Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (50 page)

AUTHOR’S NOTES

“Hogg house.”
When Lord John reflects that surely Geneva’s body does not lie “in some hogg house or desolate shed,” he is not considering that her family might have left her in a pig-sty. A “hogg house” was a storage building for dried peat.

Homophobia.
I am greatly indebted both to Norton Rictor (
Mother Clap’s Molly-House
) and to Byrne Fone (
Homophobia: A History
) for insight into the perception and treatment of homosexuals in the mid-eighteenth century. Quotes in this book regarding the social and legal prosecution of “sodomites” are taken from
Homophobia,
and are actual quotes from the newspapers and other periodicals of the period.

Horace Walpole
was one of the best-known letter-writers of the early-to mid-eighteenth century, and his collected correspondence is as valuable to a student of that period as Samuel Pepys’s diaries are to an earlier one. Fourth son of the formidable Robert Walpole (First Earl of Orford, who more or less invented the office of prime minister, though he himself refused to use that title), Horace was not political himself, but had great insight—expressed with wit and irony—into the social, military, and political processes of his
milieu.

Prejudice.
Speaking of phobias…historical attitudes in England toward the Irish, Scottish, etc. are rendered as they were (interpreted through writings of the period), rather than as modern political correctness might desire (e.g., descriptions of the Irish gathering “like fleas” and other opprobrious remarks are taken from primary sources of the period, as quoted in M. Dorothy George’s
London Life in the Eighteenth Century
and Liza Picard’s
Dr. Johnson’s London
).

A Note on Scots/Scotch/Scottish

So far as I know (judging from published material from the period), everybody in the British Isles (including the Scots), used “Scotch” to refer to the people (as well as the whisky) up until about 1950. At which point, the SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party) got their feet under them and started in.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that one of the first things a political action group representing a minority does is to respecify the name of said group as a means of asserting independence—i.e., “negroes” became either “black” or “African American,” “Indians” became “Native Americans,” etc. By the same token, the Scotch became “Scots.” (In all justice, “Scots” as a term referring to the people was certainly in use for centuries prior to that; however, “Scotch,” “Scotchman,” etc. were also acceptable and widely used; post-SNP, this was seen as deeply offensive.)

Just to be confusing, “Scots” is also the term used (both historically and in modern times) for the Scottish dialect—or language as the case may be (again, with the political activism). I asked a friend—a well-known linguist and the dean of the college of Arts and Letters at a prominent university—what the position was on Scots in linguistic circles: Dialect of English, or distinct language? She (an Englishwoman) looked round to be sure we were not overheard (we were at a cocktail party, surrounded by wealthy alumni, none of them either Scottish or linguists), lowered her voice, and said, “Well, if you’re Scottish, then of
course
it’s a separate language—and if you aren’t, then plainly it’s not.”

Anyway, “Scotch” and its derivatives (“Scotchman,” “Scotchwoman”) were used by everybody—including Scottish people (I have a book of popular jokes and comic routines done by Sir Harry Lauder—a popular Scottish comedian of the ’40s and ’50s, which uses “Scotch” as a designation of people throughout) up ’til about the mid-twentieth century. You still see such references in novels published later than that, but by about 1970, “Scot,” “Scots,” and “Scottish” had become pretty much
de rigueur,
and “Scotch” was now strictly limited to whisky and 3M’s” brand of transparent tape. In the eighteenth century, though, “Scotchman” was still common usage.

The Seven Years’ War

I made a conscious decision not to provide detailed explanations, maps, etc., regarding the political, military, and geographical nuances of the Seven Years’ War. While this was a complex and fascinating conflict—it was, in many ways, the first “world war,” being fought on several continents and involving virtually all the countries of Europe and their colonies—this isn’t actually a book
about
the Seven Years’ War; it’s a book about a soldier.

Lord John Grey, Major in His Majesty’s army, is a career soldier. He doesn’t ask whether a particular cause is worth his labor or his life; he fights because it’s his duty and his calling. Therefore, other than indicating theaters of military operation, and brief references to important battles or events, I’ve focused on the details of an English officer’s daily life, rather than on the larger issues of the war.

For those military buffs interested in the Seven Years’ War, there are masses of material available—far too much to cite even summarily here. For those who would enjoy a quick overview, though, allow me to recommend Osprey Publishing’s
The Seven Years’ War,
by Daniel Marston, part of their Essential Histories series (ISBN 1-84176-191-5, Osprey Publishing Ltd., London, 2001).

British regiments

Owing to the way in which British army regiments were named—i.e., in a generally sequential numbering system—I was obliged to appropriate an existing regimental number of approximately the right vintage for the Duke of Pardloe’s fictional regiment. The real 46th Regiment of Foot was the Duke of Cornwall’s regiment, also known as “Cornwall’s Light Infantry” and “The Red Feathers.”

Uniform notes

There was a great deal of variation in uniform during the Seven Years’ War, owing to the great number and variety of political entities participating. For example: While most people are accustomed nowadays to thinking of the British as “redcoats,” and thus to assuming that all British uniforms
were
red, in fact, they were not. Soldiers of the Royal Artillery during this period wore blue uniforms, while—confusingly enough—the French artillery wore red.

About the Author

DIANA GABALDON is the #1
New York Times
bestselling author of
Lord John and the Private Matter
and the wildly popular Outlander novels. She won a 2006 Quill Award, and the 2006 Corine International Prize for Fiction for her most recent Outlander novel,
A Breath of Snow and Ashes.

Also by Diana Gabaldon

(in order of publication)

THE OUTLANDER SERIES

Outlander

Dragonfly in Amber

Voyager

Drums of Autumn

The Outlandish Companion

(nonfiction)

The Fiery Cross

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

THE LORD JOHN GREY SERIES

Lord John and the Private Matter

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade

Lord John and the Hand of Devils

LORD JOHN AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE

A Delacorte Press Book / September 2007

Published by Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved

Copyright © 2007 by Diana Gabaldon

Delacorte Press is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gabaldon, Diana.

Lord John and the brotherhood of the blade / Diana Gabaldon.

p.                           cm.

1. Seven Years’ War, 1756–1763—Fiction. 2. London (England)—History—18th century—Fiction. 3. Nobility—Fiction. 4. Soldiers—Fiction. I. Title. PS3557.A22L66 2007

813'.54—dc22                                                               2007021496

www.bantamdell.com

eISBN: 978-0-440-33712-6

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