IDLEHURST: 



A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



MY DEAR PATERSON 



That old question of ours, whether the 

 world were larger to him who travelled far and wide, 

 or to him who sat at home dreaming of the unknown 

 lands, seems no nearer settlement after half a life of 

 experiment than when it was first propounded in 

 Blue Boar Lane sittings, or walks to Wheatley. 

 Fixed here in the Sussex Weald, seldom moving out 

 of the circle of the hills, often keeping within the 

 village bounds for months together, I still maintain 

 my unvisited world to be greater than all the seas 

 and isles which you have profaned. 



You will remember that when you had spent some 

 ten years in Borneo, and it seemed probable that you 



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