The Project Gutenberg EBook of Roger Willoughby, by William H. G. Kingston

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Title: Roger Willoughby
A Story of the Times of Benbow

Author: William H. G. Kingston

Illustrator: Arch Webb

Release Date: May 15, 2007 [EBook #21484]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROGER WILLOUGHBY ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Roger Willoughby, A Story of the Times of Benbow, by W.H.G. Kingston.

________________________________________________________________________

Sadly, this was the last book Kingston wrote. He was diagnosed with a
rapid fatal illness while he was writing it, and he used the opportunity
of bidding his young readers farewell in the Preface.

There is a lot of action in the book, from encounters with the Barbary
Pirates in what is now called Morocco, to military goings-on in Somerset
and Dorset, to trials by Jeffreys, the Chief Justice (or Injustice might
be a better name). It's just a little bit confusing! An example of how
confusing is that there's a ship called Benbow, and a couple of chaps of
that name as well. We have tried to sort out some inconsistencies in
spelling, for example Axminster and Axeminster, Tregellen and Treleggen,
but I think few of us would do any better if we were trying to finish a
book in the few remaining days of our life.

It's not a long book, and not a short one, either. About ten hours to
read aloud.

________________________________________________________________________

ROGER WILLOUGHBY, A STORY OF THE TIMES OF BENBOW, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON.

CHAPTER ONE.

"Hillo, Roger! glad to find you at last. I have been hunting up and
down along the cliffs for the last hour or more, till I began to fear
that you must have been carried off by a Barbary corsair, or spirited
away on the end of Mother Shipton's broomstick."

The speaker was a fine-looking lad of sixteen, dressed in the costume
worn by Puritans in the time of the second Charles--a long cloth coat of
unobtrusive hue, knee-breeches, high-heeled shoes with large buckles, a
thick neckcloth tied in a bow, and a high-crowned, broad-brimmed hat;
but the brim of the la