The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #43626   Message #2645547
Posted By: Jack Campin
01-Jun-09 - 10:14 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Think on Me (Lady John Scott)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Think On Me (Alicia Ann Scott)
Lady John Scott died in 1900 so there was quite a bit more after 1882.

There is a lovely photo of her in her papers in the National Library of Scotland, the only picture of her I've seen - she was horribly self-conscious about her appearance and hated having her picture taken (unfortunately it's completely unreproducible, very dark sepia with a lot of the visual information in the reflective patina). She's an old lady sitting in front of a flagrantly fake classical landscape holding a Spanish guitar, with a shy and gentle smile. I've never read anybody with a bad word to say about her.

I've read some of her letters to and from C.K Sharpe when she was a young woman. She comes across as desperately enthusiastic and naive about Scottish history and tradition; it's a bit like some Mudcat threads when a likeable young newbie joins in, with Sharpe doing the same sort of thing as Malcolm Douglas.

She was extraordinarily good at distance running in her earlier life. I can't imagine what sort of clothing an aristocratic Scottish woman of the period would have worn to do it.