500 Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, Articles, &c. 



Fairer, B. H. Cunnington, E. Slow, and Rev. E. H. Goddard, were 

 asked to give their opinions on the theory, which they accordingly did 

 in the March 4th issue, unanimously declining to accept the article as 

 a serious contribution to archaeology. To them Mr. C. F. Cooksey 

 replies in two columns of the issue of March 18th. dealing quite 

 frankly with the notion emanating from " the crania of local people who 

 failed to appreciate the genius of Eichard J efferies " that the stone of 

 which the great Trilithons at Stonehenge are made is Sarsen of 

 Wiltshire origin and nothing else. One would have supposed that that 

 fact at least would have been regarded as beyond the reach of con- 

 troversy, even by writers who are not " local people." 



William Beckford/of Fonthill Abbey, by Lewis Melville. 



Article in Fortnightly Review, Dec, 1909, pp. 1011—1023. A good 

 biographical article defending Beckford's memory from the legends 

 of mythical orgies at Fonthill and elsewhere, and, as the author holds, 

 from the equally unfounded legend of insanity in his later years. As 

 a matter of fact he retained all his faculties to an extraordinary degree 

 up to the time of his death at the age of 84. 



Richard Jefferies An article in the Edinburgh Review, No. 429, 

 July, 1909, pp. 221 — 243, with special reference to Mr, Thomas' recent 

 Biography. It is a pleasure to read a sane appreciation of Jefferies 

 such as this. It has become the fashion among writers on Jefferies, a 

 fashion set by Mr. Salt, and recently followed by Mr. Thomas, to pass 

 over the "nature books" as comparatively small beer, and to rhapso- 

 dise with bated breath over " The Story of my Heart " as a species of 

 sacred evangel containing a mystical revelation of something— it does 

 not appear exactly what — which is " beyond criticism " — which it is 

 indeed almost impious to attempt to criticise. It is refreshing to find 

 the Edinburgh Reviewer expresses himself in this connection as follows : 

 "It is very evident that what we have in these quasi-scientific wanderings 

 is not the real and sane Jefferies, but a Jefferies exiled from his own 

 native resources, struck down with a mortal sickness, and tormenting 

 his mind with various problems of the clay . . . Among many bits 

 that are beautiful, and many that are interesting, there are more still 

 that are over-strained and hysterical, as well as some that are, in- 

 tellectually, childish or incoherent. Naturally, a book of this sort would 

 tend to perplex and irritate nine readers out of ten, and certainly " The 

 Story of my Heart " has by no means tended to explain Jefferies to his 

 fellow-countrymen." "The weak utterances of these moments of 

 weakness ought not to obscure the utterances of his unclouded spirit ; 

 nor ultimately, will they. Time, which so surely winnows wheat from 

 chaff, will gather his grain for him. He will live by the work of his 

 strength and prime, not of his weakness and disease ; he will live by 

 his writings on Nature." 



No better estimate of Jefferies" work has yet appeared. 



