Chapter One
Carlowrie
Half hidden among the ancient trees, the tower and turrets of Carlowrieappear the very model of a Scottish baronial castle. This is the house whereIsobel Hutchison was born and where she died ninety-two years later. It wasthe haven she returned to after months spent in travel to destinations farremoved from the European world she knew. It was the home where herroots were deep and firm.
Carlowrie was built in 1852 by Isobel's grandfather, Thomas Hutchison.The son of a flesher, or cattle breeder, he was born in 1796 at Kinghornin Fifeshire, but his destiny lay across the Firth of Forth in the town ofLeith, on the outskirts of Edinburgh. There he worked for a firm of wineand spirit merchants, George Young and Company, owners of the GrangeDistillery. Astute and quick to learn, by age thirty he had founded his ownwholesale wine business, T. Hutchison and Company. The times were favorablefor the wine trade: the Industrial Revolution created a wealthy middleclass that had the leisure to enjoy the pleasures of the table and could affordthe luxury of good claret.
Well established in the wine trade, in 1832 Thomas Hutchison marriedJean Wylie. Her grandfather, William Wylie, was a farmer near Kincardine,then in Perthshire, close to the River Forth. The sons of William Wyliefollowed diverse paths. While Jean Wylie's father, Robert, remained onthe family farm, her uncle James became the physician to three Russianczars, Paul, Alexander, and Nicholas. He was one of the founders of theMedical Academy of St. Petersburg and Moscow and its president forthirty years. At the request of Czar Alexander, in 1814 he was knighted inEngland by the prince regent, acting on behalf of King George III. He diedmany years later at St. Petersburg, leaving half his fortune to the czar. JeanWylie's youngest uncle, Walter, was a sea captain, sailing from the RiverForth to Baltic ports to sell pit props to the Russians. Among Jean Wylie'sseven brothers and sisters, four brothers followed their Uncle Walter to sea,including one who died in Moscow and a brother, as well as a sister, whomarried in Canada.
Thomas Hutchison and his wife had a country home, GlendevonHouse, in the Ochil Hills of Perthshire, where their five children were born.They also owned a town house, the Hermitage, near the golf course inLeith. As his business prospered Thomas Hutchison became active in localpolitics, being elected provost of Leith in 1845. He promoted improvementsto the harbor and the rail service as well as holding directorships in importantScottish financial institutions.
Having amassed a considerable fortune by 1850, Thomas Hutchisonbought the estate of Carlowrie, near the village of Kirkliston in West Lothian,closer to his business interests in Edinburgh. The existing house waspulled down, and Edinburgh architect David Rhind was engaged to builda new house in the Scottish mid-nineteenth-century baronial style. Thearchitect's specifications called for the finest stone and woodwork, and thefinal cost of £33,000 represented a very large sum at the time.
Approached through an avenue of sycamore trees, the formal entranceto Carlowrie is set on a raised terrace. The entire edifice is surmountedby a round tower with an arched balustrade, and turrets with candlesnufferroofs complete the baronial effect. A large conservatory filled withrare and tropical plants is off the formal drawing room to the east of theentrance; it was originally much larger, extending almost the width of thelawn. The house is set in spacious grounds, with walled gardens hiding thegreenhouses, kitchen gardens, and stables. A second avenue of trees leadswestward past the paddock to the lodge beside the now-quiet country road.A three-hundred-acre tenant farm on the other side of the estate, with itssturdy eighteenth-century farmhouse and outbuildings, supplied milk andproduce for the big house. When Carlowrie was built facing south acrossthe River Almond, the setting was peaceful in spite of being close to one ofthe main roads to Edinburgh. From the open tower of the house one canlook south to the Pentland Hills stretching off into the distance and northtoward the Firth of Forth.
The house was two years in completion, and Thomas Hutchison diedbefore it was ready to occupy. His widow lived there with her four sonsuntil 1863, when the eldest, Robert, married the daughter of the localPresbyterian minister. At Carlowrie Robert enjoyed the role of countrygentleman, with a passionate enthusiasm for archaeology, rural economy,and arboriculture. He published several essays and papers on rural economyfor private circulation, and he was made a fellow of the Royal Society ofEdinburgh as well as belonging to other Scottish learned societies. He andhis wife had seven children, two of whom were later knighted for theiraccomplishments. Unfortunately Robert Hutchison, despite his scholarlyachievements, had no interest in the family wine business, and by 1888 hisextravagant lifestyle had run him deeply into debt.
Robert's younger brother, Thomas, having followed his father in thewine trade, spent a number of years in India expanding the business. Whenhe returned to Scotland at about age forty, he married his second cousin,Jeanie Wylie, the granddaughter of his mother's seafaring uncle, Walter.Her father was a farmer and maltster from Parkhead, near Alloa, and hermother was a Younger, whose family founded a famous Alloa brewery. Forthe first years of their marriage Thomas Hutchison and his wife lived inhis father's home, Glendevon House, where two children, Nita and Walter,were born.
To Thomas fell the burden of saving the family's reputation and business.In 1888 he paid off his brother's debts and took over the ownership ofCarlowrie, where, on May 30, 1889, a third child, Isobel Wylie, was born.Hilda and Frank followed—five children over the span of twelve years.
The wholesale wine trade was flourishing. Soon Thomas Hutchisoncould afford to devote his time to his family and his estate. When it wasnecessary to attend to business matters, the frequent trains from nearbyRatho station would take him to Edinburgh in less than twenty minutes.He had a passionate interest in the gardens, and in his daily journal herecorded his observations of the weather and details of the plantings. Aquiet, reserved man, he imparted his love of nature and horticulture to hischildren by example. By the time his fifth child was born, when he wasin his late fifties, his garden, his library, and his family were the center ofhis life.
Carlowrie was a world unto itself, a halcyon domain where "it seemedalways afternoon." A dozen servants were on hand to respond to the doublerow of bells hanging in the hall beside the kitchen. The gardener and hiswife lived in the lodge at the end of the avenue of trees, and the tenantfarmer was the nearest neighbor on the other side of the estate. A mile upthe country road was the village of Kirkliston, and each Sunday the Hutchisonfamily walked to the twelfth-century kirk where Thomas Hutchisonwas an elder and took their places in the front pew of the gallery.
A resident governess took care of the schooling, sometimes assisted bya fräulein to teach the children German. After lessons there was plenty ofscope for five active youngsters, with croquet, tennis, archery on the lawns,skating in winter, bicycling, and games of hide-and-seek at any time. Thedays were never long enough, filled with hikes in the country, picnics, andvisits to and from the Wylie relatives on the other side of the River Forth.There were trees to climb, where one could disappear and read in secretleafy bowers. The children also loved to write and produce plays, using thespacious first landing of the great staircase as a stage. The servants, seatedin the formal entrance hall, provided the audience for the first performance,and relatives were invited for subsequent evenings of entertainment.
Before she was ten, Isobel had her own garden plot near the greenhouseswhere, with her father's encouragement, she built a cold frame,planted seeds, and recorded the growth of her plants. Her older brother,Walter, was a keen photographer and taught her to develop and print film inthe darkroom. Lessons in Scottish dancing and physical sports like runningand jumping were as much a part of her life as the more ladylike pursuitsof embroidery, crocheting, painting, and—significantly—pressing flowers.Idle moments were few, and she cherished time alone to absorb the beautyof the world around her, to think about the mysteries of life, and to attemptto frame her thoughts into poems. For all her love of sports and physicalactivity, Isobel was a shy and introspective child. Surrounded by a close andloving family, with no need for outside friendships, her life at Carlowrie wasas perfect as she could wish it to be.
With the dawning of a new century, the tranquil family life of Carlowriewas shattered. In April 1900 Thomas Hutchison caught a chill thatrapidly turned to pneumonia. Within three days the husband and father, thecenter of their golden world whose constant presence was the vital spark,was gone.
Isobel's father died just before her eleventh birthday. In her only novel,written more than twenty years later and describing circumstances thatclosely matched her own, she reproduced the powerful but inexpressiblefeelings of a child facing the sudden death of a beloved parent. Her despairand disbelief mingled with indignation at the unrestrained emotions ofthe adults around her. Too proud to cry in front of the servants, she felther unshed tears enter like iron into her soul, and with the anguish of awounded wild creature she hid her grief in solitude, only to have it surfaceagain in years to come.
Although his death was unexpected, with his usual attention to detailThomas Hutchison had left his affairs in perfect order. All financial matterswere arranged to be administered by an Edinburgh law firm as a strict trust,which continued until the death of Isobel, the last surviving member of thefamily. A nephew, the third Thomas Hutchison, son of the improvidentolder brother Robert, was already working in the family business andbecame managing director when it later amalgamated with J. C. Thompsonand Company, wine merchants.
The arrangements Thomas Hutchison had made ensured that thefamily could continue to live in its accustomed style, with adequate indoorand outdoor staff. While a lawyer with the title of factor oversaw themanagement of the estate at Carlowrie, Mrs. Hutchison—Mama as she wasknown by her children—took over the direction of the family.
Sixteen years younger than her husband, Mrs. Hutchison was small anddark haired with a brisk and capable manner. At school she had been oneof the brightest girls in her class, able to hold her own in the subjects taughtto members of both sexes. As a matron, she directed the large household ofservants with a firm hand. After the initial shock of her husband's death shetook full charge of bringing up the five children, ranging in age from sixteento four. Whereas her husband's interests had centered on the estate and thegardens, Mrs. Hutchison's world was that of the conventional Victorianlady. Now a widow, she spent her leisure hours entertaining visitors or beingdriven in the brougham to leave calling cards with suitable neighbors. Shehad a close relationship with her mother and aunts in Alloa and with hersisters, all living within easy journeys of Carlowrie. She and her sisterssuffered from congenital deafness, and in later years Mrs. Hutchison wasafflicted by tinnitus, or ringing in her ears.
Writers often reveal more of their true feelings in their imaginativefiction than through straight autobiography. In Original CompanionsIsobel Hutchison described her mother as full of common sense with awholesome gift of humor but lacking in imagination, while her father waslavishly generous in a secretive way. In her diaries her relationship with hermother can be perceived as correct and conventional. Whether deafness wasthe barrier or Mrs. Hutchison's formal manner, Isobel's affection for hermother appeared to lack the depth of feeling she had for her introspective,nature-loving father.
Isobel was a faithful diarist. From a tentative beginning when she wasten years old, the events of most of the next eighty years were chronicledin commercial diaries about three inches by four or even smaller, her open,rounded script filling every part of each tiny page. The diaries, ten or moreto an archival box, are housed in the Archives of the National Library ofScotland in Edinburgh, each page giving a terse summary of the day's activities.There is little space for more than facts. Some particularly momentousyears are inscribed in greater detail in hard-cover notebooks, and in theseshe recorded not only daily events but thoughts and feelings.
Most children find keeping a daily diary a tedious exercise; they oftenbegin boldly at the start of each new year, but the entries peter out in a fewmonths. In her first diary in 1899 at the age of ten, Isobel made sporadicentries until May, when she received a new bicycle for her birthday. Thereare scattered entries for the years 1901 and 1902, but at age fourteen,in 1903, she had developed the discipline to maintain daily entries thatlasted to the end of her life. Significantly, the diary for 1900, the year herfather died, and those for the years when she suffered other tragic losses aremissing from the collection. It seems that any reminders of those years wereso painful they must be expunged from the record. Although her diariesreveal little of her inner self, their existence shows that from an early ageshe was self-disciplined, regular in her habits, and diligent. The absence ofdiaries for specific tragic years is the first indication that Isobel's feelings ranso deep that she hid them even from herself.
The early diaries show Isobel as an active teenager, something of atomboy who delighted in bicycling, golf, cricket, high jumping, and running.While the diaries reported mainly the life within the enclosed worldof Carlowrie, distant events such as the death of Queen Victoria or theRussian-Japanese War were mentioned. More regularly recorded were thebooks Isobel read—Dickens, Thackeray, and many of Scott's Waverleynovels, as well as popular novels of the time and the Girl's Own Paper.Equally important in her life was writing: plays to be performed for invitedaudiences, regular contributions to the family magazine, the Scribbler, andalways poems.
Begun in 1903 with Nita as the first editor-in-chief, the Scribbler wasproduced every two months and contained typed articles, stories, poems,plays, and nature notes by the three sisters and some by outside contributors.For a few years Walter provided photographs and articles on photography.The artwork, both inside the magazine and on each unique cover,showed a high degree of competence and originality. The subscribers—friendsand extended family members—received the one copy of each issuein turn, crossing off their names and posting it to the next on the list. Fromthe first issue it was clear that the Hutchison sisters, Nita and Isobel inparticular, were serious about writing, even in their humorous pieces. Inlater years when Nita had left home and Hilda was studying abroad theycontinued to submit stories and poems and, in Hilda's case, musical compositions.Isobel, still at home, became the editor-in-chief, writing editorialswith dry wit and illustrating stories with clever cartoons and caricatures.Over the course of eight years, twenty-three issues were produced.
Before her father's death it had been arranged that the eldest daughter,Nita, would attend a boarding school, Calecote Towers, in Hertfordshire.Walter, the older son, became a day pupil at Fettes, a prestigious Edinburghschool. These two had been Isobel's constant companions from her earliestchildhood. Her younger sister Hilda now began to take Nita's place, andWalter became even more important to her during his free time from school.Frank, the baby of the family, was seven years younger than Isobel, and itwould be a few years before he was part of the close circle.
Walter completed his schooling at Fettes and passed the preliminaryexamination to study chartered accountancy. In the summer of 1904 Mrs.Hutchison took Nita and Walter to France for a holiday, and Walter remaineduntil Christmas at the University of Grenoble. Miss Whitelaw, theirlongtime governess, retired from teaching to look after her mother, andin the same year Isobel, Hilda, and Frank began attending private schoolin Edinburgh—the girls at Miss Gamgee's, which later became RothesayHouse, and Frank at Miss Menzies's. They traveled into the city each dayby train from Ratho station find walked from Haymarket station to theschools in the west end of Edinburgh. Rothesay House, a small school occupyingtwo houses on Rothesay Terrace, taught a curriculum designed foryoung ladies expecting to live privileged lives at home, following the patternsof their mothers. Isobel often stood at the top of her class, and botanywas among the subjects she excelled in. Daily commuting distanced theHutchison girls from their classmates, who either lived in Edinburgh orboarded at the school. Always more at ease with older people and youngchildren, Isobel might have seemed aloof, but with plants, trees, and booksas her companions she was never lonely.
In Scotland, influenced by the Protestant Reformation, universaleducation for both sexes was the accepted tradition, and a few womenhad even attended university late in the eighteenth century. Universityeducation was stressed for all teachers, and teaching was considered anhonorable profession. Mrs. Hutchison, however, from a family that didnot see the need of higher education for girls, accepted that view withoutquestion. Though her oldest daughter Nita showed great literary and artisticpromise at her school in England and the headmistress urged her to attenduniversity, Mrs. Hutchison thought it unnecessary. Marriage was the propercourse for girls.
Although Thomas Hutchison was a successful merchant and prosperouslandowner, he was not "landed gentry" or even "county" in the subtlerankings of British aristocracy. Carlowrie, designated on the map as a castle,was in reality a baronial mansion, set in spacious grounds. It was called acastle to distinguish it from Carlowrie farm, part of the extensive estate ofLord Rosebery, the prime minister who followed Gladstone, which borderedCarlowrie to the northeast. The children at Carlowrie were allowed tospeak with the naturally soft lowland Scots accent, whereas the governessat Dalmeny House, the Rosebery mansion, taught her charges to speak withthe proper upper-class English accent. The daughters at Carlowrie werenot part of the elaborate ritual of presentation at court and the attendantseries of balls and social events that constituted the "marriage market" ofthe late Victorian and Edwardian period.
Mrs. Hutchison tackled the marriage problem by entertaining officersfrom the ships based at Rosyth, just across the River Forth. Isobel noted inher diary early in 1905 that Mr. Padwick of the Caledonia came to tea, andabout the same time the Scribbler contained the story "A Summer Cruiseto the Mediterranean by a Naval Officer." It was not long before Nita andVictor Padwick were married—Mama had attained her objective. Padwickwas a paymaster in the Royal Navy, but members of the family did notconsider him Nita's intellectual equal. The Padwicks' life was governedby naval postings, at first around the south coast of England and the Islandof Jersey, later in South Africa and China. Much of Nita's life was spentin rented accommodations, alternating between the south of England andthe north of Scotland. In light of the realities of Nita's marriage, Mrs.Hutchison ceased to push her other daughters in that direction. She hadalso realized that Isobel's strong streak of independence could not be bent toher will.
From early childhood Isobel enjoyed long, solitary walks with thefamily dog along the river or through the various woods on the estate.Walking was freedom and independence, a time for observing nature, forcollecting plants, for turning words into poems combining thoughts aboutspiritual matters with the beauty of nature. In 1904 the family was on a latesummer holiday in the Highlands, staying in Kingussie on the River Speyclose to the Cairngorm Mountains, when she recorded in her diary: "Wentlong walk—15 or 16 miles—longest I have been, lovely scenery." Just afew years later, when Isobel was twenty and Hilda seventeen, they madean ambitious hike through the Highlands, packs on their backs, coveringthe hundred miles from Blairgowrie to Fort Augustus. Their route, throughthe heart of the Cairngorms, held some of the loneliest and most strikingof Scotland's mountain scenery. There were hotels at convenient stoppingdistances along the route, but on the Larig Pass (Lairig Ghru) they werecaught by bad weather and spent the night with a gamekeeper in his bothy.The experience provided material for a story in the Scribbler, as well as aNature Notes column including a description of the plants found in thepass, with their Latin names.
Shortly after this 1909 expedition Hilda, who had shown considerabletalent for music at Rothesay House, went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne,living in the Latin Quarter. Music was an acceptable field of study for youngladies, and Mrs. Hutchison approved. Isobel, shy and reserved by nature,appears to have been content to remain at home.
Living at home as an unmarried daughter in a middle-class family hasoften been a breeding ground for social tension. Florence Nightingale,confined within a Victorian home and not permitted to pursue a nursingcareer, had felt condemned to a life without purpose. The greater importanceattached to the education of a brother was a further cause of tensionwithin Victorian families.
Having proved herself bright and capable at school, Isobel made thebest of her situation by taking short occasional courses in Edinburgh,reading widely, and concentrating her efforts on trying to publish some ofthe poetry that flowed steadily from her pen.
Writing, both prose and poetry, was one of the accepted occupationsin the Dictionary of Employment Open to Women, published in London in1898, and at the turn of the century several hundred women in Britain werewriting for a living. In the quiet backwater of Carlowrie, Isobel seemedunaffected by the Edwardian ferment that was sweeping away some ofthe stolid attitudes and rigid conventions of the Victorian period. The shiftreflected the change in the monarchy and was more of style than substance.The suffragist movement was the only obvious manifestation of change, andIsobel gave no hint of interest in its activities.
She and Nita made separate visits to the Continent and wrote travelarticles and other stories for the Scribbler. Hilda, now a serious student,contributed musical compositions or dissertations on French literature tothe family magazine. Walter, on the other hand, studying in Edinburghto qualify as a chartered accountant, was no longer part of the editorialstaff. Writing was such an essential part of their lives that Isobel and Nitacontinued their teenage magazine even though they were now in theirtwenties.
In what turned out to be the final issue of the Scribbler, the 1911 coronationissue, the forthcoming travels of the three Hutchison sisters weredescribed. Isobel and Hilda would be spending the winter and spring inRome, living with an Italian family to learn the language. Nita, who sentan article about the island of St. Helena and a poem on sailing south, wasalready in Cape Town on a two-year tour of duty with her husband. Ina high-spirited editorial decorated with cartoons, Isobel looked forwardto producing an "Italian Special" the following summer. This issue wasnever produced. The deck had been shuffled, and fate was about to dealthe family a hand containing two death cards. Never again would Isobel'swriting be quite so lighthearted.
Continues...
Excerpted from Flowers in the Snowby Gwyneth Hoyle Copyright © 2005 by Gwyneth Hoyle. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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