Such realism, however, has contributed to the decline of Galt's popularity.
Annals of the Parish, entertaining as it is, is practically unreadable today without recourse to an extensive glossary of Scottish words and idioms.
John Galt was born in the west of Scotland, in the seaport town of Irvine, Ayrshire, on 2 May 1779, the oldest of four children of John Galt, a sea captain in command of a merchant ship, and Jean Tilloch Galt. In 1789 the family moved north to another seaport town, Greenock, on the Firth of Clyde, so that the elder Galt could expand his mercantile activities and trade with Jamaica. His bookish son John was schooled in practical subjects pertaining to commerce: penmanship, astronomy, mathematics, English, and French. Between 1795 and 1804 he served as a clerk in Greenock, briefly in the customshouse and then in a mercantile establishment. In 1804 Galt removed to London to enter the world of commerce. During the next five years he attempted several business ventures, all of which ended in failure.
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