In the Vine Country

Edith Somerville (1858-1949) was an Irish novelist who wrote in collaboration with her cousin Violet Martin ("Martin Ross", 1862-1915) using the pseudonym Somerville and Ross. Together they published a series of 14 stories and novels, the most popular of which were The Real Charlotte (1894) and Some Experiences of an Irish RM (1899). The cousins first met in 1886 and their literary partnership began the following year. Edith was devastated by Violet's death, which was partly attributed to a riding accident in 1898 from which she never fully recovered, and she continued to write under both their names claiming that they kept in contact through spiritualist seances. Edith was also an accomplished artist who exhibited her work in Dublin and London between 1920 and 1938, and illustrated numerous children's books and sporting picture books. A keen sportswoman herself, in 1903 she became master of the West Carbery Foxhounds. This work was originally serialised in The Ladies' Pictorial together with the accompanying illustrations which are based on Edith's own sketches, before being published in book form in 1893.