Alexander
Smith was a Scottish poet who lived from 1830 to 1867. His early poetry was
well received, but his later work less so, and he became regarded as a leading
member of what was disdainfully called "The Spasmodic
School" of Poetry. As a result he largely turned to prose, producing two
novels; a book of essays on assorted subjects, Dreamthorp:
Essays written in the Country, published in 1863; and his most
successful and enduring book, A Summer in Skye
published in 1865. The book recounts Smith's travels during the Summer of 1864,
much of which he spent on the Isle of Skye. The edition whose text is
reproduced here was published in 1912, and comes with an Introduction written
by W. Forbes Gray.
A Summer in Skye is an odd mixture,
combining superbly written descriptions of the areas across which Smith
travelled en route to and while on Skye; remarkable insights into many of
the people he encountered on his journey; and a wonderful account of the
journey from Portree back to
Glasgow in the steamship
Clansman in Chapter 15. And, almost as a bonus, the
extended description of Edinburgh in the opening
Chapter is at least as good as anything anyone else has written about the city,
including Robert Louis
Stevenson in Edinburgh: Picturesque
Notes. On the other hand, there is a lot of unnecessary distraction
and padding here, too. Chapter 8 is largely a vehicle for the poetry the author
wrote on Skye; Chapter 6 is largely a
collection of historical background notes, some relevant to
Skye and some definitely not, and
which are interesting but far from essential; and Chapter 12 is a detailed
account of a mass brawl between farmers and steel-workers in an Ulster town
that Smith had witnessed some years previously, and which adds very little to
this story.
Despite these doubts about particular parts of the book,
A Summer in Skye is a wonderful evocation of a time
now lost forever. Alexander Smith fell ill in 1865, the year this book was
published, and died in 1867, at the age of 37. This gives a certain poignancy
to the book, as with hindsight we know it describes what was to be his last
visit, certainly in good health, to areas of Scotland he knew well, and loved
deeply.
Like other eBooks whose texts are reproduced on Undiscovered
Scotland, A Summer in Skye by Alexander Smith is
long out of copyright. What sets the Undiscovered Scotland version apart is the
cross linking between the text of the book and features elsewhere on the site,
allowing the reader to explore beyond the text itself, finding out more about
the places and people mentioned. Alexander Smith, in common with many writers
in the 1800s, had a liking for long paragraphs. In order to make his text more
accessible to a modern readership, especially on-screen, many of his longer
paragraphs have been subdivided here.
