By George E. DaHnell. 71 



very happily on the peculiar appropriateness of the unveiling of this 

 bust of one whose works breathed the very spirit of the famous 

 lines : — 



" To me the meanest flower that blows can give 

 Thoughts that do often He too deep for tears " 



by a Bishop who himself bore the honoured name of Wordsworth. 

 It was well said by de Quincey that life had had many a new 

 pleasure added to it since Shakespeare lived and wrote ; and 

 assuredly not the least of these was the pleasure that lovers of the 

 country and its associations derived from the works of Richard 

 JefFeries. No man of our own time, save perhaps Charles Kingsley , 

 possessed such a combination of minuteness and fidelity, such a 

 power of revealing to us the beauties of Nature, The story of his 

 life was a very sad one, full of doubt and sorrow and poverty, of 

 vain attempts to solve the problems of existence. No kindly patron 

 ever came forward, to release him from the daily drudgery for mere 

 bread, and so set his genius free to develop itself. But, after that 

 long struggle with disease, despair, and poverty, at eventide there 

 was light, and he passed away listening with faith and love to the 

 gospel story. A great gulf of generations lay between us and 

 Chaucer, the morning-star of English song, but the spirit which 

 inspired him had never departed from the sons of England, and 

 there had never yet been lacking among us men who, like William 

 Barnes in poetry and Richard Jefferies in prose, could mould into 

 noble words the sights and sounds of country life. 



After the address a few prayers were offered, and the Bishop then 

 gave the benediction, thus bringing a most interesting ceremony to 

 a close. 



The committee appointed to carry out Mr. Kinglake^s suggestion 

 comprised many well-known names, as the Bishop and Dean of 

 Salisbury, Mr. Walter Besant, Mr. A. Buckley, Mr. Burdett-Coutts, 

 Mr. A. Chatto, Mr. Ambrose Goddard, Mr. H. R. Haggard, Mr, 

 F, G. Heath, Mr, Andrew Lang, Mr. C. Longman, Mr. J. W. 

 North, Mr, C, C. Osborne, Mr, W, Pollock, Mr. C. P, Scott, and 

 Mr. G. Smith, Mr. Kinglake himself acting as Treasurer. 



