122 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



districts, where sheep are the staple production, 

 it follows, of course, that turnips and swedes, 

 as their food, are the most important crop. 

 Upon the unenclosed open downs the cold 

 of early spring is intense, and the women who 

 are engaged in hoeing feel it bitterly. Down 

 in the rich fertile valleys, in the meadows, 

 women are at work picking up the stones out 

 of the way of the scythe, or beating clots about 

 with a short prong. All these are wretched 

 tasks, especially the last, and the remunera- 

 tion for exposure and handling dirt very small. 

 But now 'green grow the rushes,' and the 

 cuckoo-flower thrusts its pale petals up among 

 the rising grass. Till that grass reaches 

 maturity, the women in meadow districts 

 can find no field employment. The woods 

 are now carpeted with acres upon acres of 

 the wild hyacinth, or blue-bell, and far sur- 

 pass in loveliness the most cultivated garden. 

 The sheen of the rich deep blue shows like a 

 lake of colour, in which the tall ash poles 

 stand, and in the sunset each bell is tinged 

 with purple. The nightingale sings in the 

 hazel-copse, or on the hawthorn bough, both 



