Book Description

“Miss Tomasson comes of an old Derbyshire family connected with that of the last Englishman to die for the Stuarts-Charles Radclyffe, titular Earl of Derwentwater. He was captured at sea on his way to Montrose, and thereby failed to join the Prince's Standard. Perhaps it was in an endeavour to repair this omission that Miss Tomasson attended the Bi-Centenary of the Raising of the Standard at Glenfinnan in 1945. Thereafter she joined " The Forty-Five Association" and began to undertake historical research work in Perthshire. In the Charter Room at Blair Castle her adventures in discovery took a dramatic turn; for she brought to light a bundle of notes written by Lord George Murray himself, and intended for a history of the '45, as well as several hundred letters written by him and by his brother, the Jacobite Duke of Atholl. Miss Tomasson prepared then to write a biography of this " Duke William," but the dominating personality of Lord George kept thrusting itself through all the mass of books and documents she consulted, so that in the end (somewhat to her annoyance) it was of Lord George that she wrote. This is History, but alive and thrilling. The author has studied the lives and characteristics of each of the Prince's eighteen councillors and of many lesser officers. The characters speak for themselves and the campaign is described from their point of view. Their accounts of marches, sieges and battles have been pieced together with care and after a close inspection of the ground over which the armies fought. The Earl of Perth, in his Foreword, underlines the thoroughness with which the late Duke of Atholl (to whom the book is dedicated) and Miss Tomasson refought these battles—particularly Culloden—with models and scale plans and much friendly argument. Certain things emerge clearly from this book: the loyalty of the clansmen; the high character of the Chiefs and the leading Scottish officers, and their unswerving loyalty to the son of their rightful King; and the outstanding ability of that most controversial character, Lord George Murray.”-Publisher.