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The Silver Glen

Chapter 2: PREFACE
By Bessie Dill
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About This Book

A narrator reconstructs a household drama from preserved letters and personal recollection, portraying life in a Scottish family caught up in a Jacobite rising. The narrative mixes intimate domestic scenes, social visits, and romantic entanglements with secret signals, daring errands, and schemes surrounding a contested silver mine. As political events escalate—including a royal landing and military movements—the household endures misunderstandings, arrests, legal wrangling, and painful reverses. The tale blends reproduced correspondence with plain narrative, tracking loyalties, practical consequences for families and retainers, and the ways private affections and public politics become entangled.

PREFACE

The Letters of Lady Erskine of Alva which appear in this tale are at once its chief interest and the origin of its being; for my desire in writing “The Silver Glen” is to make known to a wider circle the vivid story of which they are the outcome. My conviction that they would prove as attractive to others as to myself induced the late Mr. Erskine-Murray, among whose family-papers they are preserved, to give me his kind permission to use them.

To weave a romance around the names of persons who have really lived, and whose descendants are still in existence, is a liberty which calls for an apology on the part of the author. With the exception of Barbara Stewart, Anthony Fleming and the younger David Pitcairn none of the principal characters in the following story are wholly fictitious; but I trust, that as I have kept very closely to facts, no serious cause of offence can be found. Most of the incidents described are matters of history, and the narrative is purposely told in a plain and simple manner, as much as possible in keeping with the tone of the Letters.

Among the books from which I have obtained information, and in some cases, borrowed freely, I may mention Professor Terry’s useful and interesting volume, The Chevalier de St. George and the Jacobite Movements; The Memoirs of the Master of Sinclair; Rae’s History of the Rebellion (1718); Scotland and Scotsmen of the 18th Century, by Ramsay of Ochtertyre; and the Calendar of the Stuart Papers belonging to His Majesty at Windsor Castle (Vol. II. and III.) In the Eighth Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission also, there are numerous details on the subject of Sir John Erskine’s Silver Mines.

In view of the new light recently thrown upon the Character of James (The Old Pretender), a fact very clearly brought out by Mr. Andrew Lang in his History of Scotland (Vol IV.) it is particularly interesting to note the remark of Lady Erskine in Letter XVI.: “There is one advantage,” she writes to her husband, “of being with Kid (i.e., James), that you will live mighty regular and get no ill examples.”

My warmest thanks are due, in the first place, to the late Mr. Erskine-Murray for his kind permission to use these Letters; I should also like to record my gratitude to Miss Johnstone of Alva, to the Rev. Robert Paul, F.R.S.A., Dollar, N.B., and to the Rev. A. Thomson Grant, Chaplain at Wemyss Castle, who have all in different ways assisted me, as well as to the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh for their courtesy in allowing me to read in their Library. Except for the punctuation, and the omission of a sentence occasionally where the meaning is obscure, Lady Erskine’s Letters are reproduced as they were written.

B. D.

NOVELS BY BESSIE DILL

My Lady Nan

“A daintily written eighteenth century romance. The story is thoroughly entertaining.”—Daily Express.

“A charming tale.”—The Times.

“A very pretty tale, written with a light and powerful touch.”—The Guardian.

“Written with a dainty efficiency which is very attractive. A charming tale.”—Liverpool Courier.

The Final Goal

“As fascinating a romance as one could lay hands on, and will enhance the reputation of the writer. There is a genuine literary ring about the whole book. It is a book to read and enjoy.”—The Scotsman.

“An altogether delightful story.”—Liverpool Daily Courier.

The Lords of Life

“An excellent and well written book. ‘Van,’ the charming Scottish heroine, with that unfortunate possession, ‘a temperament,’ who leaves her northern home at the Manse, for Anglo-Indian life, is more than usually interesting.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

“The story of a governess’s life, artistically told, and with a fidelity to nature which makes it appear as if a slab out of the living world had been set before us, we were watching the actions and reading the thoughts of the people of it. The story is told with a tragic passion which reminds one of Jane Eyre.”—Sheffield Daily Telegraph.

“A grand story, the charm of the book is in the development of character, the refining of the gold of a girl’s joyful innocence in the fire of experience.”—Leeds Mercury.

The Story of Bell

“The story is simply and touchingly told, and retains the reader’s sympathy and interest to the end.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

“The story is a masterpiece ... a story with a great and noble purpose, which we cannot read without feeling all the better.”—Christian Journal.