Part 1

Produced by Malcolm Farmer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: In a few places the book has the letter T printed in a sans-serif font to indicate the shape of the letter. This has been reproduced as below.

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