The Little White Horse

Plot summary

Characters

• Maria Merryweather – A smart, 13-year-old orphan with red hair and freckles. She rescues a hare in the forest, names it Serena, and keeps it as her pet.
• Miss Heliotrope – Maria's governess. She is old-fashioned and very tall, with forget-me-not-blue eyes.
• Sir Benjamin Merryweather – Maria's cousin and guardian.
• Marmaduke Scarlet – Sir Benjamin's cook and housekeeper. Also the owner of Zachariah the cat. He does not like feminine curiosity and sees his kitchen as a private domain. He is a wonderful chef.
• Digweed – Sir Benjamin's coachman and gardener.
• Loveday Minette – Sir Benjamin's ex-fiancée. She is known in the book to have a passion for pink geraniums. When their argument broke out about the geraniums, she left Moonacre and got married in town to a lawyer.
• Robin – The son of Loveday Minette.
• Old Parson – The parson who helps Maria give Paradise Hill back to God. His real name is Louis de Fontenelle and he was Miss Heliotrope's childhood sweetheart.
• Monsieur Coque de Noir – the black-hearted owner of the castle in the pine wood and leader of a wicked band.

  The animals

• Zachariah – Marmaduke's special cat. He helps out Maria and Robin. He writes messages in the ashes in the kitchen fireplace.
• Wrolf – A lion who acts as Maria's special protector, called a dog by Sir Benjamin and others.
• Serena – A hare that Maria saved from hunters.
• Wiggins – Maria's greedy dog.
• Periwinkle – Maria's grey pony whose other name is Joy-of-the-Ground.

  Adaptations