Early one morning in August 1826 two men stood facing each other 12 paces apart in a sodden field a few miles outside Kirkcaldy in Fife. One man was a linen merchant named David Landale, the other was George Morgan, his banker. At the words ‘Gentlemen are you ready? — Fire!’ two pistol shots went off instantaneously. As the smoke cleared it was plain that Morgan had fallen to the ground. He was shot through the chest and died at once. Landale escaped unharmed.
This was the last duel ever fought in Scotland (the last duel to be fought in England was in 1845) and the wonder is that it happened at all. As James Landale shows in this enjoyable book, the quarrel between David Landale and George Morgan was not a matter of honour in the aristocratic sense of the word at all. Both were canny Scots, men of business from the small town of Kirkcaldy, then the hub of Scotland’s linen industry. David Landale was a prosperous and respectable merchant, a strong man with a firm jaw and a hint of a smile. George Morgan, who had served as an officer in the Napoleonic wars, acted with his brother as agent for the Bank of Scotland in the town.
1826 was a year of economic recession, the linen industry slumped, and David Landale had serious cash flow problems. He applied to his bank to smooth him through hard times and help pay his creditors, but the Morgans refused to give credit. Landale believed, with reason, that the bank was trying to force him into liquidation. Even worse, George Morgan went round Kirkcaldy gossiping about Landale’s debts, with the result that his friends starting calling in their loans.
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