Love is in the air… down at Drumquhat and Nether Neuk.
Crockett was born at Little Duchrae Farm, near Laurieston and lived there until he was seven when the family moved to Cotton Street, Castle Douglas. He wrote about the Duchrae under a variety of guises and my favourite is the ‘Drumquhat’ version. Saunders and Mary McQuhirr, their sons, including Alec and young Wattie Anderson live here – barely concealed portraits of Crockett’s own grandparents and uncle – and are drawn with keen observation and good humour. Crockett describes it as follows in A Galloway Herd:
‘The little farm of Drumquhat nestled white among its oaks and beeches under the moors. Its new coat of whitewash almost dazzled the eye, and the Sabbath silence was so restful that the only sound was the bleat of a ewe calling her lamb on the hill and the morning hum of the bees setting out on their freebooting among the flowers. From our place up on the hillside we can look down on the blessed quiet of the little farm and up at the great arch of blue sky buttressed on one side by the great ridges of Screel and Ben Gairn far to the south, and upheld round the northern horizon by the three Cairnsmuirs and the billowy forms of the Kells range.’
[Picture 2 – Little Duchrae]
The place is glorious, but the characters are even better. If you’ve read Bog Myrtle and Peat and/or A Galloway Herd you’ll know what I mean. But the book I’m recommending today is Lads’ Love which is the story of the McQuhirr’s told through the eyes of son Alec.
[picture 3 – read the signs]
If the title doesn’t immediately grab you, I ask you to think again. It’s a clever play on words. In essence Alec is something of an alter ego for a teenage Crockett and the story might be described as ‘back end o’ the byre’ romance. Alec is in love – it’s just that he’s not sure which of the three Chrystie sisters he’s most in love with –which makes for some confusion and no small entertainment.
However, Lads’ Love also refers to a plant. A perennial shrub to be precise. The Southernwood (Artemisia abrotanum to give it its proper name) has a lemony scented foliage that is repellent to insects and moths. It is also known as southern wormwood (related to the plant from which absinthe comes) and is colloquially known both as ‘lads’ love’ and ‘maid’s ruin.’ This makes it a highly appropriate title for the book.
[picture 4 – Look out for lads’ love]
Apparently the herb rarely flowers (now there’s an appropriate and amusing analogy to Alec’s love story) and is believed to have aphrodisiac qualities. Crockett would have been well aware of all this when he chose his title so you can see that there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye.
What of the actual story? For me Alec McQuhirr is one of Crockett’s funniest characters. His understated, observational humour may strike bells with many who were, long ago, love sick swain with feet of clay – or as they might be called today ‘young adults.’ The world Alec and the three Chrystie girls (they are the love interest) inhabit is both vividly and humorously described. Alec goes to college in Edinburgh to train as a doctor (other stories in Stickit Minister’s Wooing tell of his time at college) and comes back with the goal of winning the girl (by this time he’s decided it’s Nance) and becoming a fully fledged doctor. His confidence is matched only by his charm – but neither win over Nance Chrystie without a deal of trouble.
[picture 5 – Glenkens]
Lads’ Love works well as a rites of passage young love story but also has loads of interesting information about the routines and obsessions of local Galloway folk in the mid 19th century – so even if you’re not into romance, it can reveal lots of interesting detail of a time long past. A contemporary reviewer wrote of it :
‘It is far from being a commonplace romance. It is, indeed, an admirable example of the writer’s power to portray the life, character and goings on of country lads and lasses. A youth of the artistic temperament is the hero, and there are three fair damsels, daughters of the soil.’
So why not give The Archers a miss for once –forget about Doctor Finlay’s Casebook and It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet – and get the taste and smell of Lads’ Love in your nostrils this August.
Written exclusively for DGWGO by Cally Phillips
