Beyond The Veil (Book 4)

Beyond The Veil follows straight on from Beyond The Revenge (Book 3). An act of revenge brings retribution and fear to the Clans in the Highlands. Donald and Alex escape the turmoil and tragedies, until their journey back from France to Scotland starts to bring it to their door. Alex meets Charles Edward Stuart but their first meeting is not entirely as planned.

The Winter Solstice was always an important date in the year, but there will never be one as important as the one in 1744.

Follow more epic adventures of the rogue Chisholm Clan in Beyond The Veil, which leads them into the risings of '45'.

More adventures to come with Beyond The Retreat... released 2026

Historical Notes And References.

Chapter 3:

The Origins of Procope

It was in 1670 that Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, a young Sicilian from Palermo, settled in France and started working as a waiter in a small café located in the heart of Paris, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Ambitious, a few years later he decided to start his own business by purchasing the establishment, which he lavishly decorated to attract the wealthy Parisian clientele.

Renamed Procope, the brand-new establishment quickly became one of the most prominent literary cafés in the capital. The greatest writers and intellectuals of the 18th century – Diderot, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and d’Alembert – frequented Procope, which became a true headquarters during the French Revolution. Musset and Verlaine composed some of their prose there, and the “tout-Paris” ended up gathering around the restaurant’s tables. Procope acquired the status of the largest literary café in the world, and for over 200 years, anyone who carried a name or aspired to make one for themselves, whether in the world of letters, arts, or politics, frequented it. The greatest legends were born in this café: Diderot wrote some articles of the Encyclopédie within its walls, and Benjamin Franklin prepared the project for an alliance between Louis XVI and the new Republic and is said to have written elements of the future Constitution of the United States there.

https://www.cometoparis.com/discover-paris/little-stories/le-procope-s1051

Chapter 4:

Charles Radclyffe – Earl Of Derwentwater.

Freemasonry became officially established in France in 1726 by Charles Radcliffe who founded the first Masonic lodge on the continent and in December 1736 he became Grand Master of France. John Radcliffe 4th Earl, son of the 3rd Earl, died in 1731 aged 19 and so the title passed to his uncle Charles who became the titular 5th Earl. In 1733 Charles returned to England, living in Pall Mall for several months and moving freely about London, even visiting several friends in Essex and although well known, no-one bothered to approach him or arrest him. He returned to England once again in 1735, ostensibly to solicit a pardon for himself and while he was unsuccessful, still no further action was taken against him by the authorities.

In 1738 he moved to Italy with his family and became an influential and popular figure around James III`s court at the Palazzo Balestra in Rome, becoming secretary to Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, who was his cousin. In 1745 he accepted the French King’s commission to act as a captain in Dillon’s Irish Regiment (Irish mercenaries) and together with his son, twenty French and sixty Scottish and Irish Officers set sail from Dunkirk in the privateer “Esperance.” Whilst sailing to Scotland to join Charles Edward Stuart his ship was captured by the Sheerness Man O War near the Dogger Bank and both he and his son were taken to the Tower of London

https://www.orderofthefleurdelys.org.uk/order-history/charles-radclyffe-of-derwentwater/

A Curious Herbal – Elizabeth Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell (1699-1758) was a Scottish botanical illustrator, best known for her A Curious Herbal, published between 1737 and 1739. The book, which comprises 500 colour plates across two volumes, was originally published in weekly parts, each part containing four plates and accompanying text. Blackwell compiled her Curious Herbal at the instigation of Sir Hans Sloane, as a means of raising money to redeem her husband, Alexander Blackwell (1709-1747), from imprisonment for debt. On the advice of Isaac Rand she rented a house opposite the Chelsea Physic Garden, and used that to source her plants.

https://collections.rhs.org.uk/view/120821/elizabeth-blackwell-a-curious-herbal-volume-2

Chapter11:

The Hood Arms, Kilve.

The Hood Arms is a famous 17th Century coaching inn steeped in history, situated at the foot of the Quantocks and close to the spectacular beach at Kilve in Somerset. This is the ideal location for exploring nearby Taunton and Exmoor.

The Hatchett Inn. Bristol.

The Hatchet Inn is a historic pub in the English city of Bristol. It is a Grade II listed building. The name is thought to originate from the axes/hatchets that the local woodsmen used in Clifton Woods. The building dates from 1606, but has undergone significant alteration since and is a grade II listed building. It is the oldest still operating pub in Bristol, though while it was still operating the Llandoger Trow was of a similar age

www.jwbpubs.com/pubs/the-hatchet-inn

The Feathers, Ludlow.

Built in 1619 by an ambitious attorney called Rees Jones, who moved to Ludlow to pursue his career at the ‘Council of the Marches’, the handsome building was converted into a hotel by his grandson 50 years later and has been welcoming guests since 1670. The Feathers’ famous half-timbered Tudor façade is adorned with carved wooden motifs of the Prince of Wales’ three feathers emblem, which gives the hotel its name.

Described by architectural historian Pevsner in his seminal 1942 book ‘The Buildings of England’ as ‘that prodigy of timber-framed houses’ it was listed as a Grade 1 building in 1954. More recently, in 1983, The New York Times named it the ‘most handsome inn in the world’. In the article by historian Jan Morris, she added: ‘It is one of the prime images of olde England, portrayed in posters and brochures wherever tourism is known.’ Guests have stepped through The Feathers’ original studded plank front door, which survives to this day, and enjoyed food, drink, rest and relaxation within its Jacobean interior for over 400 years.

Many 17th century features remain. In 1970, the careful restoration of the hotel’s intricate wood carvings on its oak panelling by specialist craftsman Robert Pancheri, was awarded the UK’s Civic Trust Award for excellence in renovation. Today, visitors in our Lounge look out on to Ludlow’s main street, through the same lattice windows as The Feathers’ first guests. The carefully-preserved moulded glass with original mullions and transoms are set with cast iron diamond glazing

https://www.feathersatludlow.co.uk/explore-ludlow/history/

Chapter 13:

The Old Wellington Inn, Shambles, Manchester – The Punch House

The building was extended in the 18th century to house John Shaw’s Punch House which, as the name suggests, was licensed for the sale of strong alcoholic punch, and became a meeting place for High Tories and Jacobites. The customers usually assembled around 6 o’clock and, according to rule, called for “sixpennyworth of punch”. John Shaw was a stickler for discipline, having formerly been a trooper and fought in the wars of Queen Anne’s reign, and the rules of the establishment were strictly enforced. Eight o’clock was the hour fixed by law for closing and, as soon as the clock struck eight, Shaw would present himself before his guests and proclaim in a loud voice “Eight o’clock gentlemen, eight o’clock!” accompanying the announcement with the suggestive cracking of a horsewhip. This would normally soon clear the house but, if the cracking of the whip failed, his maid, Molly Owen, was ordered to use the contents of her mop bucket to “expedite the movement of the loiterer”.

https://mousehouselife.wordpress.com/2023/12/29/moving-house-the-relocation-of-two-old-pubs

Chapter 16:

Nine Men’s Morris.

It is not known when Nine Men’s Morris reached Britain, it was widely played during the Middle Ages, along with similar games such as Three, Six, and Twelve Men’s Morris. The game was most popular in the 14th and 15th Century. During the fourteenth century, Nine Men’s Morris boards were a part of a set of games that were played on “shallow boxes with hinged lids” When the box was closed, one surface had a chessboard while the other had a Nine Men’s Morris board. When opened, the box was used as a backgammon board. The game was also frequently played with pebbles on engraved boards in taverns or on boards drawn in the ground with a trowel. The board was found scratched onto the seats of many British cathedrals, and on the “steps of Furness Abbey, tombstones at Dryburgh Abbey, Worksop, and Arbory in the Isle of Man, at Norwich, Dover, Helmsley, and Scarborough Castles, and on stones built into the walls of churches, as at Hargrace (Northants), Ickford (Bucks.), Sparsholt (Berks.), and Kirkby Underdale (Yorks.)”. By the late 16th century, the game was also called Merels from an Old English word “mere” meaning “boundaries”

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nine-Mens-Morris

Wynnstay Hall

Grade II*-listed Wynnstay Hall at Ruabon, near Wrexham, North Wales. The former principal seat of the Williams-Wynn family, it stands high above the River Dee, overlooking the Vale of Llangollen and the Berwyn mountains. In the mid 17th century, the estate passed to Sir John Wynn, although, of this period, only the stone tower of 1706 survives. In 1736–8, the house was enlarged and remodelled by Francis Smith of Warwick and his son William, who also designed the stable block. A large assembly room was added in 1770 and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown was engaged to lay out the estate’s parks and gardens between 1777 and 1782.

https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~mossvalley/genealogy/mv/wynnstay1.html

Chapter 17:

The Bull And Mouth Inn, London.

The Bull and Mouth Inn was a coaching inn in the City of London that dated from before the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was located between Bull and Mouth Street (now Postman’s Park) in the north and Angel Street in the south. It was once an important arrival and departure point for coaches from all over Britain, but particularly for the north of England and Scotland. It became the Queen’s Hotel in 1830 but was demolished in 1887 or 1888 when new post office buildings were built in St Martin’s Le Grand.

The Bell Inn – Great North Road

The Bell Inn is one of the oldest and most famous of the former coaching inns on England’s historic Great North Road. The beautiful building dates from the 1600s or earlier and has long been considered an icon of a bygone age.

Its most famous custodian, an eighteenth-century entrepreneur, was the greatest horseman of his generation. His most remarkable achievement was completing a ride between Stilton and London three times non-stop, a total of 216 miles, in under 13 hours. Afterwards he was lauded nationally as The Stilton Hero. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, The Bell was renowned as a posting house where 100 or more horses were routinely stabled to meet the needs of long-distance riders and fast coaches making their way against the clock along the Great North Road.

The inn was famed for its extraordinarily large and ornate hanging sign, which projected out into the road, and for its reputation as the place to buy the best of a locally distinctive and much-sought-after cheese that became known throughout England as Stilton.

Chapter 18:

The Brook Arms, Church Minshull.

The Inn was built of brick, at the end of the 18th century, probably 1770 and was first called The Brook Arms, after the Lords of the Manor. Thomas Brooke was purchasing land and property in Church Minshull whilst living at Heferstone Grange in Weaverham.

For the purposes of my novels, it was there in 1744!

https://www.villagearena.org/about-us/our-history/historic-b/history-of-church-minshull-school.html

The Punch House, Manchester see Chapter 13.

The Collegiate Church, Manchester

The view from the bridge is dominated, as it was in 1745, by the Collegiate Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George, now Manchester’s Cathedral. The present structure dates from the 13th Century and was substantially re-built in the 1800s. In 1745, the congregation was dominated by High Church Tories and Jacobite sympathisers, and its chaplains enthusiastically greeted Bonnie Prince Charlie when he arrived in the town. The Whig Loyalists, on the other hand, worshipped at St Ann’s