Memoirs of a Highland Lady (Canongate Classic) [Paperback]

Elizabeth Grant (Author)

Book Description

Series: Canongate Classic | Publication Date: October 1988

These recollections of Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus have been popular since first published in 1898. The recent discovery of the original manuscript has now made it possible to publish the complete text in one volume. Elizabeth Grant describes her earliest years in Edinburgh and London, where her father, Sir John Peter Grant, pursued his legal and political ambitions. Holidays were spent amongst the leisured members of her class in spas and resorts, and at Oxford where her uncle was Master of University College. She describes the trauma of a broken engagement and her agonies, echoing the problems suffered by her father, as his legal and political ambitions collapsed, with the direst of consequences for the family. An Indian judgeship provides an unexpected avenue of escape from Sir John Peter's creditors. Her memoirs end with the 33-year-old Elizabeth finding her own future happiness in marriage to an Irish landowner - the subject of the sequel, "The Highland Lady in Ireland".

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you have never read it before, do so now . . . compelling . . . delicious insights into a way of life long passed, as well as glimpses of the familiar . . . a warm, human, revealing account of a young woman's life."  —Scottish Review of Books

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Elizabeth Grant (1797-1885) was born in Edinburgh's fashionable New Town. Most of her childhood was spent in London and on the family estate, Rothiemurchus, on Speyside. She was educated by governesses and in the social graces by various tutors, finally entering Edinburgh society at the end of the Napoleonic wars. In 1827 the family left Scotland for India when her father was appointed to a judgeship in Bombay. It was here that she met and married Colonel Henry Smith, 17 years her senior. They left for Ireland the following year to live at Baltiboys, her husband's newly inherited estate near Dublin.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: David & Charles (October 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0862411459
• ISBN-13: 978-0862411459
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,501,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A personal look into the past, September 17, 2000

By 

Charlie Girl "music lover" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memoirs of a Highland Lady (Canongate Classic) (Paperback)

Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus' biographical volumes offer a very personal look into the past of Scotland (in the first book). Her account of her family's lives and what Scotland was like in the early 19th century would be fascinating to anyone interested in that country or interested in the lives of women of that era. In some ways she seems very contemporary and in other ways she seems very far removed from life today. But her memoirs offer a unique view of how life was lived that long ago and in a place so remote from the mainstream. I found the first book totally enthralling and look forward to reading the other volumes of her later life, after she married an Anglo-Irish landowner and moved to Ireland, and her later travels.