The days of
Duchess Anne Elizabeth Jane Howard The Days Of Duchess Anne, Life in the Household of the Duchess of Hamilton 1656-1716 Rosalind K. Marshall (Collins £3.75).
A great deal of the information contained in this book is usually only to be gleaned in tantalising snippets from 'straight history,' or sometimes from the more serious historical novels. This is a domestic, social account of how a particular family lived; what they ate, wore and read; how they entertained their friends; what they thought most important; how they built and furnished their houses; how they travelled; how they spent their money and what things cost them; how they .dealt with birth, marriage, illness and death— in fact, generally speaking, a fairly comprehensive documentary of a powerful Scottish family three hundred years ago. A little background history is essential here, and we are provided with it.
Lady Anne Hamilton was born in 1632, in London, where she was brought up. Charles I was her godfather and she was the second of six children of whom three were brothers. Her mother died when she was six, and four years later her brother died, leaving the Marquis of Hamilton with two small daughters. Not wishing to remarry, and faced with no male heir, the Marquis decided to bequeath everything he possessed to his brother. Lady Anne, then aged ten. had to journey a fortnight to Scotland where, separated from her father and sister, she was to live with a grandmother she had never seen and in a strange country. A year latex, the King created Anne's father Duke of Hamilton, but shortly afterwards imprisoned him for imagined treachery. He was released from his castle prison when it was captured by the Parliamentary army, went at once to London, and collected his other daughter to take her to the comparative safety of Scotland. In 1647, the Duke's mother died, but Lady Anne had had five years of her grandmother's upbringing which proved invaluable in later life.
Anne's father was executed by Cromwell in 1649, and his brother became the second Duke who, with five small daughters of his own, nevertheless felt bound in duty and gratitude to his late brother, to bequeath everything to his niece. He was also deter mined to die in the royalist cause, and fell at the battle of Worcester. On his death, Lady Anne became Anne, Duchess of Hamilton and Chatelherault, Marchioness of Clydesdale, Countess of Arran, Lanark and Cambridge, Lady Avon, Polmont, Machanshire and Innerdale. She was nineteen.
The inheritance sounded grand, but it carried with it vast debts from her father and uncle as a result of the Civil War, the enormous Hamilton estates were now confiscated by Cromwell and the Duchess was reduced to living 'in a house in the woods' at Hamilton. However, despite these and other financial and family difficulties, the Duchess married the Earl of Selkirk in 1656. Selkirk came of a Papist family — anathema to the Hanniltons; he was not of her rank, but few, presumably could aspire to that, and the marriage took over three years to arrange. The day before the wedding, Selkirk convert ed to the Protestant Creed, and very soon after it, they set about redeeming their estates, beginning with the buying back of
Hamilton Palace for £7,000, which they raised by selling land, furniture and even clothes. They had thirteen children, ten of whom survived to adult life. Their relationship seems to
have been one of mutual trust and affection, and their working partnership resulted eventually in the restoration of the Hamilton family and estates to their full prosperity. This is the background to Miss Marshall's book. The main stuff of it is concerned Wall life at Hamilton Palace. Here there is a fas cinating compound of the most careful, practical and kindly estate and household management, with the flamboyant' ex
travagance that was de rigeur for noblemen of that time. The Duke, a man keenly aware of
his status, favoured glamorous clothes generally made in London, although even with his Edinburgh taylors his bills were considerable. A fine beaver hat cost him £60 Scots (a Scots pound being a twelth of England sterling), but on top of that, the hatter charged him a further £202.16.0. It was "for setting your lordship's hat with
silver and gold edging about the hat and gold button and looping." The Duchess was much simpler in her requirements: in view of the tragic losses of her childhood and youth she felt that "mourning . . . is most suitable for me," but she managed to dress according to her position in good rich stuff, though of sad :colours. She was not a beauty and knew it: although she had abundant brown hair and a !graceful figure. But she was highly intelligent, Ipossessed, according to the author, a sense of humour (no evidence provided) and was undoubtedly a lady of great virtue and courage. After her death, and to this day in the West of Scotland she is known as 'Good Duchess Anne,' and titles of such simplicity and longevity are, in general, honestly won.
The book is very well illustrated, and Miss Haskell has made an excellent arrangement of her facts. One of the best biographers I know once told me that she never described two of her characters standing beside a fireplace unless she had documentation that provided her with proof that they were indeed so standing. One cannot accuse Miss Haskell of the slightest presumption with her characters, but considering how much she must know about them, one cannot help wanting a little more of that third dimension often to be obtained from personal letters, either directly quoted or written about. There are a few of these letters, and they do more than anything to bring the Hamiltons to life, where innumerable references and quotes from their household _accountancy cannot. The book is rather about times than lives, but in the case of this family that seems a pity.
Elizabeth Jane Howard is working on a collection of short stories, to be published next year by Jonathan Cape.
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