By Bryce Wilson.
Graemeshall and the other mansions that grace our islands recall the time when most of Orkney was divided into private estates. Among the lairds, the Graemes owned the estate of Holm, and were at Graemeshall well into the 20th century. Sheena Wenham and others spent holidays there. Their grandfather, Patrick Sutherland Graeme the 9th laird, gathered them around the fire in the house library while he read to them from Dickens and other popular authors.
Above the fireplace hung the portrait of a young Victorian lady. Who was that? This was Henrietta Florence Sutherland Graeme, better known as ‘Flo’. She had grown up in Southern England where, like most young Victorian ladies, she mastered the art of letter writing and became an enthusiastic painter in watercolour.
Such were the hazards of travel that it was only in 1866 when she was twenty-two that Flo made her way north to visit the family seat, along with her brother Malcolm and Emma, her lady’s maid. And it was not until Sheena Wenham discovered the existence of Flo’s unpublished travel journal that she began to appreciate the young Victorian lady whose portrait graced the fireplace in Graemeshall.
Flo’s journal reveals a fun-loving and forthright character. The Royal Mail steamer from Thurso to Stromness was on refit, replaced by a little sailing vessel:
‘There were only two passengers besides ourselves – two men. We soon began to go up and down in the most fearful manner and we all got more and more seedy but Oh! I tried to talk as though I felt nothing, when suddenly Malcolm called out (I thought in fun), “I shall be ill first” and true enough the poor boy was just about ill and did not get well all the way across and we started from Thurso at a quarter past 12 and did not get into Stromness till 10 o.c. at night. It was a pretty long time.
Well, at last we arrived in Stromness, dirty, wet to the skin, wretched, cold and bad tempered so we settled that we could not go to Kirkwall that night, so we went to a Mrs Scott’s Grand Hotel, such a place, and very soon got rooms, Emma in a cupboard in my room and oh! the dirt of it and the oldness of everything. However, we soon got our baggage out and a good fire …’
The following day they set off by carriage for Kirkwall:
‘The streets of Stromness are very narrow; a good many little shops but all very poor… It was very fine, and we enjoyed our drive, passing on our left the Stones of Stennis and getting out to see an old house made in the earth by some old Picts years and years ago [Maeshowe]. We crawled in and saw but little when we got in, but some old letters cut in the stone …’
In Kirkwall, they had to turn down their lodgings [the Temperance Hotel] :
‘… the bedrooms were hardly fit to put a dog into … You are obliged to go in sideways and each room was supplied with the most beastly black brush and comb …’ She went at once to the Castle Hotel. Here she was ‘fortunate to find three very nice bedrooms … very, very much nicer than the Temperance Hotel could have been.’ The following day: ‘Thereon we drove to Graemeshall … It is a comfortable old house but very tumble down. All was tidy and prepared for us…’
They spent their time between Graemeshall and Kirkwall, where they were well attended to. On the Sunday:‘About 2 o.c. Mrs Cowan came in to offer to take us to Kirk with her. I refused with thanks. Then came Miss Watt, a one eyed old lady, very tall and very ugly. She brought a nephew with her. Then came Mr Baikie, so we had quite a levee. When they were all gone, we – Malcolm, Mr Bruce and I – had a nice walk and looked down on Kirkwall from the road to Ham (Holm). Then back we came to dinner and then more letters and bed.
‘… we paid a visit to Mr and Mrs Robertson, such nice people. We are to dine with them on Tuesday, then on to Mrs Rae [the explorer’s wife, at Berstane House] no great shakes and oh! so stupid…’ Onwards to Tankerness House: ‘I have never met such a horror as Mrs Cowan and I like Mr C. better than I did…’ On another occasion: ‘I had to take a glass of gin, oh! so very dreadful…’ The Lammas Fair was in full swing: ‘Then up we went to the Fair and spent 1/9d on lucky arrow and gingerbread. There was no fun except to see the way in which young men make love to their young women, only by holding their hands and there you saw two and two all the way along hand in hand…’
At a party with the Bains: ‘They danced some wonderful hop and go sort of thing and some wonderful Scotch reels, and such a dreadful figure at the end of the quadrilles. We had a very good supper, and I very much enjoyed a very good grouse pie. We had hot vegetables with the supper which is quite a new thing to me!!! I got rather a headache about 11 o.c. and Dr Logie walked home with me before 12 o.c. I have got rather a cold so shan’t be sorry to be in bed.’
At a wedding party: ‘We had a very good dinner after which the bride fainted … Miss Baikie was a stiff old maid, Mrs Heddle loud, Mrs Spence not at all well and Mrs Donald more than sad, as straight as a board … She wore black satin very high and looked miserable … Supper was on the table … I was offered oysters and beer Oh! Oh! Oh! … And we all drank, the ladies taking a potion made for them by the old Captain of what do you think, ‘‘Brandy and Rum’’. During this, different songs were sung, the first by old Mr Fotheringham who has once had a sweet voice, and which is now none at all. Next came Captain Baikie of 70 years of age, who never had had a voice and made an awful row. … All this was great fun.’
Despite lots of fun and frolics, Flo made many paintings of town and country, and cartoons of characters that took her fancy. Sheena Wenham has added many more illustrations from museum and archive collections, and a full history of the Graemes, for three centuries a leading family of Orkney lairds. This is a vividly entertaining glimpse of times long gone, a credit to both author and publishers and a valuable addition to Orkney’s historial record.
Flo, A Young Victorian Lady by Sheena Wenham, is published by Orkneyology Press and is available to buy now.
Leave a Reply