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  THE HILLS AND THE VALE




  _All rights reserved_




  THE HILLS AND THE VALE


  BY
  RICHARD JEFFERIES


  WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
  EDWARD THOMAS


  LONDON: DUCKWORTH & CO.
  3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
  1909




  TO
  JOHN WILLIAMS
  OF WAUN WEN




CONTENTS

                                            PAGE

    INTRODUCTION                              ix

    CHOOSING A GUN                             1

    SKATING                                   22

    MARLBOROUGH FOREST                        27

    VILLAGE CHURCHES                          35

    BIRDS OF SPRING                           43

    THE SPRING OF THE YEAR                    54

    VIGNETTES FROM NATURE                     70

    A KING OF ACRES                           79

    THE STORY OF SWINDON                     104

    UNEQUAL AGRICULTURE                      134

    VILLAGE ORGANIZATION                     151

    THE IDLE EARTH                           207

    AFTER THE COUNTY FRANCHISE               224

    THE WILTSHIRE LABOURER                   247

    ON THE DOWNS                             270

    THE SUN AND THE BROOK                    280

    NATURE AND ETERNITY                      284

    THE DAWN                                 306




INTRODUCTION


This book consists of three unpublished essays and of fifteen
reprinted from _Longman's Magazine_, _Fraser's Magazine_, the _New
Quarterly_, _Knowledge_, _Chambers's Magazine_, the _Graphic_, and
the _Standard_, where they have probably been little noticed since
the time of their appearance. Several more volumes of this size
might have been made by collecting all the articles which were not
reprinted in Jefferies' lifetime, or in 'Field and Hedgerow' and
'Toilers of the Field,' shortly after his death. But the work in
such volumes could only have attracted those very few of the
omnivorous lovers of Jefferies who have not already found it out.
After the letters on the Wiltshire labourer, addressed to the
_Times_ in 1872, he wrote nothing that was not perhaps at the time
his best, but, being a journalist, he had often to deal immediately,
and in a transitory manner, with passing events, or to empty a page
or two of his note-books in response to an impulse assuredly no
higher than habit or necessity. Many of these he passed over or
rejected in making up volumes of essays for publication; some he
certainly included. Of those he passed over, some are equal to the
best, or all but the best, of those which he admitted, and I think
these will be found in 'The Hills and the Vale.' There are others
which need more excuse. The two early papers on 'Marlborough Forest'
and 'Village Churches,' which were quoted in Besant's 'Eulogy,' are
interesting on account of their earliness (1875), and charming
enough to please those who read all Jefferies' books. 'The Story of
Swindon,' 'Unequal Agriculture,' and 'Village Organization,' will be
valued for their matter, and because they are examples of his
writing, and of his interests and opinions, before he was thirty.
That they are partly out of date is true, but they are worth
remembering by the student of Jefferies and of his times; they do
credit to his insight and even to his foresight; and there is still
upon them, here and there, some ungathered fruit. The later
agricultural articles, 'The Idle Earth,' 'After the County
Franchise,' and 'The Wiltshire Labourer,' are the work of his ripe
years. There were also several papers published not only after his
death, but after the posthumous collections. I have included all of
these, for none of them needs defence, while 'Nature and Eternity'
ranks with his finest work. The three papers now for the first time
printed might have been, but are not, admitted on that ground alone.
'On Choosing a Gun' and 'Skating' belong to the period of 'The
Amateur Poacher,' and are still alive, and too good to destroy. 'The
Dawn' is beautiful.

Among these eighteen papers are examples from nearly every kind
and period of Jefferies' work, though his earliest writing is
still decently interred where it was born, in Wiltshire and
Gloucestershire papers (chiefly the