 1911 illustrated edition | |
| Author | Frederick Marryat |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | H. Hurst |
Publication date | 1847 |
The Children of the New Forest is a children's novel published in 1847 by Frederick Marryat. It is set in the time of the English Civil War and the Commonwealth. The story follows the fortunes of the four Beverley children who are orphaned during the war, and hide from their Roundhead oppressors in the shelter of the New Forest where they learn to live off the land.
The story begins in 1647 when King Charles I has been defeated in the civil war and has fled from London towards the New Forest. Parliamentary soldiers have been sent to search the forest and decide to burn Arnwood, the house of Colonel Beverley, a Cavalier officer killed at the Battle of Naseby. The four orphan children of the house, Edward, Humphrey, Alice and Edith, are believed to have died in the flames. However, they are saved by Jacob Armitage, a local verderer, who hides them in his isolated cottage and disguises them as his grandchildren.
Under Armitage's guidance, the children adapt from their genteel lifestyle to that of simple foresters. After Armitage's death, Edward takes charge and the children develop and expand the farmstead, aided by the entrepreneurial spirit of the younger brother Humphrey. They are assisted by a gypsy boy, Pablo, whom they rescue from a pitfall trap. A sub-plot involves a hostile Puritan gamekeeper named Corbould who seeks to harm Edward and his family. Edward also encounters the sympathetic Puritan, Heatherstone, placed in charge of the Royal land in the New Forest, and rescues his daughter, Patience, in a house-fire. Edward leaves the cottage and works as a secretary for Heatherstone, but Edward maintains the pretence that he is the grandson of Jacob Armitage.
Edward eventually joins the army of the future King Charles II, but after the Royalist defeat at the Battle of Worcester, he returns to the New Forest where he learns that Heatherstone has been awarded the old Arnwood estate. Disillusioned by this, and by Patience's apparent rejection of his declarations of love, Edward flees to France. His sisters are sent away to be brought up as aristocratic ladies and his brother continues to live in the New Forest. Edward learns that Patience does, in fact, love him, and that Heatherstone had acquired the Arnwood estate for Edward, but he works as a mercenary soldier in exile until the Restoration when they are reunited.
The Children of the New Forest was written during Marryat's years of retirement in Norfolk, and it was his last novel published during his lifetime. Marryat would sometimes travel to Hampshire to stay at his brother George's country house, Chewton Glen (now a five star hotel), on the edge of the New Forest. [1] [2] It was here that he gathered material for his novel, which is set in and around the real-life manor of Arnewood (spelled without the "e" in Marryat's novel), just south of the village of Sway. [3] [4] Three miles east of Arnewood is the coastal town of Lymington which also features in Marryat's novel. [3]
The book was first published in the "Juvenile Library" in two volumes by H. Hurst, London, in 1847. [5]
The story is centred on the four Beverley children who learn to survive on their own in the forest, and is particularly focused on the maturing of Edward Beverley as the rather rash, eldest teenager. [6] It celebrates the ideals of chivalry and bravery, tempered by modesty. [7] The four children in the novel eventually become ideal models of manhood and womanhood, and even the gypsy boy Pablo is tamed into their civilising ways. [8] The appearance of Pablo in the novel reflects the fact that Romani people were a common sight in the New Forest in the 19th century, and the association of gypsies with the New Forest was familiar in the Victorian imagination. [9]
Marryat had rather conservative political opinions, [10] and his story favours the Royalist cause, following the fortunes of the children of a Royalist officer. [11] However, one of the story's major characters is a sympathetically portrayed Roundhead named Heatherstone, the Intendant given the task of managing the Forest lands. [11] Marryat had been wounded several times in his naval career; he understood the nature of war and makes clear his hostility to extremists on both sides. [12] He suggests that good governance lies somewhere between King Charles's insistence on the divine right of kings and Parliament's unjustifiable execution of him. [8] The homecoming and reconciliation at the end of the story are deliberately associated with the restoration of the monarchy. [13] This message about reconciliation in 17th-century England reflects the fact that he wrote the novel during the political chaos of the 1840s when the Chartists were urging political reform in Britain, and shortly before the Revolutions of 1848 erupted across Europe. [12]
The Children of the New Forest was one of the first historical novels written for a young audience, [14] and the first such novel which has endured. [6] It was particularly successful in fixing the image of the English Civil War as a quarrel of opposites, with dour Roundheads versus swashbuckling Cavaliers. [15]
An adaptation of the book appeared in Thriller Picture Library No. 38.[ citation needed ]
The BBC has adapted the novel four times for television. These series were first shown in 1955 (5 episodes), 1964 (6 episodes), 1977 (5 episodes), and 1998 (6 episodes).
The 1998 series had a major departure from the original plot. Craig Kelly starred as the villainous preacher Reverend Abel Corbould who was obsessed with capturing and executing the Beverley family. He also pursued a romantic relationship with Heatherstone's daughter Patience, but to no avail. Edward Beverley and Corbould had a final confrontation at a watermill in the forest, which ended with Edward pushing Corbould over the side of the wooden railings and onto the water wheel, dragging the evil preacher down and under the water, drowning him.
Roundheads were the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War (1642–1651). Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I of England and his supporters, known as the Cavaliers or Royalists, who claimed rule by absolute monarchy and the principle of the divine right of kings. The goal of the Roundheads was to give to Parliament the supreme control over executive administration of the country/kingdom.
The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main Royalist army under Charles I and Prince Rupert. Defeat ended any real hope of royalist victory, although Charles did not finally surrender until May 1646.
Captain Frederick Marryat was a Royal Navy officer and a novelist. He is noted today as an early pioneer of nautical fiction, particularly for his semi-autobiographical novel Mr Midshipman Easy (1836). He is remembered also for his children's novel The Children of the New Forest (1847). In addition, he developed a widely used system of maritime flag signalling, known as Marryat's Code.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1848.
New Milton is a market town in southwest Hampshire, England. To the north is in the New Forest and to the south the coast at Barton-on-Sea. The town is equidistant between Lymington and Christchurch, 6 miles (9.7 km) away.
The term "Cavalier" was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration. It was later adopted by the Royalists themselves. Although it referred originally to political and social attitudes and behaviour, of which clothing was a very small part, it has subsequently become strongly identified with the fashionable clothing of the court at the time. Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles I's cavalry, is often considered to be an archetypal Cavalier.
Edward Everett Tanner III, known by the pseudonym Patrick Dennis, was an American author. His novel Auntie Mame: An irreverent escapade (1955) was one of the bestselling American books of the 20th century. In chronological vignettes, the narrator — also named Patrick — recalls his adventures growing up under the wing of his madcap aunt, Mame Dennis. Tanner wrote a sequel, titled Around the World with Auntie Mame, in 1958. He based the character of Mame Dennis on his father's sister, Marion Tanner. Tanner also wrote several novels under the pseudonym Virginia Rowans.
Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of romance fiction.
Sway is a village and civil parish in Hampshire in the New Forest national park in England. The civil parish was formed in 1879, when lands were taken from the extensive parish of Boldre. The village has shops and pubs, and a railway station on the South West Main Line from Weymouth and Bournemouth to Southampton and London Waterloo. It is the site of Sway Tower, a 66-metre (217 ft) concrete folly built in the 19th century.
Murgatroyd is a surname among the English nobility, originating in Yorkshire. Its etymology, according to one source, is as follows: in 1371, a constable was appointed for the district of Warley in Yorkshire. He adopted the name of Johanus de Morgateroyde, or literally: Johanus of Moor Gate Royde or 'the district leading to the moor'. Another source says the place name means Margaret's road. In Old Norse, royd means "clearing". Although Moorgate in London was a gate with the road to the moor passing through, in Yorkshire, gate means "street", so Moor Gate Royd would be 'a clearing in the forest on the road to the moor'.
The Scarlet Blade is a 1963 British adventure film written and directed by John Gilling and starring Lionel Jeffries, Oliver Reed, Jack Hedley and June Thorburn.
The Phantom Ship (1839) is a Gothic novel by Frederick Marryat which explores the legend of the Flying Dutchman.
Florence Marryat was a British author and actress. The daughter of author Capt. Frederick Marryat, she was particularly known for her sensational novels and her involvement with several celebrated spiritual mediums of the late 19th century. Her works include Love’s Conflict (1865), Her Father's Name (1876), There is No Death (1891) and The Spirit World (1894), The Dead Man's Message (1894) and The Blood of the Vampire (1897). She was a prolific author, writing around 70 books, as well as newspaper and magazine articles, short stories and works for the stage.
Cornwall played a significant role in the English Civil War, being a Royalist enclave in the generally Parliamentarian south-west.
Between 1639 and 1651 English overseas possessions were involved in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, a series of civil wars and wars that were fought in and between England, Scotland and in Ireland.
The Settlers in Canada is a children's novel written by Frederick Marryat, and published in 1844. The novel is set in the wilderness of Upper Canada in the 1790s. It describes the adventures of an immigrant family who settle near Lake Ontario, despite the threats from the native people and wild animals.
Ashley is a village located in the southwest of Hampshire, England. It lies on the eastern outskirts of New Milton in the New Forest district, and is two miles (3 km) inland from the sea. Its history dates back to the Domesday book of 1086, when two estates were recorded. In the 15th century much of Ashley merged with a neighbouring manor, and the estate became known as Ashley Arnewood. As a village, Ashley began to develop in the 19th century when a church and a school were built. Most of the current village was built in the 20th century, and today Ashley is effectively a suburb of New Milton.
Masterman Ready, or the Wreck of the Pacific is a robinsonade children's novel published in 1841 by Frederick Marryat. The book follows the adventures of the Seagrave family who are shipwrecked at sea, and survive on a desert island with the assistance of veteran sailor Masterman Ready.
Emilia Marryat was an English writer of children's books. The third daughter of the author Captain Frederick Marryat and his wife, Catherine, she followed her father's example by infusing her adventure novels with moral lessons. Occasionally, she published under her married name, Emilia Marryat Norris.
Kara Wilson is a Scottish actress best known for her roles as Patience Heatherstone in the 1964 adaptation of The Children of the New Forest and as Miss Caroline Gordon in the seventh series of children's soap opera Grange Hill.
The Children of the New Forest public domain audiobook at LibriVox 