Aldersyde: A Border Story of Seventy Years Ago

by Annie S. Swan

Excerpt from Aldersyde: A Border Story of Seventy Years Ago:

A privileged person in the house of Aldersyde was Marget Drysdale. Ten years before, she had come, a raw, awkward, slow-handed lass of seventeen, to help in the kitchen, under the grim supervision of old Elspet Broun, who had served the Nesbits faithfully for fifty years, and, feeling herself be ginning to fail, desired a recruit whom she might instruct in the ways of the house.

A very hard life of it had Marget, before she was able to please her unflinching taskmistress; yet when the time came, Elspet laid down her armour in peace.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1883

About the author

Annie Shepherd Swan, CBE was a Scottish journalist, novelist and story writer, who wrote mainly under her maiden name, but also as David Lyall and later Mrs Burnett Smith.

As a writer of romantic fiction for women, she published over 200 novels, serials, stories and other fiction between 1878 and her death in 1943. She has been called "one of the most commercially successful popular novelists of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries". Swan was politically active during the First World War, as a suffragist, a Liberal activist, and a founder-member and vice-president of the Scottish National Party.

Reviews

[Teaspoon Stories · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first time I’d ever heard of Annie S Swan was a pretty derogatory reference in DH Lawrence’s “Sons and Lovers”, where she’s described as the favourite novelist of Louisa Lily Denys Western, the grasping, airhead girlfriend of Paul Morel’s older brother William.

So I was pretty surprised to see a book by Annie S Swan in a local antiquarian bookshop - and with an antiquarian price tag. Perhaps I’d misjudged this writer in some way if she’s now so valuable in bookshops? The book in question was an early edition of “Aldersyde”, the novel lauded in its time by prime ministers and poet laureates alike.

While DH Lawrence and the literary set regarded her snootily as a purveyor of kitsch and parochial sentimentality, others admired her strong, female-focused storylines and her pride in all things Scottish. I hadn’t realised that Annie S Swan had been both a suffragette and an early supporter of the Scottish National movement.

Aldersyde, “a romance set in the Borders”, wasn’t as twee and stilted as I’d imagined. I found myself drawn into the story of the two orphaned Nesbit sisters - along with their feisty, loyal housekeeper, Marget - fighting for their inheritance rights against the scheming patriarchy of early 19th century Scotland. The dialect was the greatest obstacle but reading the more impenetrable dialogue out loud usually helped.

I’m not sure that I’ll be rushing to find other books by Annie S Swan. But I think I might still be as loyal as her fictional housekeeper Marget Drysdale in standing up for her and giving her a fair hearing.

[SiSApis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obscure classic; ran across a tangential mention of it somewhere; a hidden gem for any reader steeped in 19th Century English works.
Beware: Legare Street Press' hardcover but PHOTOCOPIED version is such a terrible text: missing pages, misplaced pages, illegible pages, and even one page where somebody's FINGERS obscure most of the bottom paragraph! Find a legitimate old printing. I was lucky enough (after shelling out $35 for Legare Street's HIDEOUS edition!) to find a copy of this lovely old edition. If you decide to track it down, best wishes on your own treasure hunt!