add a few words to earlier introductions, marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of what I called “the first complete and authentic edition” of one of the masterpieces of nineteenth-century Scottish literature. This has been in print most of the years since Lady Strachey’s edition of 1898, and is still appreciated by scholars and the less academic reading public, which recognises and values Elizabeth Grant’s well-written recollections of her life and times.
This third impression of the first volume from the extracts of the journals the Highland Lady kept in the 1840s gives me the opportunity to emphasise that the twenty one years since its publication have not diminished the charm of her writing, or its significance as to how the ravages of the Famine years affected her part of Ireland. Extracts appear in anthologies, and she is trusted as a reliable witness by, for example, the plethora of books produced during the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this disaster.
Recently unearthed letters from the Doune archives give us a more rounded picture of one of the most fascinating writers in Scottish and Irish nineteenth century literature, complemented by material in the British Library and the National Library of Scotland. This is the basis for a biography currently being written that aims to set Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus and Elizabeth Smith of Baltiboys into the context of her life and times.
These new sources help us to focus more sharply on the deep affection she, and all her family, felt for everything about Rothiemurchus and her beloved Duchus, an emotion that might have been more fully emphasized in the original introduction. One example was when she wrote about her emotions on reading about Queen Victoria’s visit to Laggan and Ardverikie in August 1847, a year after the Highland Lady’s last visit.
It is all so changed now. I grieve over this importation of Southrons, who with their gold steal from us the hearts of our followers – divide them with us at, any rate doing them little good, and, as I thought when there, some evil.
There was nevertheless some consolation that she felt her days were numbered: ‘Soon the progress of things will vex me no more, and the little while still to be given to me should be devoted to my duties here. A busy practical present instead of the poetick past.’
In fact, she was to live and write for nearly another forty years.
Andrew Tod, 2012
FAMILY
Colonel Henry Smith of Baltiboys (1780–1862)
Elizabeth Smith, née Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus (1797–1885) (‘the Highland lady’), his wife
their three surviving children, Janie (born 1830), Annie (born 1832) and Jack (born 1838)
her brothers William and John, (later Sir John) Grant and their wives Sally and Henrietta
her sisters Mary and Jane and their husbands Charles Gardiner and, first, Colonel Gervase Pennington then James Gibson Craig of Riccarton, (later Sir James)
her Aunt, Mary Bourne
her cousin Bartle Frere, (later Sir Bartle)
NEIGHBOURING LANDOWNERS
the third Marquis of Downshire (d. 1845) and his Marchioness
the fourth Marquis of Downshire and his Marchioness
Joseph Leeson, the fourth earl of Milltown (1799–1866), of Russborough House
Barbara, Countess of Milltown
the Hornidge and Henry families from Tulfarris and
Russelstown
John Finnemore from Ballyward
William Cotton from Humphreystown
IRISH AND SCOTTISH FRIENDS
Francis, Lord Jeffrey
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder
William and Robert Chambers
Mr Caw from Rothiemurchus
Dwarkanoth Tagore
Baron de Robeck
Tom Shehan, editor of the Dublin Evening Mail
the Agents to the Blessington estates of Lord Downshire,
John Murray to 1841, Henry Gore to 1843 and then William
Owen
Dr George Robinson
Dr Eckford
Dr Litchfield
John Robinson the Baltiboys Agent
Tom Darker the Baltiboys Steward
CLERGYMEN
Rev William Ogle Moore, Rector of Kilbride
his Curate Mr Foster
Mr Featherstone, Rector of Hollywood
Arthur Germaine, Roman Catholic priest at Blackditches
with his curates James Rickard and Richard Galvin
HOUSEHOLD AND ESTATE
the governesses Jane Cooper, Miss Hart and Miss Clerk
the Housekeeper Margaret Fyfe from Rothiemurchus
the school-teachers Miss Gardiner, Arthur McConnell,
Patrick O’Keefe, Fanny MacDonald and John McDarby
TENANTRY
see the index and the Catalogue Raisonée of January 1847
ONE
The opening year of the Highland Lady’s journal introduces us to the family, the estate and the neighbourhood of the market town of Blessington. Her varied entries describe family activities and the life of the tenantry on the estate; she comments on the wider world of politics and public affairs, as the Whig government disintegrates and Daniel O’Connell continues his campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union; and only in Colonel Smith’s autumn trip to St. Servans to investigate the possibility of a short term move to ‘retrench’ is there a suggestion of any change is the settled pattern of their lives.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1. A raw dark rainy day yet Hal went out to look for the harriers and was the better of the ride. No letters by the post, nor news of any consequence in the newspapers. In the morning I worked at accounts, paid all our debts; then gave Janey a musick lesson. In the evening they danced. After they went to bed I read aloud the Life of Wilberforce till half after eleven.
2. After mending Hal’s flannels I finished the year’s account —£6 odd remaining in hands. Luckily at this time of year there
