ANCESTRY 29 



the pencil ; he is the Alere Flamma of ' Amaryllis at the 

 Fair.' The Gydes came from Painswick, near Stroud, in 

 Gloucestershire, and they had farmed land in that place, 

 famous for its wholesome air ; and of them I have heard it 

 said that one generation lived in the country and the next 

 in London, as the Jefferies' did. Charles Gyde ' of 

 Islington ' was buried at Pitchcombe Church, near Stroud. 

 Elizabeth Gyde was short, with hazel eyes, brown hair, 

 and a lasting fine complexion — ' a town-bred woman with 

 a beautiful face and a pleasure-loving soul, kind and gener- 

 ous to a fault, but unsuitcd to a country life.'* Her first 

 childwas Ellen, whodied young, byan accident; thesecond, 

 John Richard Jefferies, who so signed himself as a boy, but 

 was afterwards Richard Jefferies to the world. He was 

 born on November 6, 1848, and was christened early in 

 the next year by Mr. Bailey, Vicar of Holy Rood, Swindon. 

 He had very fair, some call it sandy, uncurling hair ; a 

 biggish, ' small Wellington ' nose ; loose, sensitive, ' some- 

 what large ' mouth, ' with slight pendulous lower lip ' ; 

 ' wonderfully clear complexion ' ; ' widely-opened, promi- 

 nent blue eyes ' ; good teeth, that were good until his 

 death ; and small, firm hands. He grew to be about six 

 feet in height, slender, with a slight stoop early developed. 

 He had two younger brothers — Henry James and Charles 

 — and a sister Sarah, all of whom are living now. 



James Luckett Jefferies can be pretty well known by 

 studying his portrait as Iden in ' Amaryllis.' Local 

 memory corroborates that portrait. He was an original 

 man, an eccentric, too, a man of character and instincts, 

 sensitive, full of various activities, a great walker even 

 when past seventy, and notably clever with his hands. 

 He was very fond of trees, as they grew and when thrown, 

 and could pick out a good thing for himself when there 

 had been a fall of timber at Burderop. Richard Jefferies 

 speaks of his great-grandfather as a connoisseur in timber, 

 ' which is, indeed, a sort of instinct in all his descendants.' 



* ' 



Forbears of Richard Jefferies,' Cotmlry Life, March 14, 190S. 



