# Endnotes explained — Lorna Doone

> Chapter companion for Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore.

## What happens

The endnotes provide editorial clarifications, historical annotations, and traditional explanations for various references and events in the narrative, including notes on local customs, natural phenomena, and the veracity of certain stories.

## Themes in this chapter

### Nature and the Rural World

Notes discuss natural phenomena such as the frost, tree vascular tissue, and the absence of loach in the Lynn, reflecting the rural and natural setting.

## Character check-ins

### John Ridd

Mentioned in notes regarding his longevity and his catching of all the loach in the Lynn.

### John Fry

Referenced in a note about his underrating of Devonshire magistrates' erudition.

### Parson Bowden

Mentioned in a note clarifying that he was not involved with Parson Powell.

## Key lines

> The “telling-houses” on the moor are rude cots where the shepherds meet to “tell” their sheep at the end of the pasturing season.

The 'telling-houses' on the moor are simple huts where shepherds gather to count their sheep at the end of the grazing season.

_Clarifies a local term._

> If John Ridd lived until the year 1740 (as so strong a man was bound to do), he must have seen almost a harder frost; and perhaps it put an end to him; for then he would be some fourscore years old.

If John Ridd lived to 1740, as such a strong man likely would, he would have experienced an even harder frost, which might have killed him at around eighty years old.

_Speculates on John Ridd's longevity and death._

> The following story is strictly true; and true it is that the country-people rose, to a man, at this dastard cruelty, and did what the Government failed to do.

The following story is absolutely true; the country people united against this cowardly cruelty and accomplished what the government could not.

_Affirms the truth of a story about popular justice._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/lorna_doone_se/chapters/endnotes
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- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/lorna_doone_se/chapters