Question on Dagger Magic

[Bynw]

Colin M. Burchfield asks: In Dagger Magic, there is a reference during Peregrine and Julia's wedding to a painting of the meeting of Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald by Alexander Johnstone. I have attempted to find out more about both the painter and this painting without success. Can you tell me which sources you used, or was Alexander Johnstone invented for the novel?


Katherine Says : Oh, Alexander Johnstone was quite real, and the painting is quite charming. The original, which is captioned "the first meeting of Prince Charles with Flora MacDonald at Ormaclett on the Isle of South Uist," hangs in The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. The most readily available print I have of it is in one of those Jarrold Colour Publications booklets called "The Bonnie Prince Charlie Country and the 1745 Jacobite Rising." (Its cover has a detail from the stunning painting by Pettie that we also described, of Prince Charles Edward Stuart with Lochiel and Pitsligo, Chiefs of Clan Cameron and Clan Forbes. If Adam were in this painting, he'd be Lochiel. The original is property of H.M. The Queen.)