Recent reading

[luzula]

Lochiel of the '45 by John Sibbald Gibson (1994)
I'd have liked something a bit more compressed, which did not rehash the events of the '45. But there were some good tidbits for fic here.
- I knew hardly anything about Lochiel's father, exiled after the '19—I love the detail about him being seen as an unlucky chief because 'at his birth, the silver shoe which had come into the family's possession by supernatural means could not be made to fit the infant John's foot'! Hee. We also find out about the fourth of Lochiel's brothers (Ewen, emigrated to Jamaica).
- The info on the cutting of the forests round Loch Arkaig was interesting.
- I have speculated before on whether his brother Archie (Dr Cameron) had any estate, and here is the answer: he held a tack of Lochiel's lands in Glen Kingie, north of Loch Arkaig.
- It remarks on Lochiel's tolerant approach to religion (which BPC shared, of course). I did know that the Cameron regiment had both an Episcopalian, a Presbyterian, and a Catholic chaplain, but I didn't know that MacDonald of Keppoch, who was a Protestant, refused to let his large numbers of Catholics have a chaplain, which led to some desertion...
- OMG. The book says that at the end of May 1746, still wartime, Jean Cameron (Archie's wife) was 'heavy with child', as was also Margaret Murray of Broughton. No source though, arrrgh. Please give your sources! Hmm, trying to decide if this means I should edit my current fic. Also, I am speechless at this, because in September-October of the same year, I've read elsewhere that Jean was taking messages in the Highlands.
- This is actually connected to the surrender of Jean’s brother, Cameron of Dungallon. He was one of Lochiel’s senior officers, and standard bearer to BPC himself. It wasn't that he was taken during military action, no, he turned himself in voluntarily. The book speculates that he did this for the purpose of keeping the Campbell troops away from a place where Lochiel was hiding, and possibly also to protect the two pregnant women. On the other hand, Duffy quotes Campbell of Mamore's reports saying that Dungallon gave ‘very ingenious and satisfactory answers to such questions as I asked him’, and that he was ‘a person who procured very good in intelligence’. Would he really have done this if he gave himself up as a ruse?? Apparently he didn't tell them where Lochiel was, though. I guess we'll never know his motives. This also reminds me of Anne Mackintosh and her husband--I've seen speculations that they were not actually at odds, but that they were consciously each picking a side so that they had insurance whichever side won. Which of course many families did, but not as dramatically!
- Sir Steuart Streipland trained as a surgeon to earn a living after he lost his estates after the ’15. Which is nice, yay making himself a useful member of society. Perhaps this is an illustration of what Naomi Mitchison said about the Scottish land-owning classes not being as averse to taking up a trade as the English?
- This is a cute anecdote: Lochiel was with BPC when he came to the French court, and when a man came and threw his arms around BPC's neck, Lochiel drew his sword because he was afraid it was an assassination. In fact it was BPC's brother Henry--nice to see that the brothers were on such good terms.
- It's very interesting to read Lochiel's narrative Mémoire d’un Ecossais. I can't take it entirely at face value, though, since it obviously had some propaganda purposes--he wanted to influence the French court. For example, it starts with the blatantly false sentence: ‘There had been something close to complete accord among the Scottish Highlanders to serve their rightful king.’ Really? What about the Campbells? and the Munros and Mackays? Also, I am boggling at the epithet ‘bright spirit’ applied to Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat. Here's an interesting bit, though: Lochiel claimed that when general Campbell [Mamore, I think?] was ordered to make a search for BPC on the islands, he arrived, then told Clanranald ‘Tomorrow we are going to carry out some thorough searches. If there is any contraband I think you would do well to get it under undercover tonight.’ No idea if it's true or not, but it is true that the Campbells were generally more lenient than other government troops.

Comments

[osprey_archer]

Love the story about General Campbell showing up all "We're going to be searching! ...TOMORROW," and giving them plenty of time to hide anything that needed hiding.

[luzula]

I don't know if it's true, but I do kind of want to believe it. : )

[oursin]

Not sure how useful a member of society a surgeon would have been at that period, even if the art was a bit more advanced in Scotland!

Rory Muir's Gentleman of Uncertain Fortune has been well reviewed as a study of how the younger sons of the gentry and aristocracy contrived, or didn't, to scrape a living - apparently the parameters of how they could do that tightened up over the course of the C18th. Blogpost about it here.

[luzula]

Ha, I see what you mean! But give him points for trying, anyway.

Thanks a lot for the link, I'll check it out! Definitely relevant for a fic I am currently writing…

While you're here: do you know anything about attitudes towards oral sex in Britain during the 18th century? I've browsed various books, but haven't found much information.

[oursin]

I'm not sure about attitudes to oral sex in C18th - might be something in one or other of Julie Peakman's books, e.g. Amatory Pleasures. Explorations in Eighteenth-Century Sexual History, or Lascivious Bodies: A Sexual History of the Eighteenth Century. Rictor Norton indicates that the sodomy trials in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey include evidence of oral sex among the practices brought under that heading.

[luzula]

Thanks, I'll check them out! : )

[regshoe]

There were a lot of useful little details in this book.

The bit about Cameron of Dungallon is interesting, perhaps especially in the context of how many Jacobites ended up giving information to the Government in one way or another. Allegiances are a complicated thing, clearly.

That story about General Campbell surprised me! Being generally more lenient and showing some amount of mercy to your enemies is one thing, actually giving them a chance to get the Prince out of the way before you can find him is quite another.

[luzula]

Re: Dungallon turning informer, the really famous informer was of course Murray of Broughton. I haven't read much about him as a person, but I do wonder about his motivations. He was actually a driving force behind getting the Rising going, so why betray it later? There is of course the obvious motivation of saving his own skin. But given that so many of the executed Jacobites died proudly and unrepentantly, he must have known that he would be despised for betraying his companions. Which he really was. Also, I wonder what his ardently Jacobite wife Margaret thought of him! He has written memoirs, which I assume contain self-justifications, but I haven't read them...

[regshoe]

The Companions of Pickle has a chapter on Murray of Broughton—Lang doesn't speculate much about what his motives might have been, but does emphasise that he apparently remained devoted to the Jacobite cause all his life (he recounts a 'family tradition' that Charles visited Murray in London years after the Rising, and Murray introduced him to his young son as 'your King'). Who knows. I wonder about Margaret, too—she left him some time after the Rising, perhaps because of his betrayal of the Cause.

[luzula]

Huh, that's weird...if he stayed devoted to the cause, why betray it?? And I didn't know that Margaret left him! Interesting.

[regshoe]

That is the mystery! Perhaps it was just fear of the punishment he would have received otherwise. Or general despair—I imagine the failure of the Rising combined with all the illness he'd undergone that year must have been a lot to bear.