Penelope's Progress

Three American friends arrive in Scotland with sharply different tastes in travel, breakfast and sightseeing. Penelope Hamilton records their experiences in a commonplace book, beginning in Edinburgh with Salemina and Francesca. Their familiar disagreements supply much of the comedy: comfort, economy and personal preference all compete when they choose a railway carriage. Penelope also writes about her approaching marriage to William Beresford, while Francesca's romantic disappointments become material for affectionate teasing.

Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin gives this novel the conversational feel of a travel diary, mixing social observation with poems, songs and lively exchanges. The later excerpt takes the friends to Pettybaw in Fife, where finding lodgings requires a compromise between Penelope's wish for romance and Salemina's demand for comfort. Readers interested in nineteenth-century Scottish customs can follow the visitors' encounters with local language and manners through a narrator whose humor rests on friendship and the small practical troubles of travel.