Country Landlords

The young lovers Gertrude Fitzhammons and Anarawd Gwynne are caught between their fathers' mutual antagonism. Eventually, Gertrudes' adoptive father, the retired sea captain Ricardo Lewis, is forced to flee Britain due to the machinations of old squire Gwynne and Lewis's mortal enemy, Lord Morlif. At the same time, Anarawd is sent abroad in the hope that he forgets his sweetheart. After several years apart, their separate fates lead them to meet again in Naples during the spring revolutions of 1848. After Lewis's betrayal to his death on the republican barricades, a broken-hearted Gertrude returns to her Welsh home. Will Anarawd follow her or seek his fortune abroad in the British Army? Loosely inspired by social and agricultural advancements in the district around the author's home in Porthmadog, Country Landlords (1860) looks at the relationship between the landed gentry and ordinary country population in the early nineteenth-century. The first republication of this novel since 1860, following on from the successful Honno republication of Spooner's first novel, Gladys of Harlech in 2017.. An informative introduction contextualizes Louisa Matilda Spooner's life and writings.. An example of mid-century novels by female authors from Wales dealing with contemporary issues, such as land improvement, nationalism, and empire.. A social novel in the style of a romance inspired by the villages and landed estates of rural west Wales and their links with the wider world.

LOUISA MATILDA SPOONER (1820-1886) was born in Maentwrog and spent most of her life in Porthmadog. Growing up in comfort as the daughter of a railway engineer, she never married and eventually managed her brother Charles's household following the death of his wife. Between 1858 and 1868, Spooner published three novels which were inspired by the history, culture, and geography of her home county, Meirionydd. The Cambrian Journal praised her debut, the historical novel Gladys of Harlech, for 'its true spirit of patriotism' and applauded the author's 'not inconsiderable skill and power'.