FIRST COUNTRY BOOKS 145 



breeches and gaiters, his gun presented, and ever in the 

 act to fire : his dog pointed, and the birds were flying 

 towards Hilary. Though ruuc in design, the scene was 

 true to nature and the times : from the buttons on the 

 coat to the long barrel of the gun, the details were 

 accurate, and nothing improved to suit the artist's fancy. 

 To me these old jugs and mugs and bowls have a deep 

 and human interest, for you can seem to see and know 

 the men who drank from them in the olden days. 



' Now, a tall Worcester vase, with all its elegance and 

 gilding, though it may be valued at £5,000, lacks that 

 sympathy, and may please the eye, but does not touch 

 the heart. Foi it has never shared in the jovial feast 

 nor comforted the weary ; the soul of man has never 

 communicated to it some of its own subtle essence. But 

 this hollow bowl whispers back the genial songs that 

 were shouted over it a hundred years ago. On the 

 ancient Grecian pottery, too, the hunter with his spear 

 chases the boar or urges his hounds after the flying deer ; 

 the women are dancing, and you can almost hear the 

 notes of the flute. These things were part of their daily 

 life ; these are no imaginary pictures of imaginary and 

 impossible scenes : they are simply scenes in which every- 

 one took part. So I think that the old English jugs 

 and mugs and bowls are true art, with something of the 

 antique classical spirit in them, for truly you can read 

 the hearts of the folk for whom they were made. . . .'* 



The blissful ease and sincerity of these things are too 

 near perfection for questions to be asked about Jefferies' 

 education in art. In his visit to Tibbald, the miller, when 

 they talk about the millstones and ' the care, the skill, 

 the forethought, and the sense of just proportion ' of the 

 millwright, he shows again how he regrets that machinery, 

 in destroying the handicraft, has taken away yet another 

 means of culture from the countryman. 



The genial mood of this period has brought it about 

 that, although the book is crammed with odds and ends 



* Round about a Great Estate. 



10 



