General information

This book is written in the style of a diary written by the youngest of four sisters. She is a very sensitive young girl, and her observations are very acute. Most of them are of a religious nature, and the description of the work of a preacher called Whitefield is very well worth reading. I felt quite emotional while reading it.

Particularly for the earlier chapters, the poems chosen to head the text are very apt, and a good feature of the book.

As you may gather from the title the book is set in the time of 1745, at the time the Bonny Prince Charlie landed in an attempt to claim his title to the throne, currently held by the Elector of Hanover, who was not very popular among the people we meet in this book, most of whom would be called Jacobites. It is interesting to see that Jacobite families like this one were more or less left alone, except when they actually took up arms.

The book takes about 10 hours to read aloud. Some of the speech is in broad lowland Scots, but you will probably have little difficulty in understanding it.

You will probably come away from reading this book resolved upon an amendment of life. If so then the book has done its work. This is the first book by this prolific author that we have come across (lent to us for the occasion) and I am sure we shall add a few more by her in due course.

N.H.

The first edition of this book is dated 1888. The edition used is dated 1911 approx, but is little changed from the first edition. The publisher was John F. Shaw & Co., Ltd., 3 Pilgrim Street. London E.C. The number of pages is 378.