Margaret Speid's Valentine
Margaret Speid’s Valentine, c.1840’s
Margaret Speid was born in 1802, the eldest daughter of Robert Speid of Ardovie, the holder of a small estate near Brechin. Margaret shared the fate of so many eldest girls as she was expected to help care for the other members of the family. When her youngest sister Helen was sent to school in Edinburgh, Margaret accompanied her to assist her Aunt Catherine. After her father’s death in 1846 she continued to live with and care for her mother. She never married. Amongst the many letters that have survived both to and by her, there is only one hint of romance with a mysterious visitor who shared her love of botany. She died of heart disease alone at Ardovie in 1860.
The Speid family held the lands from the 16th century to 1969. Amongst the papers left behind in the house when it was sold was a pretty valentine dating from around the 1830’s. It is printed on paper with a lace pattern and a parchment insert. This has been painted with a flower and surrounded by an embossed garland and completed by a dove carrying a letter. It has been inscribed by two hands. One has written "to her I love" and the other "my dearest and loveliest Margaret".
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