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

[regshoe]

Charlie chose the place himsel', the graveyard of Culloden...

Well, it looks like Keith's prophecies about the fate of the Jacobites, at least, weren't too inaccurate...

Next week we'll read chapters 3 and 4 of part III.

Comments

[greerwatson]

"I don't know how much Broster's original target audience in 1925 could be assumed to know about the '45"

My impression is that, through the first half of the twentieth century, it's not so much that people necessarily remembered all the details of the actual history, even if they learned them at school, so much as that they became entranced in childhood with the myth of the Jacobite Rebellion.

Tales of Bonnie Prince Charlie (like knights in shining armour, Mary Queen of Scots, and gallant Royalists vs wicked Roundheads) were mainstays in romantical children's historical fiction, at least in Britain. This means that, to contemporary readers, Culloden would indeed be a familiar battle, at least by name, along with the exciting story of the Prince's escape afterwards.

[sanguinity]

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. The only place I'd ever heard of the Rising before this was in Stevenson's Kidnapped, which I presume is an example of the kind of thing you're talking about.

I was assuming that history education of a century and more back used to put more emphasis on "dates of famous battles" than mine did -- and of course that a British education covers the history of the English and Scottish thrones, which an American education does not at all. But yes, if it was part of the cultural osmosis of a British childhood, then she wouldn't need to summarize it at all.

[luzula]

I remember the first time I came across Jacobites I mixed them up with Jacobins. *g* Not at all the same thing!

[sanguinity]

Heh. At the beginning of this read-along I sat down and made myself learn the terms Jacobean, Jacobite, and Jacobin. If I ever go to a party again, distinguishing the three can be my dumb party trick that will make all but one person go away to talk to other people, and that remaining one person will either become my best friend for the rest of the night or will be the person I spend the rest of the party desperately trying to escape.

[regshoe]

Hehe, those three are always good to try and sort out! I suppose Jacobeans and Jacobites relate to the same set of Jameses/Jacobuses, at least.