Smoke on the Whiteadder - Paperback

by Dewayne Landwehr (Author)

Being repeatedly burned out of his home is not something anyone gets used to, but Paul and Maggie Cowan came to know how to survive such events in the Borders area of 16th-century Scotland. Danger and hunger were their constant companions as repeated border wars between the English and Scots continued for centuries. To add to their miseries, general lawlessness by cattle thieves and robbers was the order of the day.

Paul Cowan is a 16th Century crofter who, like generations of Cowans before him, works on Edington Estate, owned by the Lauder family. The estate is located in Chirnside Parish, Berwickshire, Scotland, in what is known as The Borders area. He and his wife, Maggie, raise two sons, James and George, who will also work on the estate and raise their own families - except that George gets in trouble with the law because of his temper, and has to flee to Ireland.
Paul becomes a trusted tenant of the Ramseys, and the laird makes him his agent to interface with the other tenants on the estate. Paul is given the responsibility of collecting rents and planning for crops and livestock on the estate.
The Cowans become caught up in the religious and sectarian turmoil brought on by Henry VIII's departure from the Catholic Church, and the religious reforms being pushed by John Knox and others.

When Queen Mary dies, Elizabeth ascends to the throne, and tensions ease somewhat as she takes a more tolerant attitude regarding religion. However, her easy public manner hides a will of iron, and a great distaste for the Scots and Irish, whom she spends her entire reign trying to control. In doing so, she begins the first large-scale transportations of Irish and "other criminals" to the West Indies and the new American colony of Virginia.

In Ireland, oppression of the native Irish Gaels, and Catholics in general, causes widespread starvation and misery. An Irish priest finds a starving lad and nurses him back to health. The priest adds a bit of whimsy to the story, as he has also been trained as a Druid. The young lad decides to become a priest, and the older priest exposes him to the concept of Druidism. As English oppression of Catholics intensifies, the old priest is killed while attending to his parish, and the young priest decides to go to Germany, where he can still practice his faith.

Paul Cowan dies, and his descendants continue to farm on the Edington Estate, as they embrace the newly-formed Presbyterian church. Two of his grandsons perish in border wars, fighting for Scotland.
Reivers, cattle rustlers, add another layer of difficulty to the struggle for survival, and the Cowans cannot avoid being caught up and affected by the countless wars and skirmishes that continue for generations.

The younger Lauder is not the manager that his father was, and dislikes the Cowan family. As the Edington Estate falls into ruin and the family is faced with starvation or eviction, they are forced to begin thinking of immigration to the New World, or perhaps to Ireland where some of their relations have fled in the past.