The New Road by Neil Munro
Posted in Reading Reviewed, Scottish Fiction, Scottish Literature at 12:00 on 30 June 2018
B & W, 1994, 353 p, plus v p Introduction by Brian D Osborne. One of the 100 best Scottish Books.
Another Scottish novel which scratches the Jacobite itch, though this time fairly tangentially. The setting, 1733 or 1734, in that period between Marr’s 1715 rebellion, the even more abortive 1819 rising, and that of Charles Edward Stuart in 1745 is an unusual one though. It is the time when General Wade’s project of building roads to help pacify the Highlands is well underway, thus giving the book its title.
Æneas Macmaster (yes, the spelling does have the ligature) has been denied his inheritance by his father Paul’s unwise decision to partake in the 1819 rising even though dying in the aftermath of the Battle of Glen Shiel. The present laird of Drimdorran House, Alexander Duncanson, has nevertheless engaged him as tutor in Cæsar’s Gallic Wars to his daughter, Margaret, and his ward. One evening Æneas’s pupils fail to turn up for their lesson and he tracks Margaret down to Drimdorran’s dovecote, where she is evidently awaiting an assignation. A mysterious figure prowls around outside and when Æneas is brought before Duncanson, it is apparent the laird is far from pleased with him as he is unable to explain the night’s affairs without compromising Margaret, which he is too gentlemanly to do. This leads to Æneas undertaking a journey north to enhance the business interests of his uncle Alan-Iain-Alan-Ogg, in the company of Ninian Campbell, an agent of the government. Eschewing the New Road, the pair duck and weave through the hills and on to Inverness. Along the way many adventures and scrapes befall them, arousing inevitable echoes of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped. It is here the story diverges from that template, though, as comments made to them raise doubts as to the circumstances of Æneas’s father’s death.
The foray to Lord Lovat’s Dounie Castle and the possibility of that gentleman’s potential treachery turn out – despicable character though he may be – to be incidental to the book’s main thrust, which becomes increasingly concerned with Ninian’s efforts to uncover the true story behind the demise of the older Macmaster and the younger’s disinheritance.
Despite the landscape of the West Highlands being described in detail (landscape is a recurring feature of Scots literature) scarcely three pages are set on the new road itself, (while the two are making their way back to Inveraray) though the opportunity – again as in much Scottish literature – is taken to lament the passing of the old, to decry the incursion of the modern. Yet Ninian observes that the new road in turn will one day be superseded and have its own ghosts.
Pedant’s corner:- in the back cover puff Macmaster is spelled MacMaster. In the text General Wade is referred to as Marshal, a rank he did not actually acquire till 1743. Otherwise; Æneas’ (Æneas’s,) “tha baffling visitation” (the,) Forbes’ (Forbes’s,) a missing comma before a quote x 2, “said Æneas, Still dubious” (still,) “Sim ’s” (Sim’s,) hoised sail (hoisted?) years ago ’s (ago’s,) coud (could,) “were ‘stretch thy hand! ’”” (“were ‘stretch thy hand!’”) “my lord ’s no’ worth a docken” (lord’s no’ worth,) “were better than the old, He” (the old. He.)
