Sawney Bean, the Scottish cannibal

Folklore, Annual, 1997 by Sandy Hobbs, John le Carre

When tourism appears to affect the popularity or character of local lore, as may be the case with the Sawney Bean story, we are not dealing with a corruption or a distortion of a "real" story, but rather with a coming together of different cultures. Tourists are folk. The interaction of tourist and local lore is no less worthy of serious consideration than other comings together of two cultures.

University of Paisley University of Strathclyde

Notes

1 See also Dick 1919; Bell 1932; Atkinson 1983; Strawhorn and Andrew 1988; Horan 1990. In 1969 a play called Sawney Bean was performed during the Edinburgh Festival (Nye and Watson 1970). Later, the novel The Ballad of Sawney Bean appeared (Tait 1990). We should not overlook passing references to Sawney Bean in works devoted to other subjects such as Turnberry golf course and Johnson and Boswell's tour of the Highlands. Discussing Turnberry Golf Course, Steele says, "perhaps the legendary cannibal Sawney Bean and his incestuous brood may have strayed this far north in search of a tasty passer-by" (Steele 1994, 23). A character in John Byme's film Boswell and Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles (BBC 2, 27 October 1993) refers to Sawney Bean.

2 The first was a handsome folio, published in seventy-two two penny numbers; some copies bear the date 1736. The Birmingham edition was in a smaller size and with inferior engravings. Ronald Holmes says the editions are identical, presumably referring to the content (Holmes 1985). Of the two, we have seen only the Birmingham edition. The Sawney Bean story appears on pp. 31-3. Page 30 has a plate showing Bean, which closely resembles the plate discussed and reproduced by William Roughead (1934).

3 We are grateful to Steve Roud for advice on eighteenthcentury chapbooks. We also wish to express our thanks to the staff of Carlisle Library, Exeter Central Library, Hull Central Library, Mitchell Library (Glasgow), National Library of Scotland and Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central Library.

4 We reached this judgement before discovering that Gerald Norris (1986) had come to the same conclusion about the relationship between Bean and Gregg.

5 Allardyce Nicoll's History of English Drama, 1660-1900 mentions three anonymous plays on Sawney Bean:

Sawney Bean, the Terror of the North, a spectacle performed at the Royal Coburg Theatre, 18 February 1823. This theatre is described as specialising in "melodramas of the most startling nature" (Nicoll 1955, 4:531).

Sawney Beane; or Harlequin and the Man Eater, a pantomime performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre, Islington, 1 April 1839 (ibid.).

Sawney Bean, the Cannibal, a drama performed at the City of London Theatre, 20 April 1864 (ibid., 5:746).

These plays all refer to Sawney Bean in their titles; it is not possible to say whether the character appeared in other plays. Roy Judge has drawn our attention to evidence of a successful earlier Sawney Bean play not mentioned by Nicoil, to be found in British Library Playbills 244. Harlequin Highlander; or, Sawney Bean's Cave, had about ten performances starting 10 February 1806, at the New Olympic Circus, Liverpool, having previously run for one hundred nights at the Royal Circus, London. It ran again in February 1807, and in April 1807 was used for a benefit night indicating, as Judge says, that it was regarded as a popular piece which would attract a good audience.