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Mr. Fennel is a surgeon and apothecary, who has inherited a comfortable fortune from his uncle, and retired. He is a widower with two daughters, both of whom have been affected with literary mania. Elizabeth suffered from 'Byronomania' (I, 42) - an obsession with Byron - but has now been cured by the kindly mockery of her husband, Mr. Howard. The younger daughter Alice is now immersed in 'showers of Scotch novels' (I, 4), especially those by the 'GREAT UNKNOWN' assumed to be Walter Scott. Although born and raised a London 'Cockney', she wears fanciful Scottish dress and attempts to speak in broad Scottish dialect.
Fennel and his best friend Mr. Butler plot to marry Alice to Butler's son Robert, but they are doubtful that the novel-reading girl and the suave, satirical young man can be brought to like each other. Their doubts are borne out at a number of social events, where literary fashions are discussed and Alice exposes her mania. There is satire of a number of 'types' in middle-class society, including Miss Underwood, a spinster with an independent fortune seeking a titled husband, Mr. Hartfield, a pretentious young man, and Mrs. Rivers, a poor, scheming young widow.
News arrives that Alice's maiden godmother, Alice Deaconsfield, aged 59, has married a 25 year-old under gardener named Jenkins. Alice's expected inheritance will therefore be reduced, but the event gives both her and Fennel a chance to show their disinterestedness. They are only concerned about the happiness of their aged relative. In the event, it turns out that Mr. Jenkins is a good man, in spite of his opportunism, and treats his elderly wife well, also attempting to persuade her to restore some of her fortune to Alice Fennel. Later, when she dies, he shows genuine grief, but soon goes to Paris, where we leave him on the point of marriage with another heiress.
The Fennels come to the rescue of Lady Macbane, when she suffers a carriage accident in a London street. She is the wife of an impoverished Highland baronet, travelling with her stepdaughter Margaret and the illegitimate son of a cousin, Sandy Peat, who acts as a servant. Lady Macbane, who is uncouth but good-hearted, becomes a friend to the Fennels, and meets their social circle. Alice is appalled by Lady Macbane's manners, and almost cured of her use of dialect, but admires the naturally refined and romantic Margaret. Mr. Hartfield meets and falls in love with Margaret, and arranges to visit the family when he goes on a tour of Scotland. A complication arises when Miss Southgate, a young heiress jealous of Margaret, writes Mr. Hartfield an anonymous love letter written in Scottish dialect. Hartfield believes it is written by Alice, and rebukes her.
Times passes, but the plot to marry Alice and Robert does not progress. Alice and her father visit the theatre, and there are reflections on the craze for adaptations from Scotch novels, and decline in standards of acting tragedy in particular. Fennel also disapproves of the innovation of gas street lamps (II, 17). Alice continues to devour Scotch novels, but shows no interest when one of Scott's poems, 'Halidon Hill', is put into her hands by an elderly female friend, Mrs. Hannah Meredith. Meanwhile problems develop between Mr. Butler and his son, over the latter's friendship with a dissipated gambler, Mr. Lovemore, who has fled to Paris and wants Robert to join him. Mr. Butler forbids him to go, and announces his wish that Robert marry Alice. Robert, who has fallen in love with an unknown young woman seen in two portraits at a painter's studio, refuses to marry her, but stays in England.
Summer approaches, and there are various plans for holiday travels. Robert Butler receives news that Lovemore has been fatally wounded in Paris, and hurries to join him. On the way he rescues a father and daughter from a burning house, sees in the latter the original of the portraits, and receives from the father a miniature and a promise that he can marry the girl. But he has to hurry away to catch a boat to France before discovering their identity. Lovemore dies repentant, and Robert returns to seek his 'Sleeping Beauty' (one of the portraits shows the girl sleeping). Miss Underwood travels to Scotland in pursuit of Mr. Hartfield, but discovers him on the point of marriage with Margaret Macbane, and returns to England. Alice meanwhile seems preoccupied and begins to lose interest in Scotch novels, partly because the latest works by the author assumed to be Scott are disappointing.
Fennel invites to stay a young officer, Duncan Macgregor, the son of an old friend, and tells Alice she is to marry him. He has red hair, missing limbs and one eye, and speaks broad Scottish dialect. Alice is horrified, but she gradually comes to admire his kind nature and cultivated understanding. He repeatedly begs her to marry him, but she refuses, confiding in him that she loves another. At the same time the Howards (Fennel's other daughter and her husband) inherit an unexpected fortune and climb the social ladder; there are scenes of fashionable life, including shopping and a plan to visit the 'Cosmorama'.
Macgregor departs, apparently broken-hearted, and Robert Butler arrives, and he and Alice go for a walk in Hyde Park and unravel the events of volume III. Alice was the original of the portraits he had fallen in love with. He had not recognised her as the daughter of Fennel during the rescue from the burning house. She, however, had recognised him, and had fallen in love. When he did discover that Alice was his object of desire, by further accidents, he determined with the complicity of Fennel to disguise himself as a Scotsman, in order to get to know her better, thinking that she disliked him. Alice is now cured of her Scotch mania, and Robert of his pride.
© 2000 E J Clery / Sheffield Hallam University
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