'Frances of Scarthingwell' is an account of the turbulent life of Frances Bladen, a Protestant woman who married William Hammond of Scarthingwell, the eldest son and heir of a leading Yorkshire Catholic family. In the last years of the 17th century, not long after the Popish Plot and the exclusion crisis had exposed deep rooted suspicions of Catholics, there were many obstacles and prejudices to mixed marriages. Religion, however, was only one of the difficulties Frances faced as her husband's profligate lifestyle and the complete breakdown of his family relations presented Herculean...