Well, I think this chapter is pretty much Quintessential D. K. Broster: hurt/comfort, noble enemies who become friends, more hurt/comfort, a horrible dilemma of honour and a bit more lovingly detailed hurt/comfort just for good measure. I hope everyone's enjoying it. :D
Beinn Laoigh/Ben Loy is the second of the novel's main fictional locations, after Ardroy; there is a real mountain with the same name (although Anglicised as Ben Lui rather than Loy), but it's over on the other side of the country, in Argyll & Bute. I haven't done detailed geographical notes for this chapter, but I think you can work out roughly where we are from the references to the Corryarrick/Corrieyairack and Wade's roads.
Right, I'm going to do a bit of wallowing in all the lovely details of this hurt/comfort! Keith starting off by speaking 'gently' to Ewen; Ewen's astonishment on recognising Keith (and initial refusal to believe it's really him), and his continuing light-headed bewilderment over him really being there; Keith noticing the colour of Ewen's eyes; the exhausted Ewen 'gathering together what forces he had' to thank Keith; '“Permit you!” repeated Ewen, gazing at him with a renewal of his former wonder'. Later Ewen, having recovered a little after eating the food Keith has brought him, is 'almost on the point of breaking down' as he tries again to thank Keith and comprehend his kindness, and Keith hurriedly stops him again.
Keith already identifies 'the finger of Fate' guiding his actions, which is interesting. But then he hears about the prophecy properly, and it's also interesting—given Ewen's earlier scepticism, and the fact that Keith even more than Ewen has been set up as so rational and dismissive of barbaric Highland old-fashionedness—that he seems to accept the idea of five fated meetings quite readily and happily. (Also, 'It was not the first time in the last twelve hours that he had remembered the house in the Grassmarket' —ow).
Laughing together over Ewen's beard!
'"we speak as friends"' <333
Ewen's loyalty to Lochiel is once again very prominent—even amidst his own pain and emotion, he's horrified at the thought of Lochiel being captured and desperate for Keith to reassure him that he hasn't been, and he smiles at the thought that he knows Lochiel is safe. Aww, Ewen...
And then, of course, we have Keith's dilemma and Ewen unfortunately falling asleep at just the wrong time to make it worse. I love that Keith doesn't spare himself in deciding whether to tell Ewen what he said about Lochiel—stop making excuses, he tells himself, you're being cowardly—but then when it's a matter of simply waking Ewen up and disturbing him, he can't bring himself to do it. We get a whole page of Keith watching Ewen sleep, while trying to work out this horrible conundrum of honour.
And then at the end of the chapter Keith is still in denial about his own feelings! Beautiful. D. K. Broster, I love you.
Yes, it's interesting how easily Keith accepts the idea that their meetings are fate! Perhaps the fact that there have already been three meetings by the time he hears of the prophecy makes that easier for him to accept, despite his general adherence to rationalism - plus of course things like that simply feel more believable when you hear them in the night in a smoky shieling lit by only a dim flickering light...
Plus of course if he accepts "fate" as the reason, perhaps it's a bit easier to remain in denial of his own feelings! Why worry about exactly what feelings are pushing him to act in a certain way when the real culprit is Fate?
All good points—I especially like the idea that Keith accepts the 'fate' explanation as another way to deny the importance of his own feelings! Heh, I do like the idea of Fate and Keith's feelings working together to direct the rest of the plot...
I love how Broster never misses an opportunity for Keith to notice how blue Ewen's eyes are! Or how tall he is, or what a fine figure he cuts in his kilt! I've forgotten what poor Keith even looks like, but thanks to his endless pining I have a really clear mental picture of Ewen. ;)
And the way Keith notices the scars on Ewen's hand was beautifully done. He took the Grassmarket stuff hard, and I love that their past meetings keep adding an extra layer to their interactions. Ow, indeed.
That was epic hurt-comfort to rival any fanfic I've ever read. Bravo. *applauds*
I love how Broster never misses an opportunity for Keith to notice how blue Ewen's eyes are! Or how tall he is, or what a fine figure he cuts in his kilt!
As always, it's terribly important. I do like the way that admiration is combined here with the contrast between Ewen's appearance now and at their last meeting, with all the emotional significance of that change—injured and ragged, but his eyes as blue as ever...
Aww, poor Keith! Just to remind you: Captain Windham’s own dark, rather harsh features were not unpleasing, save when he frowned, which he was somewhat given to doing, nor were they devoid of a certain distinction, and he had really fine hazel eyes.
But you're right, we don't get Ewen noticing Keith's looks in the same way.
This is the BEST chapter, except perhaps certain later chapters. The book takes a while to build to this point, but now that it's here it goes ALL OUT.
I just love the explosion of hurt/comfort here. Ewen: confused, feverish, in pain, not even certain that it's really Keith here; a brief moment of comfort in between the horror of the battle (God, his description of waking up naked and stiff with cold on the field!) and the horror that awaits once he's captured. Keith: in some ways even more confused about his own feelings, but that confusion doesn't stop him from doing everything he can to help Ewen.
The atmosphere in this chapter is also just incredible. I love the burned shielings still smoking when Keith arrives, poor Neil stiff and stark by the door, the darkness and the flickering light in the shieling, Keith sopping the bread in the wine to feed to Ewen... and the incredible sweetness of Ewan's gratitude and affection once he fully grasps who Keith is and what he has done for him, and the fact that Keith just can't quite accept it, partly because he feels the stain on his honor from the things he implied to Guthrie, but also just... he's not used to people being fond of him, or letting himself be fond of other people.
and the incredible sweetness of Ewan's gratitude and affection once he fully grasps who Keith is and what he has done for him, and the fact that Keith just can't quite accept it, partly because he feels the stain on his honor from the things he implied to Guthrie, but also just... he's not used to people being fond of him, or letting himself be fond of other people.
Yes! Totally agree, Keith's awkwardness around accepting Ewen's gratitude and affection is just very satisfyingly written. Oh, Keith. ♥
ETA: And also another reason for Keith's awkwardness is that he's aware of just how much worse his own side has treated the Jacobites, compared to how the Jacobites treated their defeated enemies at Prestonpans! This injury called for a surgeon, and he had nearly said so; but, reddening, checked himself, recalling the deliberate denial of care to the Jacobite wounded at Inverness, and the actual removal of their instruments from the few of their own surgeons imprisoned with them.
Yes, it's definitely partly guilt on Keith's part! He's knows just why Ewen is so stunned to be taken care of by a solider in a red coat and the knowledge that his own side has been so destitute of honor and humanity just makes him shrivel up inside.
I love how even in his current desperate situation, Ewen is so warm and trusting once he realizes that it's Keith who has come back to nurse him - it really shows the sweetness of his nature. It would be understandable if he remained as cold and standoffish as he could, keeping his guard up just in case, but the idea doesn't even enter his head. Bs pbhefr, gung jvyy znxr Znwbe Thguevr'f npgvbaf gung zhpu zber cnvashy sbe uvz...Oevatvat zber uheg gb gur uheg-pbzsbeg.
This injury called for a surgeon, and he had nearly said so; but, reddening, checked himself, recalling the deliberate denial of care to the Jacobite wounded at Inverness, and the actual removal of their instruments from the few of their own surgeons imprisoned with them.
Ohhhh, yeah, that was a really powerful line <3 :( To actually remove the surgeons' instruments... that's a special kind of cruelty, ugh.
That is a very good point! And an interesting development of Keith's guilt over the army's actions in last week's chapters—'as his prisoner last year I received very different treatment from that which we are now giving to ours!', indeed.
Yes, that's a good point—Keith's obliviousness and confusion about his own feelings really follows from his observation of his own actions, it doesn't keep him from acting on those feelings. It's a good tangle.
And oh, yes, the atmospheric details here are really well done too.
ALL the hurt/comfort! I practically know this chapter by heart, if that's not a too embarrassing admission, but I reread it a lot as a teenager. Broster really knows what she's about here - the undercurrent of Keith's embarrassment and shame around what he's already said to Guthrie and what he then ends up asking Ewen without meaning it that way - it adds some salt to the sweetness of how he's nursing Ewen. You can see how much she's learned as a writer since The Wounded Name, where the hurt/comfort is turned up several more notches but in a way that leaves a little too much of the author's id on the table, and the problem of honour is a lot more forced. Here Keith's awkwardness and his dilemma feel incredibly real, and it balances out the rest of it well.
I love the ending, too, with Keith riding away and realising how much he hopes someone will be along to rescue Ewen before Guthrie gets to him, though his sense of honour prevents him from arranging the rescue directly. Had Ewen been rescued, I expect Keith would have been suspected anyway.
And I missed last week's discussion, but it has my favourite minor character, Lt Paton, who doesn't like extreme measures and is willing to argue that he couldn't disobey Keith if he gets into trouble - he's a sweetheart.
Totally agree that Broster has learned some things since The Wounded Name! Salt to the sweetness, yes. Keith is not Laurent, the adoring puppy-dog...
And I missed last week's discussion, but it has my favourite minor character, Lt Paton, who doesn't like extreme measures and is willing to argue that he couldn't disobey Keith if he gets into trouble - he's a sweetheart.
Oh, you should check out the fic that hyarrowen recently posted! It has Lieutenant Paton in it. : ) (Also it has spoilers for the end of the book, in case anyone reads this who hasn't finished it.)
I love Lt. Paton's "Well I couldn't disobey a STAFF OFFICER" rules lawyering. Clearly he's delighted to have an excuse to thumb his nose at Guthrie, as who would not be?
Lt Paton was lovely! It was really sweet of him to sacrifice his shirt as a bandage, and it says yet more bad things about Guthrie's character that his junior officers would dislike him.
Oh, that's definitely not an embarrassing admission :D
Yes, the combination of tenderness and tension in this chapter is really well-done, and I agree about the development from The Wounded Name—Broster has learnt how to harness the iddy hurt/comfort to a solid plot and a well-developed emotional background in a way it wasn't there, and it becomes all the more meaningful for the depth of character here.
Had Ewen been rescued, I expect Keith would have been suspected anyway.
Now there's a good canon divergence fic idea! I was struck, reading this chapter again, by how much Keith actually thinks about the possibility of Ewen being rescued and how much he wants that to happen (and how explicitly he's willing to admit that to himself!). Much as I'd enjoy it, I think Keith turning round and deciding to try and rescue Ewen himself is a little outside the bounds of plausibility, but as for what he might do if someone else rescued Ewen... might we even end up with Keith and Lachlan working together???
ETA my agreement to the chorus of yes, Lieutenant Paton is a sweetheart :D
I don't know if I can extol the virtues of this hurt-comfort scene anymore than other commenters have already done! But it is truly glorious. And I think what makes it so is the complications on both sides: for Ewen, the knowledge that it's his enemy, whom he got the better of the last time they met, who is doing it for him, and Keith...well, for all the complicated reasons already stated.
I think the cold and inadequacy of the shelter is very vivid, to the point where I wonder that Ewen even survives it!
Changing the subject a bit, I have some historical notes for you. I just wrote up a new book about Jacobites that I read, you can read about it here. The most interesting bit is about how the exiled Stuarts' political agenda (going by their political proclamations) actually grew more and more radical over the years, and was soon very far from "absolutist monarchy".
Also I recently learned that George I cheated on his wife (this is par for the course and not the remarkable bit) but that when his wife also took a lover, he and/or his Hanoverian relatives had the lover murdered and then he kept his wife locked up for 30 years. That's some serious double standards...though the locking up was apparently also to prevent her joining his enemies (i e the Jacobites).
Also also, I learned that a Sir William Wyndham was a Tory minister of Queen Anne who, after the Hanoverian succession, did some Jacobite plotting around the '15. A relative of Keith's, or not??
it's his enemy, whom he got the better of the last time they met, who is doing it for him...
Yngre ba, Rjra jvyy ersre gb guvf avtug nf 'ubyl', and I think Keith being his enemy is exactly why: Keith caring for him in this moment is an act with Biblical weight, a modern-day Good Samaritan. And "enemy" has far more meaning to it now than it did in the halcyon days when they first met: he and the MacLarens have been running from redcoats for days, they know what battlefield atrocities had been committed, they almost certainly know better than Keith that women and children are being turned out to freeze and starve, and only hours before Neil was murdered and Ewen had been put against the wall to be executed... Consider Ewen's first reaction to Keith's return: here obviously is yet another redcoat come to torture him! (Because why else would he have been spared but more torture??) Just kill him and be done with it.
And against that context, to be cared for by a man wearing one of those same red coats...? Ubyl, indeed.
Thank you for the continuing historical write-ups! They've been super helpful. *scurries off to read*
Oooh. I think you're exactly right about the Biblical weight of it, I didn't catch that bit. Because Ewen, much more than Keith, takes his faith seriously.
Impressive feats of physical endurance by characters who suffer injury under terrible conditions are definitely one of Broster's Things. Ewen's ordeal here reminds me of La Vireville's in Sir Isumbras at the Ford and Raoul's in "Mr Rowl", and I wonder if that's something else that was inspired by Broster's war experiences.
Hooray for more Jacobite politics—thanks very much for that write-up!
Huh, I knew about George I's wife's affair from its description in the Jacobite song 'Cam Ye O'er Frae France' (Doon there cam a blade linkin' like my lordie/He wad drive a trade at the loom o' Geordie), which also makes fun of George's own cheating—but I didn't know about the background to it! Wow.
I learned that a Sir William Wyndham was a Tory minister of Queen Anne who, after the Hanoverian succession, did some Jacobite plotting around the '15. A relative of Keith's, or not??
Oh, nice find. From a bit of looking around it does seem like he's a member of the same W[y/i]ndham family who pop up elsewhere in eighteenth-century politics—and the fetterlock and lion's head symbol that we see in relation to Keith later on is the emblem of that family, so yes, I suppose they must be related. Between this guy and the Keith family, our Keith has surprisingly many Jacobite antecedents!...
Yes, that's true, it's in 'Cam Ye O'er Frae France'...but it doesn't mention her imprisonment.
Nice digging, finding the family crest! So it's definitely the same family, then. Some sort of cousin of Philip Windham, perhaps? Must be embarrassing for Keith...
Honestly, Broster’s attention to detail astounds me, and the symbolism of the ring is not surprising even as it amazes me. Even the names would seem to be significant, with Ewen’s name meaning ‘from the mountains’ and Keith’s having something to do with woods or a battlefield, depending on what source.
Hm, I got "yew-tree" for Ewen and "lord of the woods" for Keith - I hadn't picked up the other two meanings. I was happy enough with an arboreal connection for the two of them (possibly significant in a later chapter..?) but those meanings you've found are also quite fascinating and satisfying!
But. She was working at Oxford at the same time as Tolkien. I daresay some of that linguistic stuff osmosed across!
Apologies for the late reply — that's also a fascinating meaning for Ewen, and would fit well with the cultural connotations of yews as associated with death, rebirth, and spiritual immortality.
As everyone already says, it's a delicious chapter. Saving Ewen from the firing squad was great, but I figured that was it for meeting three: that Keith went off with Guthrie, leaving Ewen to wait for Lachlan, and that was that, on to meeting four, wherever that should be. (Even as I kept rooting for Keith to come back to nurse Ewen, and even mentally started composing fic in which he does exactly that!)
AND THEN HE ACTUALLY DID. HE DID EXACTLY THAT. HE CAME BACK AND TENDERLY CARED FOR EWEN. JUST LIKE I WANTED.
Thta's all I can come up with, apparently, except that Broster no doubt put something of her her experience as a nurse on the Western Front into this chapter.
Yes, certainly it reads like it's written by someone who knows about both caring for injuries and the feats of endurance injured people are capable of.
Man, that hurt/comfort is something else! I don't know if one can really get much more iddy than Keith tenderly taking care of Ewen and Ewen all hurt-exhausted-grateful-adorably-confused in his care <3
I kept getting worried though about Keith not telling Ewen about what he said about Lochiel. Is this going to be a problem?? Is Ewen going to find out horribly and hold it against Keith?? I hope not! I guess now that I've left this comment I can read on and find out... :)
I don't know if one can really get much more iddy than Keith tenderly taking care of Ewen and Ewen all hurt-exhausted-grateful-adorably-confused in his care <3
:D
As for your questions—well, yes, we get to that in Part IV... but fear not, Broster makes sure that the opportunities for further iddiness are fully exploited.
Gosh, I am there in the first chapters of Part IV now and THANK YOU for this reassurance, because omg everything is crumbling around Ewen right now and I am really glad for the reassurance that if I just keep going there will be more iddiness <3 :)
I don't know if one can really get much more iddy than Keith tenderly taking care of Ewen and Ewen all hurt-exhausted-grateful-adorably-confused in his care <3
I can only tell you that there is MORE IDDYNESS COMING. : D
I enjoyed last week's chapters, mostly because it marks a very different shift in the book's tone than before — I think it's quite interesting putting Culloden as roughly the central point of the story, because it allows for a very nice counterpoint to the tone of the first half. The first half starts out in quite a heroic tone and ends in quite a tragic one: it's interesting to see the fallout from that, and the complexities that arise in the aftermath of military defeat. Guthrie's character (more on him later) is quite interesting in that he is a good example of just how complicated the Rising actually was, a far cry from the simple Scots vs English dichotomy that sometimes seems to be presented.
However, I find Keith's own journey in the aftermath of Culloden very fascinating: how he both despises and also, to a certain extent, permits the atrocities that followed, if only by inaction. While Broster does keep his hands reasonably clean by having him as a staff officer, he seems to feel a sense of culpability that he tries to excuse even as he feels ashamed for it, a really interesting character note. While it's present earlier, V ernyyl guvax gung vg'f ng guvf cbvag jr fgneg gb frr Xrvgu'f nzovgvba orpbzr uvf unznegvn, uvf sngny synj. He feels remorse, certainly, but he seems to be able to rationalise the horrible actions undertaken by the British Army as an awful but inevitable consequence of war. Even the sight of the dead woman and child and knowledge that this is not the first, nor the last, time such a thing will happen doesn't make him question whether the army's actions are really justified — he skirts around facing the question head on, even as he feels branded.
Of course, he does have a weakness, in the form of one Ewen Cameron. I find it fascinating how up until the moment he recognises Ewen he is not willing to stop the execution, but the moment he sees that it's Ewen we find out just where precisely he has drawn the line on allowing horrible things to be carried out. I have to say, I do wonder at the whole recoginising-the-Cameron-tartan thing, as the concept of clan tartans is a semi-fictionalised Victorian concept (damned Sobieski Stuarts), although it's entirely possible that he recognises it on the basis of it being like the one he wore earlier (Keith in a kilt is still the funniest part of the book). The first time I read this chapter I couldn't believe my eyes when Keith throws himself between Ewen and the firing squad. It's so capital-R Romantic, Keith riding in, throwing himself off his horse to protect Ewen, Ewen fainting into his arms... the dirty, bloodstained, half-clothed figure which Keith had last seen so gallant in powder and satin, cool, smiling and triumphant... Keith tending to Ewen in the shieling and feeling guilty that he can't tend to him further. Fetch my fainting couch.
For officers, as Major Guthrie must know, were not shot in cold blood — now. That now does a lot of heavy lifting, and it's a great example of how Broster manages to say a lot with very little sometimes. And then Keith having to barter so heavily for Ewen's life — other people commented on it, I believe, but it really makes it understandable why he wishes so badly to go back to Flanders, to 'civilised' war where officers are treated as equals across the lines because they belong to recognised governments. Guthrie is such a bastard, and while I hate him and want to see him thrown off a cliff I also enjoy just how much of an awful man he is. One of the things I find fascinating about Broster's writing is the juxtapositions she sets up: Guthrie's speculations over Keith's guilt over seducing some female relative of Ewen's, and Keith's desire to save Ewen's life for an entirely different reason (well, perhaps not entirely different. But I rather think that Guthrie has the wrong end of that stick, and probably all the best for Keith, because if Guthrie suspected something between Keith and Ewen he would not be kind about it).
The shieling chapter is absolutely gorgeous. I didn't think that Broster would actually have Keith go back to tend to Ewen — surely that was a step too far. And yet she DID. I like how Keith, whose temperament does not seem to run to gentleness, is, in fact, quite capable of tenderness, helping Ewen eat and drink, reassuring him... I find it quite lovely how Keith asks Ewen's permission to tend to his wounds. It's such a quiet, intimate scene. And then, when Ewen faints... But five minutes saw the end of the snatch of feverish slumber, for Ardroy woke with a little cry and some remark about the English artillery which showed that he had been back at Culloden Moor. However, he knew Keith instantly[...]. It's a small shift in their relationship, but a significant one, especially when you consider that ng gur irel raq bs gur abiry, jura Xrvgu vf qlvat, jr unir gur ybiryl dhbgr: Nf ur jnf yvsgrq, Xrvgu pnzr onpx sebz n zbzrag’f qernz bs n fuber jvgu ybat terra ebyyref ebnevat ybhqyl haqre n oybbq-erq fhafrg, gb cnva naq qvssvphyg oerngu naq Rjra’f nezf. Ur xarj uvz.
There is so much I like about this chapter. I'm a little prejudiced towards it because I have sat with it, writing alongside it for my fic, but it's so wonderful, Keith acting as the Good Samaritan, Ewen having his faith in humanity restored somewhat after those awful, heartbreaking weeks. And then Keith trying, and failing, to work out just what his relationship to Ewen is — it's sublime.
Yes, I wonder if Guthrie is something of a representation of historical figures like Caroline Scott and similar—I've seen the point made in history books several times that, despite the popular Scotland vs. England framing of things, some of the worst perpetrators of the repression of the Highlands were Lowland Scots. But then again Lowland support for the Jacobites also seems to be overlooked historically (and so is Highland anti-Jacobitism)—it is all very complicated.
Very insightful thoughts on Keith's position here, and I like your idea that Keith's ambition has become his fatal flaw. There's definitely a point somewhere in there about the wider consequences of Keith's rejection of personal love (if he had a passion left in life, it was military ambition)—it's not just a matter of it hurting him emotionally—and it then becomes very significant that his recognition of Ewen is what drives him to intervene in the execution.
The clan tartans seem to be the one place Broster's meticulous historical accuracy falls down—I wonder if it was really known at the time that they were a Victorian invention. My understanding is that, while official tartans used to identify specific clans didn't exist, there were consistent regional variations in the patterns made—so perhaps Keith is recognising a particular Lochaber tartan design that all the Camerons from the area around Ardroy wear?
Fetch my fainting couch.
:D
Oh, the intimacy of the shieling scene, yes... with sanguinity's earlier comments on the parallels between Keith and Alison in mind, I think there's something very significant in Keith seeing Ewen sleep, and hearing him talk in his sleep, here... hmm, this book does subtext in the fun blatant way and also in the more subtle and meaningful way, and I'm appreciating the latter much more in this read-through. Very good point about the parallel with that bit later on, too!
I'd agree with your suggestion that Guthrie is a bit of a composite of historical figures, or at the very least historical attitudes, although he has yet to go so far as drowning rebels in a net, as I believe Scott was accused of. That being said, he's perfectly capable of it, and I don't think sanguinity is out of line by calling him Major War Crimes!
I'm inclined, for my own sanity, to assume that when Keith recognises 'Cameron tartan' he's really recognising just whatever pattern is common to the region. I first read about the Sobieski Stuarts and the Tartan Scam as a kid and ever since then it has remained one of my major pet peeves when it comes to people misunderstanding Scottish culture. And yet for all that it's not really a part of historic Scottish culture, it has become such a strong invented tradition that it's everywhere now, and we'll never be rid of it.
Alison and Keith are both paralleled and also set up against each other in quite interesting ways. They are both meaningful people to Ewen in significant but different ways, although there's also this ambiguity to Keith and Ewen's relationship that makes it feel at times almost like — well, I don't want to say soulmates per se, but what with the prophecy and this sense of being guided by fate towards each other while also thwarted by circumstance it feels at times like there is a star-crossed element to their relationship. (Although one could argue the same for Alison and Ewen too.)
I have to say, I do wonder at the whole recoginising-the-Cameron-tartan thing, as the concept of clan tartans is a semi-fictionalised Victorian concept (damned Sobieski Stuarts), although it's entirely possible that he recognises it on the basis of it being like the one he wore earlier (Keith in a kilt is still the funniest part of the book).
I am just now reading (or browsing, really) History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1600 to 1800 by Foyster and Whatley (2010) and they say: Another impact of empire on the clothing of the Scots was seen in the formalisation of clan tartans, which evolved in conjunction with the militarisation of the Highlands post-1745 and the empire service of so many Highland regiments. Regimental tartans with their clan associations had become fashion fabrics by the later 18th century, worn by men and women alike and spawning a modern manufacturing industry.
Which is interesting! And I remember reading about the Black Watch even before the '45, and the 'dark government tartan' that they wore, so it seems that military use was standardizing tartans even before the '45. Although of course that isn't a clan tartan.
Hmm, that is interesting! The post-Jacobite militarisation of the Highlands is a strange, sad and fascinating story, and I suppose it makes sense that the tartans would fit into that (weren't military uniforms the one exception made to the 1746 act prohibiting Highland dress?).
Sounds like an interesting book in general, too—is it good?
Well, there were other exceptions--women could wear Highland dress all they wanted. Also, it seems allowances were made for poor people, which I've read elsewhere as well. Quote from the book:
"This is how the legislation was interpreted by James Erskine, sheriff depute for Perthshire, writing to his sheriff substitute at Killin: You may take all the opportunities you can of letting it be known that tartan may still be worne in cloaks, westcoats, breeches or trews, but that if they use loose plaids they may [be] of tartan but either all of one colour, or strip’ed with other colours than those formerly used, and if they have a mind to use their old plaids, I don’t see but they may make them into the shape of a cloak and so wear them in that way, which tho’ button’d or tied about the neck, if long enough, may be taken up at one side and thrown over the other shoulder by which it will answere most of the purposes of the loose plaid. And if they could come in to the way of wearing wide trowsers like the sailor’s breeches it would answere all the conveniences of the kilt and philibeg for walking or climbing the hills."
And there's this: "Those who commented on the passing of the Highland plaid and philibeg were not always that interested in the politics of the matter. A gentlewoman poet, Margaret Campbell, an Argyllshire minister’s wife who wrote in Gaelic, was more concerned with the aesthetics of masculinity than the Stuart cause when she noted that Highland women were being denied the sight of their men folk’s naked legs."
Hee. Presumably a Presbyterian minister's wife, too, since she's a Campbell! Not what I would have expected. : )
As for the book, I'm skimming it for useful details--some of it is rather dry and perhaps more general than I want.
Thanks for the quotes, that is very interesting stuff. Hmm, that letter sounds a lot like trying to interpret the letter of the law as accommodatingly as possible. I suppose people had different perspectives on things—Margaret Campbell's is certainly another one :D
Oh, that's interesting about the Black Watch. I wonder how much of it was intentional and how much was practical — viz. that if one is looking to have a standard of dress amongst one's soldiers, the most sensible solution is to have them manufactured in the same place, resulting in the same design, instead of simply having the same design replicated (if that makes any sense). With regards to the Cameron tartan, or what Keith thinks is the Cameron tartan, I am willing to explain it away as a regional style, rather than one specifically associated with a clan.
Miss Cameron expressed a hope that he [Keith] had not been unduly disturbed by Neil MacMartin’s piobaireachd, adding that he was not as fine a piper as his father Angus had been.
Finally listened to this chapter. Pleasantly surprised because I was like, nooo Keith how could you just leave him there?! But then he went back and had a ton of angst while he was there. Fantastic. The pining and/or denial of feelings in this chapter was strong from Keith's pov.
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Beinn Laoigh/Ben Loy is the second of the novel's main fictional locations, after Ardroy; there is a real mountain with the same name (although Anglicised as Ben Lui rather than Loy), but it's over on the other side of the country, in Argyll & Bute. I haven't done detailed geographical notes for this chapter, but I think you can work out roughly where we are from the references to the Corryarrick/Corrieyairack and Wade's roads.
Right, I'm going to do a bit of wallowing in all the lovely details of this hurt/comfort! Keith starting off by speaking 'gently' to Ewen; Ewen's astonishment on recognising Keith (and initial refusal to believe it's really him), and his continuing light-headed bewilderment over him really being there; Keith noticing the colour of Ewen's eyes; the exhausted Ewen 'gathering together what forces he had' to thank Keith; '“Permit you!” repeated Ewen, gazing at him with a renewal of his former wonder'. Later Ewen, having recovered a little after eating the food Keith has brought him, is 'almost on the point of breaking down' as he tries again to thank Keith and comprehend his kindness, and Keith hurriedly stops him again.
Keith already identifies 'the finger of Fate' guiding his actions, which is interesting. But then he hears about the prophecy properly, and it's also interesting—given Ewen's earlier scepticism, and the fact that Keith even more than Ewen has been set up as so rational and dismissive of barbaric Highland old-fashionedness—that he seems to accept the idea of five fated meetings quite readily and happily. (Also, 'It was not the first time in the last twelve hours that he had remembered the house in the Grassmarket' —ow).
Laughing together over Ewen's beard!
'"we speak as friends"' <333
Ewen's loyalty to Lochiel is once again very prominent—even amidst his own pain and emotion, he's horrified at the thought of Lochiel being captured and desperate for Keith to reassure him that he hasn't been, and he smiles at the thought that he knows Lochiel is safe. Aww, Ewen...
And then, of course, we have Keith's dilemma and Ewen unfortunately falling asleep at just the wrong time to make it worse. I love that Keith doesn't spare himself in deciding whether to tell Ewen what he said about Lochiel—stop making excuses, he tells himself, you're being cowardly—but then when it's a matter of simply waking Ewen up and disturbing him, he can't bring himself to do it. We get a whole page of Keith watching Ewen sleep, while trying to work out this horrible conundrum of honour.
And then at the end of the chapter Keith is still in denial about his own feelings! Beautiful. D. K. Broster, I love you.
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Plus of course if he accepts "fate" as the reason, perhaps it's a bit easier to remain in denial of his own feelings! Why worry about exactly what feelings are pushing him to act in a certain way when the real culprit is Fate?
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And the way Keith notices the scars on Ewen's hand was beautifully done. He took the Grassmarket stuff hard, and I love that their past meetings keep adding an extra layer to their interactions. Ow, indeed.
That was epic hurt-comfort to rival any fanfic I've ever read. Bravo. *applauds*
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As always, it's terribly important. I do like the way that admiration is combined here with the contrast between Ewen's appearance now and at their last meeting, with all the emotional significance of that change—injured and ragged, but his eyes as blue as ever...
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But you're right, we don't get Ewen noticing Keith's looks in the same way.
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I just love the explosion of hurt/comfort here. Ewen: confused, feverish, in pain, not even certain that it's really Keith here; a brief moment of comfort in between the horror of the battle (God, his description of waking up naked and stiff with cold on the field!) and the horror that awaits once he's captured. Keith: in some ways even more confused about his own feelings, but that confusion doesn't stop him from doing everything he can to help Ewen.
The atmosphere in this chapter is also just incredible. I love the burned shielings still smoking when Keith arrives, poor Neil stiff and stark by the door, the darkness and the flickering light in the shieling, Keith sopping the bread in the wine to feed to Ewen... and the incredible sweetness of Ewan's gratitude and affection once he fully grasps who Keith is and what he has done for him, and the fact that Keith just can't quite accept it, partly because he feels the stain on his honor from the things he implied to Guthrie, but also just... he's not used to people being fond of him, or letting himself be fond of other people.
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Yes! Totally agree, Keith's awkwardness around accepting Ewen's gratitude and affection is just very satisfyingly written. Oh, Keith. ♥
ETA: And also another reason for Keith's awkwardness is that he's aware of just how much worse his own side has treated the Jacobites, compared to how the Jacobites treated their defeated enemies at Prestonpans! This injury called for a surgeon, and he had nearly said so; but, reddening, checked himself, recalling the deliberate denial of care to the Jacobite wounded at Inverness, and the actual removal of their instruments from the few of their own surgeons imprisoned with them.
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I love how even in his current desperate situation, Ewen is so warm and trusting once he realizes that it's Keith who has come back to nurse him - it really shows the sweetness of his nature. It would be understandable if he remained as cold and standoffish as he could, keeping his guard up just in case, but the idea doesn't even enter his head. Bs pbhefr, gung jvyy znxr Znwbe Thguevr'f npgvbaf gung zhpu zber cnvashy sbe uvz...Oevatvat zber uheg gb gur uheg-pbzsbeg.
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Ohhhh, yeah, that was a really powerful line <3 :( To actually remove the surgeons' instruments... that's a special kind of cruelty, ugh.
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Yes, that's a good point—Keith's obliviousness and confusion about his own feelings really follows from his observation of his own actions, it doesn't keep him from acting on those feelings. It's a good tangle.
And oh, yes, the atmospheric details here are really well done too.
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I love the ending, too, with Keith riding away and realising how much he hopes someone will be along to rescue Ewen before Guthrie gets to him, though his sense of honour prevents him from arranging the rescue directly. Had Ewen been rescued, I expect Keith would have been suspected anyway.
And I missed last week's discussion, but it has my favourite minor character, Lt Paton, who doesn't like extreme measures and is willing to argue that he couldn't disobey Keith if he gets into trouble - he's a sweetheart.
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And I missed last week's discussion, but it has my favourite minor character, Lt Paton, who doesn't like extreme measures and is willing to argue that he couldn't disobey Keith if he gets into trouble - he's a sweetheart.
Oh, you should check out the fic that
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Yes, the combination of tenderness and tension in this chapter is really well-done, and I agree about the development from The Wounded Name—Broster has learnt how to harness the iddy hurt/comfort to a solid plot and a well-developed emotional background in a way it wasn't there, and it becomes all the more meaningful for the depth of character here.
Had Ewen been rescued, I expect Keith would have been suspected anyway.
Now there's a good canon divergence fic idea! I was struck, reading this chapter again, by how much Keith actually thinks about the possibility of Ewen being rescued and how much he wants that to happen (and how explicitly he's willing to admit that to himself!). Much as I'd enjoy it, I think Keith turning round and deciding to try and rescue Ewen himself is a little outside the bounds of plausibility, but as for what he might do if someone else rescued Ewen... might we even end up with Keith and Lachlan working together???
ETA my agreement to the chorus of yes, Lieutenant Paton is a sweetheart :D
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I think the cold and inadequacy of the shelter is very vivid, to the point where I wonder that Ewen even survives it!
Changing the subject a bit, I have some historical notes for you. I just wrote up a new book about Jacobites that I read, you can read about it here. The most interesting bit is about how the exiled Stuarts' political agenda (going by their political proclamations) actually grew more and more radical over the years, and was soon very far from "absolutist monarchy".
Also I recently learned that George I cheated on his wife (this is par for the course and not the remarkable bit) but that when his wife also took a lover, he and/or his Hanoverian relatives had the lover murdered and then he kept his wife locked up for 30 years. That's some serious double standards...though the locking up was apparently also to prevent her joining his enemies (i e the Jacobites).
Also also, I learned that a Sir William Wyndham was a Tory minister of Queen Anne who, after the Hanoverian succession, did some Jacobite plotting around the '15. A relative of Keith's, or not??
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Yngre ba, Rjra jvyy ersre gb guvf avtug nf 'ubyl', and I think Keith being his enemy is exactly why: Keith caring for him in this moment is an act with Biblical weight, a modern-day Good Samaritan. And "enemy" has far more meaning to it now than it did in the halcyon days when they first met: he and the MacLarens have been running from redcoats for days, they know what battlefield atrocities had been committed, they almost certainly know better than Keith that women and children are being turned out to freeze and starve, and only hours before Neil was murdered and Ewen had been put against the wall to be executed... Consider Ewen's first reaction to Keith's return: here obviously is yet another redcoat come to torture him! (Because why else would he have been spared but more torture??) Just kill him and be done with it.
And against that context, to be cared for by a man wearing one of those same red coats...? Ubyl, indeed.
Thank you for the continuing historical write-ups! They've been super helpful. *scurries off to read*
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Naq gura gurer'f gur cnenyyry jvgu Tyrnz va gur Abegu, jurer Rjra (gubhtu irel eryhpgnagyl) urycf uvf jbhaqrq rarzl Thguevr, naq vg'f guvf jubyr erqrzcgvba guvat sbe uvz. Nyfb Nepuvr nybat jvgu nyy gur rkrphgrq Wnpbovgrf jub nyy bs gurz ynl fgerff ba cebcre Puevfgvna sbetvirarff gbjneqf gurve rarzvrf va gurve ynfg fcrrpurf (juvyr nyfb hcubyqvat gung gurl qba'g erterg gurve npgvbaf, ybat yvir Xvat Wnzrf, rgp).
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Hooray for more Jacobite politics—thanks very much for that write-up!
Huh, I knew about George I's wife's affair from its description in the Jacobite song 'Cam Ye O'er Frae France' (Doon there cam a blade linkin' like my lordie/He wad drive a trade at the loom o' Geordie), which also makes fun of George's own cheating—but I didn't know about the background to it! Wow.
I learned that a Sir William Wyndham was a Tory minister of Queen Anne who, after the Hanoverian succession, did some Jacobite plotting around the '15. A relative of Keith's, or not??
Oh, nice find. From a bit of looking around it does seem like he's a member of the same W[y/i]ndham family who pop up elsewhere in eighteenth-century politics—and the fetterlock and lion's head symbol that we see in relation to Keith later on is the emblem of that family, so yes, I suppose they must be related. Between this guy and the Keith family, our Keith has surprisingly many Jacobite antecedents!...
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Nice digging, finding the family crest! So it's definitely the same family, then. Some sort of cousin of Philip Windham, perhaps? Must be embarrassing for Keith...
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But. She was working at Oxford at the same time as Tolkien. I daresay some of that linguistic stuff osmosed across!
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/tree fan
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AND THEN HE ACTUALLY DID. HE DID EXACTLY THAT. HE CAME BACK AND TENDERLY CARED FOR EWEN. JUST LIKE I WANTED.
Because D.K. Broster loves me, apparently.
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Thta's all I can come up with, apparently, except that Broster no doubt put something of her her experience as a nurse on the Western Front into this chapter.
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Yes, certainly it reads like it's written by someone who knows about both caring for injuries and the feats of endurance injured people are capable of.
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I kept getting worried though about Keith not telling Ewen about what he said about Lochiel. Is this going to be a problem?? Is Ewen going to find out horribly and hold it against Keith?? I hope not! I guess now that I've left this comment I can read on and find out... :)
ETA: Oh, and dead Neil by the door :((
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:D
As for your questions—well, yes, we get to that in Part IV... but fear not, Broster makes sure that the opportunities for further iddiness are fully exploited.
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I can only tell you that there is MORE IDDYNESS COMING. : D
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I enjoyed last week's chapters, mostly because it marks a very different shift in the book's tone than before — I think it's quite interesting putting Culloden as roughly the central point of the story, because it allows for a very nice counterpoint to the tone of the first half. The first half starts out in quite a heroic tone and ends in quite a tragic one: it's interesting to see the fallout from that, and the complexities that arise in the aftermath of military defeat. Guthrie's character (more on him later) is quite interesting in that he is a good example of just how complicated the Rising actually was, a far cry from the simple Scots vs English dichotomy that sometimes seems to be presented.
However, I find Keith's own journey in the aftermath of Culloden very fascinating: how he both despises and also, to a certain extent, permits the atrocities that followed, if only by inaction. While Broster does keep his hands reasonably clean by having him as a staff officer, he seems to feel a sense of culpability that he tries to excuse even as he feels ashamed for it, a really interesting character note. While it's present earlier, V ernyyl guvax gung vg'f ng guvf cbvag jr fgneg gb frr Xrvgu'f nzovgvba orpbzr uvf unznegvn, uvf sngny synj. He feels remorse, certainly, but he seems to be able to rationalise the horrible actions undertaken by the British Army as an awful but inevitable consequence of war. Even the sight of the dead woman and child and knowledge that this is not the first, nor the last, time such a thing will happen doesn't make him question whether the army's actions are really justified — he skirts around facing the question head on, even as he feels branded.
Of course, he does have a weakness, in the form of one Ewen Cameron. I find it fascinating how up until the moment he recognises Ewen he is not willing to stop the execution, but the moment he sees that it's Ewen we find out just where precisely he has drawn the line on allowing horrible things to be carried out. I have to say, I do wonder at the whole recoginising-the-Cameron-tartan thing, as the concept of clan tartans is a semi-fictionalised Victorian concept (damned Sobieski Stuarts), although it's entirely possible that he recognises it on the basis of it being like the one he wore earlier (Keith in a kilt is still the funniest part of the book). The first time I read this chapter I couldn't believe my eyes when Keith throws himself between Ewen and the firing squad. It's so capital-R Romantic, Keith riding in, throwing himself off his horse to protect Ewen, Ewen fainting into his arms... the dirty, bloodstained, half-clothed figure which Keith had last seen so gallant in powder and satin, cool, smiling and triumphant... Keith tending to Ewen in the shieling and feeling guilty that he can't tend to him further. Fetch my fainting couch.
For officers, as Major Guthrie must know, were not shot in cold blood — now. That now does a lot of heavy lifting, and it's a great example of how Broster manages to say a lot with very little sometimes. And then Keith having to barter so heavily for Ewen's life — other people commented on it, I believe, but it really makes it understandable why he wishes so badly to go back to Flanders, to 'civilised' war where officers are treated as equals across the lines because they belong to recognised governments. Guthrie is such a bastard, and while I hate him and want to see him thrown off a cliff I also enjoy just how much of an awful man he is. One of the things I find fascinating about Broster's writing is the juxtapositions she sets up: Guthrie's speculations over Keith's guilt over seducing some female relative of Ewen's, and Keith's desire to save Ewen's life for an entirely different reason (well, perhaps not entirely different. But I rather think that Guthrie has the wrong end of that stick, and probably all the best for Keith, because if Guthrie suspected something between Keith and Ewen he would not be kind about it).
The shieling chapter is absolutely gorgeous. I didn't think that Broster would actually have Keith go back to tend to Ewen — surely that was a step too far. And yet she DID. I like how Keith, whose temperament does not seem to run to gentleness, is, in fact, quite capable of tenderness, helping Ewen eat and drink, reassuring him... I find it quite lovely how Keith asks Ewen's permission to tend to his wounds. It's such a quiet, intimate scene. And then, when Ewen faints... But five minutes saw the end of the snatch of feverish slumber, for Ardroy woke with a little cry and some remark about the English artillery which showed that he had been back at Culloden Moor. However, he knew Keith instantly[...]. It's a small shift in their relationship, but a significant one, especially when you consider that ng gur irel raq bs gur abiry, jura Xrvgu vf qlvat, jr unir gur ybiryl dhbgr: Nf ur jnf yvsgrq, Xrvgu pnzr onpx sebz n zbzrag’f qernz bs n fuber jvgu ybat terra ebyyref ebnevat ybhqyl haqre n oybbq-erq fhafrg, gb cnva naq qvssvphyg oerngu naq Rjra’f nezf. Ur xarj uvz.
There is so much I like about this chapter. I'm a little prejudiced towards it because I have sat with it, writing alongside it for my fic, but it's so wonderful, Keith acting as the Good Samaritan, Ewen having his faith in humanity restored somewhat after those awful, heartbreaking weeks. And then Keith trying, and failing, to work out just what his relationship to Ewen is — it's sublime.
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Very insightful thoughts on Keith's position here, and I like your idea that Keith's ambition has become his fatal flaw. There's definitely a point somewhere in there about the wider consequences of Keith's rejection of personal love (if he had a passion left in life, it was military ambition)—it's not just a matter of it hurting him emotionally—and it then becomes very significant that his recognition of Ewen is what drives him to intervene in the execution.
The clan tartans seem to be the one place Broster's meticulous historical accuracy falls down—I wonder if it was really known at the time that they were a Victorian invention. My understanding is that, while official tartans used to identify specific clans didn't exist, there were consistent regional variations in the patterns made—so perhaps Keith is recognising a particular Lochaber tartan design that all the Camerons from the area around Ardroy wear?
Fetch my fainting couch.
:D
Oh, the intimacy of the shieling scene, yes... with
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I'm inclined, for my own sanity, to assume that when Keith recognises 'Cameron tartan' he's really recognising just whatever pattern is common to the region. I first read about the Sobieski Stuarts and the Tartan Scam as a kid and ever since then it has remained one of my major pet peeves when it comes to people misunderstanding Scottish culture. And yet for all that it's not really a part of historic Scottish culture, it has become such a strong invented tradition that it's everywhere now, and we'll never be rid of it.
Alison and Keith are both paralleled and also set up against each other in quite interesting ways. They are both meaningful people to Ewen in significant but different ways, although there's also this ambiguity to Keith and Ewen's relationship that makes it feel at times almost like — well, I don't want to say soulmates per se, but what with the prophecy and this sense of being guided by fate towards each other while also thwarted by circumstance it feels at times like there is a star-crossed element to their relationship. (Although one could argue the same for Alison and Ewen too.)
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I am just now reading (or browsing, really) History of Everyday Life in Scotland, 1600 to 1800 by Foyster and Whatley (2010) and they say: Another impact of empire on the clothing of the Scots was seen in the formalisation of clan tartans, which evolved in conjunction with the militarisation of the Highlands post-1745 and the empire service of so many Highland regiments. Regimental tartans with their clan associations had become fashion fabrics by the later 18th century, worn by men and women alike and spawning a modern manufacturing industry.
Which is interesting! And I remember reading about the Black Watch even before the '45, and the 'dark government tartan' that they wore, so it seems that military use was standardizing tartans even before the '45. Although of course that isn't a clan tartan.
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Sounds like an interesting book in general, too—is it good?
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"This is how the legislation was interpreted by James Erskine, sheriff depute for Perthshire, writing to his sheriff substitute at Killin: You may take all the opportunities you can of letting it be known that tartan may still be worne in cloaks, westcoats, breeches or trews, but that if they use loose plaids they may [be] of tartan but either all of one colour, or strip’ed with other colours than those formerly used, and if they have a mind to use their old plaids, I don’t see but they may make them into the shape of a cloak and so wear them in that way, which tho’ button’d or tied about the neck, if long enough, may be taken up at one side and thrown over the other shoulder by which it will answere most of the purposes of the loose plaid. And if they could come in to the way of wearing wide trowsers like the sailor’s breeches it would answere all the conveniences of the kilt and philibeg for walking or climbing the hills."
And there's this: "Those who commented on the passing of the Highland plaid and philibeg were not always that interested in the politics of the matter. A gentlewoman poet, Margaret Campbell, an Argyllshire minister’s wife who wrote in Gaelic, was more concerned with the aesthetics of masculinity than the Stuart cause when she noted that Highland women were being denied the sight of their men folk’s naked legs."
Hee. Presumably a Presbyterian minister's wife, too, since she's a Campbell! Not what I would have expected. : )
As for the book, I'm skimming it for useful details--some of it is rather dry and perhaps more general than I want.
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Miss Cameron expressed a hope that he [Keith] had not been unduly disturbed by Neil MacMartin’s piobaireachd, adding that he was not as fine a piper as his father Angus had been.
And now he never will be, either. :-(
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