The Life of the Fields

The Life of the Fields

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Title: The Life of the Fields
Author: Richard Jefferies
Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6164] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 20, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE LIFE OF THE FIELDS ***

This eBook was produced by Malcolm Farmer.

THE LIFE OF THE FIELDS
BY RICHARD JEFFERIES

My thanks are due to those editors who have so kindly permitted me to reprint the following pages:--"The Field-Play" appeared in _Time_; "Bits of Oak Bark" and "The Pageant of Summer" in _Longman's Magazine_; "Meadow Thoughts" and "Mind under Water" in _The Graphic_; "Clematis Lane," "Nature near Brighton," "Sea, Sky, and Down," "January in the Sussex Woods," and "By the Exe" in _The Standard_; "Notes on Landscape Painting," in _The Magazine of Art_; "Village Miners," in _The Gentleman's Magazine_; "Nature and the Gamekeeper," "The Sacrifice to Trout," "The Hovering of the Kestrel," and "Birds Climbing the Air," in _The St. James's Gazette_; "Sport and Science," in _The National Review_; "The Water-Colley," in _The Manchester Guardian_; "Country Literature," "Sunlight in a London Square," "Venice in the East End," "The Pigeons at the British Museum," and "The Plainest City in Europe," in The Pall Mall Gazette.
RICHARD JEFFERIES

CONTENTS

THE PAGEANT OF SUMMER
THE FIELD PLAY: I. UPTILL-A-THORN II. RURAL DYNAMITE
BITS OF OAK BARK: I. THE ACORN-GATHERER II. THE LEGEND OF A GATEWAY III. A ROMAN BROOK
MEADOW THOUGHTS
CLEMATIS LANE
NATURE NEAR BRIGHTON
SEA, SKY, AND DOWN
JANUARY IN THE SUSSEX WOODS
BY THE EXE
THE WATER-COLLEY
NOTES ON LANDSCAPE PAINTING
VILLAGE MINERS
MIND UNDER WATER
SPORT AND SCIENCE
NATURE AND THE GAMEKEEPER
THE SACRIFICE TO TROUT
THE HOVERING OF THE KESTREL
BIRDS CLIMBING THE AIR
COUNTRY LITERATURE: I. THE AWAKENING. II. SCARCITY OF BOOKS III. THE VILLAGER'S TASTE IN READING IV. PLAN OF DISTRIBUTION
SUNLIGHT IN A LONDON SQUARE
VENICE IN THE EAST END.
THE PIGEONS AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM
THE PLAINEST CITY IN EUROPE

THE PAGEANT OF SUMMER
I

Green rushes, long and thick, standing up above the edge of the ditch, told the hour of the year as distinctly as the shadow on the dial the hour of the day. Green and thick and sappy to the touch, they felt like summer, soft and elastic, as if full of life, mere rushes though they were. On the fingers they left a green scent; rushes have a separate scent of green, so, too, have ferns, very different to that of grass or leaves. Rising from brown sheaths, the tall stems enlarged a little in the middle, like classical columns, and heavy with their sap and freshness, leaned against the hawthorn sprays. From the earth they had drawn its moisture, and made the ditch dry; some of the sweetness of the air had entered into their fibres, and the rushes--the common rushes--were full of beautiful summer. The white pollen of early grasses growing on the edge was dusted from them each time the hawthorn boughs were shaken by a thrush. These lower sprays came down in among the grass, and leaves and grass-blades touched. Smooth round stems of angelica, big as a gun-barrel, hollow and strong, stood on the slope of the mound, their tiers of well-balanced branches rising like those of a tree. Such a sturdy growth pushed back the ranks of hedge parsley in full white flower, which blocked every avenue and winding bird's-path of the bank. But the "gix," or wild parsnip, reached already high above both, and would rear its fluted stalk, joint on joint, till it could face a man. Trees they were to the lesser birds, not even bending if perched on; but though so stout, the birds did not place their nests on or against them. Something in the odour of these umbelliferous plants, perhaps, is not quite liked; if brushed or bruised they give out a bitter greenish scent. Under their cover, well shaded and hidden, birds build, but not against or on the stems, though they will affix their nests to much less certain