On a clear day, you could see `America¿ from Edinburgh¿s Castle Rock ¿ or so said Alice Munro¿s great-great-great-grandfather, James Laidlaw, when he had drink taken. Then, in 1818, Laidlaw left the parish of 'no advantages', of banked Presbyterian emotions and uncanny tales ¿ where, like his more famous cousin James Hogg, he was born and bred ¿ and sailed to the new world with his family. This is the story of those shepherds from the Ettrick Valley and their descendants, among them the author herself. They were a Spartan lot, who kept to themselves; showing off was frowned on, and fear was commonplace, at least for females¿