CHILDREN’S COLUMN. 
195 
Sawyer and Huck Finn ; and, although the experiences of Bevis and Mark 
are less broadly comic, they are nevertheless not wanting in quiet humour. 
Messrs. Longmans have done well to bring out at a moderate price these 
essays — the last we shall ever have from his pen — of Richard Jefferies.* It is un- 
necessary to describe or criticise them : they differ in no respect, save perhaps in 
the wide range of subjects, from other volumes by the same author, and, like them, 
are reprinted from various magazines. Here, as in his former works, we have the 
same almost photographic representation of country scenes ; the same faultlessly 
accurate rendering into words of country sights and sounds. He has no theory to 
propound, no pet ideas to be supported. “The more thoroughly the artificial 
system of natural history ethics is dismissed from the mind,” he says, “the more 
interesting wild creatures will be found, because while it is adhered to a veil is held 
before the eyes, and nothing useful can ever be discovered.” Unlike many 
preachers, Mr. Jefferies follows his own advice, and it is this that gives his books 
their peculiar charm ; many have imitated him, but none successfully. 
Jefferies was a true Selbornian ; evidences of this are of frequent occurrence, 
scattered up and down the pages of this and his former books. “ The wild flowers 
go to London fromall parts of the country, bushels and bushels of them. Nearly two 
hundred miles away, in .Somerset, a friend writes that he has been obliged to put 
un notice-boards to stay the people from tearing up his violets and primroses, not 
only gathering them but making the flowery banks waste ; and notice-boards have 
proved no safeguard. The worst is that the roots are taken, so that years will be 
required to repair the loss ” (p. 200). 
One or two slips in names may be noted for correction in a later edition. “The 
white cotton of the plant tree" (p. 178), the poplar is evidently intended ; and 
for “ the blue comfrey to which the bees and humble-bees come in such numbers ” 
(p. 218), borage should be substituted. Such mistakes are so rare in Mr. Jefferies’ 
writings that they attract immediate attention. F.very lover of nature should add 
this volume to his collection. 
Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. have re-issued the illustrated edition of what is 
perhaps the author’s best-known work, The Gamekeeper at Home, in a five- 
shilling volume ; and also, at a somewhat higher price, his Hodge and his Masters. 
This is a less known work, and deals with a somewhat wider range of subjects 
than Mr. Jefferies’ other books. The author deals with the landowner and the 
agricultural labourer from a social, not from a political, standpoint ; ami he writes 
with one who has intimate knowledge of the classes he depicts. The picture he 
gives us is not a pleasant one, although it is not characterised by the entire 
absence of any lighter shades which marked that powerful but hopeless story, A 
Village Tragedy , but it is full of interest, and deserves to be read carefully by 
those who would obtain a knowledge of the agricultural outlook at the present day. 
We would gladly dwell longer upon these interesting volumes did space 
permit, but we must be content with advising our readers to obtain them for 
themselves. 
CHILDREN’S COLUMN. 
Natural History Society for Children. — Miss R. C. Chichester, of 
Arlington Court, Barnstaple, writes : — “ Having noticed among children, even in 
a part of England where nature is more attractive than elsewhere, great ignorance 
in the simplest subject of natural history, I determined to start a Natural History 
Society for the girls of our village school. I think some of your young readers 
may like to hear how it has, so far, succeeded. The Society is not yet a year old, 
but already the children seem to take a greater interest in the banks and hedges 
around them. The parish being a thinly populated one, our members are few, 
but, notwithstanding the distance that some have to come, scarcely any missed 
regularly attending the fortnightly meetings held last summer. Weather permit- 
Field and Hedgerow , being the last essays of Richard Jefferies : London, Longmans. 
