Lorna Doone

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. A novel that has stood the test of time so well as Mr. Blackmore's charming story of Lor-na Doone scarcely needs a preface. Certainly no word of introduction is necessary to testify to its exquisite humor, its dramatic force, its under-current of poetic feeling, its fine touches of landscape-painting, and the novelty and interest of its subject. Since it first appeared in 1869 all these have be come as household words, only, perhaps, all the admirers of Lorna Doone have not had the good fortune to wander through the romantic and picturesque region where the scene of the story is laid. To travel in North Devon, and over its border into Somerset (the Summerland, as the 'old Northmen call it), is to be confronted with the scenes of the novel at every turn for Mr. Blackmore has so suc cessfully woven the legends Of the whole countryside into his story that one grows to believe it a veritable history, and is as disappointed to find traces Of the romancer's own hand here and there as to find the hills and valleys laid bare of the forests which adorned them in the time of the Doones.