Lorna Doone

John describes his time at school, including the bullying of children who did not pay tuition and his frequent fighting. One of his claims to fame beyond his undefeated fighting history is that his cousin, Mr. Tom Faggus, is a famous highwayman.

At school, John gets into yet another meaningless fight, but John Fry, a farmhand, interrupts. John Ridd asks why he is there instead of his father. Fry tells him that everything is fine, but John knows that he is lying. Still, he continues his fight against Robin Snell, a future mayor of Exeter, feeling that he must defend the family honor one last time. The fight is difficult due to the older boy’s size, but the encouragement John receives from his “second” and John Fry’s words about winning or not coming home push him to victory.

John Ridd and John Fry set off for home, but young John is surprised when they do not make the traditional stop at his uncle’s house to rest the horses. He knows something is wrong.

They stop at an inn. John washes himself using the water pump, but a foreign lady’s maid appears and fusses over his bruises from the fight. John agrees to pump some water for her. After he does, she tries to kiss him, but he ducks under the pump. When they return to the road, the same woman is in a coach with another woman, a young, dark-haired girl, and a small boy. John asks Fry who they are, and he answers “murdering Papishers”.

As they find their way through the fog, Fry warns John to be quiet since they are in Doone territory. Soon enough, they hear horses approach. John and Fry release their horses into the woods and hide themselves by lying low to the ground. The Doones appear, one with a sheep hung over his horse, another with a deer, and a third with a child. Twelve-year-old John is overcome with rage for the child and stands up to yell at the Doones. Luckily, they dismiss the sound, saying that it was just a pixie. In his narration, John hints that he will cause the destruction of the Doones in the future: “Little they knew, and less thought I, that the pixie then before them would dance their castle down one day” (22).

Fry is angry with John for endangering their lives. They arrive home, but John realizes that no one is in any of the usual places to greet him. He realizes that his father is dead and finds his mother and sister crying together. In his grief, he is unable to look at them.

John introduces his family, of which he is the oldest child at 12. Annie is 10, and Eliza is the youngest. The Doones of Bagworthy killed elder John Ridd, John’s father, when he was on his way home from the Porlock market. During an ambush, he beat three of the six robbers with his staff, but another shot him dead.

Grieving her husband, John’s mother goes to the Doone gate to confront them. They blindfold her and lead her to their base unharmed. When she is able to see it, she discovers a beautiful valley in the mountain with a meadow and a river with stone houses on either side. Mrs. Ridd feels guilty for raising a complaint given her social status as a farmer’s widow and knowing that the Doones are high-born. Sir Ensor Doone, the leader of the family, appears, and Mrs. Ridd tells him about her husband’s virtues and her grief at his death. After hearing her story, Sir Ensor sends for the Counsellor, who claims that the elder John Ridd had tried to rob them, then beat three of them before “brave and noble Carver” struck him and left him with a “flesh wound” (28). Sir Ensor says that they forgive him for his crimes against them posthumously. Mrs. Ridd is shocked silent by the lies and leaves without protest. As she exits, someone hands her a bag saying that the Captain sent it for her children, but she lets it fall to the ground instead, horrified that the Doones have pitied her.

John explains how the Doones and their robberies came to be an expected part of life in Exmoor. Around 1640, many English estates were confiscated and ended up in co-heirship and joint tenancy, where if one tenant died, the other would receive full ownership. Such was the case for Sir Ensor Doone and his cousin, the Earl of Lorne and Dykemont. In trying to settle this issue, both parties lost tenancy. Sir Ensor left his lands swearing. There are various legends as to how Sir Ensor became an outlaw. What is clear is that Sir Ensor moved to the valley outside Exmoor, which was ideally situated in terms of natural defenses and quite fertile.

Initially, only a dozen Doones settled in Exmoor, but they multiplied quickly. The town did not storm them and evict them while they had the chance, and the younger generations turned to plundering, which the residents ignored until it became unstoppable. The Doones taller, wider, and better looking than the average man of the area. They are also expert marksmen and notably vengeful as given by the tale in which one was shot during a robbery and the party returned to kill everyone except one child and destroyed the house. The area’s people fear the Doones, and no one is willing to make a fuss about the elder John Ridd’s death.

John misses his father, especially when he is outdoors, and proudly clings to his father’s old Spanish gun. He learns to shoot with it, thinking each practice shot is for his father’s murder. He goes to Porlock for saltpeter (potassium nitrate, a preservative) and receives a “roll of comfits” for Annie because everyone loves her (38).

John describes Beth Muxworthy as the maid who had once nursed the elder John Ridd. Though she believes reading to be a parlor trick and all men to be liars by nature, she is so old and integral to the family unit that no one argues with her.

John describes the Exmoor area’s land and rivers. He explains his school’s approach to teaching—a sink or swim method used in a pool where the water is deep, but the current would push any drowning children to the edges. John credits this with not only learning the critical skill of swimming, but also a life lesson of great importance: “Nevertheless, I learnt to swim there, as all the other boys did; for the greatest point in learning that is to find that you must do it (43).”

At 14, John has a life-threatening adventure in Bagworthy water while trying to catch loaches (a kind of fish) for his ill mother. John recognizes the danger he is in fishing in the Bagworthy river, but as an adolescent boy, he is careless in his longing for adventure. He catches a lot of fish, including the loaches, but loses track of the time. Cold and tired, he tries to determine the fastest way back. He finds a black pool of water with something like stairs leading up a cliff, but the water’s edges are white and frothy. Out of curiosity, he tries to take the shortcut back up the hill and nearly drowns, pulled into the center of the pool by a harsh current. After his initial recovery, he tries to climb the rocks, falling twice. The second time, he fully expects to die.

John wakes up on the grass next to an eight-year-old girl in a colorful dress. He is stunned by her beauty and sweet voice as she fusses over him. John is embarrassed of his accent, but he introduces himself, learning that the girl’s name is Lorna Doone. She is visibly uncomfortable in admitting such and cries. John begs her not to cry, offers her the fish, and kisses her. He is immediately filled with embarrassment since he is only a yeoman and she is obviously highborn, having “that look” of the aristocracy in addition to her fine clothes.

Lorna tells John that if the Doones find them there, they will kill him for discovering a way into Doone Glen. The two admit that they like one another, and John insists that they must come back and meet again so that he can show her his new puppies. Lorna insists that that would be impossible, and they hear voices. Lorna tells John how to escape through a hole in the rocks of the cliff. They hide from the dozen men who appear looking for her and calling her “queen.” Lorna admits that they always address her as such and that she is “to be queen by and by” (53).

Thinking quickly, the children decide that John will hide in the water and that Lorna will pretend to be asleep in the meadow. She tells him never to come back for his own safety. The fiercest man of the group arrives, kisses her, and puts her over his shoulder. John is filled with anger, but Lorna waves to John behind the man’s back. After the Doones are gone, John enters the hole in the rocks as Lorna had advised him.

The way out is difficult, dark, cold, and frightening. John believes that he is going to die yet again, but he finds his way out. When he returns home, he does not tell his family where he was. Eventually, he tells John Fry everything except about Lorna. Meanwhile, he continues to improve his marksmanship and considers becoming a sailor, just like many boys his age. John also discusses Annie, who is his favorite person, but he mentions that after seeing Lorna’s beauty, he thinks nothing of Annie’s.

When John is 15, he and Annie investigate the distressed noises of their ducks. One duck is trapped in a flooded brook. John wants to save the duck but is concerned that he could drown in the attempt. A man on horseback arrives and rides into the brook to retrieve the duck. He reveals himself to be Tom Faggus, the famous highwayman, and his horse is his similarly famous strawberry mare, Winnie. Winnie will allow none but Faggus to ride her, but John insists that he can ride any horse bareback. Tom allows him to try for his own amusement and John’s personal growth. John holds onto the bucking horse for some time, but as Tom requests of his horse, Winnie drops him gently in a dunghill.