Chapters
25 totalTranscriber’s Note:
“APOLOGIA.”
ILLUSTRATIONS.
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER I “Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life.”—Psalm xxiii. 6.
CHAPTER II The Altyre Gardens—Home Interests—Our Mother’s Death—Early Influences—The Moray Floods.
CHAPTER III The Altyre Woods—Banks of the Findhorn—Culbyn Sandhills—Covesea Caves.
CHAPTER IV Gordonstoun—A Glorious Playground—The Great Picture—The Dungeons—The Charter Room—Old Letters—Ecclesiastical Censures—Successive Lairds—Window-tax.
CHAPTER V My Eldest Sister’s Marriage—Life at Cresswell—School-days in London—First Sea Voyages—Roualeyn’s Return from South Africa.
CHAPTER VI My First London Season—My Father’s Accident—Beginning of the Crimean War—Death of Captain Cresswell—Death of my Father—We leave Altyre.
Description
A candid voice opens with a startling confession: the narrator inherits a puzzling inability to recognize acquaintances at a glance, a trait passed down from her father and one that often leads to unintended offense. Set against the backdrop of the Scottish Highlands—Altyre, Gordonstoun, and the sprawling Grant estates—her early chapters weave family portraits, ancestral homes, and the lingering presence of a mother whose death shapes her outlook.
The memoir moves from the quiet gardens of her childhood to bustling schoolrooms in London, then out to sea on her first voyages. The outbreak of the Crimean War and the sudden loss of her father cast a shadow over her teenage years, prompting a departure from the familiar lochs to the far‑flung colonies of New Zealand, Fiji and beyond. Through vivid sketches of distant lands, encounters with diverse cultures, and the lingering pull of home, the book offers a rich tapestry of memory, travel, and the quiet resilience required to navigate both personal and historical upheavals.
Details
Language
en
Duration
~16 hours (948K characters)
Release date
2025-11-22
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
About the author
C. F. (Constance Frederica) Gordon Cumming
1837–1924