Jarvie

( Bailie Nicol ), a magistrate at Glasgow, and kinsman of Rob Roy. He is petulant, conceited, purse proud, without tact, and intensely prejudiced, but kind-hearted and sincere. Jarvie marries his maid. The novel of Rob Roy has been dramatized by J. Pocock, and Charles Mackay was the first to appear in the character of “Bailie Nicol Jarvie.” Talfourd says (1829): “Other actors are sophisticate, but Macay is the thing itself.”—Sir W. Scott, Rob Roy (time, George I.). The character of Bailie Nicol Jarvie is one of the author’s happiest conceptions, and the idea of carrying him to the wild, rugged mountains, among outlaws and desperadoes—at the same time that he retained a keen relish of the comforts of the Salt market of Glasgow, and a due sense of his dignity as a magistrate—complete the ludicrous effect of the picture.—Chambers, English Literature , ii. 587.