Lorna Doone

Book Excerpt: ELEMENTS OF EDUCATIONIf anybody cares to read a simple tale told simply, I, John Ridd, of theparish of Oare, in the county of Somerset, yeoman and churchwarden, haveseen and had a share in some doings of this neighborhood, which I willtry to set down in order, God sparing my life and memory. And they wholight upon this book should bear in mind not only that I write for theclearing of our parish from ill fame and calumny, but also a thing whichwill, I trow, appear too often in it, to wit--that I am nothing morethan a plain unlettered man, not read in foreign languages, as agentleman might be, nor gifted with long words (even in mine owntongue), save what I may have won from the Bible or Master WilliamShakespeare, whom, in the face of common opinion, I do value highly. Inshort, I am an ignoramus, but pretty well for a yeoman.My father being of good substance, at least as we reckon in Exmoor, andseized in his own right, from many generations, of one, and that thRead More