Description
Historian Rathbone knew when she married a Scottish laird that she was also marrying his mansion, but there was much this urban American did not know. Finding herself in a setting like that of many a classic novel, both enchanting and treacherous, she shares hard-won lessons in dealing with a grand but crumbling Georgian mansion, troublesome tenants, and an intractable class system. With the skills of a biographer, she delves into local histories, anecdotes and family papers in an effort to understand her surroundings and to free her husband from the grip of his past.--From publisher description.
Read More
This memoir offers an American woman's uniquely privileged view into the pastoral Scotland of today. By turns funny, heartwarming, and occasionally sad, it is the author's account of her marriage to a Scottish landowner and of the years they spent together at "The Guynd," his large ancestral estate. We follow her steep learning curve in dealing with a grand and crumbling mansion still recovering from the effects of two World Wars, as well as an overgrown landscape, a derelict garden, troublesome tenants, local aristocracy, Scottish rituals, and a husband for whom change is anathema.A son and heir draws the author into an intimate relationship with every tier of the local society, while a visiting American friend heightens the strain of the ever-present culture gap. Alternating between enchantment and despair, Rathbone digs into family and local history in an effort to understand her surroundings and free her husband from the grip of the past.Like a letter home from a strange land, this book offers a view of Scotland not found in the guide books. The tale of the journey through the wrought iron gates and up the long tree-lined drive into the living past is both wry and poignant, both oddball and deeply reflective of the ties that bind us.
Read Less