No More Learning

An old man was pruning some bushes.
"It is very still and quiet here," said Sheila. "I was afraid
we should have to live in that terrible noise always. "
"I hope you won't find it dull, my darling," he said.
"Dull, when you are here ? »
"But I cannot always be here, you know. "
She looked up.
"You see, a man is so much in the way if he is dawdling
about a house all day long. You would begin to regard me as
a nuisance, Sheila, and would be for sending me to play croquet
with those young Carruthers, merely that you might get the
rooms dusted. Besides, you know I couldn't work here: I must
have a studio of some sort - in the neighborhood, of course.
And then you will give me your orders in the morning as to
when I am to come round for luncheon or dinner. "
"And you will be alone all day at your work? "
"Yes. "
"Then I will come and sit with you, my poor boy," she said.
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>>
"Much work I should do in that case! he said. "But we'll
see. In the mean time go up-stairs and get your things off: that
young person below has breakfast ready, I dare say. "
"But you have not shown me yet where Mr. Ingram lives,”
said Sheila before she went to the door.
"Oh, that is miles away. You have only seen a little bit of
London yet. Ingram lives about as far away from here as the
distance you have just come, but in another direction. "
"It is like a world made of houses," said Sheila, "and all
filled with strangers. But you will take me to see Mr. Ingram ? "
But he is sure to drop in on you as soon
«< By-and-by, yes.
as he fancies you are settled in your new home. "
And here at last was Mr. Ingram come; and the mere sound
of his voice seemed to carry her back to Borva, so that in talk-
ing to him and waiting on him as of old, she would scarcely
have been surprised if her father had walked in to say that a
coaster was making for the harbor, or that Duncan was going
over to Stornoway, and Sheila would have to give him commis-
sions.
Her husband did not take the same interest in the social
and political affairs of Borva that Mr. Ingram did. Lavender
had made a pretense of assisting Sheila in her work among the
poor people, but the effort was a hopeless failure. He could not
remember the name of the family that wanted a new boat, and
was visibly impatient when Sheila would sit down to write out
for some aged crone a letter to her grandson in Canada. Now
Ingram, for the mere sake of occupation, had qualified himself
during his various visits to Lewis, so that he might have be-
come the home minister of the King of Borva; and Sheila was
glad to have one attentive listener as she described all the won-
derful things that had happened in the island since the previous
summer.
But Ingram had got a full and complete holiday on which to
come up and see Sheila; and he had brought with him the wild
and startling proposal that in order that she should take her
first plunge into the pleasures of civilized life, her husband and
herself should drive down to Richmond and dine at the Star
and Garter.
"What is that? " said Sheila,
"My dear girl," said her husband, seriously, "your ignorance
is something fearful to contemplate. It is quite bewildering. How


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2003
can a person who does not know what the Star and Garter is, be
told what the Star and Garter is? "
"But I am willing to go and see," said Sheila.
"Then I must look after getting a brougham," said Lavender,
rising.
"A brougham on such a day as this? " exclaimed Ingram.
"Nonsense! Get an open trap of some sort; and Sheila, just to
please me, will put on that very blue dress she used to wear in
Borva, and the hat and the white feather, if she has got them. "
"Perhaps you would like me to put on a sealskin cap and a
red handkerchief instead of a collar," observed Lavender, calmly.
"You may do as you please. Sheila and I are going to dine
at the Star and Garter. "
"May I put on that blue dress? " said the girl, going up to
her husband.
"Yes, of course, if you like," said Lavender meekly, going off
to order the carriage, and wondering by what route he could
drive those two maniacs down to Richmond so that none of his
friends should see them.
When he came back again, bringing with him a landau which
could be shut up for the homeward journey at night, he had to
confess that no costume seemed to suit Sheila so well as the
rough sailor dress; and he was so pleased with her appearance
that he consented at once to let Bras go with them in the car-
riage, on condition that Sheila should be responsible for him.
Indeed, after the first shiver of driving away from the square was
over, he forgot that there was much unusual about the look of
this odd pleasure party. If you had told him eighteen months
before that on a bright day in May, just as people were going
home from the Park for luncheon, he would go for a drive in a
hired trap with one horse, his companions being a man with a
brown wide-awake, a girl dressed as though she were the owner of
a yacht, and an immense deerhound, and that in this fashion he
would dare to drive up to the Star and Garter and order dinner,
he would have bet five hundred to one that such a thing would
never occur so long as he preserved his senses. But somehow
he did not mind much. He was very much at home with those
two people beside him; the day was bright and fresh; the horse
went a good pace; and once they were over Hammersmith Bridge
and out among fields and trees, the country looked exceedingly
pretty, and all the beauty of it was mirrored in Sheila's eyes.
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"I can't quite make you out in that dress, Sheila," he said.
"I am not sure whether it is real and business-like or a theatri-
cal costume. I have seen girls on Ryde Pier with something
of the same sort on, only a good deal more pronounced, you
know, and they looked like sham yachtsmen; and I have seen
stewardesses wearing that color and texture of cloth—»
"But why not leave it as it is," said Ingram-"a solitary
costume produced by certain conditions of climate and duties,
acting in conjunction with a natural taste for harmonious color-
ing and simple form? That dress, I will maintain, sprang as
naturally from the salt sea as Aphrodite did; and the man who
suspects artifice in it, or invention, has had his mind perverted
by the skepticism of modern society. "
"Is my dress so very wonderful? " said Sheila, with a grave
complacence. "I am pleased that the Lewis has produced such
a fine thing, and perhaps you would like me to tell you its
history. It was my papa bought a piece of blue serge in Storno-
way: it cost three shillings sixpence a yard, and a dressmaker
in Stornoway cut it for me, and I made it myself. That is all
the history of the wonderful dress. "
Suddenly Sheila seized her husband's arm. They had got
down to the river by Mortlake; and there, on the broad bosom
of the stream, a long and slender boat was shooting by, pulled
by four oarsmen clad in white flannel.
"How can they go out in such a boat? " said Sheila, with
great alarm visible in her eyes. "It is scarcely a boat at all;
and if they touch a rock, or if the wind catches them-»
"Don't be frightened, Sheila," said her husband. "They are
quite safe. There are no rocks in our rivers, and the wind does
not give us squalls here like those on Loch Roag. You will see
hundreds of those boats by and by, and perhaps you yourself
will go out in one. "
"Oh, never, never! " she said, almost with a shudder.
"Why, if the people here heard you they would not know
how brave a sailor you are. You are not afraid to go out at
night by yourself on the sea, and you won't go on a smooth
inland river—»
"But those boats: if you touch them they must go over. "
She seemed glad to get away from the river. She could not
be persuaded of the safety of the slender craft of the Thames;
and indeed, for some time after seemed so strangely depressed
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that Lavender begged and prayed of her to tell him what was
the matter. It was simple enough. She had heard him speak
of his boating adventures. Was it in such boats as that she
had just seen? and might he not be some day going out in one
of them and an accident - the breaking of an oar, a gust of
wind
There was nothing for it but to reassure her by a solemn
promise that in no circumstances whatever would he, Lavender,
go into a boat without her express permission, whereupon Sheila
was as grateful to him as though he had dowered her with a
kingdom.
This was not the Richmond Hill of her fancy-this spacious
height; with its great mansions, its magnificent elms, and its
view of all the westward and wooded country, with the blue-
white streak of the river winding through the green foliage.
Where was the farm? The famous Lass of Richmond Hill must
have lived on a farm; but here surely were the houses of great
lords and nobles, which had apparently been there for years
and years.
And was this really a hotel that they stopped at-
this great building that she could only compare to Stornoway
Castle?
―
"Now, Sheila," said Lavender, after they had ordered dinner
and gone out, "mind you keep a tight hold on that leash, for
Bras will see strange things in the Park. "
"It is I who will see strange things," she said; and the
prophecy was amply fulfilled. For as they went along the broad
path, and came better into view of the splendid undulation of
woodland and pasture and fern, when on the one hand they saw
the Thames far below them flowing through the green and spa-
cious valley, and on the other hand caught some dusky glimpse
of the far white houses of London, it seemed to her that she had
got into a new world, and that this world was far more beauti-
ful than the great city she had left. She did not care so much
for the famous view from the hill. She had cast one quick look
to the horizon, with one throb of expectation that the sea might
be there. There was no sea there-only the faint blue of long
lines of country, apparently without limit. Moreover, over the
western landscape a faint haze prevailed, that increased in the
distance and softened down the more distant woods into a sober
gray. That great extent of wooded plain, lying sleepily in its
pale mists, was not so cheerful as the scene around her, where


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WILLIAM BLACK
the sunlight was sharp and clear, the air fresh, the trees flooded
with a pure and bright color. Here indeed was a cheerful and
beautiful world, and she was full of curiosity to know all about
it and its strange features. What was the name of this tree?
and how did it differ from that? Were not these rabbits over
by the fence? and did rabbits live in the midst of trees and
bushes? What sort of wood was the fence made of? and was it
not terribly expensive to have such a protection? Could not he
tell the cost of a wooden fence? Why did they not use wire
netting? Was not that a loch away down there? and what was
its name? A loch without a name! Did the salmon come up to
it? and did any sea-birds ever come inland and build their nests
on its margin?
"O, Bras, you must come and look at the loch. It is a long
time since you will see a loch. "
And away she went through the thick bracken, holding on to
the swaying leash that held the galloping greyhound, and run-
ning swiftly as though she had been making down for the shore
to get out the Maighdean-mhara.
"Sheila," called her husband, "don't be foolish! "
"Sheila," called Ingram, "have pity on an old man! "
Suddenly she stopped. A brace of partridges had sprung up
at some distance, and with a wild whirr of their wings were now
directing their low and rapid flight toward the bottom of the
valley.
"What birds are those? " she said peremptorily.
She took no notice of the fact that her companions were
pretty nearly too blown to speak. There was a brisk life and
color in her face, and all her attention was absorbed in watching
the flight of the birds. Lavender fancied he saw in the fixed
and keen look something of old Mackenzie's gray eye: it was
not the first trace of a likeness to her father he had seen.
"You bad girl! " he said, "they are partridges. "
She paid no heed to this reproach, for what were those other
things over there underneath the trees? Bras had pricked up his
ears, and there was a strange excitement in his look and in his
trembling frame.
"Deer! " she cried, with her eyes as fixed as were those of
the dog beside her.
"Well," said her husband calmly, "what although they are
deer? »
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2007
said; and with that she caught the leash
"But Bras- » she
with both her hands.
"Bras won't mind them if you keep him quiet. I suppose
you can manage him better than can. I wish we had brought
a whip. "
"I would rather let him kill every deer in the Park than
touch him with a whip," said Sheila proudly.
"You fearful creature, you don't know what you say. That
is high treason. If George Ranger heard you, he would have
you hanged in front of the Star and Garter. "
"Who is George Ranger? " said Sheila with an air as if she
had said, "Do you know that I am the daughter of the King of
Borva, and whoever touches me will have to answer to my papa,
who is not afraid of any George Ranger ? »
"He is a great lord who hangs all persons who disturb the
deer in this Park. "
"But why do they not go away? " said Sheila impatiently. "I
have never seen any deer so stupid. It is their own fault if
they are disturbed: why do they remain so near to people and to
houses? »
"My dear child, if Bras wasn't here you would probably find
some of those deer coming up to see if you had any bits of
sugar or pieces of bread about your pockets. "
"Then they are like sheep-they are not like deer," she said
with some contempt. "If I could only tell Bras that it is sheep
he will be looking at, he would not look any more. And so small
they are! They are as small as the roe, but they have horns as
big as many of the red-deer. Do people eat them? "
"I suppose so. "
"And what will they cost? "
"I am sure I can't tell you. "
"Are they as good as the roe or the big deer? "
"I don't know that either. I don't think I ever ate fallow-
deer. But you know they are not kept here for that purpose.
A great many gentlemen in this country keep a lot of them in
their parks merely to look pretty. They cost a great deal more
than they produce. "
་
"They must eat up a great deal of fine grass," said Sheila
almost sorrowfully. "It is a beautiful ground for sheep-no
rushes, no peat moss, only fine good grass and dry land. I
should like my papa to see all this beautiful ground. "
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"I fancy he has seen it. "
"Was my papa here? "
"I think he said so. "
"And did he see those deer? "
"Doubtless. "
"He never told me of them. "
By this time they had pretty nearly got down to the little
lake, and Bras had been alternately coaxed and threatened into
a quiescent mood.
Sheila evidently expected to hear a flapping of sea-fowls'
wings when they got near the margin; and looked all round
for the first sudden dart from the banks. But a dead silence
prevailed; and as there were neither fish nor birds to watch,
she went along to a wooden bench and sat down there, one
of her companions on each hand. It was a pretty scene that
lay before her - the small stretch of water ruffled with the
wind, but showing a dash of blue sky here and there- the trees
in the inclosure beyond, clad in their summer foliage, the smooth
greensward shining in the afternoon sunlight. Here at least was
absolute quiet after the roar of London; and it was somewhat
wistfully that she asked her husband how far this place was
from her home, and whether, when he was at work, she could
not come down here by herself.
"Certainly," he said, never dreaming that she would think of
doing such a thing.
By-and-by they returned to the hotel; and while they sat at
dinner a great fire of sunset spread over the west; and the far
woods became of a rich purple, streaked here and there with
lines of pale white mist. The river caught the glow of the
crimson clouds above, and shone duskily red amid the dark
green of the trees. Deeper and deeper grew the color of the
sun as it sank to the horizon, until it disappeared behind one
low bar of purple cloud; and then the wild glow in the west
slowly faded away; the river became pallid and indistinct; the
white mists over the distant woods seemed to grow denser; and
then, as here and there a lamp was lit far down in the valley,
one or two pale stars appeared in the sky overhead, and the
night came on apace.
"It is so strange," Sheila said, "to find the darkness coming
on, and not to hear the sound of the waves. I wonder if it is
a fine night at Borva. "


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2009
Her husband went over to her and led her back to the table,
where the candles, shining over the white cloth and the colored
glasses, offered a more cheerful picture than the darkening land-
scape outside. They were in a private room; so that when din-
ner was over, Sheila was allowed to amuse herself with the fruit,
while her two companions lit their cigars. Where was the quaint
old piano now; and the glass of hot whisky and water; and the
'Lament of Monaltrie,' or 'Love in thine eyes forever plays'?
It seemed, but for the greatness of the room, to be a repetition
of one of those evenings at Borva that now belonged to a far-off
past. Here was Sheila, not minding the smoke, listening to
Ingram as of old, and sometimes saying something in that
sweetly inflected speech of hers; here was Ingram, talking, as it
were, out of a brown study, and morosely objecting to pretty
nearly everything Lavender said, but always ready to prove
Sheila right; and Lavender himself, as unlike a married man as
ever, talking impatiently, impetuously, and wildly, except at such
times as he said something to his young wife, and then some
brief smile and look, or some pat on the hand, said more than
words. But where, Sheila may have thought, was the one want-
ing to complete the group? Has he gone down to Borvabost to
see about the cargoes of fish to be sent off in the morning?
Perhaps he is talking to Duncan outside about the cleaning of
the guns, or making up cartridges in the kitchen. When Sheila's
attention wandered away from the talk of her companions, she
could not help listening for the sound of the waves; and as there
was no such message coming to her from the great wooded plain
without, her fancy took her away across that mighty country she
had traveled through, and carried her up to the island of Loch
Roag, until she almost fancied she could smell the peat-smoke in
the night air, and listen to the sea, and hear her father pacing
up and down the gravel outside the house, perhaps thinking of
her as she was thinking of him.
This little excursion to Richmond was long remembered by
those three. It was the last of their meetings before Sheila was
ushered into the big world to busy herself with new occupations
and cares. It was a pleasant little journey throughout; for as
they got into the landau to drive back to town, the moon was
shining high up in the southern heavens, and the air was mild
and fresh, so that they had the carriage opened, and Sheila, well
wrapped up, lay and looked around her with a strange wonder


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WILLIAM BLACK
and joy as they drove underneath the shadow of the trees and
out again into the clear sheen of the night.
They saw the river,
too, flowing smoothly and palely down between its dark banks;
and somehow here the silence checked them, and they hummed.
no more those duets they used to sing up at Borva. Of what
were they thinking, then, as they drove through the clear night
along the lonely road? Lavender at least was rejoicing at his
great good fortune that he had secured for ever to himself the
true-hearted girl who now sat opposite to him, with the moon-
light touching her face and hair; and he was laughing to himself
at the notion that he did not properly appreciate her or under-
stand her or perceive her real character. If not he, who then?
Had he not watched every turn of her disposition, every expres-
sion of her wishes, every grace of her manner and look of her
eyes? and was he not overjoyed to find that the more he knew of
her the more he loved her? Marriage had increased rather than
diminished the mystery and wonder he had woven about her.
He was more her lover now than he had been before his mar-
riage. Who could see in her eyes what he saw? Elderly folks
can look at a girl's eyes, and see that they are brown or blue or
green, as the case may be; but the lover looks at them and sees
in them the magic mirror of a hundred possible worlds. How
can he fathom the sea of dreams that lies there, or tell what
strange fancies and reminiscences may be involved in an absent
look? Is she thinking of starlit nights on some distant lake, or
of the old bygone days on the hills? All her former life is
told there, and yet but half told, and he longs to become
possessed of all the beautiful past that she has seen. Here is a
constant mystery to him, and there is a singular and wistful
attraction for him in those still deeps where the thoughts and
dreams of an innocent soul lie but half revealed. He does not
see those things in the eyes of women he is not in love with;
but when in after years he is carelessly regarding this or the
other woman, some chance look, some brief and sudden turn of
expression, will recall to him, as with a stroke of lightning, all
the old wonder-time, and his heart will go nigh to breaking to
think that he has grown old, and that he has forgotten so much,
and that the fair, wild days of romance and longing are passed
away forever.


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R. D. BLACKMORE.
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2011
RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLACKMORE
(1825-)
He was
HE literary success of Blackmore came late in life.
born in Longworth, Berkshire, England, in 1825, was grad-
uated at Exeter College, Oxford, and afterwards studied law
in the Middle Temple, practicing his profession as a conveyancer.
But his heart was in an outdoor life. Like his own John Ridd, the
hero of Lorna Doone,' he is a man of the moors and fields, with a
fresh breeze blowing over him and a farmer's cares in his mind. In
1854-5 he published several volumes of poems under the pen-name
of "Melanter. " (The Bugle of the Black Sea' and a complete trans-
lation of Virgil's 'Georgics' appeared in 1871.
Other volumes of verse followed, of which it may be said that he
is a poet more sensitive to influence than fertile in original impulse;
although some of his prose, in which even rhythm is observed in
what seems to be an unconscious manner, displays high original
quality. It is therefore fair to say of him as a poet that while his
works did not gain him the reputation that has placed him among
the foremost literary men of the day, the subtle influence rural nature
exerts on man, and the part it bears in the sweet harmonies of life,
are told in passages that are resonant with melody.
The poet's delight is in the prosperity of the fields, as if they
were his friends, and in the dumb loving motherhood with which all
nature seems, to his eyes, to surround him.
As the precursor of a summer that yielded such a mellow harvest,
the spring of Mr. Blackmore's fiction was slow and intermittent. The
plot of his stories is never probable, but in his first novel, 'Clara
Vaughan,' published in 1864, it impairs belief in the general reality
of the book; and though there is hint of the power to excite sym-
pathy of which his latter novels prove him so great a master, the
intelligence refuses such shrieking melodrama. 'Lorna Doone' there-
fore came unheralded. It was published in London in 1869 and
slowly grew in favor, then leaped into popularity. In 1878 twenty-
two editions had been printed.
Other novels followed. 'The Maid of Sker,' 'Alice Lorraine,'
'Cripps the Carrier,' 'Erema,' 'Mary Anerley,' 'Christowell,' 'Sir
Thomas Upton,' came in rapid succession. The paternity of no
novel of Mr. Blackmore's is doubtful. All have marked character-
istics. They are long and exceedingly minute in detail. With all his


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RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLACKMORE
2012
finish, he tells his story almost with a child's elaborateness of inci-
dent. Every change of the seasons, the history of every walk is set
down. He is in love with every feature of the landscape, be it the
wild doons of Exmoor or the wilder Yorkshire coast, or, across the
seas, the plains of the Sierras. He is a story-teller of the days in
which it was quite unimportant whether tales should come to an end
or not. He would have saved Scheherazade all her trouble and
enjoyed the task. He cannot pass carelessly by the slightest inci-
dent; it is his nature to approfondir all his surroundings: if the hero
breaks his stirrup and stops at the blacksmith's to have it mended,
the blacksmith will appear at the end of the story united to the rider,
from the third and fourth generation, by a subtle thread of connec-
tion. But all these details, while they encumber the tale, contribute
to a harmonious whole; for he has in a peculiar degree an instinct
for the judicious introduction of telling human characters that are as
much a part of the detail of the scene as the trees and stones.
Upon these characters he expends a wealth of humor, and his humor
is characteristic of Blackmore alone. It is full of unexpected turns
and twists of fancy, quiet fun when we expect grave comment.
Friendly old people appear, full of innumerable quips of individual-
ity, and breezy fields and wealthy orchards and a general mellow
fruitfulness form the background of the play.
Especially in his prodigality is Blackmore characteristic of Black-
more. Other writers keep their quaint reflections for their dialogue,
and confer immortality on their principal characters. But Blackmore
has no sense of economy. As Mr. Saintsbury says of Thackeray, he
could not introduce a personage, however subordinate, without mak-
ing him a living creature. He does little with a character he has
described in such powerful lines as Stephen Anerley. The fisher
village folks, wild and hardy, with their slow speech and sly sagacity,
the men at sea and the women at home; the maimed and broken-
down yet jolly old tars; the anxious little merchants, and the heavy
coast-guardsmen, we learn to know as we know the rocks and caves,
the fishing cobbles in their bright colors, the slow-tongued gos-
sips pouring out their long-voweled speech. All these characters,
although they have a general resemblance to each other, have also
a peculiar, quaint simplicity and wisdom that is Blackmoreish, as
Thackeray's characters are Thackeraian. The author steps in and
gives his puppets his little twist, the characteristic obliquity each
possesses, his quips and cranks. If he would but confine the abund-
ant tide of his flowing and leisurely utterances, he would have more
time to bestow on really exciting and dramatic episodes, instead of
going off into a little corner and carefully embellishing it, while the
dénouement waits and the interest grows cold. Neither can he write


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2013
a page without sending a sly bolt of amused perception through it,
in which he discovers some foible or pricks some bubble of preten-
sion, but always tenderly, as if he loved his victim. To the fact
that Mr. Blackmore's success came late in life, we have perhaps to
be thankful for the softened and indulgent maturity which finds a
hundred excuses, and knows that nothing is as good or as bad as it
seems.
The best expression of his genius in the delineation of character
is not-with perhaps the exception of John Ridd-in his heroes and
heroines. The former are drawn with the stronger hand. The
maidens are pretty girls, sweet and good and brave for the sake of
their fathers, and cunning for their lovers. His young men are
gallant and true; but as exemplary love is apt to run smooth, it is
not here that the drama finds the necessary amount of difficulty and
pain. The interest centres in such delicious conceptions as Parson
Short, full of muscular energy and sound doctrine, in Dr. Uperan-
down, his salt-water parish rival, the carrier Cripps, Parson Chowne,
and the renowned highwayman Tom Faggus, of whom they were
immensely proud. These people, before he has done with them, get
hold of our sympathies, while the author keeps perennially fresh his
enjoyment of human follies. His rustics do not talk with elaborate
humor, nor are they amiable, but they are racy of the soil.
One cannot dismiss a novelist without a reference to his plots,
unless indeed he discards plots as an article of faith. Mr. Blackmore
has no such intention. His stories are full of adventure and dramatic
situations, and his melodrama is of the lurid kind on which the cal-
cium light is thrown. Sometimes, as in The Maid of Sker' and
'Cripps, they violate every probability. In others, as in Mary
Anerley, the mystery is childishly simple, the oft-repeated plot of a
lost child recovered by certain strangely wrought gold buttons. In
'Erema,' the narrative suffers for want of vraisemblance, and loses by
being related by a very young girl who has had no opportunity of
becoming familiar with the world she describes. He is constantly
guilty of that splendid mendacity which fiction loves, but which is
nearly impossible to actual life. Self-sacrifice as depicted in 'Christo-
well,' involving much suffering to little purpose, is unsatisfactory;
and it is a sin against the verities to make unreasonable generosity
the basis of fiction representing life.
But while the reader quarrels with a waste of precious material,
Mr. Blackmore pursues his meditative way, with his smile of genial
observation, himself the best of all his personages. The smell of the
heather and the wild moorland odors, the honeyed grass and the
fragrant thyme, the darker breathings of the sea, get into his pages
and render them fragrant. A few villages lie on the edge of that


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RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLACKMORE
2014
wild region, and a living trout stream darts by, but the landscape
does not obtrude itself nor interrupt the story. The quaint philos-
ophy flows on spontaneously, with a tender humanity and cheerful
fun. A writer like this may be pardoned if he is an indifferent
builder of a tale.
The scene of 'Lorna Doone,' the novelist's masterpiece, is laid
in Devonshire; and what Wordsworth did for the lake country,
Blackmore has done for the fairest county in England. The time is
that of Charles II. The book is historical, it is very long, it is
minute in detail, and it is melodramatic: but it is alive. The strange
adventures may or may not have happened, but we believe in them,
for it is real life that is set before us; and whatever the author may
tell us of robber caves and black-hearted villains, there is nothing
incredible in any of his confidences. Nothing in recent novel writing
is more vivid than the contrast between these outcast nobles the
Doones, robbers and brigands, living in the wilds of Bagworthy For-
est, locked fast in the hills,-and the peaceful farm-house of the yeo-
man Ridd who lives on the Downs. This home is not idealized.
From the diamond-paned kitchen come savory smells of cooking and
substantial fare. Pretty Annie, whose "like has never been seen for
making a man comfortable," Lizzie, who was undersized and loved
books, "but knew the gift of cooking had not been vouchsafed her
by God," the sweet homely mother, and above all the manly figure
of the young giant John, make a picture of which the gloomy castle
of the Doones is the shadow. And what more charming than the
story of the love that takes possession of the young boy, making a
poet, a soldier, a knight of him, through a chance encounter with
Lorna, the queen of the wild band, the grandchild of old Sir Ensor
Doone?
With John Ridd,-"Grit Jan"—the author dwelt till he possessed
him with human attributes and made him alive. Around him the
interest of the story centres. He is full of mother-wit and observa-
tion of men and things, especially of every changing mood of the
nature he regards as his true mother. He is brave and resourceful,
and rescues Lorna and himself from numberless difficulties by his
native shrewdness. And his love is a poem, an idyl that crowns him
a shepherd king in his own green pastures. Nothing that he does in
his plodding, sturdy way wearies us. His size, his strength, his good
farming, the way he digs his sheep out of the snow, entertain us as
well as his rescue of Lorna from the clan.
The texture of this novel is close, the composition elaborate. It
is impossible to escape from it, the story having been once begun.
'Lorna Doone' is Blackmore at his highest point, full of truest nature
and loveliest thoughts.


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RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLACKMORE
2015
A DESPERATE VENTURE
From Lorna Doone
THE
HE journey was a great deal longer to fetch around the south-
ern hills, and enter by the Doone gate, than to cross the
lower land and steal in by the water-slide. However, I
durst not take a horse (for fear of the Doones, who might be
abroad upon their usual business), but started betimes in the
evening, so as not to hurry, or waste any strength upon the way.
And thus I came to the robbers' highway, walking circumspectly,
scanning the sky-line of every hill, and searching the folds of
every valley, for any moving figure.
Although it was now well on toward dark, and the sun was
down an hour or so, I could see the robbers' road before me, in
a trough of the winding hills, where the brook plowed down.
from the higher barrows, and the coving banks were roofed with
furze. At present there was no one passing, neither post nor
sentinel, so far as I could descry; but I thought it safer to wait
a little, as twilight melted into night; and then I crept down a
seam of the highland, and stood upon the Doone track.
As the road approached the entrance, it became more straight
and strong,
like a channel cut from rock, with the water
brawling darkly along the naked side of it. Not a tree or bush
was left, to shelter a man from bullets; all was stern, and stiff,
and rugged, as I could not help perceiving, even through the
darkness: and a smell as of churchyard mold, a sense of being
boxed in and cooped, made me long to be out again.
And here I was, or seemed to be, particularly unlucky; for as
I drew near the very entrance, lightly of foot, and warily, the
moon (which had often been my friend) like an enemy broke
upon me, topping the eastward ridge of rock, and filling all the
open spaces with the play of wavering light. I shrank back into
the shadowy quarter on the right side of the road, and gloomily
employed myself to watch the triple entrance, on which the
moonlight fell askew.
All across and before the three rude and beetling archways
hung a felled oak overhead, black and thick and threatening.
This, as I heard before, could be let fall in a moment, so as to
crush a score of men, and bar the approach of horses. Behind
this tree the rocky mouth was spanned, as by a gallery, with


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2016
RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLACKMORE
brushwood and piled timber, all upon a ledge or stone, where
thirty men might lurk unseen, and fire at any invader. From
that rampart it would be impossible to dislodge them, because
the rock fell sheer below them twenty feet, or it may be more;
while overhead it towered three hundred, and so jutted over that
nothing could be cast upon them, even if a man could climb the
height. And the access to this portcullis place-if I may so call
it, being no portcullis there—was through certain rocky chambers
known to the tenants only.
But the cleverest of their devices, and the most puzzling to
an enemy, was that, instead of one mouth only, there were three
to choose from, with nothing to betoken which was the proper
access, all being pretty much alike, and all unfenced and yawn-
ing. And the common rumor was that in times of any danger,
when any force was known to be on muster in their neighbor-
hood, they changed their entrance every day, and diverted the
other two, by means of sliding-doors, to the chasm and dark
abysses.
Now I could see those three rough arches, jagged, black, and
terrible, and I knew that only one of them could lead me to the
valley; neither gave the river now any further guidance, but
dived underground with a sullen roar, where it met the cross-bar
of the mountain. Having no means at all of judging which was
the right way of the three, and knowing that the other two
would lead to almost certain death, in the ruggedness and dark-
ness for how could a man, among precipices and bottomless
depths of water, without a ray of light, have any chance to save
his life? I do declare that I was half inclined to go away, and
have done with it.
However, I knew one thing for certain, to wit, that the longer
I stayed debating, the more would the enterprise pall upon me,
and the less my relish be. And it struck me that, in times of
peace, the middle way was the likeliest; and the others diverging
right and left in their further parts might be made to slide into
it (not far from the entrance) at the pleasure of the warders.
Also I took it for good omen that I remembered (as rarely hap-
pened) a very fine line in the Latin grammar, whose emphasis
and meaning is, "Middle road is fastest. "
Therefore, without more hesitation, I plunged into the middle
way, holding a long ash-staff before me, shodden at the end with
iron. Presently I was in black darkness, groping along the wall,


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2017
and feeling a deal more fear than I wished to feel; especially
when, upon looking back, I could no longer see the light, which
I had forsaken. Then I stumbled over something hard, and
sharp, and very cold; moreover, so grievous to my legs that it
needed my very best doctrine and humor to forbear from swear-
ing in the manner they use in London. But when I arose, and
felt it, and knew it to be a culverin, I was somewhat reassured
thereby, inasmuch as it was not likely that they would plant this
engine except in the real and true entrance.
Therefore I went on again, more painfully and wearily, and
presently found it to be good that I had received that knock,
and borne it with such patience; for otherwise I might have
blundered full upon the sentries, and been shot without more
ado. As it was, I had barely time to draw back, as I turned a
corner upon them; and if their lantern had been in its place,
they could scarce have failed to descry me, unless indeed I had
seen the gleam before I turned the corner.
There seemed to be only two of them, of size indeed and
stature as all the Doones must be; but I need not have feared to
encounter them both, had they been unarmed, as I was.
It was
plain, however, that each had a long and heavy carbine, not in
his hands (as it should have been), but standing close beside
him. Therefore it behooved me now to be exceeding careful;
and even that might scarce avail, without luck in proportion. So
I kept well back at the corner, and laid one cheek to the rock
face, and kept my outer eye round the jut in the wariest mode I
could compass, watching my opportunity; and this is what I saw:
The two villains looked very happy- which villains have no
right to be, but often are, meseemeth; they were sitting in a
niche of rock, with the lantern in the corner, quaffing something
from glass measures, and playing at pushpin, or shepherd's chess,
or basset, or some trivial game of that sort. Each was smoking
a long clay pipe, quite of new London shape, I could see, for the
shadow was thrown out clearly; and each would laugh from time
to time as he fancied he got the better of it. One was sitting
with his knees up, and left hand on his thigh; and this one had
his back to me, and seemed to be the stouter. The other leaned
more against the rock, half sitting and half astraddle, and wear-
ing leathern overalls, as if newly come from riding. I could see
his face quite clearly by the light of the open lantern, and a
handsomer or a bolder face I had seldom if ever set eyes upon;
IV-127


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RICHARD DOD DRIDGE BLACKMORE
insomuch that it made me very unhappy to think of his being so
near my Lorna.
"
"How long am I to stay crouching here? " I asked of myself
at last, being tired of hearing them cry, "Score one,"
"Score
two," "No, by, Charlie! " "By I say it is, Phelps. "
And yet my only chance of slipping by them unperceived was to
wait till they quarreled more, and came to blows about it. Pres-
ently, as I made up my mind to steal along towards them (for
the cavern was pretty wide just there), Charlie, or Charleworth
Doone, the younger and taller man, reached forth his hand to
seize the money, which he swore he had won that time. Upon
this the other jerked his arm, vowing that he had no right to do
it; whereupon Charlie flung at his face the contents of the glass
he was sipping, but missed him and hit the candle, which sput-
tered with a flare of blue flame (from the strength, perhaps, of
the spirit), and then went out completely. At this one swore and
the other laughed; and before they had settled what to do, I was
past them and round the corner.
And then, like a giddy fool as I was, I needs must give them
a startler- the whoop of an owl, done so exactly, as John Fry
had taught me, and echoed by the roof so fearfully, that one of
them dropped the tinder-box, and the other caught up his gun
and cocked it—at least as I judged by the sounds they made.
And then, too late, I knew my madness: for if either of them
had fired, no doubt but what all the village would have risen and
rushed upon me. However, as the luck of the matter went, it
proved for my advantage; for I heard one say to the other:
"Curse it, Charlie, what was that? It scared me so, I have
dropped my box; my flint is gone, and everything. Will the
brimstone catch from your pipe, my lad ? »
"My pipe is out, Phelps, ever so long. D-n it, I am not
afraid of an owl, man. Give me the lantern, and stay here. I'm
not half done with you yet, my friend. ”
"Well said, my boy, well said! Go straight to Carver's, mind
you. The other sleepy-heads be snoring, as there is nothing up
to-night. No dallying now under captain's window: Queen will
have naught to say to you, and Carver will punch your head
into a new wick for your lantern. "
"Will he, though? Two can play at that. "
–
And so, after some rude jests and laughter, and a few more
oaths, I heard Charlie (or at any rate somebody) coming toward


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RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLACKMORE
2019
me, with a loose and not too sober footfall. As he reeled a little
in his gait, and I would not move from his way one inch, after
his talk of Lorna, but only longed to grasp him (if common
sense permitted it), his braided coat came against my thumb, and
his leathern gaiters brushed my knee. If he had turned or
noticed it, he would have been a dead man in a moment; but
his drunkenness saved him.
-
So I let him reel on unharmed; and thereupon it occurred to
me that I could have no better guide, passing as he would
exactly where I wished to be that is to say, under Lorna's
window. Therefore I followed him, without any special caution;
and soon I had the pleasure of seeing his form against the
moonlit sky.
Down a steep and winding path, with a hand-rail at the cor-
ners (such as they have at Ilfracombe), Master Charlie tripped
along—and indeed there was much tripping, and he must have
been an active fellow to recover as he did - and after him
walked I, much hoping (for his own poor sake) that he might
not turn and espy me.
But Bacchus (of whom I read at school, with great wonder
about his meaning-and the same I may say of Venus), that
great deity, preserved Charlie, his pious worshiper, from regard-
ing consequences. So he led me very kindly to the top of the
meadow-land where the stream from underground broke forth,
seething quietly with a little hiss of bubbles. Hence I had fair
view and outline of the robbers' township, spread with bushes
here and there, but not heavily overshadowed. The moon, ap-
proaching now the full, brought the forms in manner forth, cloth-
ing each with character, as the moon (more than the sun) does
to an eye accustomed.
I knew that the captain's house was first, both from what
Lorna had said of it, and from my mother's description, and
now again from seeing Charlie halt there for a certain time,
and whistle on his fingers, and hurry on, fearing consequence.
The tune that he whistled was strange to me, and lingered in
my ears, as having something very new and striking and fantas-
tic in it. And I repeated it softly to myself, while I marked the
position of the houses and the beauty of the village. For the
stream, in lieu of the street, passing between the houses, and
affording perpetual change and twinkling and reflections-more-
over, by its sleepy murmur, soothing all the dwellers there-
I
ĭ
I


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RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLACKMORE
this, and the snugness of the position, walled with rock and
spread with herbage, made it look in the quiet moonlight like a
little paradise. And to think of all the inmates there sleeping
with good consciences, having plied their useful trade of making
others work for them, enjoying life without much labor, yet with
great renown!
Master Charlie went down the village, and I followed him
carefully, keeping as much as possible in the shadowy places,
and watching the windows of every house, lest any light should
be burning. As I passed Sir Ensor's house, my heart leaped up,
for I spied a window, higher than the rest above the ground,
and with a faint light moving. This could hardly fail to be the
room wherein my darling lay; for here that impudent young fel-
low had gazed while he was whistling. And here my courage
grew tenfold, and my spirit feared no evil; for lo! if Lorna
had been surrendered to that scoundrel Carver, she would not
have been at her grandfather's house, but in Carver's accursed
dwelling.
Warm with this idea, I hurried after Charleworth Doone,
being resolved not to harm him now, unless my own life required
it.