A fascinating and highly entertaining excursion into the County Down of several centuries ago.

Using a wealth of contemporary letters, journals, maps and diaries, and an inspired combination of empathy and imagination, Stevenson brings this forgotten world brilliantly to life, familiarising us with its customs, tastes and values, and subtly drawing the reader into the lives of a wide variety of its people, from the drunken Viscount, to the farmer facing eviction and the clergyman with twenty-five children.

Stevenson's scope is encyclopedic. No topic is beneath him, and he is as happy discussing fashion, travel, witchcraft and folk cures, as the Kirk, public morals or the dangers of reading Milton. The result is something of a tour de force, a book of vast range and daring, and one of the great landmarks of literary County Down.