Many people think of Captain Marryat as a writer of sea-stories. But like most sailors he would try his hand at anything, and this is something quite different—a story of adventure in a wild and romantic corner of England at a stirring and troubling time. The tale is full of atmosphere and action, and concerns the children of a cavalier family forced to live in hiding in the woods while their father's enemies rule the land, living "off the country", dependent only on their sill with horses and farm stock and their ability to capture the wild game of the Forest.

From the dust jacket of the Dent Dutton edition

Imagine a time when the people of England are divided by war—a time not in the future but in the past. In seventeenth century England pitched battles raged throughout the country as people fought over their allegiance to Cromwell and to the Crown. After five bitter years, Cromwell triumphantly seized power and King Charles I was beheaded.

In the midst of the conflict here many innocent people whose traditional family loyalties placed them in deadly danger. Among these were the Beverly children—Edward, Humphrey, Alice and Edith. Orphaned by the Parliamentarians and believed dead in a fire that burnt their home to the ground, the children live in peril of discovery. With the help of their loyal gardener, Jacob Armitage, they flee to the New Forest where they disguise themselves as his grandchildren and try to adapt to the rigours of a life on the land.

From the Puffin Classics paperback edition