A good time to re-read Lorna Doone

Cold dark winter evenings provide a brilliant opportunity to re-visit old novels and romances of the past.

As 2010 ends and the increasing uncertainties of the years leading to the centenary of the commencement of the Great War loom, R.D. Blackmore's novel, Lorna Doone,which he denied was historical, came to my mind as an appropriate companion for this year's ending.

Without the failure of the Monmouth Rebellion and the bloodthirsty sentencing of Judge Jeffries would the overthrow of James II in the Glorious Revolution a mere three years later have been possible? How did the unacceptable lawlessness of the West Country described in Blackmore's novel give way and produce over  a very short period such a perfect model of decency, justice and democracy?

Comparing the situation prevailing in the early years of Jan Ridd's story it is possible to identify comparisons with the villains of our own times, less easy to discern from where the remedy might arrive!