Bramdean

By Michael E. Sedgwick
$4.95 Rating: Not yet rated.
Published: Jan. 15, 2013
Words: 57,304 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781301120512

Short description

Thomas, son of a village blacksmith in 18th century England, relates he fell in love with Lucy, an outstanding beauty and daughter of a wealthy family with societal ambitions. Their distaste for Thomas’s humble background and their callous marriage plans for Lucy frustrate the young lovers’ passions as they resist the parental business objectives of marriage. Dark clouds form when they make plans.

Extended description

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Britain formed an era when men and women of the middle and upper classes devoted their lives to finding and marrying a rich spouse. It was inconceivable to them that they should find work to support themselves. In every era, the story of a poor boy falling in love with a rich girl, or vice-versa, has existed and been well documented, but the circumstances are often unique.
The setting for this tale is a church and graveyard in the village of Bramdean in the period 1790 to 1811. Bramdean lies in the heart of the county of Hampshire, England. The story is introduced and narrated by the ghost of Thomas Greenwood, a blacksmith’s son who falls uncontrollably in love with Lucy Davenport. Lucy is the daughter of Anson Davenport, a senior captain in the British navy and of Fortuna Davenport, his wife. Lucy’s feelings toward Thomas develop over time from liking to loving him. Eventually, her love for him is the driving force in her li.. (Read more) The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Britain formed an era when men and women of the middle and upper classes devoted their lives to finding and marrying a rich spouse. It was inconceivable to them that they should find work to support themselves. In every era, the story of a poor boy falling in love with a rich girl, or vice-versa, has existed and been well documented, but the circumstances are often unique.
The setting for this tale is a church and graveyard in the village of Bramdean in the period 1790 to 1811. Bramdean lies in the heart of the county of Hampshire, England. The story is introduced and narrated by the ghost of Thomas Greenwood, a blacksmith’s son who falls uncontrollably in love with Lucy Davenport. Lucy is the daughter of Anson Davenport, a senior captain in the British navy and of Fortuna Davenport, his wife. Lucy’s feelings toward Thomas develop over time from liking to loving him. Eventually, her love for him is the driving force in her life. The Davenports are a wealthy, haughty and disdainful pair with powerful friends in London and they are determined to seek even greater wealth and power by choosing for their daughter a marriage partner who has the right connections. A boy following in his father’s trade is beneath consideration and Lucy’s mother condemns him as a village ruffian.
Sir Spencer Hayward, the local squire with no child of his own, develops a keen interest and liking for young Thomas and wishes to have his cousin, Jane Pawley, a retired schoolmistress, educate the boy so that he can sit for the Winchester College entrance examination. Sir Spencer takes the extra step of planning to make Thomas his heir.
Lucy parents discover she has been meeting Thomas and place her initially under the care of an aunt in England’s Lake District, followed by two years at a finishing school in Switzerland, where she is supervised by a governess and chaperone. While she is away from Hampshire, Thomas’s education progresses to where he gains admission to Trinity College, Oxford, again with the influence and financial support of Sir Spencer Hayward. There, he meets Ernest Nicholson a good friend from Winchester. A passion for gambling and a vacation spent close to Ernest’s sister Felice, who is much attracted to him, form dangerous distractions for Thomas but timely warnings from Sir Spencer’s lawyers, who administer his financial support, help to bring his life under control again. Thomas believes he can bring Sir Spencer’s forecast of a successful career to fruition in readiness to marry Lucy and support her in the manner to which she is accustomed. In late summer, after Thomas’s first year at Trinity, Lucy sends a letter telling him she is at last returning to Hampshire and Thomas’s life seems set for a wonderful future with her.
When Thomas is preparing to return to Oxford for his second year, his father suffers a heart attack and is likely to remain too weak to run the blacksmith trade alone. Thomas realizes that he must forgo completion of his Oxford education and a career that might allow him to marry and support Lucy. He must support his family by taking over the running of the smithy from his father. He has a wretched winter and spring with his life and prospects changed and without the comfort of Lucy. To cheer him, Sir Spencer gives him a pair of beautiful horse pistols on his twenty-first birthday.
After years of forced separation with only occasional and fragmented meetings, Thomas and Lucy find time to meet and discuss their future. Lucy tells Thomas her parents are determined to marry her to her father’s protégé, a naval lieutenant, Robert Shelby, with the right political connections in London. Lucy is a minor and unable to avoid her parents plan for her. Thomas begs her to resist her parents until she is twenty-one but Lucy is unconvinced of her ability to do that. The story reaches a climax when Thomas learns that Shelby has beaten Lucy.
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Tags

love story, rural england, romance historical, hampshire, 1700s romance, england 18th century

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