fiction, but its allusions proved caviare to the general, and taxed the patience of the circulating libraries. 'Cradock Nowell,' notvrithstanding this, is one of the best of Blackmore's heroes, and in Amy Rosedew he gave the world one of the most bewitching of heroines. It was in 1869, with his third attempt in fiction, that Blackmore rose suddenly to the front rank of English novelists with the publication of 'Lorna Doone.' Some of the critical journals, he used to say, damned the book at the outset with faint praise ; but it eventually took the great reading world by storm, for Lorna herself was resistless in her beauty and grace, and John Ridd was made to tell his own story with manly simplicity and dramatic force. The novel of manners was in ascendency when 'Lorna Doone' appeared, and Black- more was the pioneer of the new romantic movement, which, allying itself more or less closely with historical research, has since won a veritable triumph. Blackmore did for Devonshire what Scott did for the highlands, by conjuring up the romantic traditions and investing the story of old feuds and forays with his own imagination and fancy. He used to say that 'Lorna Doone' drove him out of his favourite county, for he found himself the object there of embarrassing attentions from admirers of his book. No less than twelve novels followed 'Lorna Doone.' 'The Maid of Sker' was published in 1872, and it was followed in 1875 by 'Alice Lorraine,' which had long been in process, and at an interval of a year by 'Cripps the Carrier.' Blackmore has drawn few more realistic portraits than that of Davy Llewellyn in 'The Maid of Sker,' while the child Bardie, it is interesting to learn, was suggested to the novelist by a niece.
'Alice Lorraine' takes the reader at once to the South Downs, and some of the characters in its pages, especially the Rev. Struan Hales, a squarson of the old sporting school, are inimitable. In 'Cripps' Blackmore not only girds mischievously at his old profession, but puts into the lips of the carrier his own homely philosophy of life. The scene of half of the story is Oxford. His other novels were : 'Erema, or My Father's Sin,' 1877 ; 'Mary Anerley,' 1880; 'Christowell,' 1882; 'The Remarkable History of Tommy Upmore,'1884; ' Springhaven,' 1887; 'Kit and Kitty,' 1889 ; 'Perlycross,' 1894 ; 'Tales from the Telling House,' 1896 ; and 'Dariel,' 1897. They all bear the unmistakable marks of his own attractive and unconventional personality, though in point of merit and power of appeal they are curiously unequal. 'Christowell' perhaps gives the best picture of himself, though in every book he has written his own individuality leaps to light. The clergyman in 'Perly-cross' he admitted was a portrait of his own father. 'Kit and Kitty' enabled him to use with enviable skill his knowledge of market gardening, while 'Springhaven,' which is undoubtedly one of the most am- bitious of his books, allowed free play for his hero-worship of Nelson. The opening pages of 'Tales from the Telling House' contain some reminiscences of his childhood. His novels bear witness to his sincerity and strength, his generous interpretation of his fellow-men, his chivalrous devotion to girls and women, his keen appreciation of the beauty of nature, his lofty outlook on life, and the shrewd humour, luminous imagination, and delicate sympathy which he brought to the interpretation of the common round. Blackmore did not share the prevailing view that his rank as a novelist would be inevitably determined by 'Lorna Doone,' and by that romance alone. When asked by the present writer which of his novels he himself regarded as the best — both as an expression of his own personality and in point of workmanship — his reply was instant and emphatic, 'The Maid of Sker,' and next to it in point of merit he placed 'Springhaven' — an historical romance — relegating 'Lorna Doone' to the third place.
At the age of sixty Blackmore returned to his first love by the publication of a volume of verse, 'Fringilla,' which was published in 1885. In a characteristic preface he called himself a 'twittering finch' that long ago had been 'scared by random shots' and knew too well that it could not 'sing like a nightingale.' 'Fringilla,' in spite of a certain dainty freshness of phrase, cunningly linked to an antique flavour of culture, justified the adverse critics. One of the avowed but unfulfilled ambitions of his life was to write a play.
Blackmore died at Teddington, after a long and painful illness, on 20 Jan. 1900, the same day as Ruskin. He kept a journal, but in deference to his instructions it will remain unpublished.
Personally Blackmore was proud, shy, reticent, and by no means easy of access Like John Ridd, he liked to have everything 'good and quiet.' He was strong-willed, autocratic, sweet-tempered, self-centred. He loved girls in their teens when modest and gentle. His fondness for animals, especially dogs, never failed. He was an uncompromising conservative, in the social even more than in the political sense, and he cherished a
