Lorna Doone

John tells the story of his cousin and how he became a highwayman. Tom Faggus was once a land-owning blacksmith and farrier. He was known for being well-spoken, polite, and literate. His unmatched skills as a farrier were met with both acclaim and jealousy. Everything was going well for Tom as he planned to marry his sweetheart. However, Sir Robert Bampfylde coveted his land, so he sued Tom, and the lawsuit cost Tom everything. A month later, his sweetheart married another man. Having lost his home, his livelihood, and his intended wife because of a high-born man’s greed, Tom swore vengeance on the world: “The world hath preyed on me, like a wolf. God help me now to prey on the world” (75).

Tom became am efficient but polite highwayman, never harming cooperative victims. Despite his robberies, the local townsfolk admired him. Unlike the Doones, who were hated for living apart from the rest of society, Tom regularly drank with the locals.

Three months after his initial visit, Tom teaches John to ride Winnie and gives him a new gun. John works the farm and considers Lorna to be more like a dream than reality. He grows very tall and wide, unlike Eliza, who is a small and sickly girl born premature after John Fry’s negligence caused her mother to fall. Annie remains John’s favorite person in the world.

The Doones continue their armed robberies, and Tom Faggus, the only one willing to speak ill of the Doones, relocates. John considers his feelings about the Doones and repeatedly asserts that he had no interest in seeking vengeance or bearing a grudge, however well deserving the Doones might be of it. He also mentions a local mystery: wailing voices and the sounds of running near the sea. 

Mr. Reuben Huckaback is Sarah Ridd’s (John’s mother’s) uncle and a rich shop-owner in Dulverton. Mrs. Ridd insists on keeping the family connected to him, as he has no family but his granddaughter, Ruth Huckaback. “Uncle Ben” visits for New Years.

The Ridds have been the local churchwardens for as long as anyone can remember, but after the elder John Ridd’s death, Nicholas Snowe was forced to take over. Mrs. Ridd advises him, but the locals are waiting for John to grow old enough to take over the duties. Snowe has three pretty daughters, whom he and Mrs. Ridd passive-aggressively push on the now 21-year-old John.

Uncle Ben does not arrive in time for the party, so Mrs. Ridd sends John out to look for him. John is the safest choice, as he is the largest and strongest in the area outside of the Doones. While looking for his great-uncle, mists cause John to lose his way. He hears a creepy sound and follows it in case it is an animal in need of help. Instead, he finds his great-uncle tied up on a mountain pony. John cuts him down and carries him home on his back. Uncle Ben is grateful, muttering that John “shall marry Ruth for this and have [his] savings” (88). Safely returned to the Ridds’s house, Uncle Ben becomes furious at his first robbery, though the others quietly consider him lucky to have lived so long without being robbed.

Farmer Snowe arrives, and Uncle Ben complains about the robbery. He is furious when he learns that no one expects the Doones to be punished. Speaking of trying to punish the Doones frightens Snowe, and Uncle Ben calls him a coward. After vehemently disparaging the town and all who live in it, Uncle Ben changes his mind after dinner. He praises them for their hospitality and the quality of their food.

Uncle Ben demands John as an escort for some theoretically dangerous business. John is initially eager to accept, but disappointed to learn that the business is going to see Baron de Whichehalse for a warrant to sue the Doones. John knows that his great-uncle will never get such a warrant, and a frustrated Uncle Ben declares that he will have a more connected man in London see it through for him. He demands John take him to Doone Glen. John agrees and remembers Lorna while his great-uncle rambles on about military tactics that could be useful against such a location. Before they leave, John sees someone he believes may be Lorna and realizes that he had never stopped caring about her, even if he had stopped actively thinking about her.

John decides to go back to Doone Glen to see Lorna on the 7-year anniversary of the day they met: Valentine’s Day. He travels using the same secret path, realizing that it is much less perilous as an adult than it had been when he was a boy. He hears Lorna singing and reveals himself to her. When she turns to run, he falls on the ground and reminds her of who he is. Lorna recognizes him immediately, though she pretends not to. John is entranced by Lorna, though he is usually embarrassed and uncomfortable around girls. She points out the danger he is in by staying in Doone territory. John agrees to leave but promises to bring back some blue hen’s eggs for her. He realizes that he foolishly wants to give her everything in his possession.

John is too lovesick to be useful on the farm, making the farmhands and servants mock him, even though he is now in charge. John Fry tells people that a mad dog bit him, and Betty barks at him mockingly. No matter what he does, John cannot stop thinking of Lorna, but he is not sure when to visit her. He decides to see Mother Melldrum, the local wise woman, and ask her to advise him. He leaves to see her that Sunday after the parson preaches on the Witch of Endor. John considers whether that sermon was fate, given the circumstances.

John finds Mother Melldrum’s seasonal home and waits for her, but he panics and decides to leave. She returns before he retreats and calls him by name, asking why he seeks her. She explains that she knows John and is grateful to him for saving her granddaughter’s life by pulling her out of a bog. John asks when he can see Lorna Doone, but Mother Melldrum warns him not to see her at all: “John Ridd, if thou hast any value for thy body or thy soul, thy mother, or thy father’s name, have naught to do with any Doone” (115).

John silently tells God to send him a sign if he needs to avoid Lorna. When no sign comes, he yells at Mother Melldrum, telling her she does not know what she is talking about. She tells him to look at a fight between a sheep and a goat. The sheep is dangerously close to being knocked off the cliff-face into the water. John yells at it to “lie down” to save itself, but the sheep does not understand. Mother Melldrum mocks John by yelling for him to lie down too, implying that John does not have any more sense than the sheep in his insistence on seeing Lorna again. John runs to try to save the poor sheep, but it is thrown into the water before John can reach it. Enraged, he throws the goat in after it.

After seeing the wise woman, John throws himself into his work to avoid the pain of missing Lorna. He feels guilty that he has not told Annie about her or about his plans to see her. John finally decides to meet Lorna again, puts on his best clothes, and goes to Doone Glen. He is tired from his journey and lies down on the grass. Lorna appears and warns him that a patrol is coming, but John refuses to budge until she uses his first name. Lorna agrees and leads him to her bower, her secret sanctuary hidden in the stone. She asks if he brought her the blue eggs he had promised. Lorna tells John that she is overcome by his kindness since she rarely experiences it. Lorna tells him everything about herself except that which he wants to know most—her feelings about him.

Lorna tells John about her life and states that only two people have tried to listen to her and help her: her grandfather, Sir Ensor Doone, and the Counsellor. Her Aunt Sabina had raised her and tried to teach the Doone boys to behave honorably, but they ignored and mocked her for her efforts. Since Sabina’s death, Lorna feels alone, without guidance, and surrounded by crime and violence. She mentions not remembering her early childhood and how she has been told that her father was the best Doone of all. The Doones treat her as an heir, but she does not expect to wield any real power. Still, the Counsellor and his son, Carver Doone, are eager to join her court as an advisor and a husband respectively. Lorna has only ever made one request of the Doones: that the lower narrowing of the valley where she meets John be considered hers and that it would only be disturbed for security purposes such as patrols.

Lorna laments her loneliness and that her only company are her grandfather and a Cornish girl she once saved from starvation, Gwenny Carfax. Given her feelings on the Doone way of life, Lorna states that she would have left the family, except she does not want her grandfather to die alone. She is also worried about the line of succession, especially if she were to leave. Lorna says that the Doones should be pitied by the people they rob because, unlike their victims, the Doones do not live in a world where things are honest and peaceful. Lorna mentions that a kinsperson offered to help her escape but says that the matter turned out so badly that she does not wish to burden John with the story. Intrigued, John entreats her to tell him anyway.

Lorna’s story takes place one year before, on July 15. She was making a flower crown and returning home when a man jumped out at her and grabbed her. He identified himself as Lord Alan Brandir of Loch Awe and claimed to be her cousin and rightful guardian, as his father is her mother’s brother. Lorna questioned this, in part, due to his age: he was only 18 to her 15 at the time. His manner was gentlemanly, and unlike the Doones, so Lorna felt safe with him. He tried to convince Lorna to leave with him, but she refused, partly because he was a stranger, and partly out of love for her grandfather. She suggested that he make his case to her grandfather instead, but he refused. As Alan promised to return and bid her goodbye, Carver Doone appeared and dragged him into the dark as a thunderstorm raged. Lorna heard the clanging of a sword and knew that Alan was dead. She sobs as she finishes her telling of the story, and John leaves, taking some of her fright with him.