] On p.217, AV asks: "One does wonder what John Shackleton stood to gain from such debauched conduct" (his excessive drinking and the consequences of it). I was surprised that she would ask that, because the details she lists add up to a pretty clear description of an alcoholic to me. I don't think that by that time he was drinking to take a stand, or to make his wife's life miserable, but because he was past the point of quitting on his own.

...unfortunetely alcoholism wasn't treated as it is today because if it had been he might have had a chance to quit with it. But at that time it was only thought a vice not a disease.

Kerstin