Quotes from Walter Scott's The Abbot

[cimorene]

"And, by my faith, he is a man of steel, as true and as pure, but as hard and as pitiless. You remember the Cock of Capperlaw, whom he hanged over his gate for a mere mistake—a poor yoke of oxen taken in Scotland, when he thought he was taking them in English land? I loved the Cock of Capperlaw; the Kerrs had not an honester man in their clan, and they have had men that might have been a pattern to the Border—men that would not have lifted under twenty cows at once, and would have held themselves dishonoured if they had taken a drift of sheep, or the like, but always managed their raids in full credit and honour."

What a fascinating look at 16th century Scottish border life. It's totally honorable to steal a large herd of cows from an English target, but the fewer you steal (presumably because of the relative poverty of their owner) the more morally questionable, so the most honorable lads are raiding large quantities of livestock from wealthy English landowners. Meanwhile, stealing any amount of livestock from another Scottish person is punishable by death.

Their stately offices—their pleasant gardens—the magnificent cloisters constructed for their recreation, were all dilapidated and ruinous; and some of the building materials had apparently been put into requisition by persons in the village and in the vicinity, who, formerly vassals of the Monastery, had not hesitated to appropriate to themselves a part of the spoils. Roland saw fragments of Gothic pillars richly carved, occupying the place of door-posts to the meanest huts; and here and there a mutilated statue, inverted or laid on its side, made the door-post, or threshold, of a wretched cow-house.

Mostly I'm just sad we don't have documentary photo evidence of this practice.

"My master has pushed off in the boat which they call the little Herod, (more shame to them for giving the name of a Christian to wood and iron,)[...]"

Old Keltie, the landlord, who had bestowed his name on a bridge in the neighbourhood of his quondam dwelling, received the carrier with his usual festive cordiality, and adjourned with him into the house, under pretence of important business, which, I believe, consisted in their emptying together a mutchkin stoup of usquebaugh.

Love to see whiskey in Gaelic.

“Peace, ye brawling hound!” said the wounded steward; “are dagger-stabs and dying men such rarities in Scotland, that you should cry as if the house were falling?”

Comments

[cimorene]

Thanks! I see where she was in the beginning now - I read her first couple of posts on it and followed some links. I haven't read all the threads though. I didn't find the one about peppercorns and mustard, although I did find the one about how bad his planning was and at least one thread where you and Selena talk about Wilhelmine's memoirs.

Also now that I read one of the salon threads about Catherine the Great I realize that I have heard of this guy before albeit only briefly, because I totally watched several history explainer videos about her and read her wikipedia page when the first season of The Great came out, whenever that was.

And I see this guy came to power shortly before the Jacobite rebellion (the invasion that ended with the battle of Culloden, which I see now is called the Jacobite Rising of 1745... if I'd remembered that name the time overlap would've been more obvious...) - I read Waverley quite recently, and it was full of historical details, although Scott's focus is extremely Scotland-specific. There's lots of exciting things happening in the decorative arts in Europe in this period too, though it isn't my favorite. I mean, the birth of Rococo! Meissen porcelain figures! Actually this has inspired me to look up baroque furniture and interiors more. I don't know that much about them outside of (a) Britain and the US and (b) Sweden-Finland.

As for the others, I will probably message you soon.

[mildred_of_midgard]

I totally watched several history explainer videos about her and read her wikipedia page when the first season of The Great came out, whenever that was.

Haha, you are not the first person I have mentioned Frederick the Great to, and they have been like, "I know a little bit about this period from The Great"!

And I see this guy came to power shortly before the Jacobite rebellion (the invasion that ended with the battle of Culloden, which I see now is called the Jacobite Rising of 1745...

Ah, yes, and this guy actually kicked off the war that indirectly led to the '45 Jacobite Rising! See, a good time to invade England is when most of the troops are busy fighting on the Continent and there is limited manpower for dealing with threats at home. And when France is fighting England, they're often quite happy to have Scots invade England and force England into a two-front war (this has been going on since the 13th century).

Of course, I think this war would have started anyway, so I think Macaulay is overdoing it when he writes:

On the head of Frederick is all the blood which was shed in a war which raged during many years and in every quarter of the globe— the blood of the column of Fontenoy, the blood of the brave mountaineers who were slaughtered at Culloden. The evils produced by this wickedness were felt in lands where the name of Prussia was unknown; and, in order that he might rob a neighbor whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel, and red men scalped each other by the great lakes of North America.

But never let it be said that Macaulay didn't have a way with words, whatever the quality of his opinions.

luzula is our resident Jacobite expert and I'm sure would be happy to talk about Waverley! I actually got into the 18th century via the Jacobites, who got me into 18th century military history, and then I quickly realized that if I wanted to learn about European military history of the 1740s, there was one guy I'd never heard of but I was absolutely going to have to learn about: Frederick the Great. Now, that was some 25 years ago, and I haven't read Waverley or studied the Jacobites since then, but I still have at least a 100-level understanding of the subject.

Meissen porcelain figures!

Frederick was super into porcelain! He got a porcelain industry going in Prussia, invaded Saxony, occupied Meissen and raided the manufactories and sent all the figures and recipes back home, and founded and ran an entire porcelain factory in Berlin!

From then on, it was called the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin ("Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin") and became a model of how to run a business. There was no child labour, there were regular working hours, above-average incomes, secure pensions, a healthcare fund and assistance for widows and orphans.

The manufactory's most important client was Frederick the Great, who sometimes jokingly referred to himself as his "best customer".

He also had his own subgenre of Rococo, named Frederician Rococo after him.

So there's lots to investigate there if you're into material culture! I'm somewhat into art history, so we might be able to find some common ground there.

[cimorene]

Ooh yeah, KLM! Good for him! And thanks, I did not know about his style of rococo! I have read the article now and will try to investigate more. Looking for pictures of German palaces online doesn't turn up much interior detail easily, or furniture and decor, apart from murals and ceiling paintings. But I haven't looked very hard yet. And I've only ever looked into Meissen superficially, mostly their Commedia dell'arte figurines (I accidentally started shipping Harlequin and Pierrot during the pandemic).

[mildred_of_midgard]

selenak visited a bunch of palaces and took a bunch of pictures in 2020 that you can find under the picspam tag here. Some of them will have interior detail, furniture and decor.

I'm hoping to go next spring, teach me what to look for! I can try to take pictures of specific things like furniture, or close-ups of things that aren't clear enough in Selena's pictures if you want!