Scenes On Solway And Historical Sketches Of The West Borders From The Building Of The Roman Wall To The Navigation Of The Solway By Steam In The Nineteenth Century

“Beautiful, intensely visual prose, born from deep intimacy with subtle borderlands: land and sea, England and Scotland, people and environments.” —David Gange, author of The Frayed Atlantic Edge Firths and estuaries are liminal places, where land meets sea and tides meet freshwater. Their unique ecosystems support a huge range of marine and other wildlife: human activity too is profoundly influenced by their waters and shores. The Solway Firth—the crooked finger of water that both unites and divides Scotland and England—is a beautiful yet unpredictable place and one of the least-industrialized natural large estuaries in Europe. Its history, geology and turbulent character have long affected the way its inhabitants, both human and non-human, have learnt to live along and within its ever-changing margins. “Lingard’s scientific knowledge of the area and its multitudinous inhabitants [is] delivered in riveting prose. This is deep and beautiful natural history writing.” —BBC Countryfile Magazine “Like a hungry gull, Ann Lingard explores her beloved Solway shoreline for every living detail that catches her eye. In so doing she has created a portrait of this nation-cleaving water that is as broad and deep as the estuary itself.” —Mark Cocker, author of Birds & People “A kaleidoscopic portrait of the borders of the land.” —Cumbria Life “Lingard writes vividly about this estuary . . . an excellent point of reference for locals, visitors and for those simply intrigued by this lesser-known corner of Scotland.” —Scottish Field

This book is a day-to-day account of the sad events that took place in 1847, a year in which nearly 100,000 emigrants, mostly Irish, disembarked at Grosse Ile or the Port of Quebec. Written as a diary, the book gives a detailed description of the administrative measures taken by the authorities to deal with the influx of such a large number of emigrants in deplorable conditions of disease and misery. It records the arrivals and departures of ships and gives a weekly account of the sick and the dead. The reader will also get an idea of the reactions expressed by the newspapers at the time and read first hand accounts by the emigrants themselves, priests, doctors, sailors and other contemporaries.