Landscape with Figures: Selected Prose and Writings (Penguin Classics)

Richard Jefferies Was One Of The Most Important And Imaginative Observers Of The Natural World In The Nineteenth Century. Trekking Across The English Countryside, He Recorded His Responses To Everything From The Texture Of An Owl's Feather And Noises In The Air To The Grinding Hardship Of Rural Labor. This Selection Of His Essays And Articles Shows A Writer Who Is Brimming With Intense Feeling, Acutely Aware Of The Land And Those Who Work On It, And Often Ambivalent About The Countryside. Who Does It Belong To? Is It A Place, An Experience, Or A Way Of Life? In These Passionate And Idiosyncratic Writings, Almost All Our Current Ideas And Concerns About Rural Life Can Be Found-- Part One: Writings On Agricultural And Social Affairs (1872-80). Wiltshire Labourers ; The Labourer's Daily Life ; The Gamekeeper At Home: The Man Himself, His House, And Tools ; Village Architecture: The Cottage Preacher, Cottage Society, The Shepherd, Events Of The Village Year ; Hamlet Folk ; Minute Cultivation: A Silver Mine ; The Amateur Poacher: Oby And His System, The Moucher's Calendar ; The Hunting Picture: Its Defects And Difficulties -- Part Two: Natural History Writings (1878-86). Rooks Returning To Roost ; Wind-anemones, The Fish Pond ; A Brook, A London Trout ; Mind Under Water ; The Modern Thames ; The Water-colley ; Trees About Town ; Nightingales ; The Hovering Of The Kestrel ; Out Of Doors In February ; Haunts Of The Lapwing: Winter -- Part Three: Late Essays (1882-7). Notes On Landscape Painting ; Walks In The Wheat-fields ; Nature And Books ; Absence Of Design In Nature: The Prodigality Of Nature And Niggardliness Of Man ; One Of The New Voters ; After The County Franchise ; Shooting Poachers ; Primrose Gold In Our Village ; Hours Of Spring ; My Old Village. Richard Jefferies ; Edited And With An Introduction And Preface By Richard Mabey. Includes Bibliographical References.