Burt's Letters by Edmund Burt

Burt's Letters by Edmund Burt

Regular price
Checking stock...
Regular price
Checking stock...
Summary

A collection of letters sent from Inverness by Captain Edmund Burt during the 18th century. From cooking to funerals, no aspect of highland life escaped his scrutiny. While his style is witty and his observations critical, he draws a sympathetic picture of the grinding poverty faced by so many.

The feel-good place to buy books
  • Free US shipping over $15
  • Buying preloved emits 41% less CO2 than new
  • Millions of affordable books
  • Give your books a new home - sell them back to us!

Burt's Letters by Edmund Burt

In 1730, Edmund Burt was sent to Scotland to work as a contractor for the government. For most of the time, he was based in Inverness, from where he wrote regularly to an acquaintance in London about his experiences. Burt had an insatiable curiosity about everything. From cooking and personal hygiene (the standards of which continually shocked him), to weddings, funerals, public executions and even the activities of witches, no aspect of Highland life or society escaped his scrutiny. Burt's witty and satirical style makes entertaining reading, but whilst he was certainly critical of many things, he draws a very sympathetic picture of the grinding hardship and poverty faced by so much of the ordinary population. His writing is a salutary antidote to many of the Romantic views of the Highlands and Jacobitism, which were later to take hold. It is now available for the first time in one volume, with modernised spelling and includes an Introduction by Charles W. J. Withers, Professor of Geography in the University of Edinburgh.
Edmund Burt was a Scottish military figure, an engineer, and an author.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781874744900
ISBN 10 1874744904
Title Burt's Letters
Author Edmund Burt
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Birlinn General
Year published 1998-07-07
Number of pages 320
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.