* * * * *

Ravenshoe

“Ravenshoe” was Henry Kingsley’s second novel, and it was published in 1862, when its author was thirty-two years old.  It will always rank with “Geoffry Hamlyn” as Henry Kingsley’s best work.  These two books were their author’s favourites among his own novels, and Charles Ravenshoe was one of his two favourite characters.  It has been said that “Ravenshoe” is “alive—­the expression of a man who worked both with heart and brain,” and few would care to dispute that opinion.  For study of character, wide charity of outlook, brilliant descriptive writing—­as, for instance, in the charge at Balaclava, and real, not mawkish, pathos—­as in the hopeless misery of Charles, invalided, with only eighteen shillings, out of the army—­“Ravenshoe” will always deserve to be read.  It is the work of a writer who was not ashamed to avow himself an “optimist.”

I.—­Charles Loses His Brother and His Home

In 1820 Densil lost both his father and mother, and found himself, at the age of thirty-seven, master of Ravenshoe—­an estate worth L10,000 a year—­and master of himself.

Densil was an only son.  His father, Peter Ravenshoe, had married Alicia, daughter of Charles, Earl of Ascot.

The Ravenshoes, an old West of England family, were Catholics; but Densil’s second wife (his first wife died childless in 1816) was a Protestant, and made her husband promise that all her children, after her first born, should be brought up Protestant.

Mrs. Ravenshoe bore Densil two sons:  Cuthbert, born 1826; Charles, born 1831.

On the night Charles was born his mother lay dying, and Densil swore to her he would keep the promise he had made.  And to this vow he was faithful, in spite of the indignation of Father Mackworth, the resident Catholic priest at Ravenshoe.

The doctor insisted that a nurse was an immediate necessity, and James Horton, Densil’s devoted servant and head keeper, suggested his wife, Norah; a proposal that had the doctor’s immediate approval.

In due time Charles went to Eton and to Oxford, where he was rusticated for a term with his friend Lord Welter, Lord Ascot’s eldest son, and fell in love with Adelaide, a penniless young lady, who acted as companion to old Lady Ascot.

At Ravenshoe, Charles and Mackworth seldom met without a “sparring match,” for to the priest it was intolerable that this house should, in the event of Cuthbert dying childless, pass into Protestant hands.

On the other hand, it was natural that a considerable amount of familiarity, and a most sincere and hearty affection, should exist between Charles and his servant and foster-brother, William Horton.  Till Charles went to Shrewsbury he had never had another playfellow, for his brother Cuthbert was reserved and bookish; and the friendship between the two had grown with age.