The Flight of the Heron is a historical novel by British author D. K. Broster, first published in 1925. Set in Scotland during the Jacobite rising of 1745, it follows the developing friendship between two men on opposite sides of the rising: Ewen Cameron, a Highland chieftain and Jacobite, and Keith Windham, an Englishman and an officer in the Government army.
It is the most popular of Broster’s works, having remained in print throughout the twentieth century and been adapted multiple times for radio, television and the stage. Broster wrote two sequels, The Gleam in the North (1927) and The Dark Mile (1929); while these were originally published as loose sequels, some later descriptions and omnibus editions use the title ‘The Jacobite Trilogy’ for the three novels.
Background
Broster’s previous novels were largely set during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, but she was inspired to write about the ’45 during a visit to the Scottish Highlands. She wrote that ‘the spirit of the place got such a hold upon me that before I left I had the whole story planned almost in spite of myself.’ [1]
Another influence was Violet Jacob’s 1911 novel Flemington, which also features a close relationship between two men on opposite sides of the 1745 rising. The Flight of the Heron is dedicated to Jacob ‘in homage’.
Plot
In July 1745, Ewen Cameron, a young Highland chieftain and ardent Jacobite, learns of Prince Charles Edward Stuart’s arrival in Scotland. Ewen’s foster-father, who has the ‘second sight’, foretells that Ewen will shortly meet a man whose destiny is entangled with his; a heron will bring them together.
Keith Windham, a captain in the Royal Scots, is leading a party of recruits when they are ambushed by Jacobites. Keith rides back alone for reinforcements, but his horse startles at a heron taking flight and breaks its leg; continuing on foot, Keith encounters Ewen, who takes him captive. Keith remains a parole prisoner for a week, at Ewen’s home of Ardroy and with the Jacobite army. After past disappointments, Keith is cynical about personal attachments, and moreover he believes Highlanders are barbarians; but he is struck by Ewen’s gentlemanly courtesy to him and by his handsome appearance, and finds himself increasingly drawn to Ewen. They are parted when Keith escapes.
In Edinburgh after the battle of Prestonpans (1745), Ewen accompanies Charles Edward on a secret mission. Keith leads a party of soldiers who follow them, attempting to capture Charles. While Charles escapes, Ewen is cornered; but the tables turn when Cameron reinforcements arrive and the soldiers under Keith’s command flee. Ewen, feeling sympathetically towards Keith, lets him escape.
After the Jacobites’ unsuccessful invasion of England, Ewen reunites with his fiancée Alison Grant at Inverness, and they marry hastily before Alison goes to France. Ewen is badly injured at the battle of Culloden (1746); his foster-brothers Neil and Lachlan MacMartin carry him to a shieling hut amongst the mountains. Here he is discovered by a party of soldiers, who kill Neil; but Ewen is saved by the arrival of Keith, who throws himself in front of the muskets in Ewen’s defence. Keith persuades the officer in charge, Major Guthrie, to spare Ewen’s life because he may have valuable information about his kinsman Lochiel. Later, Keith returns to nurse Ewen’s injuries and bring him food and drink.
Guthrie brings Ewen as a prisoner to Fort Augustus, where he is threatened with torture; eventually he involuntarily reveals information about Lochiel’s whereabouts by talking in his sleep. Keith hears of Ewen’s treatment, and, horrified, returns to Fort Augustus. He finds Ewen devastated by his ‘betrayal’ of Lochiel and by Keith’s apparent betrayal of him. Keith explains that he never meant to suggest Ewen would intentionally betray Lochiel and that he is appalled by the treatment Ewen has received; they reconcile. Ewen, still a prisoner, later learns that Lochiel has evaded capture. Meanwhile the Duke of Cumberland asks Keith to give evidence at Ewen’s trial for treason; Keith indignantly refuses, incurring the Duke’s wrath, and narrowly avoids ruining his career. Later, Keith visits Ewen again. Now on terms of friendly intimacy, Ewen thanks Keith for the service he has done him. Keith realises that, contrary to his earlier cynicism, his love for the honourable Ewen is worthwhile, and they could have been friends.
Ewen escapes and returns to Ardroy, where his cousin Archibald and his Aunt Margaret persuade Ewen to seek safety and join Alison in France. Meanwhile Keith is patrolling the coast to intercept Charles Edward’s escape. At Morar he discovers Ewen, and faces a dilemma between his duty to capture an important Jacobite and his desire to let Ewen, his friend, escape capture and probable execution. Before he can choose, Keith is attacked and stabbed by Lachlan, who still believes that Keith betrayed Ewen and who has followed him seeking revenge. Ewen finds Keith; they meet for the last time before Keith dies of his wound, and promise to be friends ‘always’.
Ewen escapes to France, where he reunites with Alison, while still grieving Keith’s death.
Characters
Many of the novel's characters are real-life figures.
Ewen Cameron of Ardroy, a Highland chieftain and fictional cousin of Lochiel
Keith Windham, an English Hanoverian officer, whose life is intertwined with Ewen’s
In common with many of Broster’s other works, The Flight of the Heron explores the theme of conflicting loyalties and the incompatible demands placed upon individuals by duty, personal honour and love in the context of wider historical events. Although Broster’s sympathies are predominantly with the Jacobites, she uses the viewpoints of two main characters on opposite sides to explore various Jacobite and Hanoverian perspectives upon the 1745 rising and to show the effects of the conflict on those involved in it.[2][3]
Male friendship—here a growing friendship between men whose loyalties make them enemies—is another important theme, and also shared with other books by Broster. The attraction between Ewen and Keith can be read as homoerotic, the expression of this repressed desire being facilitated by the fantasy element in the plot—the prophecy foretelling their destined meetings through the agency of the heron.[4]
Reception
The Flight of the Heron received largely favourable reviews. The Westminster Gazette called the book ‘a delightful piece of writing’ and commented that the historical setting was ‘as vivid and attractive as though [the author] were turning virgin soil’,[5] while the Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette said that ‘It is a ground which it might have been thought has been a little over-cultivated since Scott published “Waverley,” but in “The Flight of the Heron” it again yields an abundant harvest of romance.’[6] Both these reviews also praised the romantic atmosphere and the interest of the adventure plot, particularly in the portrayal of Ewen and Keith and their relationship. Similarly, Country Life commented that ‘it is the love which grows between these two young men, the sacrifices and suffering to which it brings them, which give the book its fine quality... the romance of heroic fighting and loving—the love of David and Jonathan—lifts it far above the ordinary’, also noting the novel’s vivid descriptions of Highland landscapes.[7]
Adaptations
A six-part adaptation of The Flight of the Heron was broadcast by the BBC Home Service in 1944, dramatised by Catherine M. Barr and starring Gordon Jackson as Ewen and Philip Cunningham as Keith.[8] Another dramatisation, again by Barr, aired on the BBC’s Children’s Hour in 1959, starring Bryden Murdoch as Ewen.[9] The novel was adapted for radio again in 1968, with an eight-part dramatisation for BBC Radio 4 produced by Ian Wishart; Bryden Murdoch reprised the role of Ewen alongside Ian Dewar as Keith.[10]
The novel was adapted for the stage in 1997 by Turtle Key Arts; the production featured traditional Gaelic songs and new music composed by Stephen Nash.[13]
The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force under Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, on Drummossie Moor near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. It was the last pitched battle fought on British soil.
Dorothy Kathleen Broster, usually known as D. K. Broster, was an English novelist and short-story writer. Her fiction consists mainly of historical romances set in the 18th or early 19th centuries. Her best known novel is The Flight of the Heron (1925), set during the Jacobite rising of 1745.
Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel was a Scottish soldier and the 17th Chief of Clan Cameron. He fought as a Cavalier during the Civil War and would go on to become one the principal Jacobite leaders during the 1689 Rising. He is regarded as one of the most formidable Highland chiefs of all time, with Lord Macaulay describing him as the "Ulysses of the Highlands." An incident demonstrating his strength and ferocity in single combat, when he bit out the throat of an enemy, is used by Sir Walter Scott in Lady of the Lake.
Clan Mackintosh is a Scottish clan from Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. The chiefs of the clan are the Mackintoshes of Mackintosh. Another branch of the clan, the Mackintoshes of Torcastle, are the chiefs of Clan Chattan, a historic confederation of clans.
Loch Eil is a sea loch in Lochaber, Scotland that opens into Loch Linnhe near the town of Fort William.
Clan Cameron is a West Highland Scottish clan, with one main branch Lochiel, and numerous cadet branches. The Clan Cameron lands are in Lochaber and within their lands lies Ben Nevis which is the highest mountain in the British Isles. The Chief of the clan is customarily referred to as simply "Lochiel".
The Battle of Mulroy was a Scottish clan battle fought in August 1688 in the Lochaber district of Scotland. It was fought between the Clan Mackintosh who were supported by government troops under Kenneth Mackenzie of Suddie against the Clan MacDonald of Keppoch who were supported by the Clan Cameron over disputed lands in the Braes of Lochaber. The battlefield has been inventoried and protected by Historic Scotland under the Scottish Historical Environment Policy of 2009.
The treasure of Loch Arkaig, sometimes known as the Jacobite gold, was a large amount of specie provided by Spain to finance the Jacobite rising in Scotland in 1745, and rumoured still to be hidden at Loch Arkaig in Lochaber.
Archibald Cameron of Lochiel was a Scottish physician and prominent leader in the Jacobite rising of 1745. He was the personal physician of Charles Edward Stuart, and younger brother of Donald Cameron of Lochiel, otherwise known as the Gentle Lochiel, who led Clan Cameron during the rising. In 1753 at Tyburn, he was executed for high treason, being the last Jacobite to be executed. In popular memory, he is sometimes referred to as Doctor Archie.
Donald Cameron of Lochiel, popularly known as the Gentle Lochiel, was a Scottish Jacobite, soldier and hereditary chief of Clan Cameron, traditionally loyal to the exiled House of Stuart. His support for Charles Edward Stuart proved pivotal in the early stages of the 1745 Rising. Lochiel was among the Highlanders defeated at the Battle of Culloden, and thereafter went into hiding before eventually fleeing to France.
Allan Breck Stewart was a Scottish soldier and Jacobite. He was also a central figure in a murder case that inspired novels by Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.
The Battle of Achnashellach was a Scottish clan battle said to have taken place in the year 1505, in the Scottish Highlands at Achnashellach. It was fought by the Clan Cameron against the Clan Mackay and the Clan Munro.
John Cameron of Lochiel (1663–1747) was a Scottish Jacobite and the 18th Lochiel of Clan Cameron. He was the father of several prominent Jacobite figures, including Donald Cameron of Lochiel, otherwise known as the Gentle Lochiel, who played an important role in the 1745 Jacobite Rising.
The Prince's Cairn marks the traditional spot from where Prince Charles Edward Stuart embarked for France from Scotland on 20 September 1746 following the failure of the Jacobite rising of 1745. The cairn is located on the shores of Loch nan Uamh in Lochaber. It was erected in 1956 by the 1745 Association, a historical society dedicated to the study, recording and preservation of memories from the Jacobite period.
Sir Lachlan Maclean, 1st Baronetof Morvern, was a Scottish nobleman and the 17th Chief of Clan Maclean. He was granted his Baronet title by Charles I and he became the Clan Chief on the death of his brother in 1626. He fought as a Royalist under James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms at the Battle of Inverlochy, Battle of Auldearn and Battle of Kilsyth. From 1628 to 1633 he sat in the Parliament of Scotland as shire commissioner for Tarbert. From his rule onward, all Maclean clan chiefs are successive Baronets of Movern.
The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45, was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, when the bulk of the British Army was fighting in mainland Europe, and proved to be the last in a series of revolts that began in March 1689, with major outbreaks in 1708, 1715 and 1719.
Ewen MacPherson of Cluny, known as "Cluny Macpherson", was the Chief of Clan MacPherson during the Jacobite Rising of 1745. He took part as a leading supporter of Prince Charles Edward Stuart. After the rebellion was crushed, he went into hiding and eventually escaped to France. He was the uncle of poet James Macpherson, who collected, translated, and adapted the epic poem Ossian, based upon the Fenian Cycle of Celtic mythology.
The Camerons of Erracht were a minor noble Scottish family and a branch of the Clan Cameron, a Highland Scottish clan. In Scottish Gaelic they are known as the Sliochd Eòghain mhic Eòghain.
The Raid on Rannoch took place in 1753 in the tumultuous aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Lieutenant Hector Munro, 8th laird of Novar who was a commissioned officer in the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot led the raid to capture the Jacobite rebel John Dubh Cameron who was later executed.
Alexander Cameron of Lochiel, S.J. was a Scottish nobleman, servant to Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and outlawed Roman Catholic priest in the Society of Jesus. He is currently being promoted by the Knights of St Columba for Canonization by the Roman Catholic Church.
References
↑ Broster, D. K. (February 1929). Whitney, Eleanor (ed.). "Heroism in Lost Causes—The Work of D. K. Broster". The Horn Book Magazine. Boston, Massachusetts: Women’s Educational and Industrial Union. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
↑ Waterhouse, Ruth (1996). "Dorothy Kathleen Broster". In Hettinga, Donald; Schmidt, Gary D. (eds.). Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 160: British Children’s Writers, 1914-1960. Detroit: Gale Research Inc. p.76. ISBN0810393557.
↑ Clark, Chris (2006). "Balancing Reader Interest and Historical Accuracy: The Novels of D K Broster and Cynthia Harnett". In Pinsent, Pat (ed.). Out of the Attic: Some Neglected Children’s Authors of the Twentieth Century. Lichfield, Staffordshire: Pied Piper Publishing Ltd. p.72. ISBN9780954638474.
↑ Wallace, Diana (2005). The Woman’s Historical Novel: British Women Writers, 1900-2000. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. pp.33–34. ISBN1403903220.
↑ O’N., H. C. (28 November 1925). "The Flight of the Heron". The Westminster Gazette.
↑ "A Jacobite Romance". The Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette. 27 November 1925.
↑ "Children's Hour". Radio Times. BBC Magazines. 22 November 1959. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
↑ "Story Time". Radio Times. BBC Magazines. 20 January 1968. Retrieved 31 March 2023.
↑ McGown, Alistair; Docherty, Mark J. (2003). The Hill and Beyond: Children’s Television Drama—An Encyclopedia. London: British Film Institute. p.41. ISBN0851708781.
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