I loathe, detest, hate and abominate the block, the gibbet, the rack, the pillory and the faggots with equal passion," said the old man vehemently. "Not only are they devilishly cruel but they are not even common sense. They do not lesson the evil in the world, they increase it, by making those who handle these cruelties as wicked as those who suffer them. No, I'm wrong, more wicked, for there is always some expiation made in the endurance of suffering and none at all in the infliction of it.

Awards and honours
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Annual Novel Award 1944 for Green Dolphin Country. Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge FRSL (24 April 1900 – 1 April 1984) was an English author of novels short stories and children's books as Elizabeth Goudge.

A best-selling author in both the UK and the US from the 1930s through the 1970s her books gained renewed attention in 1993 when one of them was plagiarised by Indrani Aikath-Gyaltsen. Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge FRSL (24 April 1900 – 1 April 1984) was an English author of novels short stories and children's books as Elizabeth Goudge. The "new" novel set in India garnered rave reviews in both The New York Times and the The Washington Post before its source was discovered.