The latest book for my ParSec review count is Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O’Donnell.

The author is new to me – it seems to be her first novel but she is apparently an award-winning radio documentarist and Irish mythology expert.

The blurb promises Georgian London, alchemy, lust, a Jacobite plot and a mysterious illustrated book.

Sounds right up my street.

Apart from the lust obviously.

Leith Hall was used as a hospital during the Great War, as this plaque commemorates:-

The Hall contains some elegant furniture.

A Table:-

A desk with the headboard of a bed behind it:-

The lace bedspread was notable:-

The pattern stands out more from this angle:-

The Leith-Hay family was “out” in 1745. Items of Jacobite Memorabilia commemorate this:-

Also on display was Napoleon’s scarf. One of the Laith-Hays served in the Peninsular War:-

Jedburgh isn’t just worth visiting for the Abbey. There are some other interesting buildings in the town.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get far enough away to frame all of Bridewell Jail – now the Sheriif Court House.

Lower portion of Bridewell jail. Pity about hte traffic cones:-

Bridewell Jail Tower:-

Here’s an interesting feature; vertical sundials on a house wall:-

Jedburgh has a Jacobite connection. This plaque lets us know Bonnie Prince Charlie woz ‘ere.

That lad got everywhere.

So too it seems did Mary Queen of Scots. This is her house in Jedburgh:-

We hadn’t known this was there till we walked past a sign post for it it on the way from the car park to the Abbey. It’s well worth a look outside and inside.

Drummossie Moor, site of the Battle of Culloden, where Bonnie Prince Charlie suffered his first and only defeat at the end of the ’45, otherwise known as the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-6 (an event which signalled the end of the old Highland way of life,) is one of the more dispiriting places I have visited. It seems a godforsaken area for men to have died over. I went there again this year when the good lady’s blog friend Peggy was over from the US in May. For some strange reason, though, it wasn’t as depressing this time as last. Maybe it was the presence of a Visitor Centre (built in the interim) which made it seem not so bleak and remote.

This is a close-up view of the government (Hanoverian) line – marked by the red flag.

Thios one was taken from the centre of the battlefield. Away in the distance (blue flags) is the Jacobite start line.

This is looking back to the Governent lines (red flags) from the battlefield’s centre.

A cairn lies at the battlefield centre:-

The cairn’s wording is slightly inaccurate. Yes, they fought for Prince Charlie, but in the main they fought for their clan chief (feudally) and not for Scotland per se.