Chapters (27)
- Cover
- About the Book
- About the Author
- OTHER WORKS BY COMPTON MACKENZIE
- Dedication
- Title Page
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- THE HISTORY OF VINTAGE
“Girls and boys, in that moment for the first time in my life I was tempted to regret that I was a bachelor, so inspiring was the sight of this noble-hearted girl, heedless of all save that the man she loved was in danger, dashing recklessly to his help. The vigour of her attack was such that the minions of Mr MacDonald of Ben Nevis were alarmed. A hefty young woman, who we learnt afterwards was one of his own daughters, gripped Winifred Gosnay by the back of her shorts and flung her on the ground with cowardly ferocity. A moment later and we were all being attacked, and attacked by men armed with guns, mark you, by men prepared, moreover, to use those guns, as was shown when the owner of the land shot Tom Camidge’s Little Songster. Well, we put up a great struggle against impossible odds, but at last we were surrounded, disarmed and forced into a lorry which drove us at high speed to Glenbogle Castle, the residence of this so-called MacDonald of Ben Nevis. You will perhaps laugh when I tell you that his servile dependants fawn upon him by calling him Ben Nevis as if he were in all sooth actually the tallest mountain in the British Isles instead of a common Fascist bully tricked out in a kilt and the unworthy proprietor of some of the finest scenery in the land.