TROUBLOUS TIMES. 283 



ranger ; nor is there any information as to stag- 

 hunting. 



It is impossible to leave this period without saying 

 a few words as to the much-debated question whether 

 or no the Doones ever existed on Exmoor, for if they 

 ever did exist, this period, when the Marquis of 

 Ormonde was lessee of the forest, was the time. 



So charming, and so full of "corroborative detail" 

 is Mr, Blackmore's most fascinating romance, that 

 the suggestion that it is pure fiction comes as a 

 great shock to most readers, yet that is the conclusion 

 one is absolutely driven to, much as one would wish 

 to think otherwise. 



That there were sheep-stealers and pony-stealers 

 on Exmoor at all times is probably true, and it is 

 quite likely that, when, as is well-known, England 

 was full of wandering disbanded soldiers after the 

 Restoration, they may have been more than usually 

 troublesome on Exmoor, and it is probable that more 

 than one of them may have borne the name of 

 Doone. There was, undoubtedly, some tradition to 

 that effect, and Mr. Blackmore, who was the son of 

 the rector at Oare, was no doubt familiar with it, as 

 was also Mr. Thornton, for many years curate at 

 Countisbury. According to the latter, the last Doone 

 and his granddaughter perished in 1800 in a snow- 

 drift on the Simonsbath-Challacombe track — there 

 was no road in those days — when wandering round 

 singing carols. England is full of similar traditions, 

 wherever there were forests to which outlaws could 



