illiam Black wrote to Thomas Wemmys Reid, his friend and future biographer, "I am very glad indeed you like the 'Three Feathers.' A story so very quiet in incident suffers by appearing in instalments" (qtd. in Reid 156). In truth, the novel is not one of his best-known, although the instalments were published in the prestigious Cornhill Magazine (August 1874 — June 1875), and illustrated by one of the most important illustrators of the age, George Du Maurier.
Unusually for Black, the novel is set in Cornwall, in the "bleak and high uplands" of what looks very like the northern part around Boscastle (11) — especially as there is mention later of "going down to Tintagel" (156), where a key scene is set. It may not be a coincidence that Thomas Hardy's A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) was set in the same location. Black's heroine here is Morwenna (known as Wenna) Rosewarne, "an insignificant little person with dark eyes" (8), whose father George is the innkeeper of the Three Feathers in the fictitious village of Eglosilyan. The name of the inn reminds us that the Duchy of Cornwall is held by the current Prince of Wales, whose heraldic emblem is three white ostrich feathers rising from a coronet. Having previously been the steward of a large estate, George Rosewarne is knowledgable about horses, farming and so on, with the result that the scion of the local gentry, the devil-may-care Harry Trelyon, often comes to consult him, and in this way has got to know his family.
The first of George Du Maurier's illustrations for the novel in the Cornhill, establishing its Cornish setting, as engraved by Joseph Swain. [Click on all the images for more information about them.]
Harry's first meeting with Wenna in the novel is when he comes across her at the kitchen table of a cottage, with children crowding round for instruction. She has been doing much to improve the welfare and raise the level of the poorer members of this rural community. A mark of Harry's respect for her, and of his own essential good nature, comes later when he gives six sewing machines to the Sewing Club that she encouraged his mother to start (and would have given more, if allowed). Indeed, as her prettier and altogether livelier sixteen-year-old sister Mabyn has noticed, he has fallen in love with her, a matter confirmed in Chapter XXI ("The Confession"), which follows the companionable visit to Tintagel. It seems, in fact, that the two young people have been in love for some time.
Passing along the road to church, Harry's mother is surprised and gratified to see Harry going off to church too, with Wenna.
However, this is deeply problematic, since Wenna has allowed herself to be pushed into an engagement to a man already in his forties, the grey-haired Richard Roscorla — and, as Roscorla himself realises, Wenna has "an uncompromising sincerity and keen sense of honour" (116). Having secured her promise and given her an emerald engagement ring (and quietly taken a large loan from Harry), Roscorla leaves for business in Jamaica, in connection with his share in sugar and coffee plantations there. He is away for seven months or so, and during his absence Wenna is befriended by Harry's mother, is distressed to learn about the loan, and comes to realise exactly how Harry feels about her. What is more, she inadvertently betrays her feelings for him, at one point fainting a way when she thinks him in danger of drowning. At last, their love for each other is acknowledged.
Left: Roscorla tries to secure Wenna in Chapter XII, "The Chain Tightens": "He went across the room to her. She sate [sic] still, perhaps a little paler than usual. He took her hand, and put the ring on...." (97). Right: Wenna and Harry's mother, Mrs Trelyon, walking amicably together and talking about Harry, their favourite subject, in the Trelyons' garden in springtime.
Of course, Wenna still believes she should honour her previous promise, but, fortunately or unfortunately, gossip reaches her fiancé. With great difficulty, she writes a letter to him explaining that Harry had been so good as to restore her lost engagement ring to her. Surely Roscorla would appreciate that? However, he feels affronted, suspects contrivance in the story about the ring, and at this point seems ready to release her from their agreement. But then he returns to Cornwall, and wants their arrangement to stand. He even wants her to go out to Jamaica while he continues doing business there, something he had previously said he would never ask of her.
Wenna looking sadly out of the window in Penzance, where she is accompanying her mother, for the sake of the older woman's health. Wenna knows that if she marries Roscorla, her future will be bleak indeed.
With Mabyn's encouragement, and Harry's fiery determination to free Wenna from her bond — a determination that eventually drives him to go out and confront his rival in Jamaica — the right man wins at the end. There is no question now that Harry is indeed the right man: under her influence, he has not only become more courteous and civil, and altogether more of a gentleman, but has accompanied her to church, knuckled down to his studies and gained a commission in the army. There is, therefore, general rejoicing at their marriage, despite its crossing of class boundaries.
Although Black considered this to be a "quiet" tale, there is a dramatic episode en route to this happy ending, in the form of Mabyn's abortive plot to stage an elopement for Harry and her sister. There has also been some variety of scene, with travels within Cornwall itself, and both Harry's and Roscorla's experiences in London and Brighton (including the attentions of a rather good-looking and wealthy widow to Roscorla, which opens his mind to other possibilities for his future). It is quite clear from the latter episodes that Wenna has had a lucky escape. And the wedding itself is a worthy climax, a good example of Black's often-cited charm. The path from the church is lined by the local children whom Wenna has been visiting and helping:
when she passed down between them, it appeared that the little folks had brought vast heaps of primroses and violets in their aprons and in tiny baskets, and they strewed her path with these flowers of the new spring. Well, she burst into tears at this; and hastily leaving her husband's arm for a moment, she caught up one of the least of the children — a small, golden-haired girl of four — and kissed her. Then she turned to her husband again, and was glad that he led her down to the gate, for her eyes were so blinded with tears that she could not see her way. [270]
Another good point about the novel is Mabyn, whose abhorrence of Roscorla, and consequent schemings to free her sister from her commitment to him, contrast so forcefully with her sister's tortured efforts to keep her word. Roscola too is a successful, if unlikeable, supporting actor. His mean-spiritedness is emphasised for modern readers by his involvement in Jamaica, and his pleasure in the "introduction of coolie labour" there (111). Black is clearly aware of what that implies, and how it adds to the unpleasant aspects of the man whom Mabyn had immediately characterised as "a horrid wretch" (20). The older women, including Wenna's mother, who is prone to jealousy and suspicion, and Trelyon's pleasant, doting mother and plain-speaking grandmother, also have attractive roles. Rather than holding him back, the feisty grandmother encourages her grandson to take matters into his own hands, reminding him of his father's wilful nature.
Nevertheless, the critics were lukewarm in their response to Three Feathers. "There is much that is fresh and clever in the novel, as coud not fail to be the case when it is written by Mr. Black; but we must confess we felt in the reading of it as if it had been written under some strain; and we were the more confirmed in this impression when we carefully collated the various bits of description of the Cornish sea-coast," complained one in the British Quarterly Review, evidently disappointed by the absence of Highland settings ["Poetry, Fiction and Belles Lettres," p.129).
Reid himself wrote at greater length expressing the general sentiments of the readers:
Three Feathers ... was certainly not a failure; but it cannot be said to have reached the level of A Daughter of Heth or A Princess of Thule. Cornwall has a romance of its own, but it is a different romance from that of Black's native country — as different as is the Cornish scenery from that of the Hebrides. Black was anything but willing to regard himself as being what on the stage is known as a "one-part actor." He could describe the coast of Cornwall with as fine a literary skill as that which he devoted to the painting of the lochs of Skye or the islets of the far west. But somehow or other he could not invest the new scenes with the glamour which belonged to the old. The men and women of the story were bright and taking, clearly drawn, full of life, and attractive in their sympathetic qualities, but they wanted the Highland spirit with which Black was so thoroughly at home; and, lacking this, they could not make so strong an appeal to the reader as Leezibeth [in A Daughter of Heth] or the King of Borva, to say nothing of Sheila [in A Princess of Thule], had done. In spite, therefore, of his unwillingness to confine his art to a single field, Black was convinced, after writing Three Feathers, that it was Scots life and character, and Scots scenery, that afforded the widest scope to his peculiar talents. [153-54]
Looked at today, the novel has several weak points. Wenna's determination to help others does not quite save her from being overshadowed by Mabyn. Yet Mabyn's scheming over the ring and plans for the elopement still seem rather childish. As for Roscorla's feelings and calculations, these sometimes seem stretched to fit the needs of instalment publication — perhaps this is where the sense of "strain" comes in, and Black's own worry about lack of incident. And visits to Tintagel and later Penzance do seem to be incorporated primarily for their scenic possibilities. Nevertheless, there is much to keep the attention and attract sympathy, and Wenna's great desire to be "of distinct and beautiful service to the many people whom she loved" (94), a desire which now has every chance of being fulfilled, is suitably inspirational.
Bibliography
Black, William. Three Feathers. 1875. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, new and revised ed., 1892. Internet Archive, from a copy in the University of California Libraries. Web. 19 January 2025.
"Poetry, Fiction and Belles Lettres." Quarterly Review, Vols. 61-63 (July 1875). Google Books. Free ebook.
Reid, Thomas Wemyss. William Black, Novelist. London: Cassell, 1902. Internet Archive, from a copy in the University of California Libraries. Web. 19 January 2025.
Created 19 January 2025