246 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



heather, and later on to the orange and red of 

 the beech ; his easy-bounding motion springs 

 from the elastic sward ; his limbs climb the 

 steep hill as if it were level ; his speed covers 

 the distance, and he goes from place to place 

 as the wind. He not only lives in the wild, 

 wild woods and moors, he grows out of them 

 as the oak grows from the ground. The noble 

 stag, in his pride of antler, is lord and 

 monarch of all the creatures left in English 

 forests and on English hills." 



What do we purblind mortals see when we 

 walk through a wood in winter ? Listen to 

 what Jefferies saw in January, when the woods 

 are at their very brownest, and all Nature 

 seems wrapped in winter sleep : 



" Some little green stays on the mounds 

 where the rabbits creep and nibble the grasses. 

 Cinquefoil remains green though faded, and 

 wild parsley the freshest looking of all : plan- 

 tain leaves are found under shelter of brambles, 

 and the dumb nettles, though the old stalks 

 are dead, have living leaves at the ground. 

 Gray -veined ivy trails along, here and there is 



