With the first factually accurate biography of a great lady’s entire life, Lesley Abernethy introduces Lady Grisell Baillie - the Mistress of Mellerstain. Lady Grisell Baillie’s lifetime encompassed Scotland’s covenanting ‘killing times’ when her heroic youthful efforts ensured her father Sir Patrick Hume’s safety before the entire family fled into exile in Holland. After their return in the ‘glorious revolution’ of 1688, she refused a post of maid of honour to Queen Mary, preferring instead to marry George Baillie. Following her marriage in 1691 she became mistress of George Baillie’s restored estates of Jerviswood in Lanarkshire and Mellerstain in Berwickshire and shortly afterwards began her meticulous accounts. Through the book, we see how her life was directly affected by the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745, and by the financial disasters of the Darien Scheme and the South Sea Bubble. But though strife was a common aspect of her life, she still found great joy. Lady Grisell’s marriage was a lifetime love affair, and her devotion to both close and extended family was exemplary, including organising a journey through mainland Europe to Naples in the hope of saving the life of her son-in-law Lord Binning, suffering from TB. A patron of poets and musicians, she had commissioned portraits from all the outstanding painters of the day, as well as work by eminent silversmiths, furniture makers and architects, including William Adam, chosen as architect for the new house at Mellerstain. Her copious letters and numerous account books reveal life in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Scotland and England in intimate and sometimes surprising detail, but above all reveal the warm personality of a remarkable, energetic and courageous woman.

For many people, Tyninghame on the beautiful East Lothian coast means beaches, sea birds and salt marshes. But this place on the southern boundary of the Firth of Forth was once an important monastic site, the burial place of St Baldred and later a bishop's palace that eventually became the seat of the earls of Haddington. In the early eighteenth century, its landscape was dramatically changed by a young woman, Lady Helen Hope and her husband, Thomas Hamilton, 6th Earl of Haddington. The church, the house, the gardens and surroundings have undergone many transformations since they lived here, but somehow their vision has remained intact and unspoiled. Judy Riley reveals a fascinating story, weaving together the different threads – archaeological, historical, religious and horticultural – which make up this special place in a corner of East Lothian.

Long overdue: Revised, updated, freshly-illustrated Edinburgh joins the Companion Guide series, informative on Edinburgh's - and Scotland's - past and present. Edinburgh is one of Europe's most elegant and cosmopolitan cities, the Old Town rebuilt on the medieval street plan after being burned down by the English in 1544, and the eighteenth-century classical New Town more extensive thananything else of its kind in Europe. Edinburgh was the capital of an independent kingdom for more than two hundred and fifty years, and it has the air of a capital, with buildings where kings were born or where some of their moreprominent subjects were assassinated, streets once trodden by Mary Queen of Scots and Bonnie Prince Charlie, and a rich artistic life that comes into exhilarating full flower in August with the Edinburgh Festival. Edinburgh is also the gateway to some of the most spectacularly beautiful country in Britain: lying southward is the romantic landscape of the Borders, where Alexander Youngson is an admirable guide to the ruined abbeys, the castles thathave withstood countless sieges, and the great houses still owned by families 'that the Flood could not wash away'. A.J. YOUNGSON is former chairman of the Fine Art Commission for Scotland.

First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This eBook version of the Green Guide Scotland by Michelin captures the spirit of the country, from the Lowlands of Strathmore to the Cairngorms in the heart of the Highlands. Sample a wee dram at the malt whisky capital, play golf at St. Andrews, visit Glasgow’s art museums, or explore the rugged northern lochs. You'll find walk-throughs of major museums, galleries, churches and attractions with illustrations and floor plans. Through its star-rating system, driving tours, lodging and dining for all budgets, colorful maps and suggested activities, this Michelin Green Guide helps you discover the quintessence of Scotland.