Lady Humdrum

Well, I have news for a friend of mine who lives in Drumduan Park, a little nest of 1960's housing, concrete boxes, all cheek-by-jowl, which she disparagingly calls Humdrum Park. There is (or was) a Lady Humdrum who wrote "Domestic Scenes: A Novel" and "Self-delusion, or, Adelaide D'Hauteroche: a tale" She was a C19 Scottish author whose real name was Mrs Alexander Blair. I think she had a good sense of humour and irony, as does my friend.

I found this interesting tid-bit whilst looking for the book Kate and I would like to see republished. This was also C19 written by Grace Ann Milne, the daughter of James Milne of Findhorn and the niece of D.H Falconer F.R.S. V.P.G.S. a renowned geologist and contemporary supporter of Darwin. Grace was maried briefly, then widowed and she also lost her infant son; understandably she spent some years aftre these unhappy events in a depression. To help her through the bad time her uncle took her travelling with him and awoke her interest in geology. They travelled abroad together and when they returned she ran his household, became his secretary and his companion. (From letters written between them it seems their relationship was more than just one of convenience.) Eventually she maried another geologist, Sir Joseph Prestwich and lived at Shoreham in Kent (which coincidentally is where a friend of mine lived for some years. Who said it was a small world?)

After her marriage and her move to England, she wrote 'The Harbour Bar: A Tale of Scottish Life,' possibly out of nostalgia for the village she had left behind. It is fictional but the characters she describes are almost recognisable in the Findhorn of today - not as specific individuals but as their essential ingredients. The houses and cottages she describes I also felt I could locate if I had tried hard enough. The story is a simple, classic tale of full lives, loss, wrong-doing and redemption. There are two families who figure most amongst the others; one is a fisherman's family with young children and hard working parents. The other is the lonely figure of an old sea captain who parts company with his only son over a matter of principle (as far as I can remember now, it's four years since I read it.) There are tragedies, like the accident that happened to the Edinburgh to Inverness stage coach causing loss of life. This is decsribed as happening on a recognisable stretch of road through beech woods near the then relatively new Dr. Grays' hospital in Elgin. There are lives lost at sea. These tragedies are set against a backdrop of normal life; children playing in the dunes and amongst the lanes between the cottages (as mine played when we lived there) men mending the nets; the fisher wives walking from Findhorn to Forres along the bay at low tide, to bring the catch to market. I think it has a lot to offer to folk of today who are suddenly more appreciative of their roots and past ways of living. The first time I read it I thought it would make an excellent film, and haven't changed my opinion on that.