vi PREFACE 



Nevertheless, even the competitive exactions of 

 business and social pleasure have their reaction. An 

 increasing number of people are turning with interest 

 to the eternal industry in Nature's workshop, willing 

 to listen to those who will talk about it. This is 

 a hopeful sign to those who believe that the social 

 health and physical standard of the nation depend in 

 large measure on affection for country life, and that 

 it would be an evil thing should field and flood cease 

 to afford attractions for active minds. It is the con- 

 viction that the surest relief to dulness in the country 

 may be found in diverting our attention from the 

 imperfections of our neighbours to the endless variety 

 of animated nature, and to the wealth of story associated 

 with almost every parish, which has induced me to 

 put together the following passages from a very slip- 

 shod note-book. Some parts of them have appeared 

 from time to time in various newspapers; any per- 

 manent merit they may be found to possess lies in 

 the fact that they were jotted down in presence of the 

 objects described. No head is constructed to carry 

 about an explanation of half the things noticed in 

 the course of a single morning's walk; but if notes 

 are made at the moment of what attracts the eye, be 

 it a landscape, a ruin, a battlefield, a living creature 

 or a flower, recourse may be had at home to the in- 

 formation abundantly stored in books, and the signi- 



