Letter 13
11/01/23 14:29
My Dearest Bunty,
Now that the relatives, or as I have taken to calling them, the Outlaws have gone back to their place in England, the Estate has slipped into a little slumber before the onset of the New Year and associated celebrations. Cook has been putting things in aspic for a few days, taking things from the smoke house and creating wonderful breads and cakes for the guests. The first of these will arrive on 30 th in the morning so it is all hands to the deck for then. I am not sure how much they are paying, but Sir Hector has an entrepreneurial look about him that is most fetching, so I guess that it is going to make us a pretty penny for the dark months until Spring.
Catriona has seen that the guns are cleaned and there is enough clay for the home made pigeon shooting and the band have called to confirm. I am so looking forward to the dancing as you know. I have made it my forte to be first on the floor for the slower dances these days, as the Dashing White Sergeant is a little too fast for my old legs these days. Such a shame you were not able to get an invitation to the Caledonian Club Hogmanay party again this year, but I guess that not having a dance partner to accompany you there has put the Committee off once again. I did my best in pulling some strings, but the Social Secretary there was some young Miss who was not at all impressed by my titles and pulling of rank I can tell you. What has the world come to that a Scottish Peeress in her Own Right cannot guarantee a ticket for a Caledonian Ball these days? Daddy would be livid. So I guess it is a night of bad television for you bringing in the New Year of 2005 with the Countess and her glass of Mackeson. Such a difficult drink for a lady, not even the class of Guinness I fear.
I had the most strange call from Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage the other day. The young man on the other end of the telephone was questioning some of my titles in my entry. I ask you! Those titles have come to me from my beloved Daddy and deceased darling brother. Naturally he was English so had no idea that primogeniture does not always work North of the Border! Seemingly I have the right to style myself Baroness Auchterlynk as some distant Canadian relative has died in his nineties and I am the nearest relative. That would be nice to add to my string of tiles I think but the Auchterlynk is that little burn at the east end of the Estate and I cannot think I will ever use it as to be 'of' a peaty burn does not sound credible to me at all! I am so lucky to have come from good Scottish stock, long lived and ennobled! You should have taken the chance when younger to set your hat on one of my distant relatives, but you were always just that little bit flighty for them, and your own antecedents were not really up to scratch, were they? Such a pity your brother had to sell your tenanted farms to pay the Death Duty all those years ago. We were lucky that Daddy had put the Estate in a Trust, as did Sir H's father, as now we would be living just like your own Countess, in a not too well-to-do part of London, far from Cadogan Square and the centre of polite society.
I shall write again soon with the news of the guests and their 'wives' as I know you like a little light-hearted gossip from the North East. I am sure that they will be of the worst sort with all that new money and absolutely no class or breeding. I believe there are some who are even Americans! I hope they are not of the loud-mouthed variety as some of the hallways in the House do echo so and those booming know-it-all voices grate on me somewhat, but I always have the safety of my own apartments to retire to if it gets too much!
Best wishes to you for 2005. I am sure this is going to be a wonderful year for us all!
Yours as always, Flora
This story first appeared on www.panetwork.co.uk in 2004
Now that the relatives, or as I have taken to calling them, the Outlaws have gone back to their place in England, the Estate has slipped into a little slumber before the onset of the New Year and associated celebrations. Cook has been putting things in aspic for a few days, taking things from the smoke house and creating wonderful breads and cakes for the guests. The first of these will arrive on 30 th in the morning so it is all hands to the deck for then. I am not sure how much they are paying, but Sir Hector has an entrepreneurial look about him that is most fetching, so I guess that it is going to make us a pretty penny for the dark months until Spring.
Catriona has seen that the guns are cleaned and there is enough clay for the home made pigeon shooting and the band have called to confirm. I am so looking forward to the dancing as you know. I have made it my forte to be first on the floor for the slower dances these days, as the Dashing White Sergeant is a little too fast for my old legs these days. Such a shame you were not able to get an invitation to the Caledonian Club Hogmanay party again this year, but I guess that not having a dance partner to accompany you there has put the Committee off once again. I did my best in pulling some strings, but the Social Secretary there was some young Miss who was not at all impressed by my titles and pulling of rank I can tell you. What has the world come to that a Scottish Peeress in her Own Right cannot guarantee a ticket for a Caledonian Ball these days? Daddy would be livid. So I guess it is a night of bad television for you bringing in the New Year of 2005 with the Countess and her glass of Mackeson. Such a difficult drink for a lady, not even the class of Guinness I fear.
I had the most strange call from Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage the other day. The young man on the other end of the telephone was questioning some of my titles in my entry. I ask you! Those titles have come to me from my beloved Daddy and deceased darling brother. Naturally he was English so had no idea that primogeniture does not always work North of the Border! Seemingly I have the right to style myself Baroness Auchterlynk as some distant Canadian relative has died in his nineties and I am the nearest relative. That would be nice to add to my string of tiles I think but the Auchterlynk is that little burn at the east end of the Estate and I cannot think I will ever use it as to be 'of' a peaty burn does not sound credible to me at all! I am so lucky to have come from good Scottish stock, long lived and ennobled! You should have taken the chance when younger to set your hat on one of my distant relatives, but you were always just that little bit flighty for them, and your own antecedents were not really up to scratch, were they? Such a pity your brother had to sell your tenanted farms to pay the Death Duty all those years ago. We were lucky that Daddy had put the Estate in a Trust, as did Sir H's father, as now we would be living just like your own Countess, in a not too well-to-do part of London, far from Cadogan Square and the centre of polite society.
I shall write again soon with the news of the guests and their 'wives' as I know you like a little light-hearted gossip from the North East. I am sure that they will be of the worst sort with all that new money and absolutely no class or breeding. I believe there are some who are even Americans! I hope they are not of the loud-mouthed variety as some of the hallways in the House do echo so and those booming know-it-all voices grate on me somewhat, but I always have the safety of my own apartments to retire to if it gets too much!
Best wishes to you for 2005. I am sure this is going to be a wonderful year for us all!
Yours as always, Flora
This story first appeared on www.panetwork.co.uk in 2004