FIELD AND HEDGEROW
BEING
THE LAST ESSAYS
OF
RICHARD JEFFERIES
COLLECTED BY HIS WIDOW
PREFACE.
For permission to reprint my husband's latest Essays my sincerethanks are due to the Editors of the followingpublications:—
The Fortnightly Review.
Manchester Guardian.
Pall Mall Gazette.
Standard.
English Illustrated Magazine.
Longman's Magazine.
St. James's Gazette.
Art Journal.
Chambers's Journal.
Magazine of Art.
Century Illustrated Magazine.
J.J.
CONTENTS
MIXED DAYS OF MAY AND DECEMBER
FIELD SPORTS IN ART: THE MAMMOTH HUNTER
HOURS OF SPRING.
It is sweet on awaking in the early morn to listen to the smallbird singing on the tree. No sound of voice or flute is like to thebird's song; there is something in it distinct and separate fromall other notes. The throat of woman gives forth a more perfectmusic, and the organ is the glory of man's soul. The bird upon thetree utters the meaning of the wind—a voice of the grass andwild flower, words of the green leaf; they speak through thatslender tone. Sweetness of dew and rifts of sunshine, the darkhawthorn touched with breadths of open bud, the odour of the air,the colour of the daffodil—all that is delicious and belovedof spring-time are expressed in his song. Genius is nature, and hislay, like the sap in the bough from which he sings, rises withoutthought. Nor is it necessary that it should be a song; a few shortnotes in the sharp spring morning are sufficient to stir the heart.But yesterday the least of them all came to a bough by my window,and in his call I heard the sweet-briar wind rushing over the younggrass. Refulgent fall the golden rays of the sun; a minute only,the clouds cover him and the h