THE LATE R. D. BLACKMORE [To the Editor of the
SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—When I was writing Baedeker's Handbook to Great Britain, in 1887, I was struck by the discrepancy between the actual scenery of the Doone Valley and the description of it in Lorna Doone. I therefore wrote to Mr. Blackmore about it ; and you may find his reply, of which I append a copy, interesting enough to print :
" Teddington,
Middlesex.
Mar. 10, 1887.
" DEAR Sue, I am much obliged by your courtesy. When I wrote Lorna Doone,' the greatest effort of my imagination would have been to picture its success. If I had dreamed that it ever would be more than a book of the moment, the descriptions of scenery—which I know as well as I know my garden-would have been kept nearer to their fact. I romanced therein, not to mislead any other, but solely for the uses of my story. Disappointed tourists have reproached me, and therefore I am glad that the truth should be told as distinctly as it is in the passage submitted so kindly to my scrutiny.
Excuse my observing that the date assigned in your pages for the Doone era is certainly too late, my grandfather was Rector of Oare at the ' close of the 18th century,' and his rides across Exmoor to and from the church would not have been prudent if the Doones had been then his parishioners.
Believe me, dear Sir,
Very faithfully yours, (Signed) R. D. BLACKMORE."
The " passage " Mr. Blackmore refers to was a paragraph in Baedeker's Great Britain, stating the discrepancy between the actual and the imaginary scenery.—I am, Sir, &c.,
JAMES -F. MUIRHEAD.
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