By George E. Dartnell. 77 



to the author of A Canadian Study of the Princess, confesses that 

 he too once used to chronicle mentally, in four or five words or so, 

 whatever might strike him as picturesque in Nature. But the 

 diflPerence between the two men was that the poet, when, perhaps 

 years after, he came to use these notes, so thoroughly blended them 

 with the context, that old and new became one flawless whole, 

 whereas the prose-writer was only just attaining such a power when 

 he died. Sometimes page after page shows clearly that it is made 

 up of separate jottings on separate slips. The callida junctura is 

 everywhere visible. Now and then the slips get misplaced, and we 

 have lines at the foot of a page that should clearly stand at its head. 

 Now and then, also, some long episode, which should have found 

 place elsewhere, breaks the continuity of the narrative. He never 

 really attained the gift of selecting and proportioning his materials, 

 and so working them up into one harmonious whole. Hardy can 

 do better in this line — if he chooses. Take The Woodlanders, for 

 example. The plot (as also with JefFeries) is not the pleasantest 

 part of the book, but when we escape from it to the hayfield or the 

 winter woodlands what wonderful pictures he gives us ! He can 

 subordinate the lesser to the greater — as that tree-planting episode 

 proves. JefFeries could have bettered it here and there, and yet the 

 effect produced would have been less decided and vivid. 



To speak more particularly of these books — there is hardly a word 

 of The Gamekeepek at Home that we could spare. It comes very 

 near perfection of its kind. It was originally published in the Pall 

 Mall Gazette. The Amateur Poacher is perhaps not so good as 

 a whole; but some of the sections, as "the First Gun," " the Old 

 Punt," and " Oby and his System," are particularly interesting. 

 The opening chapters afterwards afforded him much of the framework 

 of Beim. The next — Wild Life, is in his best style. Note par- 

 ticularly the chapter on " the Waggon and its crew." There is 

 enough matter in the book to make half-a-dozen ordinary volumes, 

 and it is written more on a distinct system than some of its com- 

 panions appear to be. 



Round about a Great Estate is, for Jefferies, a wonderfully 

 short book, but it is none the worse for that. Its thi-ee predecessors 



