Blackmore only knew Hampshire from visits and fishing trips, and relied on the 1863 book The New Forest: Its History and Scenery by John Wise.

[5] The story introduces twin brothers, Cradock and Clayton Nowell, whose nurse forgets which is the elder, the rosette by which she had distinguished them having fallen to the ground.

When the brothers are on the threshold of adulthood, an unwelcome guest comes in the person of a regimental surgeon, who had attended at the birth of the twins, and he discovers the mistake of the nurse.

"[6] The Westminster Review liked "the way in which he manages descriptions not merely of natural scenery, but of any other kind" but complained about the "muscular brutality" to be found in the final two volumes.

[8] Nevertheless the Dictionary of National Biography noted that "Cradock Nowell is one of the best of Blackmore's heroes, and in Amy Rosedew he gave the world one of the most bewitching of heroines.

"[2] Following the adverse reviews, and the editorial interference he had received from Macmillan's Magazine, Blackmore chose to fully revise the novel prior to its re-publication in 1873.