Writer's delight at hearing from a recent visitor to the west that
'"Lorna Doone,' to a Devonshire man, is as good as clotted cream,
almost!"

Although not half so good as that, it has entered many a tranquil,
happy, pure, and hospitable home, and the author, while deeply grateful
for this genial reception, ascribes it partly to the fact that his story
contains no word or thought disloyal to its birthright in the fairest
county of England.

[Illustration: autograph.jpg]

January, 1873.




PUBLISHERS' PREFACE

In putting this new and somewhat elaborate edition of "Lorna Doone" upon
a market already supplied with various others, some of them excellent
in quality, we ask the literary men and women of the country to give us
their kind support for the reasons set forth herewith.

In the first place, it seems to us that of the countless thousands of
books that have been written in all the various languages, and during
the many ages since first man took to scribbling, no one has ever
yet appeared which is the equal of this in its delicate and beautiful
touches of both nature and human nature. We have had, in various ways,
abundant proof that our feeling in this respect is not individual to