You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
Growly Cub writes:
When I lived in Scotland in 93/94 I read a Mills and Boon (historical) category
from a local library about the one of the Duke of Sutherland’s daughters, or maybe
a woman who married into the family.I can’t remember much about it, just that the female was very young. I want to say
it took place in the late 1700s, early 1800s, but I’m not sure I trust my memory;
and that the story was inspired by somebody who lived at Dunrobin Castle as
some point in her life.The unreliable mind also spits out a memory of a pinkish cover, no author or title
though.Would love to find this title again! Although I’m all aware that it’s nowhere near as
interesting as the Regency time travel!
I’m wasting the chance of a first post for something that doesn’t really match…. but it has similarities….
Paula Marshall – An Unexpected Passion. Published June 93 so would have been available in the library at the right time. Also has a pink cover.
This one stuck in my mind when I was cataloguing as it’s based on a true story, which is out of the ordinary for M&Bs. The cover blurb though has a different family name involved: “Being an account of the courtship and marriage of Lord Granville and Lady Harriet (Haryo) Cavendish, daughter to 5th Duke of Devonshire.”
Not wasted at all! 🙂 That’s it!
Granville was a younger half-brother to the Duke of Sutherland. I only remembered visiting Dunrobin Castle and seeing Harriet’s portrait there, not the rest of the story.
Who would have thought that the pink cover would give it away!
Thanks so much, Gemma. Now I just have to win the lottery to be able to afford a copy, grin, cheapest one at Amazon is $15!
My validation word: figures55
Sometimes I wonder if these words are picked by psychics, they are so often appropriate! 🙂
W00t!
I was about to say “it’ll be tons cheaper on abebooks.com”, but it isn’t in this particular case.
Keep an eye on ebay maybe?
Before he married Haryo, he was the lover of her aunt, Lady Bessborough (sister of the Duchess of Devonshire and mother of Lady Caroline Lamb). That was a real “Yours, Mine, and Ours” household—or perhaps “You can’t tell the players without a scorecard” would be more accurate. There’s a lot about it in Henry Blyth’s biography Caro: The Fatal Passion and in Lord David Cecil’s biography Melbourne—Caro’s husband, later Victoria’s Prime Minister. I remember from Cecil’s book this fact about the children in Devonshire House—half the time they ate off gold plates, and the rest of the time no one remembered to feed them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Leveson-Gower,_1st_Earl_Granville
He married Lady Harriet Cavendish (1785-1862), daughter of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire and Lady Georgiana Spencer. The Earl and Countess Granville threw events that were often the toast of Parisian society while he was a British diplomat.
Lord Granville, prior to marrying Lady Harriet Cavendish, was the lover of Lady Harriet’s maternal aunt, Henrietta-Frances Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough, nee Lady Henrietta-Frances Spencer, with whom he fathered two illegitimate children: Harriette Stewart and George Stewart.
He was created Viscount Granville in 1815 and Earl Granville in 1833.
He had one son by Lady Harriet: Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville. He also had two daughters by Lady Harriet: Susan and Georgiana, who both received the title of Lady after he became an earl.
Regarding the high price of books – Have you ever tried http://www.paperbackswap.com ? It’s really a great service. I’ve saved a ton (or tonne) of money on my romance novel habit in the past two years because of it.
Rats, I read the clues this morning before anyone replied and didn’t guess the title. I luuurve Paula Marshall and this book.
Way to go Gemma! Stay tuned for coronation – well played!
Amazed, am I! /yoda
And it sounds interesting… *checking savings*
Could it be the romantic tale, “The Curse of an Earl”?
Take a look at this page:
http://www.scottishgatherings.co.uk/Balnagowan.html
Look under Dunrobin Castle.
Some of what we read may be based on reality. Heaven forbid!