21/11/25
The story is of Sheila and Harl Gordon and their 3 children David, Phillipa and Neil. Sheila was my late father's sister so these children are my first cousins. I read the book at the time it came out but now many years later I can appreciate it better. I knew the children as small kids in Johannesburg but later the left South Africa and Harl had done his medical internship in Edinburgh. They later settled in New York. This book documents this area in the 1970s
She mentioned that they had received and inheritance from an old aunt who died, we knew the aunt Minka Rivkin who left her estate to 3 nieces just to show she was a feminist even in those days. Helen and Bob Hunter were good friends and they mentioned they might be keen to buy a home in a Glen for their summer vacations. This house was where the Waterman lived who looked after the Lochs of the area but it was no longer used and the Waterboard put it up for sale on auction and Bob managed to get it for £5,000 for them. The address was Glenauchen Cottage in Glencorrie by Glenogle in the county of Perthshire. The other attachment that Sheila had to Scotland was that they as babies had Scots nannies as kids. Girls who came out to S. Africa after WW1, there was a shortage of men and would usually marry Gold miners in Johannesburg.
Nearby the cottage is Loch Leven and it has a castle on an island where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned after she had Darnley strangled and had the cheek to marry Bothwell. Glen is the Scots for valley and burn is a stream. A hour drive away was the coastal town of Largo from where Alexander Selkirk the original Robinson Crusoe came from.
Because they had colonial British accents and thee children American accents, the locals were not able to class categorize them , they were classless and they had no problem cutting over class barriers. It was also rumored in the glen that they intended to retire there. They had neighbors who sold them fresh eggs. Many of the pets were Jack Russell terriers raised for hunting hare and rabbit. In summer caravanning was a working class holiday in these parts. The local library had plenty of books and they decided they wanted a break from TV and radio, while they read all the classis English writers. Neighbors wanted an explanation on the US president who in 1982 was Ronald Reagan.
A glebe is a piece of land attached to the clergyman house for him to graze a cow or sheep. In Tudor time wood was cut down to build ships and houses and fuel. When fuel became short coal started being used as in Roman times. The lochs of Scotland are glacial. All over the Highland are abandoned but and ben cottages from the days of the Clearances of the Crofter's by landlords late 18C to mid 19C. These landless people went to Canada and Australia. Crofts or smallholding kept sheep inside in winter. Black Faced |Linton breeds were introduced who with the thick coated sheep could flourish outside in winter, as well as the Cheviot breed. The introduction of turnips as fodder and potatoes improved the lot of the poor. Sheep were so profitable that it was found to have sheep instead of men on the land. Mid 11C Scotland was ruled by Malcolm 3rd who slew Macbeth. In 1314 at Bannockburn near Sterling. Robert the Bruce with a small force that defeated the larger cavalry of Edward 3rd. In the 18C Scotland developed a secularism against the religious furies Capitalism existed before Calvinism but people had to be frugal and economic to survive the harsh environmental conditions.
At the end of summer they did not want to leave the house empty so rented it out to farm girls who works as accountants for the farms in the area. They were able to access the value of the farms and if the farmer had an eligible son would marry them and become good housekeeper. After that a young single couple moved in and they were worried that the glen would object to people there living in sin so it was left for the neighbors to assume the were married. Mr. Monroe an engineer in England and English wife visited and told them he his grandfather was the first Waterman in 1870 and his father took over the job and he was born in the house. He went to school in a one room school house with kids of all ages. Today kids are bussed to schools in the nearest town, and a family lives in the old schoolhouse. The Scots have a greater respect for education and the working class is better educated than the Sassenach (English ) The famous Geddes Academy is in the town of Douleur. Patrick Geddes and son in law were a known architects and town planner and designed the Hebrew University, Jerusalem in 1919 and also worked with Meir Dizingoff in Tel Aviv.
Drove road are where cattle were driven along to England and toll gates took 2 pence per head of cattle, the Scots evaded tax by crossing away from border post.1603 James I, United the Kingdoms brought about free trade with Scotland. Under the land tenure system at the start of winter surplus cattle stock had to be sold off. Walter Scot wrote about this in the Two Drovers and Rob Roy A drove could be up to 300 beasts better off drovers may have had ponies. Sunday Droving was prohibited when the church had great political power. When the steam engine came it replaced the droves. They heard that there was a Roman camp in the area and they found an Englishman at the Ardoch encampment who said he was following the route of Julius Agricola who had been on a campaign to subdue the Scots during the Antonine period.( Antonius Pius, Nerva, Trajan , Hadrian and Commodus 139-193 a period of 5 Emperors) There is evidence of lifted stone granaries and the invaders forced grain levies on the population. Julius Agricola was executed by Caligula for declining to do some work for him. Caesar first invaded Britain in 55BCE and Claudius in CE 43 and this was followed by 400 years of Roman dominion. There was a lot of intermarriage between Romans and the local women and Roman dress and Latin language and Roman Law developed here. 83CE the Romans could not subdue the Scots tribes under Calgacus and so Hadrian's wall was build. Hadrian came personally in 122 CE and it took 6 years to build the wall. Scotland was made up of 4 people Picts , Scots, Britons and Angles formed Scotland and Christianity was introduced in 400 CE, After the Romans left the Scotti arrived from Ulster and the Angels from Northumbria, England.
Harl had grown up on a farm as a boy and knew hunting and after the Glorious Twelfth (August) hunting starts in Scotland and many come to do hunting. They were given a gift of a brace of grouse, cooked it had a flowery bouquet from the heather. "Long may your lum reek" There was the smell of woodsmoke and this is a Scots blessing as it means you have fuel to keep a fire going and your hearth warm.
Sheila found a strange smell in the barn one morning and again the next, a neighbour with a shotgun was looking for a fox that had got into his chickens killed a few and taken one. Now the chickens were in a sleister and stopped laying and the had no eggs to sell that week. Apparently only women can smell a fox and the men could not. They were busy clipping the sheep with electric clipper, once this had been a communal occasion with the whole glen coming together as you need lots of help and then lots of food was cooked to feed the crowd. Along the coast there is a heavy haar (fog) and the farmers had to wait till it lifted till they could harvest. One neighbor describes that he had so many siblings and hungry mouths to feed that aged 14 he started working on a farm for a few shilling a week and ended up head shepherd to the estate.
At the entrance of the Cottage were rowan trees planted to keep away the witches. A rod of a Rowan tree was used by a dairy maid to drive the cattle out to pasture. In the dairy if butter did not come it was presumed bewitched and stirring with a rowan stick solved the problem. 1443 someone was executed for witchcraft. In 1563 under Mary Queen of Scots is a statute against witches. In 1559 the Authority of the Pope was abolished following the Reformation and Catholic mass was outlawed.
At this stage they were aware of surveyors to measure for the Water Board to construct a bigger dam, to provide more water to the cities. Britain's economy was in the doldrums and the relationship to rich yanks was not so comfortable. David was working on Bobs farm harvesting over summer and was taking a gap year to stay and was the only one of the family who would see the other 3 seasons of and rowan blossoms and berries. The children had different interest where they wanted to spend their summer vacation. They put Glenauchen Cottage up for sale but asked Mr. Munroe if he wanted to buy his childhood home, but his life kept him in England. A Scottish couple with a child and expecting a baby bought the house. The furniture left behind was cleared out by Helen, Bob and David and bough back by Mr. Menzies again.
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