20 January 2022 Susannah

20 January 1900: R.D. Blackmore dies

R. D. Blackmore, 1893

R.D. Blackmore purchased a large plot of land with the express purpose of setting up a market garden. He mainly grew fruit, and his knowledge of horticulture became extensive. He lacked business sense, however, and his garden was almost never profitable. [1]

R.D. Blackmore was one of the most famous English novelists of the second half of the 19th century. He died on 20 January 1900, at his home in Teddington, England.

Blackmore excelled in classical studies and won a scholarship to Oxford University where he took a degree in 1847. During a vacation, he made his first attempt at writing a novel which was not completed until many years later.

After meeting and courting Lucy Maguire, the couple married in November 1853 in London in what seems to have been a somewhat secret wedding. Blackmore was devoted to Lucy, about whom little is known. She was small in stature and wore her hair done in corkscrew curls. She was fragile and probably very shy. Her health was never robust, and there were no children from the marriage.

After being called to the Bar in 1852, poor health prevented Blackmore from a career in legal work, so in 1854, he took the post of classics master at Wellesley House Grammar School in Twickenham. While there, he began his career as a writer by publishing collections of poetry, before turning to novels. His third novel, which became his best-known and most successful, was Lorna Doone, a romance set in 17th century England. First published in 1869, Lorna Doone is considered his masterpiece, and is remarkable for its exquisite reproduction of the style of the period it describes. It is the only sample of his work still in print today.

Blackmore wrote several other novels and poetry and was referred to as the “Last Victorian”, and a pioneer of the movement in fiction that continued with Robert Louis Stevenson and others. He won acclaim for vivid descriptions and a strong sense of regional setting in his works.

In his later years, Richard Doddridge Blackmore suffered from diabetes for several years. According to historical records, his health was in decline for some time, and the illness affected his eyesight and mobility. His death was attributed to complications of diabetes. When he died aged 74, Blackmore was given a well-attended funeral in Teddington Cemetery, conducted by his old friend Reverend Robert Borland. He lies buried next to his beloved Lucy, a few yards away from a very splendid Victorian cemetery chapel.

Listen to my short YouTube video on Lorna Doone.