Part 4, Chapter 12 Summary and Analysis

"Miriam Rothschild" offers an appreciation of a quirky, brilliant woman with a famous surname but little academic training, who has too much fun doing too many things to be taken seriously, yet holds an honorary degree from Oxford and is a Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society. Her latest project is wildflowers and she cuts a memorable figure in the meadows, heavyset in a loose-costume of her own design, green rubber boots, graying hair tied back with a flowing blue scarf. She sleeps four hours a night, keeps a suitcase packed, and, while loving museums and libraries, cannot spare the energy to cut out things she does not want to see and hear in cities. Thus, she lives year-round at sprawling, overgrown Ashton Wold, where she is born in 1908. Both father Charles and Uncle Walter are a gifted amateur...