Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor
This work is called a 'romance,' because the incidents, characters, time, and scenery, are alike romantic. And in shaping this old tale, the Writer neither dares, nor desires, to claim for it the dignity or cumber it with the difficulty of an historic novel.
And yet he thinks that the outlines are filled in more carefully, and the situations (however simple) more warmly coloured and quickened, than a reader would expect to find in what is called a 'legend.'
And he knows that any son of Exmoor, chancing on this volume, cannot fail to bring to mind the nurse-tales of his childhood—the savage deeds of the outlaw Doones in the depth of Bagworthy Forest, the beauty of the hapless maid brought up in the midst of them, the plain John Ridd's Herculean power, and (memory's too congenial food) the exploits of Tom Faggus.
March, 1869.
If anybody cares to read a simple tale told simply, I, John Ridd, of the parish of Oare, in the county of Somerset, yeoman and churchwarden, have seen and had a share in some doings of this neighborhood, which I will try to set down in order, God sparing my life and memory. And they who light upon this book should bear in mind not only that I write for the clearing of our parish from ill fame and calumny, but also a thing which will, I trow, appear too often in it, to wit—that I am nothing more than a plain unlettered man, not read in foreign languages, as a gentleman might be, nor gifted with long words (even in mine own tongue), save what I may have won from the Bible or Master William Shakespeare, whom, in the face of common opinion, I do value highly. In short, I am an ignoramus, but pretty well for a yeoman.
My father being of good substance, at least as we reckon in Exmoor, and seized in his own right, from many generations, of one, and that the best and largest, of the three farms into which our parish is divided (or rather the cultured part thereof), he John Ridd, the elder, churchwarden, and overseer, being a great admirer of learning, and well able to write his name, sent me his only son to be schooled at Tiverton, in the county of Devon. For the chief boast of that ancient town (next to its woollen staple) is a worthy grammar-school, the largest in the west of England, founded and handsomely endowed in the year 1604 by Master Peter Blundell, of that same place, clothier.
R. D. Blackmore
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Preface
CHAPTER I
ELEMENTS OF EDUCATION
CHAPTER II
AN IMPORTANT ITEM
CHAPTER III
THE WAR-PATH OF THE DOONES
CHAPTER IV
A VERY RASH VISIT
CHAPTER V
AN ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT
CHAPTER VI
NECESSARY PRACTICE
CHAPTER VII
HARD IT IS TO CLIMB
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME
CHAPTER X
A BRAVE RESCUE AND A ROUGH RIDE
CHAPTER XI
TOM DESERVES HIS SUPPER
CHAPTER XII
A MAN JUSTLY POPULAR
CHAPTER XIII
MASTER HUCKABACK COMES IN
CHAPTER XIV
A MOTION WHICH ENDS IN A MULL
CHAPTER XV
MASTER HUCKABACK FAILS OF WARRANT
CHAPTER XVI
LORNA GROWING FORMIDABLE
CHAPTER XVII
JOHN IS CLEARLY BEWITCHED
CHAPTER XVIII
WITCHERY LEADS TO WITCHCRAFT
CHAPTER XIX
ANOTHER DANGEROUS INTERVIEW
CHAPTER XX
LORNA BEGINS HER STORY
CHAPTER XXI
LORNA ENDS HER STORY
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
A ROYAL INVITATION
CHAPTER XXIV
A SAFE PASS FOR KING'S MESSENGER
CHAPTER XXV
A GREAT MAN ATTENDS TO BUSINESS
CHAPTER XXVI
JOHN IS DRAINED AND CAST ASIDE
CHAPTER XXVII
HOME AGAIN AT LAST
CHAPTER XXVIII
JOHN HAS HOPE OF LORNA
CHAPTER XXIX
REAPING LEADS TO REVELLING
CHAPTER XXX
ANNIE GETS THE BEST OF IT
CHAPTER XXXI
JOHN FRY'S ERRAND
CHAPTER XXXII
FEEDING OF THE PIGS
CHAPTER XXXIII
AN EARLY MORNING CALL
CHAPTER XXXIV
TWO NEGATIVES MAKE AN AFFIRMATIVE
CHAPTER XXXV
RUTH IS NOT LIKE LORNA
CHAPTER XXXVI
JOHN RETURNS TO BUSINESS
CHAPTER XXXVII
A VERY DESPERATE VENTURE
CHAPTER XXXVIII
A GOOD TURN FOR JEREMY
CHAPTER XXXIX
TROUBLED STATE AND A FOOLISH JOKE
CHAPTER XL
TWO FOOLS TOGETHER
CHAPTER XLI
COLD COMFORT
CHAPTER XLII
THE GREAT WINTER
CHAPTER XLIII
NOT TOO SOON
CHAPTER XLIV
BROUGHT HOME AT LAST
CHAPTER XLV
A CHANGE LONG NEEDED
CHAPTER XLVI
SQUIRE FAGGUS MAKES SOME LUCKY HITS
CHAPTER XLVII
JEREMY IN DANGER
CHAPTER XLVIII
EVERY MAN MUST DEFEND HIMSELF
CHAPTER XLIX
MAIDEN SENTINELS ARE BEST
CHAPTER L
A MERRY MEETING A SAD ONE
CHAPTER LI
A VISIT FROM THE COUNSELLOR
CHAPTER LII
THE WAY TO MAKE THE CREAM RISE
CHAPTER LIII
JEREMY FINDS OUT SOMETHING
CHAPTER LIV
MUTUAL DISCOMFITURE
CHAPTER LV
GETTING INTO CHANCERY
CHAPTER LVI
JOHN BECOMES TOO POPULAR
CHAPTER LVII
LORNA KNOWS HER NURSE
CHAPTER LVIII
MASTER HUCKABACK'S SECRET
CHAPTER LIX
LORNA GONE AWAY
CHAPTER LX
ANNIE LUCKIER THAN JOHN
CHAPTER LXI
THEREFORE HE SEEKS COMFORT
CHAPTER LXII
THE KING MUST NOT BE PRAYED FOR
CHAPTER LXIII
JOHN IS WORSTED BY THE WOMEN
CHAPTER LXIV
SLAUGHTER IN THE MARSHES
CHAPTER LXV
FALLING AMONG LAMBS
CHAPTER LXVI
SUITABLE DEVOTION
CHAPTER LXVII
LORNA STILL IS LORNA
CHAPTER LXVIII
JOHN IS JOHN NO LONGER
CHAPTER LXIX
NOT TO BE PUT UP WITH
CHAPTER LXX
COMPELLED TO VOLUNTEER
CHAPTER LXXI
A LONG ACCOUNT SETTLED
CHAPTER LXXII
THE COUNSELLOR AND THE CARVER
CHAPTER LXXIII
HOW TO GET OUT OF CHANCERY
CHAPTER LXXIV
DRIVEN BEYOND ENDURANCE
CHAPTER LXXV
LIFE AND LORNA COME AGAIN