The title of the novel comes from a Welsh ballad known as The Maid of Sker (Welsh: Y Ferch o'r Sger), although the content of the ballad bears little relation to the plot of the novel.Blackmore was also familiar with Sker House near Porthcawl. 3] Blackmore's mother was from Nottage Court near Porthcawl, Glamorgan, and Blackmore spent part of his childhood with his aunt in Nottage.The stark form of Sker House is a central image for Blackmore. 2] Blackmore began writing the novel while he was still a student at Oxford University. He graduated in 1847, but the book was not completed and published until 1872, three years after Lorna Doone An English novelist, known professionally as R. D. Blackmore, was one of the most famous English novelists of the second half of the nineteenth century. He won acclaim for vivid descriptions and personification of the countryside, sharing with Thomas Hardy a Western England background and a strong sense of regional setting in his works. Best known for his novel, Lorna Doone..