This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.
A GREAT SCOTTISH HOUSEHOLD
The Days of Duchess Anne. By Rosalind K. Marshall. Collins. 232 pages. Notes and index. (Reviewed by 1.5. T.)
pound was worth only a twelfth of a pound sterling, and for rare and expensive items such as tea, fine clothes, or silver, and fine furniture, it was essential for the purchaser to travel 400 miles south to London. This journey was undertaken at intervals by th i 1 ’», who would travel over the border in his own coach, and then resort to the ordinary hackney for the rest of the way south.
Armed with a number of commissions from his Duchess, the Duke would, like most men, be bemused by the choice and variety of goods offered to him. On one occasion he remarked, "I confess I like this trade of buying things worst of any, for I see I do not understand it.” Yet the expensive trappings of status were as important to the great houses of the time as a new car and smart clothes are to the rising young executive of today. Hamilton Palace had a staff of 30 servants, the term “servant” embracing the professional or gentlyborn members of the household as well as the numerous menials. The Grand Tour, an essential part of a young nobleman’s training, was a considerable c.tpenc: to the family, for the importance of those who made it was judged abroad as much by the number of their attendants as by the finery of their attire. The first excursion into the unknown splendours of Eur . ean high life by the Duke of Hamilton’s heir, James, Earl of Arran, was to prove something of a disaster for his illustrious and conscientious parents. V/hen he returned to England the young man, who had inherited none of their stability of character, could not be induced to go back to Scotland. He settled instead for the expensive glitter of the court of Charles 11, where he plunged headlong into debt and dissipation, plausibly defying his parents’ despairing requests to come back to Scotland and fulfil his
For those readers who enjoy reconstructing the past this is a fascinating and informative book. The sub-title “Life in the Household of the Duchess of Hamilton (1656-1716) explains the subject matter, and the author’s material i; based upon the archives of the Hamilton family, made available to her by the present Duke. The result of her researches is a credible account of all facets of day-to-day routine in a noble Scottish household of .he age, the imposing residence, Hamilton Palace, which was enormously enlarged an ’ embellished in the time of the Duchess, the characters of the children, nine of whom survived to maturity, and the manners and custoi. s of Scotland in the 17th and early 18th centuries. But above all the book is a life-size portrait of one of the most remarkable women in history. The law of entail in the period under review is not entirely comprehensible; succession was not confined to male Loirs, and to keep the continuity of a noble line the law seems to have been open to manipulation. Lady Anne, whose three brothers had all died, and her father, an adherent of King Charles I, executed by Cromwell, found herself the undisputed head of the family, while her husband, the Earl of Selkirk, who had ..a blood connections ith the Hamilton family, received the titular status of a *' -ec,-.r, when by prudence and conservation the Hamilton possessions, (impounded by the Commonwealth) came once more under the family’s jurisdiction it was the Duchess who alone had the right to administer them. The comparative poverty of the Scottish nobility is well illustrated as the book progresses. The Scottish
dynastic duties by marrying and raising r family. Eventually the pressure of ever-mounting debt drove him into a haggling match (the usual preliminary to nuptials in high places) with the Earl of Sunderland for the hand of his daughter Lady Anne, and his eventual marriage to her proved to be happy enough, though she died in childbirth two years later, leaving her temporarily disconsolate husband with a daughter.
In 1794 financial straits drove James to seek a second wife. By this time his father was dead, but the natural prudence of the Duchess denied her unsatisfactory heir either the title, or any part in administration of the Hamilton estates. Though in her opinion “A Scots wife is by far the preferablest” she had to accept a second English daughter-in-law, who, though a notorious scold, did fulfil her destiny of providing an heir to her unsatisfactory spouse. James died in 1712, in a mutually fatal duel with the most notorious swordsman of the time, Lord Mohun.
Though this age-old tragedy of a man unwilling to meet his responsibilities provides a very human problem common to many grieving parents, Dr Marshall never loses sight of other objective features of the age she is depicting. Chapters are devoted to such subjects as entertainment and pageantry, clothing and food, and the fidgetty compulsions of great families to outdo each other in enlarging and adorning their considerable properties. The religious controversies of the times played a large part in the lives of all. The Duchess throughout her life was a strong Presbyterian though her natural moderation and sagacity made her disapprove of the excessive austerity displayed by the Covenanters. This is a story of very human people, with the emphasis on their ruling passion, the continuation and advancement of their line. Dr Marshall has produced a carefully documented and detailed study of her subject, and has made it eminently readable.
SCIENCE FICTION The Man Who Folded Himself. By David Gerrold. Faber and Faber. 148 pp. Some of the greatest problems facing an author of a book on time travel are the paradox of a character meeting himself in the past or future, and his effect upon himself, his other self, and upon history. David Gerrold has, to a large extent, resolved these problems of story-logic by combining time travel with the parallel universe theory. Daniel Eakins is the diarist of the story. With the aid of a fabulous belt (which also keeps his trousers up) Eakins is able to skip through an infinity of parallel universes and times, each fractionally different from the last, making and erasing history at whim and meeting’ an enormous number of variations of himself — from the homosexual to the lesbian, and from the sane to the psychotic. Rather than folding himself David Eakins unfolds himself — to himself. There are one or two questions which are not entirely satisfactorily resolved. For instance it is not until page 95 that Eakins first theorises about his time belt. His hypothesis on the belt’s origin is rather vague while no attempt is made to discover how it operates. The author has, however, broken new ground and has produced an entertaining, amusing, and often thought-provoking book.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19740316.2.117.1
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33485, 16 March 1974, Page 12
Word Count
1,148A GREAT SCOTTISH HOUSEHOLD Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33485, 16 March 1974, Page 12
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.
A GREAT SCOTTISH HOUSEHOLD Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33485, 16 March 1974, Page 12
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.