



Produced by Donald Lainson





LORNA DOONE, A ROMANCE OF EXMOOR

by R. D. Blackmore





Preface


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  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