EDWARDS, JEFFERIES 203 



Your proposed medallion title-page is a very good 

 idea, and I would submit that you should put old Thomas 

 Edwards among those you may please to honour. I 

 have got a good many of his letters written to me in the 

 'fifties. I don't know whether you would care to 

 have them, but if so they are at your service, and I 

 think I could lay hand on them without much trouble. 



Smiles made such a ridiculous mess of his Memoir of 

 him, that I should be glad to see a proper notice of the 

 old man's services inserted, such an one as I am sure 

 you would write. His enthusiasm led him into several 

 egregious misstatements (to put the matter mildly) 

 which it is hard to overlook ; nevertheless the man was 

 without doubt a born naturalist, and did a little good in 

 the bird and beast way. I think he is worthy of a place 

 alongside of St. John and Gordon, to say nothing of 

 Thornton.* 



Newton's opinion of Richard Jefferies, whose books 

 achieved a considerable popularity at one time, was not 

 a favourable one. Considering him as a scientific man, 

 Newton was right, for Jefferies' books contained many 

 inaccuracies and no original observations. The novels 

 did not add greatly to his reputation. 



You must go elsewhere for details of Jefferies. 

 Several books have been written about him. He was 

 an unhappy man, with bad health and a genius for 

 " word painting," which took with the public. He tried 

 to write novels, but they were invariably scouted ; yet 

 such is the ignorance of people in regard to Natural 

 History that his books about animals were read with 

 rapture, though they were every bit as bad as his novels. 

 The greater part of the poor wretch's life was spent in 

 abject misery, as he was too proud to let his friends 

 know that he often had not enough to eat ; at least so 

 I have heard say. I believe at the last he was better off, 

 but then it was too late. I regard the poor man with 



* Letter to J. A. Harvie- Brown, February 11, 1892. 



