R. D. Blackmore

To the book-loving tourists, every inch of this territory is holy ground.

Yet the author of our favorite romance was not by birth a Wessex man, Mr. Richard D. Blackmore, for, like the creator of Robinson Crusoe, his name is not nearly so well known as his work, first saw the light in Berkshire, the year being 1825.

But he was exposed to the Wessex germs at the critical period of boyhood, actually going to Blundell's school at Tiverton, a small town in the heart of Devonshire, 14 miles north of Exeter, at the union of Exe and Lowman rivers.

To this same school he sent John Ridd, as we learn in the second paragraph of the novel.

Yet the author of our favorite romance was not by birth a Wessex man.

Mr. Richard D. Blackmore, for, like the creator of Robinson Crusoe, his name is not nearly so well known as his work, first saw the light in Berkshire, the year being 1825.

But he was exposed to the Wessex germs at the critical period of boyhood, actually going to Blundell's School at Tiverton, a small town in the heart of Devonshire, 14 miles north of Exeter, at the union of Exe and Lowman Rivers.

To this same school he sent John Ridd, as we learn in the second paragraph of the novel.