D.W. Wilkin's Blog, page 61

Beaux, Ballrooms, and Battles

A new Regency Anthology

Beaux, Ballrooms, and Battles anthology, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the victory at Waterloo in story.

Looks good, huh? The talented writer and digital artist, Aileen Fish created this.

It will be available digitally for $.99 and then after a short period of time sell for the regular price of $4.99

The Trade Paperback version will sell for $12.99

Click on the Amazon Link—>Amazon US

My story in the anthology is entitled: Not a Close Run Thing at All, which of course is a play on the famous misquote attributed to Arthur Wellesley, “a damn close-run thing” which really was “It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.”

Samantha, Lady Worcester had thought love was over for her, much like the war should have been. The Bastille had fallen shortly after she had been born. Her entire life the French and their Revolution had affected her and all whom she knew. Even to having determined who she married, though her husband now had been dead and buried these eight years.

Yet now Robert Barnes, a major-general in command of one of Wellington’s brigades, had appeared before her, years since he had been forgotten and dismissed. The man she had once loved, but because he had only been a captain with no fortune, her father had shown him the door.

With a battle at hand, she could not let down the defenses that surrounded her heart. Could she?

As her father’s hostess, she had travelled with him to Brussels where he served with the British delegation. Duty had taken her that night to the Duchess of Richmond’s ball. The last man she ever expected to see was Robert, who as a young captain of few prospects, had offered for her, only to be turned out by her father so that she could make an alliance with a much older, and better positioned (wealthy), aristocrat.Now, their forces were sure to engage Napoleon and the resurgent Grande Armée. Meeting Robert again just before he was to be pulled into such a horrific maelstrom surely was Fate’s cruelest trick ever. A fate her heart could not possibly withstand.

Here are the first few paragraphs to entice you:

Chapter One

“Come father, we shall be dreadfully late. Already the other guests of the inn have all departed for the ball.” Samantha distinctly heard him grunt. Her father did not like balls.

“You will not fault me if I stay to the card room with the other old gentlemen. We always have much to discuss,” he said. Her father served with the delegation led by Sir Charles Stuart.

In a moment he would complain about the pains caused by his gout. Always handy when social obligations were required and never present when he had his ‘important’ work to do.

“Father, are you sure that there is going to be a battle? I just can’t believe that Her Grace of Richmond is hosting a ball when the soldiers will be going off to fight.” Lady Worcester, who had been once just The Honourable Samantha Villiers, asked of her father, the second Viscount Haddington.

She had married the Earl of Worcester twelve years before, a man who had died before the Peace of Amiens had been shattered. They had no children, and as there were only distant heirs, the property went to those relations whilst the title became extinct. Samantha was the last Lady Worcester.

“The fighting is close at hand, but I have every confidence in the Duke of Wellington. Marvellous man. The French will be quite surprised when he takes this army and invades their lands,” her father said. “I am afraid I shall not be able to stand up and offer one dance with you, my good girl. The pains in my foot are troubling me.”

As Samantha had predicted.

That was always the excuse. Samantha was assured that her father had not once stood up to dance since her mother had died.

Over the many years she had had to study her father, for she had taken to being the hostess of his household upon the death of her husband, her mother having died before her own marriage, she had noted that her father was more impressed by title, position, and wealth, than by capabilities.

However, her own study of Wellesley, now the Duke, paralleled her father’s assessment at least when it came to Wellington’s successes as a commander. Yet the Duke had never faced Napoleon. Until only the most recent years, the Emperor of France had seldom lost any engagement. The Duke of Wellington had faced Napoleon’s lieutenants, and captains, but never the very best commanders of Le Grande Armée.

“It is understandable, Father, with your foot being troublesome, that you wish to proceed to the card room. You should enjoy this night. It will all be over too soon, and as you say, the engagement is imminent. Many here this evening we may never know again.” More than twenty years of war and she had known the loss of several military men.

Her father nodded. He had trained her to recognize the truth regarding these years of war. It was why he had been so against a liaison with Robert Barnes when she had first come out. Her other ardent suitor during her Season in ’03.

A time long ago.

Samantha and the Viscount were in the foyer of their lodgings. All the best places had been taken by those of great rank and wealth. This was a small inn that six other families shared.

She and her father were ready to leave for the ball, their hired carriage at the front of the building even then. Samantha had looked from the window and seen their coachman, Phillipe, waiting patiently.

He was paid for from her Worcester monies. The two years that Samantha had not lived with her father whilst married, had resulted in his losing near all the Haddington monies. He had retained very little of the capital, none of grandfather’s lands, and survived on monies advanced by the government to see to his office as well as what monies Lady Worcester was able to provide to the expenses of his household. Expenses that she managed with prudence.

Shaking her head and exiling the thought away, she pondered on a ball in a coach house. How novel to attend.

She had called on the Duchess several times, as they knew each other socially. Samantha well knew many of the women that had formed society here in Brussels. Her father’s stature with the delegation caused her to be a hostess to much smaller events than the ball.

With the assured defeat of Napoleon the war would end and her father’s service would be over. So also would the service of that other man who had asked for her before.

Robert had gone back to fight once war broke out again when the Peace of Amiens fell apart. She had since lost track of him.

Samantha had forced herself to lose track of him.

Regency Personalities Series-Geological Society of London (1807)

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Geological Society of London (1807)

The Geological Society of London (also known as the Geological Society) is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with over 12,000 Fellows. Fellows are entitled to the postnominal FGS (Fellow of the Geological Society)

The mission of the society:

“Making geologists acquainted with each other, stimulating their zeal, inducing them to adopt one nomenclature, facilitating the communication of new facts and ascertaining what is known in their science and what remains to be discovered”.

The Society was founded on October 13, 1807 at the Freemasons’ Tavern, Great Queen Street, in the Covent Garden district of London. It was partly the outcome of a previous club known as the Askesian Society. There were 13 founder members:William Babington, James Parkinson, Humphry Davy, George Bellas Greenough, Arthur Aikin, William Allen, Jacques Louis, Comte de Bournon, Richard Knight, James Laird, James Franck, William Haseldine Pepys, Richard Phillips and William Phillips. It received its Royal Charter on April 23, 1825 from George IV.

List of presidents

1807 – 1813 George Bellas Greenough
1813 – 1815 Henry Grey Bennet
1815 – 1816 William Blake
1816 – 1818 John MacCulloch
1818 – 1820 George Bellas Greenough
1820 – 1822 Spencer Compton, Earl Compton
1822 – 1824 William Babington
1824 – 1826 William Buckland
1826 – 1827 John Bostock
1827 – 1829 William Henry Fitton
1829 – 1831 Adam Sedgwick
1831 – 1833 Roderick Impey Murchison
1833 – 1835 George Bellas Greenough
1835 – 1837 Charles Lyell
1837 – 1839 William Whewell

The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the society

The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831. It was originally made of palladium, a metal discovered by Wollaston.

1831 William ‘Strata’ Smith
1835 Gideon Mantell
1836 Louis Agassiz
1837 Proby Thomas Cautley
1837 Hugh Falconer

1st book in the Masqueraders Chocolate House series

I and five others have released the first in what could turn out to be a few, an anthology centered around Bath of the Georgian and Regency period. All proceeds go to charity, specifically the Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The Chocolate House

All For Love

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Our Authors are noted and award winning storytellers in the genre of Georgian and Regency era Historical Novels:

David W Wilkin

Francine Howarth

Giselle Marks

Jessica Schira

Susan Ruth

Elizabeth Bailey

 

A Sensual blend of Chocolate, Romance, Murder & Mystery at “Masqueraders”.

The beautiful City of Bath, famous for its Roman Spa, its Abbey, its Pump Room & Assembly Rooms, and Sally Lunn’s bun shop, is a place made famous within the literary world by the likes of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, and other authors of Georgian and Regency historical novels. Thus Bath is renowned as a place for intrigue and romance, but few readers will have stepped across the threshold of Masqueraders’, a notorious and fashionable Chocolate House, that existed within the city from 1700 to the latter part of the reign of William IV. What happened to it thereafter, no one knows, for sure. Nor does anyone know why Sally Lunn’s bun shop disappeared for decades until it was rediscovered.

So it could be said, essence of chocolate drifting on the ether denotes where the seemingly mystical Masqueraders’ once existed, and it is that spiritual essence that has brought authors together from around the globe, to pen a delightful collection of Georgian & Regency romances, that are, all, in some way, linked to The Chocolate House. We sincerely hope you will enjoy the individual stories, and be assured all the royalties earned will be donated to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London.

The stories:

A Rose by Any Other – Giselle Marks.

A Fatal Connection – Elizabeth Bailey

The Runaway Duchess – Francine Howarth

Death at the Chocolate House – Susan Ruth

A-Pig-in-a-Poke – Jessica Schira

A Little Chocolate in the Morning – David W. Wilkin.

My story (As the author and owner of this Blog, I feel I can tell you more) is the story of Charles Watkins the Marquis of Rockford (for those who want the nitty gritty, ask and we can discuss the very specific creation of name details that went into this) who has recently come into his title and estates, his father dying just about a year before. Now he is to return to London after his mourning is over to use his seat in the House of Lords in aid of the war against Napoleon. He is not in Town to seek a bride though the dowager Marchioness should like that he attain one.

No, certainly not the schoolmate of his younger sister Emma, Lady Caroline Williamson, the daughter of the Earl of Feversham. A girl as young and silly as his sister, he would never wed, and certainly not fall in love with. But rescuing her from the clutches of a man who was old enough to be his own grandfather, that he could do with ease, and perhaps Panache.

Available at Amazon Digitally for your Kindle for $2.99 or Physically in Trade Paperback

Regency Personalities Series-Sir David Ochterlony Baronet Ochterlony of Pitforthy

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Sir David Ochterlony Baronet Ochterlony of Pitforthy

12 February 1758 – 15 July 1825

David Ochterlony

Sir David Ochterlony Baronet Ochterlony of Pitforthy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and attended the Dummer Charity School (now known as The Governor’s Academy) in nearby Byfield, Massachusetts. In 1777, he went as a cadet to India, where he served under Lord Lake in the battles of Koil, Aligarh and Delhi, and was appointed resident at Delhi in 1803. In 1804, having been promoted to the rank of major-general, he defended the city with a very inadequate force against an attack by Yashwantrao Holkar. On the outbreak of the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–15) he was given the command of one of four converging columns, and his services were rewarded with a baronetcy created on 7 March 1816. Subsequently he was promoted to the command of the main force in its advance on Kathmandu, and outmanoeuvring the Gurkhas by a flank march at the Kourea Ghat Pass, brought the war to a successful conclusion and obtained the signature of the Treaty of Sugauli (1816), which dictated the subsequent relations of the British with Nepal. For this success Ochterlony was created Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, the first time that honour had been conferred on an officer of the British military in India.

In the Pindari War (1817–18) he was in command of the Rajputana column, made a separate agreement with Amir Khan, detaching him from the Pindaris, and then, interposing his own force between the two main divisions of the enemy, brought the war to an end without an engagement. He was appointed resident in Rajputana in 1818, with which the residency at Delhi was subsequently combined, and during this period encountered and engaged in an ongoing personal feud with James Tod, which was based most likely on the power politics within the hierarchy of the East India Company.

When Durjan Sal revolted in 1825 against Balwant Singh, the infant Raja of the Princely state of Bharatpur, Ochterlony acting on his own responsibility supported the raja by proclamation and ordered out a force to support him. However, the Governor-General of India, Lord Amherst, repudiated these proceedings. Ochterlony, who was bitterly chagrined by this rebuff, resigned his office, and retired to Delhi. The feeling that the confidence which his length of service merited had not been given him by the governor-general is said to have accelerated his death, which occurred at Meerut in 1825 where he is interred in St. John’s Church. The Ochterlony column at Calcutta commemorates his name.

As the official British Resident at Delhi, David Ochterlony adopted and thoroughly embraced Persian Mughal culture. He was reputed to have thirteen Indian concubines (as seen by the British) or wives (as seen by others). Every evening, he used to take all thirteen of his wives on a promenade around the walls of the Red Fort, each on the back of her own elephant.

The most prominent among Ochterlony’s women was Bebee Mahruttun Moobaruck ul Nissa Begum, a former Brahmin dancing girl from Poona who had converted to Islam. Nicknamed “Generallee Begum”, she was Ochterlony’s favorite and the mother of his youngest children. As such, she took clear precedence over the rest of the household. She was considered to be a devout Muslim, having once applied for leave to make the hajj to Mecca.

Although much younger than Ochterlony, Moobaruck was seen as the dominant personality in the relationship. This led one observer to remark that “making Sir David the Commissioner of Delhi was the same as making Generallee Begum”. Another observer remarked that “Ochterlony’s mistress is the mistress now of everyone within the walls. As a result of her influence, Ochterlony considered raising his children as Muslims, and when his two daughters by Moobaruck Begum had grown up, he adopted a child from the family of the Nawabs of Loharu, one of the leading Muslim families of Delhi. Raised by Moobaruck, the girl went on to marry her cousin, a nephew of the famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib.

Moobaruck even seems to have set herself up as a power in her own right and to have formed her own independent foreign policy. At one point, it was reported that “Mobarruck Begum, alias Generalee Begum, fills the [Delhi] papers with accounts of the Nizars and Khiluts [gifts and dresses of honour] given and taken by her in her transactions with the Vacquils [ambassadors of the different Indian powers] – an extraordinary liberty, if true.”

However, in spite of all her power and high status, Moobaruck Begum was widely unpopular among the British and the Mughals alike. She offended the British by calling herself “Lady Ochterlony” and on the other hand, also offended the Mughals by awarding herself the title “Qudsia Begum”, a title previously reserved for the Emperor’s mother. After Ochterlony’s death, she inherited Mubarak Bagh, an Anglo-Mughal garden tomb Ochterlony had built in the north of Old Delhi, but her intense unpopularity combined with her background as a dancing girl ensured that no Mughal gentleman would use her structure. To this date, the tomb is still referred to by the local inhabitants of the old city as the “Rundi ki Masjid” (the Whore’s Mosque).

Ochterlony had at least six natural children by two or more of his concubines:

Roderick Peregrine Ochterlony, of Delhi (1785-d by 1823), only son; he married 1808 Sarah Nelly, the daughter of Lt. Col. John Nelly of the Bengal Engineers, at Allahabad, India.

An Unofficial Guide to how to win the Scenarios of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Soaked and Wild

An Unofficial Guide to how to win the Scenarios of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, Soaked! and WILD!

I have been a fan of this series of computer games since early in its release of the very first game. That game was done by one programmer, Chris Sawyer, and it was the first I recall of an internet hit. Websites were put up in dedication to this game where people showed off their creations, based on real amusement parks. These sites were funded by individuals, an expense that was not necessarily as cheap then as it is now. Nor as easy to program then as it might be to build a web page now.

Prima Books released game guides for each iteration of the game, Rollercoaster Tycoon 1, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 (RCT3) but not for the expansion sets. And unlike the first two works, the third guide was riddled with incorrect solutions. As I played the game that frustrated me. And I took to the forums that Atari, the game publisher hosted to see if I could find a way to solve those scenarios that the Prima Guide had written up in error. Not finding any good advice, I created my own for the scenarios that the “Official” Guide had gotten wrong.

Solutions that if you followed my advice you would win the scenario and move on. But if you followed the

“Official” version you would fail and not be able to complete the game. My style and format being different than the folks at Prima, I continued for all the Scenarios that they had gotten right as well, though my solutions cut to the chase and got you to the winner’s circle more quickly, more directly.

My contributions to the “Official” Forum, got me a place as a playtester for both expansions to the game, Soaked and Wild. And for each of these games, I wrote the guides during the play testing phase so all the play testers could solve the scenarios, and then once again after the official release to make changes in the formula in case our aiding to perfect the game had changed matters. For this, Atari and Frontier (the actual programmers of the game) placed me within the game itself.

And for the longest time, these have been free at the “Official” Forums, as well as my own website dedicated to the game. But a short time ago, I noticed that Atari, after one of its bankruptcies had deleted their forums. So now I am releasing the Guide for one and all. I have added new material and it is over 150 pages, for all three games. It is available for the Kindle at present for $7.99. It is also available as a trade paperback for just a little bit more.

You can also find this at Smashwords, iBooks, Kobo and Barnes and Noble

(Click on the picture to purchase)

Not only are all 39 Scenarios covered, but there are sections covering every Cheat Code, Custom Scenery, the famous Small Park Competition, the Advanced Fireworks Editor, the Flying Camera Route Editor which are all the techniques every amusement park designer needs to make a fantastic park in Rollercoaster Tycoon 3.

Scenarios for RCT 3

1) Vanilla Hills

2) Goldrush

3) Checkered Flag

4) Box Office

5) Fright Night

6) Go With The Flow

7) Broom Lake

8) Valley of Kings

9) Gunslinger

10) Ghost Town

11) National Treasure

12) New Blood

13) Island Hopping

14) Cosmic Crags

15) La La Land

16) Mountain Rescue

17) The Money Pit

18) Paradise Island

Scenarios for Soaked!

1) Captain Blackheart’s Cove

2) Oasis of Fun

3) Lost Atlantis

4) Monster Lake

5) Fountain of Youth

6) World of the Sea

7) Treasure Island

8) Mountain Spring

9) Castaway Getaway

Scenarios for WILD!

1) Scrub Gardens

2) Ostrich Farms Plains

3) Egyptian Sand Dance

4) A Rollercoaster Odyssey

5) Zoo Rescue

6) Mine Mountain

7) Insect World

8) Rocky Coasters

9) Lost Land of the Dinosaurs

10) Tiger Forest

11) Raiders of the Lost Coaster

12) Saxon Farms

Regency Personalities Series-Josceline Percy (Royal Navy Officer)

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Josceline Percy (Royal Navy Officer)

29 January 1784 – 19 October 1856

Josceline Percy was the fourth son of Algernon Percy, second Baron Lovaine of Alnwick and his wife Isabella Susannah Burrell.

Through his father he was the grandson of Hugh Percy, first duke of Northumberland, and through his mother the grandson of Peter Burrell of Beckenham, Kent. His maternal uncle was Peter, first Baron Gwydyr, and Henry Percy and William Henry Percy were his younger brothers.

Born with a twin brother Hugh, Percy’s first naval service began in February 1797, on Lord Hugh Seymour’s flagship HMS Sans Pareil. Next he served on HMS Amphion from 1801 to 1803 in the Mediterranean and – whilst in that theatre of war – transferred (with Nelson and Hardy) into HMS Victory. From there he was made HMS Medusa’s acting lieutenant (under Captain John Gore, who was later knighted) in August 1803, and his assistance in her capture of Spanish treasure ships on 5 October 1804 led to that commission being confirmed the following 30 April.

He moved to HMS Diadem sometime before 1806, for he was in that ship that year with Sir Home Riggs Popham during Cape Town’s capture and was promoted from it to his first independent command came on 13 January 1806, over the brig HMS Espoir. To reach that ship he was posted to the Dutch ship Bato, then thought to be in Simon’s Bay, but – finding the Bato destroyed and that the Espoir had already sailed back to England – he had no choice but to return to the Diadem. The French 46-gun frigate Volontaire arrived in Table Bay on 4 March (not knowing the British had captured the Cape), and was seized, commissioned into the Royal Navy, and put under Percy’s command, with orders to reach St Helena and head a convoy then returning to England. He also received confirmation of his two promotions of 1806, which were given the dates of 22 January and 25 September 1806 respectively. On arrival in England, he became the Tory Member of Parliament for Beer Alston, Devon (a ‘pocket borough’ of his father’s), a role he held until 1820.

He assisted at the occupation of Madeira by Sir Samuel Hood in 1807 (commanding the 22 gun HMS Comus). To meet the terms of the convention of Cintra, requiring all defeated French forces to be returned to France, he transported the French general Junot from Portugal to La Rochelle in 1808, during his captaincy of the 36 gun HMS Nymphe. He commanded the frigate HMS Hotspur along the coast of France (and later at Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires) from November 1810 to the end of 1815, when he sailed back to England.

Made a Companion of the Bath on 26 September 1831, on 23 November 1841 he was promoted to rear-admiral, acting as the Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope (November 1841-spring 1846) and Commander-in-Chief, Sheerness (June 1851-June 1854), having been promoted to vice admiral on 29 April 1851. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, The Nore in 1851.

On 9 December 1820, he married Sophia Elizabeth Walhouse (died 13 December 1875), daughter of Moreton Walhouse of Hatherton, Staffordshire, and sister of Lord Hatherton. One son and three daughters were born of the marriage. The only son Alan (1825–1845) died young; of the daughters

Sophia Louisa Percy (24 December 1821 Hatherton – 7 November 1908), author of Links with the Past married 7 July 1846 Col. Charles Bagot.
Emily Percy (12 September 1826 – 17 December 1919) married 17 July 1852, Gen. Sir Charles Lawrence d’Aguilar, G.C.B.
Charlotte Alice Percy (17 July 1831 – 26 May 1916) who in 1858 married her first cousin Edward Percy Thompson.

Space Opera Books presents ECO Agents:Save The Planet a Young Adult Adventure

First ECO Agents book available

Those who follow me for a long time know that I also write in other fields aside from Regency Romance and the historical novels I do.

A few months ago, before the end of last year and after 2011 NaNoWriMo, (where I wrote the first draft of another Regency) I started work on a project with my younger brother Douglas (All three of my brothers are younger brothers.)

The premise, as he is now an educator but once was a full on scientist at the NHI and FBI (Very cloak and dagger chemistry.) was that with the world having become green, and more green aware every week, why not have a group of prodigies, studying at a higher learning educational facility tackle the ills that have now begun to beset the world.

So it is now released. We are trickling it out to the major online channels and through Amazon it will be available in trade paperback. Available at Amazon for your Kindle, or your Kindle apps and other online bookstores. For $5.99 you can get this collaboration between the brothers Wilkin. Or get it for every teenager you know who has access to a Kindle or other eReader.

Barnes and Noble for your Nook Smashwords iBookstore for your Apple iDevices Amazon for your Kindle

Five young people are all that stands between a better world and corporate destruction. Parker, Priya, JCubed, Guillermo and Jennifer are not just your average high school students. They are ECOAgents, trusted the world over with protecting the planet.

Our Earth is in trouble. Humanity has damaged our home. Billionaire scientist turned educator, Dr. Daniel Phillips-Lee, is using his vast resources to reverse this situation. Zedadiah Carter, leader of the Earth’s most powerful company, is only getting richer, harvesting resources, with the aid of not so trustworthy employees.

When the company threatens part of the world’s water supply, covering up their involvement is business as usual. The Ecological Conservation Organization’s Academy of Higher Learning and Scientific Achievement, or simply the ECO Academy, high in the hills of Malibu, California overlooking the Pacific Ocean, is the envy of educational institutions worldwide.

The teenage students of the ECO Academy, among the best and brightest the planet has to offer, have decided they cannot just watch the world self-destruct. They will meet this challenge head on as they begin to heal the planet.

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Regency Personalities Series-Henry Digby 1st Earl Digby

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Henry Digby 1st Earl Digby

21 July 1731 – 25 September 1793

Henry Digby 1st Earl Digby was the younger son of Hon. Edward Digby, son of William Digby, 5th Baron Digby. His mother was Charlotte Fox, daughter of Sir Stephen Fox. Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, was his uncle and Charles James Fox his cousin. Digby was elected to the House of Commons for Ludgershall in 1755, a seat he held until 1761, and then represented Wells between 1761 and 1765. From 1763 to 1765, he was a Lord of the Admiralty. In 1757 he succeeded his elder brother as the 7th Baron Digby but as this was an Irish peerage it did not entitle him to sit in the British House of Lords and did not force him to resign his seat in the House of Commons. However, in 1765 Digby was created 1st Baron Digby, of Sherborne in the County of Dorset, in the Peerage of Great Britain and with remainder to the male issue of his father. From 1771 to 1793 Lord Digby served as Lord Lieutenant of Dorset. In 1790 he was further honoured when he was 1st Viscount Coleshill and 1st Earl Digby in the Peerage of Great Britain, with remainder to his heirs male.

Lord Digby married, firstly, Elizabeth Feilding, daughter of Hon. Charles Feilding, in 1763. They had one son, Hon. Edward Digby (19 June 1764 – 15 July 1764). After his first wife’s death in 1765 he married, secondly, Mary Knowler, daughter of John Knowler, in 1779. They had five children:

Lady Charlotte Digby (18 January 1772 – 1807), married William Wingfield
Edward Digby, 2nd Earl Digby (1773–1856)
Hon. Henry Digby (12 May 1774 – 5 April 1776)
Hon. Rev. Robert Digby (10 April 1775 – 1830), rector of Sheldon and vicar of Coleshill
Hon. Stephen Digby (24 June 1776 – 1795)

Lord Digby died in September 1793, aged 62, and was succeeded in his title by his eldest son Edward. The Countess Digby died in 1794.

Space Opera Books Presents A Trolling We Will Go Omnibus:The Latter Years

A Trolling We Will Go Omnibus:The Latter Years

Not only do I write Regency and Romance, but I also have delved into Fantasy.

The Trolling series, is the story of a man, Humphrey. We meet him as he has left youth and become a man with a man’s responsibilities. He is a woodcutter for a small village. It is a living, but it is not necessarily a great living. It does give him strength, muscles.

We follow him in a series of stories that encompass the stages of life. We see him when he starts his family, when he has older sons and the father son dynamic is tested.

We see him when his children begin to marry and have children, and at the end of his life when those he has loved, and those who were his friends proceed him over the threshold into death.

All this while he serves a kingdom troubled by monsters. Troubles that he and his friends will learn to deal with and rectify.

Here are the last two books together as one longer novel.

Trolling, Trolling, Trolling Fly Hides! and We’ll All Go a Trolling.

Available in a variety of formats.

For $5.99 you can get this fantasy adventure.

Barnes and Noble for your Nook

Smashwords

Amazon for your Kindle

Trade Paperback

The stories of Humphrey and Gwendolyn. Published separately in: Trolling, Trolling, Trolling Fly Hides! and We’ll All Go a Trolling. These are the tales of how a simple Woodcutter who became a king and an overly educated girl who became his queen helped save the kingdom of Torahn from an ancient evil. Now with the aid of their children and their grandchildren.

Long forgotten is the way to fight the Trolls. Beasts that breed faster than rabbits it seems, and when they decide to migrate to the lands of humans, their seeming invulnerability spell doom for all in the kingdom of Torahn. Not only Torahn but all the human kingdoms that border the great mountains that divide the continent.

The Kingdom of Torahn has settled down to peace, but the many years of war to acheive that peace has seen to changes in the nearby Teantellen Mountains. Always when you think the Trolls have also sought peace, you are fooled for now, forced by Dragons at the highest peaks, the Trolls are marching again.

Now Humphrey is old, too old to lead and must pass these cares to his sons. Will they be as able as he always has been. He can advise, but he does not have the strength he used to have. Nor does Gwendolyn back in the Capital. Here are tales of how leaders we know and are familiar with must learn to trust the next generation to come.

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Regency Personalities Series-William Otter

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

William Otter

23 October 1768 – 20 August 1840

William Otter

William Otter was the first Principal of King’s College, London, who later served as Bishop of Chichester. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge where he was later made a fellow. He was appointed Principal of the newly established King’s College, London, in 1831, and held the post until 1836 when he was appointed Bishop of Chichester.

William Otter was born at Cuckney, Nottinghamshire, the son of Dorothy née Wright and Rev. Edward Otter.

On 3 July 1804 in Leatherhead, Surrey he married Nancy Sadleir Bruère, granddaughter of George Bruere, British Governor of Bermuda. They had three sons and five daughters:



The Venerable William Bruère Otter, Archdeacon of Lewes (1805-1876), who married Elizabeth Melvil (1814-1892). They had four sons and six daughters, including Lt. William Otter RN (1840-1870). Hugh Otter-Barry was their grand-son.


Sophia Otter (1807-1889), married the Reverend Henry Malthus (1805-1882), son of Thomas Robert Malthus, FRS
Caroline Charlotte Otter (1809-1855) married John Romilly, 1st Baron Romilly
Jacqueline Elizabeth Otter (1811-1849) married Alexander Trotter a banker and stockbroker working at Coutts bank. Among their children were:


Coutts Trotter (1837-1887), Vice Master of Trinity College, Cambridge
Edward Bush Trotter (1842-1920) Archdeacon of Western Downs, Australia
Colonel Sir Henry Trotter KCMG CB


Maria Otter (1814- ) who married Sir William Milbourne James (1807-1881), Lord Justice of Appeal, Their son Maj. William Christopher James married Effie Gray Millais, the daughter of Effie Gray and John Everett Millais.


Alfred William Otter (1815-1866) who married Anna Louisa de la Hooke (1824-1907). One of their sons was Gen. William Dillon Otter KCB CVO VD


Amelia Harriet Otter (1817-1890) who married Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper (1801-1880)


Reginald William Ongley Otter (1826-1862)