The novel concerns an English woman who lives at [Fox Tor]? farm, and an American captured during the [American War of Independance]? and held at the prison at Princetown on Dartmoor. |
The novel concerns an English woman who lives at [Fox Tor]? farm, and an American captured during the American Revolutionary War and held at the prison at Princetown on Dartmoor. |
The heroine's father, Maurice Malherb, is based on [Thomas Windeatt]?.
In the novel Malherb is a miscreant who destroys Childe's tomb and beats his servant. He is depicted as a victim of his own bad temper rather than a sadist.
Malherb is introduced as the younger son of a noble family and he builds the Fox Tor house to be the impressive gentleman's residence suggested by William Crossing rather than the humble cottage which it actually is.