INTRODUCTION 



bridges, where there is some breadth of horizon. 

 " Sometimes upon Westminster Bridge at night the 

 scene is very striking. Vast rugged columns of 

 vapour rise up behind and over the towers of the 

 House, hanging with threatening aspect ; westward 

 the sky is nearly clear, with some relic of the sunset 

 glow ; the river itself, black or illuminated with the 

 electric light, imparting a silvery blue tint, crossed 

 again with the red lamps of the steamers." Of the 

 thousands that cross this bridge daily, few indeed we 

 fancy pause to think that beauty of the open air, 

 natural loveliness, may be found there. Few have 

 time to pause at all perhaps, unless they be strangers 

 lingering to take a view of the Parliament buildings 

 and the Abbey. But a Jefferies comes that way, 

 and amidst all the outward distraction and the in- 

 ward worry, the drudgery and anxiety of poverty, he 

 notes the glimpses of the divine, the deep preva- 

 lent mystery of something that lies just beyond the 

 senses, something that the senses only guess 

 something that may be felt among the lush meadows, 

 or on the breezy downs, and by the dingy London 

 riverside as well. 



Even the monotony of red Bermondsey roofs was 

 suggestive to Jefferies : " These red-tiled roofs have 

 a distinctiveness, a character; they are something 

 to think about. . . . Under this surface of roofs 

 what a profundity of life there is ! " If this endless 



