Mary Anerley: a Yorkshire tale is a three-volume novel by R. D. Blackmore published in 1880. It is set in the rugged landscape of Yorkshire's North Riding and the sea-coast of its East Riding.
The story opens in the year 1801 at Scargate Hall, "in the wildest and most rugged part of the wild and rough North Riding". The first chapter, essentially a prologue, sets forth the strangely dramatic death of Squire Philip Yordas just after he had made a will disinheriting his son Duncan. Thus Scargate Hall, when first described to the reader, is the property of Yordas's two daughters, Philippa Yordas and Eliza Carnaby. Mr. Jellicorse, the family lawyer, comes by chance upon evidence of a fatal flaw in the sisters' title to the estate, and rides over to acquaint them with this unpleasant fact.
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