A noble sacrifice by Emily Grace Harding
"Tabby's Travels" by Lucy Ellen Guernsey is a historical novel written in the late 19th century. Set in early 17th-century Wales, it entwines village life with a haunted hill-castle, a gipsy’s curse, and the arrival of a mysteriously parented child. The focus is on Jack the boatman and the golden‑haired “Little Miss Primrose,” blending domestic warmth, temperance and faith, and a slow-blooming gothic mystery around the lords of Bryn Afon. The opening
of the novel follows Jack during a wild flood as villagers murmur about a centuries-old curse on Bryn Afon and a gipsy prophesies doom linked to his bridge. That night a veiled woman hands him a toddler on the bridge and vanishes, leaving a note that bids him raise “Little Miss Primrose,” forbidding strong drink and any approach to the castle; a Black Horseman later brings money and messages from the unseen mother. Primrose thrives, studies with the kindly Master Rhys, and watches a strange red “star” glow in the castle’s window. When the young earl briefly returns, Jack stops anyone giving Primrose wine and, in a candid talk, learns more of the family’s shadowed history while recounting his own daughter’s death and the bridge’s origin. The Horseman later carries Primrose to a secret meeting with a beautiful, sorrowing lady, then years pass; at fourteen, drifting the river in a coracle, she spots a familiar-looking fisherman—hinting that the mystery is about to deepen. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77224.html.images | 734 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77224.epub3.images | 1.9 MB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77224.epub.images | 1.9 MB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77224.epub.noimages | 352 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77224.kf8.images | 2.1 MB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77224.kindle.images | 2.1 MB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77224.txt.utf-8 | 706 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/77224/pg77224-h.zip | 2.0 MB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Harding, Emily Grace, 1857-1904 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Macklin, Thomas Eyre, 1867-1943 |
| Title | A noble sacrifice |
| Original Publication | London: Walter Scott, Ltd., 1897. |
| Note | Also published under the title: A fatal heritage. |
| Credits | Al Haines |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | Historical fiction |
| Subject | Great Britain -- History -- Charles I, 1625-1649 -- Fiction |
| Subject | Temperance -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77224 |
| Release Date | Nov 13, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 357 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |