SIXTEEN TO TWENTY. 57 



and reserve. In those days he used to draw a 

 great deal, and is said to have acquired con- 

 siderable power in pen-and-ink sketches, but I 

 have never seen any of them. 



At this period he was careless as to his dress 

 and appearance ; he suffered his hair to grow 

 long until it reached his coat collar. " This," 

 says one who knew him then, " with his bent 

 form and long, rapid stride, made him an object 

 of wonder in the town of Swindon. But he was 

 perfectly unconscious of this, or indifferent to it." 



Later on, he understood better the necessity 

 of paying attention to personal appearance, and 

 in his advice to the young journalist he points 

 out that he should be quietly but well dressed, 

 and that he should study genial manners. 



In appearance Eichard Jefferies was very 

 tall over six feet. He was always thin. At 

 the age of seventeen his friends feared that he 

 would go into a decline, which was happily 

 averted perhaps through his love for the open 

 air. His hair was dark-brown ; his beard was 

 brown, with a shade of auburn; his forehead 

 both high and broad ; his features strongly 

 marked ; his nose long, clear, and straight ; 



