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.

CONTENTS

I. ELEMENTS OF EDUCATION

II. AN IMPORTANT ITEM

III. THE WARPATH OF THE DOONES

IV. A VERY RASH VISIT

V. AN ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT

VI. NECESSARY PRACTICE

VII. HARD IT IS TO CLIMB

VIII. A BOY AND A GIRL

IX. THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME

X. A BRAVE RESCUE AND A ROUGH RIDE

XI. TOM DESERVES HIS SUPPER

XII. A MAN JUSTLY POPULAR

XIII. MASTER HUCKABACK COMES IN

XIV. A MOTION WHICH ENDS IN A MULL

XV. MASTER HUCKABACK FAILS OF WARRANT

XVI. LORNA GROWS FORMIDABLE

XVII. JOHN IS CLEARLY BEWITCHED

XVIII. WITCHERY LEADS TO WITCHCRAFT

XIX. ANOTHER DANGEROUS INTERVIEW

XX. LORNA BEGINS HER STORY

XXI. LORNA ENDS HER STORY

XXII. A LONG SPRING MONTH

XXIII. A ROYAL INVITATION

XXIV. A SAFE PASS FOR KING'S MESSENGER

XXV. A GREAT MAN ATTENDS TO BUSINESS

XXVI. JOHN IS DRAINED AND CAST ASIDE

XXVII. HOME AGAIN AT LAST

XXVIII. JOHN HAS HOPE OF LORNA

XXIX. REAPING LEADS TO REVELLING

XXX. ANNIE GETS THE BEST OF IT

XXXI. JOHN FRY'S ERRAND

XXXII. FEEDING OF THE PIGS

XXXIII. AN EARLY MORNING CALLING

XXXIV. TWO NEGATIVES MAKE AN AFFIRMATIVE

XXXV. RUTH IS NOT LIKE LORNA

XXXVI. JOHN RETURNS TO BUSINESS

XXXVII. A VERY DESPERATE VENTURE

XXXVIII. A GOOD TURN FOR JEREMY

XXXIX. A TROUBLED STATE AND A FOOLISH JOKE

XL. TWO FOOLS TOGETHER

XLI. COLD COMFORT

XLII. THE GREAT WINTER

XLIII. NOT TOO SOON

XLIV. BROUGHT HOME AT LAST

XLV. A CHANGE LONG NEEDED

XLVI. SQUIRE FAGGUS MAKES SOME LUCKY HITS

XLVII. JEREMY IN DANGER

XLVIII. EVERY MAN MUST DEFEND HIMSELF

XLIX. MAIDEN SENTINELS ARE BEST

L. A MERRY MEETING A SAD ONE

LI. A VISIT FROM THE COUNSELLOR

LII. THE WAY TO MAKE THE CREAM RISE

LIII. JEREMY FINDS OUT SOMETHING

LIV. MUTUAL DISCOMFITURE

LV. GETTING INTO CHANCERY

LVI. JOHN BECOMES TOO POPULAR

LVII. LORNA KNOWS HER NURSE

LVIII. MASTER HUCKABACK'S SECRET

LIX. LORNA GONE AWAY

LX. ANNIE LUCKIER THAN JOHN

LXI. THEREFORE HE SEEKS COMFORT

LXII. THE KING MUST NOT BE PRAYED FOR

LXIII. JOHN IS WORSTED BY THE WOMEN

LXIV. SLAUGHTER IN THE MARSHES

LXV. FALLING AMONG LAMBS

LXVI. SUITABLE DEVOTION

LXVII. LORNA STILL IS LORNA

LXVIII. JOHN IS JOHN NO LONGER

LXIX. NOT TO BE PUT UP WITH

LXX. COMPELLED TO VOLUNTEER

LXXI. A LONG ACCOUNT SETTLED

LXXII. THE COUNSELLOR AND THE CARVER

LXXIII. HOW TO GET OUT OF CHANCERY

LXXIV. DRIVEN BEYOND ENDURANCE

LXXV. LIFE AND LORNA COME AGAIN

CHAPTER I

ELEMENTS OF EDUCATION

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.