Men Women and Minxes Author:Leonora Blanche Lang General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1912 Original Publisher: Longmans, Green and co. Subjects: English literature Women English essays Literary Collections / Essays Literary Criticism / General Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Social Science / Women's Studies Notes:... more » This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: THE SOCIAL RECORDS OF A SCOTCH FAMILY Nor the least of the benefits conferred by Mr. Lecky on the reading public is his introduction, through the medium of his History of the Eighteenth Century, to one of the most interesting and curious books on family life that probably exists, the Caldwett Papers. Not that the Mures of Cald- well were people who were content with the narrow cares -- narrower in the eighteenth century than' now -- of a private position. They and their connections bore their part in the business of the country as bravely as any Scotchman had borne it for three hundred years; but the interest attaching to the letters and correspondence with Lord Bute, David Hume, the Lord Privy Seal Mackenzie, or the Duchess of Argyll, is chiefly that of throwing light on social surroundings and character, rather than on public events. Since the accession of David II in 1329, when Sir Reginald Mure of Abercorn was Lord High Chamberlain, the Mures of Caldwell have been one of the most distinguished families in the counties of Ayr and Renfrew. They could claim cousinship with nearly all the celebrated names that call up picturesque images to English minds as well as to Scottish ones -- with the Darnleys, the Eglintons, the Atholes, and many more, and could even boast of giving a queen to Scotland, for Elizabeth Mure became the wife of Robert, Earl ...« less