PREFACE. V 



things under the same conditions of season, time or 

 weather. How could I arrange for you next autumn 

 to see the sprays of the horse-chestnut, scarlet from 

 frost, reflected in the dark water of the brook ? 

 There might not be any frost till all the leaves had 

 dropped. How could I contrive that the cuckoos 

 should circle round the copse, the sunlight glint upon 

 the stream, the warm sweet wind come breathing over 

 the young corn just when I should wish you to feel 

 it ? Every one must find their own locality. I find 

 a favourite wild-flower here, and the spot is dear to 

 me ; you find yours yonder. Neither painter nor 

 writer can show the spectator their originals. It 

 would be very easy, too, to pass any of these places 

 and see nothing, or but little. Birds are wayward, 

 wild creatures uncertain. The tree crowded with 

 wood-pigeons one minute is empty the next. To 

 traverse the paths day by day, and week by week ; 

 to keep an eye ever on the fields from year's end to 

 year's end, is the one only method of knowing what 

 really is in, or comes to them. That the sitting 

 gambler sweeps the board is true of these matters. 

 The richest locality may be apparently devoid of 

 interest just at the juncture of a chance visit. 



Though my preconceived ideas were overthrown 

 by the presence of so much that was beautiful and 

 interesting close to London, yet in course of time 

 I came to understand what was at first a dim sense 

 of something wanting. In the shadiest lane, in the 

 still pinewoods, on the hills of purple heath, after 

 brief contemiDlation there arose a restlessness, a 

 feeling that it was essential to be movin^^j. In no 



