R.D. Blackmore's 'Perlycross' 1894

 

Sampson Low, Marston, & Co. first one vol. edition - 1894

Perlycross was Richard Blackmore's penultimate novel (there was Fringilla: a Tale in Verse, the following year; Slain by the Doones: four short stories, also in 1895; and Dariel: a Romance of Surrey, in 1897, which was poorly received by Reviewers). The hamlet of Perlycross is based on the Devon village of Culmstock, where Blackmore's father had served as curate-in-charge some sixty years previously. As a boy, Blackmore had gone out many a time on a journey of solitary exploration. Memories of these trips are evident in descriptive passages in Perlycross. Kenneth Budd, in his short biography (1960) of the author, suggests that Perlycross was perhaps his finest work after Lorna Doone, and certainly one of the best pastoral novels in our language.  Budd admits that the plot is slender (similar to the sometimes threadbare plots in Blackmore's other novels) but he still praises the story as so clever and so observant a study of a little community that it reflects Blackmore at the height of his powers.                                                                

It is interesting that the Review in The Spectator (15 September 1894) maintained that It is certainly by no means a faultless book; we do not even consider it an impressive book in any ordinary sense of that epithet; but it is what we may call a noteworthy book, by which we mean that it is a book which no intelligent reader would think of regarding as a mere commonplace triviality of fiction. The reviewer went on to write that the reader would be struck by the imaginative and literary qualities which will always be rare.

The plot, set in 1835-6, hinges on the seeming disappearance of the body of Sir Thomas Waldron from a vault by the church and a false accusation of body-snatching against the young local doctor, James (Jemmy) Fox. In fact, Fox turns out to be one of a pair of heroes, the other being a young farmer, Frank Gilham, a loyal, manly fellow, the backbone of England. Another important character is the Rev. Philip Penniloe, long-time friend of Sir Thomas, (he is the subject of the very first sentence in the book), the gentle, elderly curate-in-charge, full of the milk of human kindness and with a too simple trust in human nature. One assumes, the author was remembering his father? Other, well-drawn characters include Sergeant Jakes, the village schoolmaster and one-armed survivor from the Peninsular wars. There are five females of some note: the widowed Lady Waldron, who hails from Spain and is continually comparing her native country to England, much to the latter's disadvantage. Thyatira Muggridge, Penniloe's housekeeper is regarded highly by her employer for her judgment and discretion, and the more so perhaps because she had been converted, by a stroke of his own readiness, from the doctrines of the "Antipaedo-Baptists" to those of the Church of England. Mrs. Tremlett, who Penniloe visits as she is near death. She is in bed, a very aged woman, of large frame and determined face, wearing a high yellow cap, and propped up by three coarse pillows...she had thick eyebrows, still as black as coal, and fierce gray eyes with some fire in them still, and a hooked nose that almost overhung a pointed chin...

Two younger women are the focus of Jemmy Fox and Frank Gilham's ardour. Respectively, they are Inez (Nicie) Waldron, the only daughter of Sir Thomas, who Jemmy has the hots for; and Jemmy's sister, Christie Fox, who Frank falls for. Nicie comes across as both timid and brave - she had not lost as yet the gentle and confiding manner, with the playful smile, and pleasant glance, which had earned, by offering them, good-will and tender interest. Christie is girl of strong opinions: I am not a coward - for a girl at least...I hate foreigners - as a rule I mean of course...She is of the militant Christian order, girt with the sword of the Spirit. A great deal of St. Peter, but not an atom of St. John. Thoroughly religious, according to her lights; and always in a flame of generosity. Her contempt for any littleness is something splendid...

Other, more minor characters are well sketched: Joe Crang, the muddle-headed blacksmith; Harvey Tremlett the hugely-built unrepentant smuggler; Mrs. Gilham, Frank's mother; the fair and artless Tamar Haddon, mischievously leading Sergeant Jakes astray; the doctors Gronow wedded to fishing throughout the year - and Gowler, renowned in London for his expertise; Sir Henry Haggerstone whose lacklustre advances Christie spurns; old clerk Channing; the  long-awaited son of the deceased, now the new Sir Thomas Waldron. If plotting is not Blackmore's strong point, and this tale certainly wanders along the Devonian byways, then characterisation is exemplary. The great and protracted wrestling-match in  the village between the champions of Cornwall and Devon (Harvey Tremlett), which culminates in the collapse of the tent on everyone, who were all jumbled up together with mouths full of tallow, sawdust, pitch, and another fellow's toes, is superb. The author's skill at describing the countryside occurs regularly and to excellent effect. He can rightly be compared with Thomas Hardy: How admirable are Blackmore and Hardy wrote Gerard Manley Hopkins.

 

There are the usual pleasing touches of humour: Clever men always make one great mistake. They believe that no woman can command her tongue. If they had their own only half as well controlled, there would not be a tenth part of the mischief in the world... Travelling in a barren part of the Blackdown Hills - There is nothing to gratify (the wanderer) if he be an artist, nothing to interest him if his tastes are antiquarian, nothing to arouse his ardour, even though he were that happy and most ardent creature, a naturalist free from rheumatism... The gentleman glanced at her; he had no moustache to stroke - for only cavalry officers, and cads of the most pretentious upturn, as yet wore ginger hackles - a relief still to come in a downier age.

I have just looked up John Sutherland's comments about the novel in his The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction (1988), and he says it is Blackmore's most satisfying re-creation of village life.

I shall look out for Blackmore's Clara Vaughan (1864), Cradock Nowell (1866) and Alice Lorraine (1875) - probably not in their three-decker first editions, due to the expense. One day, I might even read Lorna Doone!