Flight of the Heron read-along: Part I chapters 1-2

[regshoe]

Hark! now the drums they beat again for all good soldiers, gentlemen...

Welcome back to the Flight of the Heron read-along! This week we read the first two proper chapters, and meet Keith Windham—and Keith meets Ewen Cameron.

As you'll have noticed, Broster is fond of including both Gaelic and Scots words in dialogue; this online Gaelic-English dictionary and this one for Scots may be of use if you'd like to look anything up.

Next week we will continue with chapters 3 and 4.

Comments

[hyarrowen]

Keith captured my heart at the procession of elephants, and never let go. I love his snark.

I went past the Well of the Seven Heads a few years ago. It's now on a busy 'A' road, and there's a pub (or tea room?) close by. Keith's whole route is full of traffic. :(

Quite by chance, I discovered last week that in the 1740s the head gardener of Stowe in Buckinghamshire was a certain Lancelot Brown. I used the Stowe on the Welsh Borders for the Earl's seat, but the idea of Keith interacting with Capability Brown, no less, is an intriguing one - and might explain his dissatisfaction with the Highland landscape! "Gently swelling hills one could admire..."

[regshoe]

Oh wow, that is a nice historical coincidence! I very much like the look of Stowe House gardens, and have been meaning to go and visit them sometime—definitely some good context for what the eighteenth-century English thought a beautiful landscape looked like.

[luzula]

*loves on Keith's snark*

Re: traffic, yes, I suppose I'll need to do some adjusting when I eventually go and visit the Highlands...at least some of Wade's roads are still there, even if I suppose the ones down in the Great Glen probably have modern roads built on top of them.

Oh, interesting about the head gardener, I hadn't heard of him. *checks him out on Wikipedia*