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Abstract

Jacob [née Kennedy-Erskine], Violet (1863-1946). Poet and novelist. She was born in Montrose, the daughter of the 18th Laird of Dun whose family had held the lands of Dun since the 15th century. She married an army officer, Arthur Otway Jacob, and spent her early married life in India before returning to her native north-east Scotland. In all her work her intricate knowledge of the lore and language of her native country is made manifest, and she contributed poetry in Scots to Hugh MacDiarmid’s Northern Numbers (1920-22) and to John Buchan’s The Northern Muse (1924). Most of her best work, published in several collections, is memorable for her natural use of Scots and the deceptively simple rhyming structure of poems like ‘Tam i’ the Kirk’ and The Gowk’.