ABSTRACT
Elizabeth Hamilton used her Cottagers of Glenburnie to reform the lower classes by materially improving their lot and by instilling in them a national Scottish identity within that of Britain. The reforms were materially significant because they showed the cottagers how to sell their produce at market for higher prices and so obtain greater returns for the efforts. This chapter explains Mrs. Mason's story to her present visit with the Stewarts from where the plot divides. One strand follows the Stewart family, the widower and his two teenage daughters, Mary and Bell. The manner in which Hamilton plays with the genres of national tale and historical novel to deal with social problems speaks to the moment of national rebirth or renewal. Though Hamilton used her earlier publications to comment on the problems of the urban industrialized centres presenting towns and factories as places of moral, social and political corruption her focus in Cottagers of Glenburnie is on the rural community.
