ABSTRACT
Macartney’s second period of leave home was a hurried affair which he snatched from his duties to bring his bride to Kashgar. Macartney bent on marriage was a different man from the quiet, impassive figure who outwardly seemed so lacking in Petrovsky’s fire or the verve and glamour of Younghusband. Almost as soon as permission came through for his leave he set out on his journey and was announced in the Borland house when his bride was in the kitchen practising her cookery in the belief that he was still in Kashgar. The astonished Catherine Borland was summoned to the drawing-room and was told by her fiancé they must be married within a week and set off speedily on the return journey to Kashgar. All difficulties or objections were solved or overruled and on 6 October 1898 Macartney and his wife began the long journey through Russia to Kashgar.
