Scotch Gentry
Parties and Pleasures: The Diaries of 'Helen Graham 1823-1826. Edited by James Irvine. (Paterson, 18s. 6d.) YOUNG Miss Graham, a gay, handsome, witty and intelligent girl, kept these diaries about Edinburgh and Stirling society 130 years ago. 'A fine creature,' said her aunt, Susan Ferrier, 'clever, natural, and lady-like, with an inexhaustible flow of good humour and spirits.' Her aunt was right; Helen was all that, and a racy, sharp-tongued observer as well. She went to parties, met the best people, and commented on them with a pleasing, tart wit, rather like that of the young Miss Thorntons of Clapham Common in E. M. Forster's history of his great-aunt. She was apt to sum up gentlemen as 'prosers,' and was not a prey to undue excite- ment about them. She had a delightful composure, and declined to 'take the pet' when not invited to a ball, for 'It is such a degrading sort of feeling, I should think, after having been in a high pet, to lower oneself into a natural state.' Admirable equanimity !
The diary has been very well edited by Miss Graham's great-great-great-nephew; but one would have liked the original spelling kept as it was, and the excellent notes on the page, not at the end. The grammar has not been tampered with, and Miss Graham writes `to see Papa and I,' like any ill-informed young lady today. Not that Helen was ill-informed; she had much natural intelligence and a good education, knew her own language and others, and wrote well. Edinburgh was a gay metropolis enough; the local worthies included the Walter Scotts (he very sensible, she very odd, their daughter very malicious), the great-grandmother of the Sitwells, and many more, all well identified by the editorial notes. The book has some charming portraits (Helen herself was a beauty), and is itself a delightful portrait of a society. It is noticeable that the Scotch gentry talked Scotch; a pity this has lapsed.
ROSE MACAULAY
Previous page
