_Ivanhoe_ is more robust and exciting. Read the opening scene between Gurth, the swineherd, and Wamba, the jester. This is Merrie England of long ago, when Saxons and Normans were still hostile and separate, although living together in the heart of England. John had usurped the throne from King Richard, his brother, who had been fighting on Crusade in the Holy Land. Here in the greenwood we meet Friar Tuck, and various knights. We visit Rotherwood, and listen to Cedric, the Saxon master of Gurth and Wamba. We see the beautiful Rowena. We meet the Jew, Isaac of York and his lovely daughter Rebecca. There are great combats for knights to prove their knighthood at Ashby-de-la-Zouche. There is the thrilling siege of the castle, Torquilstone. We discover who the Black Knight is, and, best of all, we encounter, in many disguises and lastly as himself, Robin Hood. Read the account of the archery contest in chapter thirteen. Every word is thrilling. If we could go back through the centuries, we, too, would visit Merrie England, walk in the greenwood and taste the venison pasty in Friar Tuck's cell, watch while Locksley shot his arrows, and with Rebecca on the ramparts, follow the course of the great siege of Torquilstone. But, thanks to the genius of Sir Walter, we can see these happenings in imagination without leaving the twentieth century, although the novel Ivanhoe was published more than a hundred years ago. Scott wrote more than twenty novels, and other books as well. The chief of the Waverley Novels, beside the three already named, are _Waverley_, {25} _Guy Mannering_, _The Antiquary_, _Old Mortality_, _The Bride of Lammermoor_, _The Heart of Mid-Lothian_, _The Fortunes of Nigel_, _Redgauntlet_, _Anne of Geierstein_, _Woodstock_, and _The Fair Maid of Perth_.