Elizabeth GrantReseñas

This is the diary of Elizabeth Grant during her two year stay in France in the 1840s. She is observant and critical of all around her. Her family was driven to their stay in France due to financial distress. She focuses on the minutiae of family life, running a household, is full of the prejudices of her time and is constantly struggling with money or the lack thereof. Surprisingly, she very alert and aware of the politics of her day and has strong opinions. This is a slow thoughtful read which can become a bit tedious but worth the effort.

Elizabeth Grant lived through stirring times of great historical interest, this first volume of her memoirs is striking for its descriptive power and the accuracy of first person account of life among this privileged aristocracy of Scotland's ancient landowning chieftains. It would be a valid criticism to note that her world view (despite extensive travel) rarely breached the extended laterals of her family and its connections but that for me is a source of its value. Here I find an illuminating vision of life at the top as all that turmoil of politics was abrew.. It is not only a good read, though perhaps guilty of prolixity, its a fascinatingly honest and rare insight to a world most of us can only be strangers to..

Petty and boring

Boy with cricket bat chats up girl with hat, sitting on stile.