In 1730, Edmund Burt was sent to Scotland to work as a contractor for the government. For most of the time, he was based in Inverness, from where he wrote regularly to an acquaintance in London about his experiences. Burt had an insatiable curiosity about everything. From cooking and personal hygiene (the standards of which continually shocked him), to weddings, funerals, public executions and even the activities of witches, no aspect of Highland life or society escaped his scrutiny. Burt's witty and satirical style makes entertaining reading, but whilst he was certainly critical of many things, he draws a very sympathetic picture of the grinding hardship and poverty faced by so much of the ordinary population. His writing is a salutary antidote to many of the Romantic views of the Highlands and Jacobitism, which were later to take hold. It is now available for the first time in one volume, with modernised spelling and includes an Introduction by Charles W. J. Withers, Professor of Geography in the University of Edinburgh.

Shortlisted, New Brunswick Book Award for Non-Fiction During the Second World War, hundreds of New Brunswick woodsmen joined the Canadian Forestry Corps to log the Scottish Highlands as part of the Canadian war effort. Patrick "Pat" Hennessy of Bathurst was one of them. For five years, Pat served as camp cook with 15 Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps near the ancient town of Beauly, Scotland. A middle-aged New Brunswick farmer and lumberman with a third-grade education, Pat saw more of the world than he had ever dreamed of, visiting ancient battlefields he had learned about as a child, travelling to his ancestral Ireland, and attending a course of lectures in British history at Oxford University. While in Scotland, Pat regularly corresponded with his family in New Brunswick. Drawing from this unique collection of more than three hundred letters, as well as hundreds of archival documents and photographs, Melynda Jarratt provides a rare glimpse of what life was like for Canadian servicemen overseas and for their relatives at home. Letters from Beauly is volume 23 in the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series, co-published with the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society.

John McDougall, the last weaver on the Isle of Lismore in the West Highlands of Scotland, was not wealthy but his life as superintendent of the small islands Sabbath school was far from simple. As his eight children passed away or left Lismore for other parts of Scotland and America to live more prosperous lives, McDougall began writing letters to his adult son, John, who emigrated to Minnesota. The letters, which reflect his sadness after the childrens departure, provide rare insight into the daily routine and thoughts of a landless cottar who was an engaged and valued member of the Lismore community. Edited by his great-great-granddaughter, Margaret Miller, the compilation includes images of McDougalls original handwritten letters from 1870 to 1888, related photographs and maps, a timeline of events, and family trees. The letters reveal a thoughtful man who cared deeply about his family and community, and include poignant reminders of the ways in which medicine, communications, and transportation have changed throughout the centuries. As McDougall shares his thoughts and wishes, his enduring human values are brought to the forefront as this devout, principled man managed to influence the development of communities in the United States through his descendants. My Dear Son shares a compelling collection of letters from a nineteenth century Scottish island weaver to his son, letting us hear his thoughts as he continues his life in Scotland while his son emigrates to America and begins anew.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

What can we know of the private lives of early British sovereigns? Through the unusually large number of letters that survive from King James VI of Scotland/James I of England (1566-1625), we can know a great deal. Using original letters, primarily from the British Library and the National Library of Scotland, David Bergeron creatively argues that James' correspondence with certain men in his court constitutes a gospel of homoerotic desire. Bergeron grounds his provocative study on an examination of the tradition of letter writing during the Renaissance and draws a connection between homosexual desire and letter writing during that historical period. King James, commissioner of the Bible translation that bears his name, corresponded with three principal male favorites—Esmé Stuart (Lennox), Robert Carr (Somerset), and George Villiers (Buckingham). Esmé Stuart, James' older French cousin, arrived in Scotland in 1579 and became an intimate adviser and friend to the adolescent king. Though Esmé was eventually forced into exile by Scottish nobles, his letters to James survive, as does James' hauntingly allegorical poem Phoenix. The king's close relationship with Carr began in 1607. James' letters to Carr reveal remarkable outbursts of sexual frustration and passion. A large collection of letters exchanged between James and Buckingham in the 1620s provides the clearest evidence for James' homoerotic desires. During a protracted separation in 1623, letters between the two raced back and forth. These artful, self-conscious letters explore themes of absence, the pleasure of letters, and a preoccupation with the body. Familial and sexual terms become wonderfully intertwined, as when James greets Buckingham as "my sweet child and wife." King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire presents a modern-spelling edition of seventy-five letters exchanged between Buckingham and James. Across the centuries, commentators have condemned the letters as indecent or repulsive. Bergeron argues that on the contrary they reveal an inward desire of king and subject in a mutual exchange of love.

FOLLOW-UP TO THE PHENOMENAL INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER INCLUDING LETTERS FROM: Jane Austen, Richard Burton, Helen Keller, Alan Turing, Albus Dumbledore, Eleanor Roosevelt, Henry James, Sylvia Plath, John Lennon, Gerald Durrell, Janis Joplin, Mozart, Janis Joplin, Hunter S. Thompson, C. G. Jung, Katherine Mansfield, Marge Simpson, David Bowie, Dorothy Parker, Buckminster Fuller, Beatrix Potter, Che Guevara, Evelyn Waugh, Charlotte Bront� and many more. Discover Richard Burton's farewell note to Elizabeth Taylor, Helen Keller's letter to The New York Symphony Orchestra about 'hearing' their concert through her fingers, the final missives from a doomed Japan Airlines flight in 1985, David Bowie's response to his first piece of fan mail from America and even Albus Dumbledore writing to a reader applying for the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts. More Letters of Note is another rich and inspiring collection, which reminds us that much of what matters in our lives finds its way into our letters.

"Letters from England" is a masterpiece of observation written by the famous Czech writer, Karel Capek. These humorous and insightful letters and drawings were designed to describe Europe's oldest democracy to the citizens of Europe's newest; Capek's countrymen. Within its pages he suggests the existence of a deep connection between his people and the those of his study, and writes with a bemused admiration for England and the English. A fascinating and important piece of Czech literature, "Letters from England" would make for a great addition to any bookshelf, and is one not to be missed by fans and collectors of Capek's work. The chapters of this book include: 'First Impressions', 'The English Park', 'London Streets', 'Traffic', 'Hyde Park', 'In the Natural History Museum', 'The Pilgrim Goes Over More Museums', 'The Pilgrim Sees Animals and Famous People', 'Clubs', 'The Biggest Samples Fair', 'The East End', 'In The Country', 'Cambridge and Oxford', etcetera. We are republishing this antiquarian volume now in an affordable, modern edition, complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.