Gentian Hill Author:Elizabeth Goudge (Author's note) This story is a retelling of the legend of St. Michael's Chapel at Torquay. Built in the thirteenth century, it was in existence until not so many years ago, and until the beginning of the nineteenth century and foreign vessels dropping anchor at Torquay, and possessing Roman Catholic crews, sent them on pilgrimage to the Chapel.... more » The legend as it has come down to us is as Dr. Crane tells it in Book I, Chapter 10; its elaboration is my own invention, though the story has come to me so vividly from this bit of country where I live that I have hard work to believe it is not true.
(From elizabethgoudge.org) The plot is the love story of Stella Sprigg, adopted daughter of the farming family of Spriggs and Midshipman Anthony O’Connell, and takes place during the Napoleonic Wars. The book is written in three parts, The Farm, The Sea and The Chapel, and the action moves from her remote Devonshire valley, to the murderous seas of war in the Mediterranean, to the prisons and poverty of 18th centaury London.« less