THE SKIPPER’S DAUGHTERS
A Story of Aberlady in the Smuggling Days
by
John Pringle Reid
Copyright (c) Aberlady Conversation Society 2008
Foreword
Very few copies of this work remain in circulation and those that possess them hold them close. In the original form of the novel, JPR renamed the village as Glenpeffer, Gullane as Sandyknowes, Luffness Mains as Muirend and Ballencrieff as Criefton. He may have done this to give the central places of the novel an other-wordly sheen to the readership at the time. However, given the passage of time and the shortness of the village's collective memory, perhaps this sheen is no longer required. The names have been changed in this version - should some begin to believe that Glenpeffer ever existed!
CONTENTS
Ohapter I: At the Old Ship Inn, Aberlady
Ohapter II: The Skipper
Ohapter III: Arrival of the ‘Bus
Ohapter IV: A Son of Old Ireland
Ohapter V: Bringing Home the Contraband
Ohapter VI: An Unexpected Visitor
Ohapter VII: Festivities at Ballencrieff
Ohapter VIII: Explanations and a Reconciliation
Ohapter IX: Auld Hansel Monday
Ohapter X: End of Norman’s Vacation
Ohapter XI: Jeanie’s visit to Edinburgh
Ohapter XII: The Theatre Party
Ohapter XIII: Charge and an Acquittal
Ohapter XIV: Back to Aberlady
Ohapter XV: All Among the Barley
Ohapter XVI: Complications
Ohapter XVII: Jeanie Smith’s Self Abnegation
Ohapter XVIII Brush with the Enemy
Ohapter XIX: A Shift for Davie Duncan
Ohapter XX: Two Painful Partings
Ohapter XXI: Exciting Time for the Smugglers
Ohapter XXII: Searching for the Contraband
Ohapter XXIII: The Search Continued
Ohapter XXIV: Departure of the Exciseman
Ohapter XXV: A Fatal Quarrel
Ohapter XXVI: A Sad Time for Aberlady
Ohapter XXVII: Among the Mourners
Ohapter XXVIII: More Trouble
Ohapter XXIX: Off to the Wars
Ohapter XXX: By Aberlady Bay
Ohapter XXXI: A Strong Man’s Last Hours
Ohapter XXXII: Mid the Changes and Chances of Life
Ohapter XXXIII: Memorable Kirn at Luffness Mains
Ohapter XXXIV: The Uninvited Guest
Ohapter XXXV: A Story of Waterloo
Ohapter XXXVI: Elsie’s Weird, and the Passing of Widow Duncan
Ohapter XXXVII: Pat’s Farewell to Aberlady
Ohapter XXXVIII: Settling Up and Settling Down