24 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



died on December 29, 1695, was ' Elizabeth, daughter of 

 James Blake, a seaman (a poor vagrant) '; another is Mary, 

 ' daughter of Owen Macklarten, an Irishman '; another, 

 ' daughter of William and Sophia Buckland, travelling 

 gypsies.' Curious are the changes in names and customs. 

 Thus, Nyporios fades through Nipperys and Niperys to 

 the Nipress of to-day. Thus, too, up to the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, they gave the name of the father of 

 an illegitimate child ; then the mother's name, and the 

 epithet ' base-born '; finally, in the nineteenth century, 

 civilization reaches another milestone, and the child's 

 name is given, and the mother described simply as ' un- 

 married.' 



Richard Jefferies made several references to ancestors 

 in his books. The Wheat in ' Saint Guido '* tells the 

 child that his * papa's papa's papa, ever so much farther 

 back than that, had all the fields round here,' and that in 

 time every one was lost, and that yet again field after field 

 was bought. In ' The Amateur Poacher ' he speaks of a 

 walnut thrown ' on the place ' — i.e., at Coate — by his 

 great-grandfather. Iden in ' Amaryllis at the Fair ' 

 speaks of a great-uncle, a ' capital man of business, 

 who built the mill and bought the old place at Luckett's, 

 which belonged to us before Queen Elizabeth's days,' and 

 ' very nearly made up the fortunes Nicholas and the rest 

 of them got rid of.' It has also been said, and often 

 repeated, that Jefferies came of a long line of yeomen 

 ancestors ; and one adds that their bones are in Chisledon 

 churchyard. It seems, however, quite certain that 

 Richard's great-grandfather was one Richard Jefferies, 

 born at Draycot Foliatt in 1738! or 1734. If he was born 

 in 1734, he was the seventh child of William and Hannali 

 Jeffries {sic) of Draycot. J He may, on the other hand, 

 have been a younger son of John and Sarah [nee Harvey) 

 Jeffries, also of Draycot, who were married in 1728. This 



* The Open Air. 



t 'Forbears of Richard Jefferies,' Country Life, March 14, 1908. 



% Chisledon Register. 



