The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-12

Of all Blackmore's writings, and he wrote much both In prose and verse. Lorna Doone is the one which Is ap- parently destined to live. That novel has now lasted for nearly forty years and has gradually taken its place among the stories which have a per- manent place in English literature The test of only forty years Is of course not e conclusive one, but the book has so gradually and legitimately advanced itself into the nobility of literature that 1t has become a story which every one feels that he must read if he would be considered" read" Therefore there would seem to be little doubt against including 1t among the Eng fish classics.
 The book itself also bears intrinsic evidence of its lasting properties and that it never could be best seller" of to-day and a forgotten thing next week. The literary style Is rather affected in its simplicity than natural; the story, while full of incident, is In many ways inartistic, and there is tendency to verbosity which to many readers proves wearisome. But the novel is the story of an English yeo- man, written by a man with the blood and spirit of the English yeoman strong in him.
 Blackmore has caught, as no other writer ever has, the true soul of the class from which so many millions of that gives one element of lasting value to Lorna Doone."
 Tn the time of Charles IT band of outlaws, known to the country round about as the Doones, occupied prac- Itically inaccessible valley on the bor- lders of Devon and Somerset.
 Their stronghold was known as Glen Doone. The rocks and cliffs pitched sheer up from it. forbiddins approach save by one opening at one lend of the glen, known as the Doone Igate It was an archway in the huge cliffs and was always patrolled Iby 6 Doone sentinel and defended by "a cannon.
 A little river ran through the glen and break in the cliffs at the lower end let 1t out over a long, smooth stone slide, down which 1t sluiced with frightening velocity. This passage, being deemed quite impossible for human beings to ascend, was never guarded Indeed as a matter of fact, 1t would have been safe for the Doones to leave their whole glen unguarded for the simple peasantry and yeomanry of the district feared them with an abjectly humble fear and accepted their presence and their outrages as
  sively, for the Doones were great folk"
 Many years before they had come down from Scotland. when their great estates there had been confiscated. and settled down as the scourge of the Exmoor country. They were Of the great race of the Lords of Lorne-aii naughty as Lucifer and as wicked; handsome and tall men, strong, and Knowing neither fear nor mercy. 50 they levied tribute right and left. robbed and murdered, and carried OH women, with but little opposition.
 Old Sir Ensor ruled the Doones, HIS son. himself along in years. and known as the Counselor. was the only one fin all that wicked glen who was not tall and straight. But he made up for his physical defects in cunning, and his superior wit devised all the . 'stratagems and trickery of Glen Doone.
 No family in the neighborhood was safe from them. They even murdered John Ridd, the owner of the largest farm in all that country and one of the most prominent yeomen of the time. There was none to take up the quarrel of the Ridds, for the family consisted of Mrs. Ridd, two daughters and a son, who was only 12 years old at the time.
 When young John Ridd was A years old he went fishing one day in the Bagworthy River. and at last came to 4he place where the waters slid down from Glen Doone. Lured by boyish curiosity, he climbed up the sliding water at the risk of his life and fell exhausted on the turf.
 When he came to himself he looked up to see the sweetest creature he had ever looked upon gazing down on him and bathing his forehead with her handkerchief They became acquaint- ed with that direct frankness and that asking of many personal questions peculiar to children; and when there came a shouting of men up the valley. and the little girl showed John out or the glen by secret way. he left his boy-heart behind him and took away her girl-heart by way of exchange
 She was Lorna Doone a girl whom Sir Ensor claimed as his granddaughter and whom the Doones were bringing up in their wild village as their queen
 Now, John Ridd, as the years passed ~vaxed nightly in strength and stature, and settled down to his farming, mak- ing his estate of Plover's Barrows the most profitable in all that region. He became herculean in frame, and was famous far and wide as the best wrest- Ter in two shires.
 But all the time he thought of Lorna ana one day, when he had come to twenty years, he climbed up the water fall again into Glen Doone and saw her walking by the riverside. She knew him at once, and they talked long, but with more reserve now than when they were children.
 Lorna told him what he well knew that every visit he made to the glen was at the peril of his life. for the Doones would surely murder him IT they found him there. Before they narted she made the stout yeoman promise that he would come to her only when he saw from the top of the cliffs her mantle thrown over certain rock in the valley. That was to be signal that the coast was clear and ne might venture with little more or safety.
 Because of the watchfulness of the Doones John could visit the valley but seldom. and he chafed under this fiercely, all the more that Lorna had warned him against Carver Doone, the giant Doone whom old Sir Ensor was pressing her to marry.
 Things were in this condition when Master Huckaback, Johns uncle, the richest man in Dulverton. was robbed by the Doones while on his way to visit Plover's Barrows Master Huckaback could not move the local Justices to action, but, being rich, he made his woes known even in London, where by money, he got the ear Of Judge Jeffreys and told him many 'AAinRs about the state of the western