74 Richard Jefferies. 



might have heen very different from what it came to be. But he 

 let his opportunity escape him. Perhaps his powers were not yet 

 mature enough ; perhaps he did not realise what such a success 

 meant At any rate the next six years of his life were mainly 

 devoted to work of quite another kind, from which he seldom derived 

 either gain or fame. The first of these publications was a small 

 handbook on Reporting, Editing, and Authoeship, which appeared 

 in 187''i. It throws much light on his own experiences, methods, 

 and aspirations, and with all its faults is by no means badly done. 

 Next came the Goddaed Memoie, which, as we have already 

 observed, had grown out of the materials collected towards a work 

 on Swindon. He had had this publication in view for ten or twelve 

 years past, but it was only in November, 1872, that it was actually 

 completed.' Several unpublished letters relating to the subject are 

 now lying befoie us, from which we gather that Mr. Besant's re- 

 marks as to the family setting him to write their history, and 

 omitting to pay for it, are by no means justified by the facts of the 

 case. Whatever Jefferies wished for, both as regards information 

 and pecuniary aid, was freely given him. The book was absolutely 

 his own idea. All he desired was that the payment of a few pounds 

 should be guaranteed, in the event of his being unable to meet the 

 whole of the printer's bill immediately that it fell due, as some 

 portion of his funds were just then engaged in another publication. 

 This was at once done. More than this he would not have accepted : 

 he was too proud a man to take assistance from others unless he 

 absolutely needed it. The book must have paid its small cost 

 (estimated by the printer at £20) very fairly, as not long after 

 publication he writes that he has only thirty-three copies left on 

 hand, which he considers "a very good sale indeed for a work ap- 

 parently of only local interest.^^ There was some demand for it in 

 America. Its literary merit is but small as compared with its local 

 value. He had at one time contemplated either reprinting it in an 

 enlarged form, or else bringing out a supplementary volume, but, 



' The first distinct mention of it that we have come across in his letters is in 

 September, 1869. 



