself was later to personify these attributes.‘Ink in the the blood of the Macdonalds’Further InformationJudith Flanders: A Circle of Sisters: Alice Kipling, Georgina Burne Jones, Agnes Poynter, and Louisa Baldwin (Penguin Books 2002)Ina Taylor: Victorian Sisters (George Weidenfield & Nicolson 1987)The Scotsman:  8 and 9 July 1920Rudyard Kipling and Alice, his mother, aged 53, in 1890July_August.qxd  3/6/13  11:57  Page 45

“There’s ink in the blood of the Macdonalds”

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