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The Eighteenth Century -- Scotland
This book was first published in 1886. This edition comes complete with historical notes, a bibliography and a glossary of Scots words. Kidnapped is also published in Penguin Classics at £1 but I think that the dearer edition is well worth the extra money.
After the death of his parents sixteen-year-old David Balfour leaves the valley in the Scottish Borders where he has been brought up. The minister, Mr Campbell, gives him a letter and tells him to take it to the house of Shaws at Cramond near Edinburgh. The letter has been written by David's father and he says that the house of Shaws is where he came from.
Excited by the prospect that he may have wealthy relatives David sets off. But as he gets near his destination he finds that the name of Shaws is universally hated. When he gets his first sight of the house he is horrified. It is unfinished. Part of it is unroofed and many of the windows are unglazed. When he knocks at the door, a man wearing a nightcap threatens him with a blunderbuss from an upstairs window, but, when David gives his name, he says he will come down and let him in. He opens the door and says,
"Go into the kitchen and touch naething."
David finds out that this is his misery Uncle Ebenezer. Later he finds out that his father was the elder son and that he, David, is the rightful heir to Shaws but before he can see a lawyer he finds himself a prisoner aboard the brig Covenant. His uncle has arranged for him to be sold into slavery in the Carolinas.
This is only the beginning of David's troubles and misfortunes. The brig runs down a small boat in a fog but one man manages to jump aboard. This is the Jacobite Alan Breck Stewart - a collector of the second rent the unfortunate Highlanders pay to their exiled clan chiefs abroad. David and Alan become friends and David helps Alan defend himself against the crew of the Covenant who try to rob him.
Then further disaster. The brig is wrecked but David and Alan both reach land safely - although separately. They meet up again in Appin just as Colin Campbell, the factor appointed by the government to collect the official rents, is murdered. David is suspected of being an accomplice. So David and Alan find themselves on the run.
David wants to find his way back to Cramond and the lawyer Mr Rankeillor to see if he can recover his inheritance - and get himself cleared of suspicion regarding the murder. But before him is a long and arduous journey through difficult terrain with the ever present danger of capture by the Redcoats. Will he reach Cramond safely?
Kidnapped is simply packed with adventure. It is also full of characters who come alive and just leap from the pages. The background is given in meticulous detail. There are maps and, as it says in the notes,
"All of the other Appin locations mentioned in Kidnapped can be precisely traced with the book in one hand and a good map in the other."
This authenticity is maintained all through the book.
I have loved this book ever since I first read it at the age of twelve. It is a thrilling adventure story which vividly reveals conditions in the Highlands after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. It is the kind of book which seems better each time it is read.
Stevenson wrote a sequel to Kidnapped - Catriona. This is not a children's book but it does explain what happened to David and Alan afterwards - and what happened about the murder.
12+
Available over the internet from http://www.amazon.com
PrestonSpeed is republishing all the books of G.A. Henty. And not abridged editions either. The original versions. This book was first published in 1887.
After the Rebellion of 1715 many of the Jacobites managed to escape to France where they served the French King in the Scots regiment. One of these Scots was Colonel Leslie. He fell in love with the daughter of a powerful aristocratic family. They married secretly and a son was born. Because of this Colonel Leslie had incurred the wrath of two noble families -- the family of his wife and the family of the nobleman she was intended to marry.
Colonel Leslie was arrested and his wife was sent to a convent.
But before he was arrested Colonel Leslie managed to get a message to his oldest friend, Malcolm Anderson. He told him to take his son to Scotland. Malcolm does so and this is where the story begins.
Malcolm takes the infant Ronald Leslie to his brother, a Glasgow baillie, who brings the child up as his son. Malcolm finds work as a cattle drover. He visits his brother and family from time to time and sees that the boy learns fencing.
Then, when Ronald is a young man, he hears of a plan to arrest a Jacobite agent. Ronald makes a wild attempt to warn the agent. The agent escapes but Ronald is arrested and is taken by ship to London for trial.
From this point on the pace is fast and furious. Malcolm rescues Ronald and smuggles him aboard a ship for France -- a ship which is soon to be wrecked. Once in France Malcolm seeks out his old regiment. Ronald serves with it at the Battle of Fontenoy.
Now they are in France Ronald is determined to find where his parents are being imprisoned and rescue them. They find out the name of the convent where his mother is being kept and manage to make contact with her. After many adventures and much excitement both his parents are set free.
Then Ronald kills the King's favourite in a duel. This is at the time when Bonnie Prince Charlie is setting out to sail to Scotland. Ronald and Malcolm make their way to him and embark with him. From then on we follow their fortunes, and those of the Prince, up to the Battle of Culloden. Their final escape provides more excitement.
This is an exciting, fast paced story but there is more to it than that. The historical background is detailed and accurate. I found the details of the exiled Scots living in France especially interesting. This is something which tends to be glossed over in Scottish history. G.A. Henty used to be a war correspondent and, as such, he was able to give a particularly accurate account of the campaigns of the '45.
To return to the French section: Henty shows a France in which the seeds of the Revolution have already taken root. Colonel Leslie has been imprisoned under one of the hated lettres de cachet which made their own contribution to the events of the Reign of Terror and, later, Ronald comes to realise that he could never live in a country in which the King is all powerful.
This novel was first published in 1887 and ideas have changed since then. Particularly in the way in which wars are written about. Henty is very accurate in describing the campaigns but he does tend to skate over the misery and suffering caused by war. In fact, in the early stages, Ronald tends to treat it as a game, although we are given some idea of the carnage after the Battle of Culloden. But that was the style at the time and, as the background history is so good, I think it would be a pity if Henty were to be rejected on this account. Instead I would point this out to children and encourage them to read -- in addition -- some of the many modern books which show the cruelty, devastation and futility of war.
There is also the fact that writing such as Henty's is a kind of historical source in itself -- a source which helps to explain the frenzy which swept Britain at the beginning of the First World War.
I have said that Henty is very accurate. But there is one point where this accuracy slips. At the Battle of Culloden he keeps referring to the Scots and English -- even although he has previously gone to a great deal of trouble to show that Bonnie Prince Charlie had the support of only a small section of the Highlands.
I read a lot of Henty between the ages of ten and twelve and I am really excited that PrestonSpeed is now republishing all his books. And because of Amazon it is now easy obtaining a copy of an American-published book. I find that Henty's books mean far more to me now than they did when I was twelve.
This book is well worth reading. Henty gives a different perspective to the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.
11 to adult
This is another in the Forget me Not teenage romance series.
When Jenna Marsden's mother dies she knows that her grasping stepfather means to get his greedy hands on her inheritance. She knows she must escape. She lays her plans carefully and books her passage on a ship sailing from London to Inverness, where she will be met by someone who will take her to her grandfather, a local laird.
The year is 1746 and Jenna arrives at her grandfather's house just before the Battle of Culloden. Her grandfather is for King George but his son, Ewan, is a supporter of the Stewarts. He is wounded at Culloden but his faithful steward, Sandy manages to get him home where Jenna helps to tend his injuries and hide him from the soldiers led by Lieutenant James Farnby. Jenna's situation is further complicated by the fact that both Ewan and James are attracted to her.
The White Cockade has more of a story than many romances. In fact there is so much action that it could almost qualify as mixed genre - adventure/romance. We are shown Jenna hiding Ewan in the cellar while the Redcoats are just above in the kitchen, Jenna being held a prisoner by the wild highlander Red Rory and his men, and finally Jenna being threatened with a knife by the sinister Bonn-a-se'. But, true to the romance genre, all is resolved in the end.
The fact that the story moves at a fast pace does not stop much information about the Scottish Highlands from being included. Some examples are: - the local way of dressing with the men in kilts or trews (narrow tartan trousers) and the poorer people (men and women) going barefoot, the "black houses" made of sods of earth, and the highland ponies known as garrons. These facts are carefully woven into the story as in the case of the detailed description of Ewan's blue bonnet. It probably saves Jenna's life when she stumbles upon some clansmen in the act of hiding guns. When they see Ewan's silver badge on the bonnet they send for him instead of harming her.
There is a historical note about the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 at the end.
An exciting, enjoyable story with a good background.
11+
(Note. This book comes in this section because of the Porteous Riots but it is also repeated in the Smuggling section).
The Lothian Run was first published in 1971.
The Lothian Run of the title is the name which the Customs men give to the smuggling routes which end in the little ports on the north and south shores of the Firth of Forth.
But this is far more than just a smuggling story. It is written around a very significant incident in 18th century Scottish history -- the Porteous Riots of 1736. Briefly, the facts about Captain Porteous are as follows. Two smugglers Andrew Wilson and George Robertson were due to be hanged. A few days before the execution George Robertson managed to escape. When Wilson was hanged Robertson tried to rescue him with a band of men armed with cutlasses. The soldiers fought the rescuers off and the crowd threw stones at the soldiers. Then the Captain of the Town Guard, Captain John Porteous ordered his men to fire on the Edinburgh crowd. They did so and a few citizens were killed. Captain Porteous was later accused of murder, tried and sentenced to death but was later reprieved. But when he was finally released from gaol the Edinburgh mob rioted. Captain Porteous was seized and hanged from the pole above a barber's shop.
The story of Captain Porteous runs right through The Lothian Run. But as if this is not enough Mollie Hunter has also worked in a Jacobite plot.
Sandy Maxwell is an apprentice in a lawyer's office. To Sandy the deed-room where he works is a small, dusty prison cell. Then Deryck Gilmour, Special Investigations Officer in the service of His Majesty's Customs, calls on the lawyer, Mr Wishart. Deryck Gilmour is trying to catch the escaped smuggler, George Robertson and he is asking Mr Wishart to help him. Mr Wishart at once tells him that his young clerk, Sandy Maxwell could be of assistance. Robertson has friends in the fishing village of Prestonpans -- which is near Sandy's home. Sandy also has friends among the fisher-folk. Mr Wishart says that Sandy has a head on his shoulders and can be relied upon to ask the right kind of questions and keep the answers to himself.
So Sandy starts to work for Deryck Gilmour. There is adventure and danger. The story moves between the tall buildings and narrow alleys of Edinburgh, the hills and valleys of the countryside south of Edinburgh and the fishing village of Prestonpans. It moves at a rapid pace until the final climax during the riots and lynching of Captain Porteous.
A thrilling story with a sound historical background.
I once heard a story about a teacher who read this book with her class. When she had finished her class gave their verdict in no uncertain terms. In a mixture of traditional Glasgow and modern TV they told her exactly what they thought of Sandy Maxwell.
"He was a right wee grasser. He went to yon wee fushin' village and the people were friendly to him and then he went and shopped them to the polis."
Whatever may be said about the sentiments expressed one thing is for sure.
The Lothian Run really meant something to those children.
10+