Elfride swancourt is the daughter of the rector of endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in corwall based on st juliot, where hardy began A Pair of Blue Eyes during the beginning of his courtship of his first wife, emma. ...Elfride swancourt is the daughter of the rector of endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in corwall based on st juliot, where hardy began A Pair of Blue Eyes during the beginning of his courtship of his first wife, emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, stephen smith, and the older literary man, henry knight.