Excuse my dust: Catherine Sinclair
Holiday House tells of basically good-hearted middle-class Edinburgh children whose mischief includes a near-fatal accident on Arthur’s Seat. A sequel, Sir Edward Graham, or the Railway Speculators (1849) told of the characters’ romances for an adult readership who had grown up with Holiday House. Her first novel, Modern Accomplishments (1836), and its sequel Modern Society (1837) give a vivid picture of the launch into Edinburgh high society of two young ladies, and explore the question of what the best education for a young lady should be. Her later adult novels have the religious tone of many other Victorian novels, and reflect Sinclair’s evangelical Episcopalianism. She died in 1864.
The memorial to Sinclair on the corner of North Charlotte Street in Edinburgh, erected by public subscription, celebrates what she was best known for during her lifetime – her philanthropy. She established soup kitchens and an industrial school for girls among other good works.
What fiction did she write?
Charlie Seymour, or the Good Aunt and the Bad Aunt (1832, for children)
Holiday House (1839, for children) and its sequel Sir Edward Graham (1849, for adults)
Modern Accomplishments (1836) and its sequel Modern Society (1839), for adults
Other adult novels include:
Jane Bouverie; or, Prosperity in Adversity (1846)
Beatrice; or, The Unknown Relatives (1852)
Acknowledgement: 'This document /webpage/text was prepared by Helen Vincent of the National Library of Scotland for the Women's Forum workshop at NLS in 2010, and is re-used here by permission.