CO ATE FARM. 13 



and west, there stretches away the great ex- 

 panse of downs which nobody ever seems to 

 visit ; the treasure-land of monuments built by 

 a people passed away not our ancestors at all. 

 This is the country over which the feet of 

 Eichard Jefferies loved to roam, never weary 

 of their wandering. On the slopes of these 

 green hills he has measured the ramparts of 

 the ancient fortress ; lying on the turf, he has 

 watched the hawk in the air ; among these 

 fields he has sat for hours motionless and 

 patient, until the creatures thought him a 

 statue and played their pranks before him 

 without fear. In these hedges he has peered 

 and searched and watched ; in these woods and 

 in these fields and on these hillsides he has 

 seen in a single evening's walk more things of 

 wonder and beauty than one of us poor pur- 

 blind city creatures can discern in the whole of 

 the six weeks which we yearly give up to 

 Nature and to fresh air. This corner of Eng- 

 land must be renamed. As Yorkshire hath its 

 Craven, its Cleveland, its Eichmond, and its 

 Holderness, so Wiltshire shall have its . 

 JefFeries-land, lying in an irregular oval on 



