Notes and Queries, Number 16, February 16, 1850

Notes and Queries, Number 16, February 16, 1850

I feel obliged by your intelligent correspondent "D.S." having ascertained that De Foe was the author of the Tour through Great Britain. Perhaps he may also be enabled to throw some light on a subject of much curiosity connected with De Foe, that appears to me well worth the inquiry. Mrs. Bray, in her General Preface prefixed to the first volume of the reprint, in series, of her Novels and Romances, when giving an account of the circumstances on which she founded her very graphic and interesting romance of Trelawny of Trelawne, says "In Gilbert's History of Cornwall, I saw a brief but striking account, written by a Doctor Ruddell, a clergyman of Launceston, respecting a ghost which (in the year 1665) he has seen and laid to rest, that in the first instance had haunted a poor lad, the son of a Mr. Bligh, in his way to school, in a place called the 'Higher Broom Field.' This grave relation showed, I thought, the credulity of the times in which the author of it lived; and so I determined to have doctor, boy, and ghost in my story. But whereas, in the worthy divine's account of the transaction, the ghost appears to come on earth for no purpose whatever (unless it be to frighten the poor boy), I resolved to give the spirit something to do in such post-mortem visitations, and that the object of them should be of import to the tale. Accordingly I made boy, doctor, and the woman (who is said after her death to have appeared to the lad) into characters, invented a story for them, and gave them adventures." ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 16193
Author: Various
Release Date: Jul 3, 2005
Format: eBook
Language: English