The Blackmore Country (1906)

I II i II I THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES IN THE SAME SERIES PRICE 6/- EACH THE SCOTT COUNTRY THE BURNS COUNTRY BY W. S. CROCKETT BY C. S. DOOGALL Minister of Twccdsmuir THE THE THACKERAY COUNTRY CANTERBURY PILGRIMAGES BY LEWIS MELVILLE BY II. SNOWDEN WARD THE INQOLDSBY COUNTRY THE HARDY COUNTRY BY CHAS. G. HAKI'ER BY CHAS. G. HARPER PUBLISHED BY ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON Zbc pWQVimnQC Series CO THE BLACKMORE COUNTRY s^- Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/blackmorecountryOOsneliala ON THE LYN, BELOW BRENDON. THE BLACKMORE COUNTRY BY F. J. SNELL AUTHOR OF 'A BOOK OF exmoob"; " kably associations of archbishop temple," etc. EDITOR of " UEMORIALS OF OLD DEVONSHIRE " WITH FIFTY FULL -PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY C. W. BARNES WARD LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1906 " So holy and so perfect is my love, That I shall think it a most plenteous crop To glean the broken ears after the man That the main harvest reaps." —Sir Phiup SroNEY. CORRIGENDA Page 22, line 20, for " immorality " read " morality." „ 128, „ 2 1, /or "John" r^a^/" Jan." „ 131, „ 21, /<7r "check" r?a^ "cheque." ; PROLOGUE The " Blackmore Country " is an expression requiring some amount of definition, as it clearly will not do to make it embrace the whole of the territory which he annexed, from time to time, in his various works of fiction, nor even every part of Devon in which he has laid the scenes of a romance. The latter point may perhaps be open to discussion in the sense that, ideally, the glamour of his writing ought to rest with its full might of memory on all the neighbourhoods of the West around which he drew his magic circle. As a fact, however, it is North Devon and a slice of the sister county that form his literary patrimony, while Dartmoor is a more general possession, which he failed to seal with the same staunch and archetypal impression. There have been manv orood Dartmoor stories, and one instinctively associates that region with the names of Baring-Gould and Eden Phillpotts with Blackmore, hardly at all. But from Exmoor to Barnstaple, and from Lynton to Tiverton, he reigns supreme — and naturally, for this was his homeland, which, through all its length and breadth, he knew with an intimacy. Tii 632275 viii PROLOGUE and loved with a devotion, and portrayed with a skill, that will surely never again be the portion of any child of Devon. Richard Doddridge Blackmore was born on June 7, 1825, at Longworth, in Berkshire — a circumstance which raises the delicate and important question whether, after all, he can be justly claimed as a Devonshire man. On the whole, I think, the question may be answered affirmatively, although it is evident that he cannot possibly be described as a native of the county. Who, however, would dream of depriv- ing an Englishman of his nationality merely for the accident of his being born abroad, unless indeed he deliberately abandoned that proud title and threw in his lot with the country of his birth, to the exclusion of his ancestral home? And this practically represents the state of affairs as regards Blackmore. In one sense it must be admitted he did not remain constant to his Devonshire connections, inasmuch as he resided through a great part of his life, and to the day of his death, at Teddington, in Middlesex. But as against this must be set the facts that he descended from an old North Devon stock, a stock so old that it may fairly be termed indigenous, and that his boyish experiences were almost entirely confined within the county. To these weighty considerations may be added that he eventually became possessor of the ancient residence of his race, that he always manifested the warmest interest in county concerns, and that his great achievement in literature was inspired by West-country legend. That well-known authority, the Rev. J. F. Chanter, worthy son of — PROLOGUE ix a worthy sire, would like to say ** Devon" legend, and much may be urged in favour of his conten- tion, notwithstanding that modern Exmoor is altogether in Somerset. He points out, for instance, that Bagworthy (or " Badgery ") Wood, the centre of the Doone traditions, is in Devon. Still it were better, perhaps, to consider Lorna Doone in the light of a border romance. Indeed, on an impartial survey, it seems almost necessary to adopt this view ; and Blackmore himself was anything but unwilling to recognise, and even to emphasise, the Somerset element in his story. Not long before the novelist's death, a gentleman wrote to him from Taunton, calling attention to the widely prevalent idea that in the course of the tale he conveyed the impression of allocating this charming country to North Devon rather than West Somerset ; and Mr Black- more's correspondent went on to mention that recently strenuous efforts had been made to procure the inclusion of Exmoor in Devon, but that the policy of plunder had been defeated by the vigilant action of the Somerset County Council. In reply to this communication the following letter was received : " My dear Sir, —Nowhere, to the best of my remembrance, have I said, or even implied, that Exmoor lies mainly in Devonshire. Having known that country from my boyhood—for my grandfather was the incumbent of Oare as well as of Combe Martin— I have always borne in mind the truth that by far the larger part of the moor is within the county of Somerset, and the very first sentence in Lorna Doone shows that X PROLOGUE John Ridd lived in the latter county. Moreover, when application is made to Devon J.P.'s for a warrant against the Doones, does not one of them say that the crime was committed in Somerset, and therefore he cannot deal with it ? See also p. 179 (6d. edition), which seems to me clear enough for anything. Moreover, the rivalry of the militia, both in Lorna Doone and Slain by the Doones—which title I dislike, and did not choose freely—shows that the Doone Valley was upon the county border. I think also that Cosgate, supposed to be ' County's Gate,' is referred to in Lorna Doone, but I cannot stop to look.^ The Warren where the Squire lived is on the westward of the line, as Lynmouth is—or, at least, I think so—and therefore North Devon is spoken of the heroine who lives there. All this being so very clear to me, I have been surprised more than once at finding myself accused in Somerset papers of describing Exmoor as mainly a district of Devonshire—a thing which I never did, even in haste of thought. And if you should hear such a charge repeated, I trust that your courtesy will induce you to contradict it, which I have never done publicly, as I thought the refutation was self-evident." It is certainly true that at Dulverton, which, if not Exmoor, is next door to it, visitors fre- quently imagine that they are in Devonshire, as I have myself proved, but, for my own part, I have never attributed this delusion to the influence of Lorna Doone. On the contrary, it ^ Cosgate is mentioned in chapter xlviii., where the county boundary is defined.—F. J. S. PROLOGUE xi has seemed to me that a river is the culprit. The Exe is universally esteemed a Devon stream, and lends its name to the metropolis of the West. That in these circumstances Exmoor should be anywhere but in Devonshire, may well appear a violation of the fitness of things, and as coloured maps seldom perhaps emerge from their impedi- menta, these visitors revenge themselves on the makers of England by substituting for artificial delimitations their own easy beliefs and natural assum.ptions. This, however, is somewhat of a digression. I return to the probably more interesting topic of Mr Blackmore's Devonshire "havage," which good old West-country term I once heard a good old West-country clergyman derive from the Latin avus—needless to say, a most unlikely etymon. In the above-quoted letter reference is made to the novelist's grandfather as incumbent of Oare and Combe Martin, but, had the occasion required it, Blackmore could no doubt have furnished a much fuller account of his North Devon pedigree. It is extremely probable, but not absolutely certain, that one of his remote ancestors, sharing the same Christian name Richard, married a Wichehalse of Lynton. To have read Lorna Doone is to remember how John Ridd rudely disturbed young Squire Wichehalse in the act of kissing his sister Annie ; and I shall have more to say of this half-foreign clan, their fortunes, and their eyry in a subsequent chapter. Meanwhile one may note that the first entry in the parish register of Parracombe relates to the marriage of Richard Blackmore and Margaret, daughter of Hugh Wichehalse, of Ley, Esq. ; — xii PROLOGUE and, further, that the bride's father died on Christide, 1653, and the bride herself thirty years later. These dates are important, as they seem to preclude the possibility of the Richard Black- more who wedded the Lady of Ley being the direct progenitor of the Richard Blackmore who wrote Lorna Doone, though it can scarcely be questioned that he was of the same kith and kin, and so, in the larger sense, an ancestor. In any case, the match cannot be accepted as a criterion of the standing of the family.

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