The Life of the Fields

The Life of the Fields

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Title: The Life of the Fields
Author: Richard Jefferies
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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.