Project Gutenberg's Round About a Great Estate, by Richard Jefferies

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Title: Round About a Great Estate

Author: Richard Jefferies

Release Date: February 6, 2007 [EBook #20528]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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ROUND ABOUT A GREAT ESTATE

BY

RICHARD JEFFERIES

AUTHOR OF

'THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME'
'WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY'
'THE AMATEUR POACHER'
'GREEN FERNE FARM'
'HODGE AND HIS MASTERS'

LONDON
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1880

[_All rights reserved_]

PREFACE.

There is an old story which in respect of a modern application may
bear re-telling. Once upon a time in a lonely 'coombe-bottom' of the
Downs, where there was neither church, chapel, nor public building of
any kind, there lived a cottage-girl who had never seen anything of
civilisation. A friend, however, having gone out to service in a
market-town some few miles distant, she one day walked in to see her,
and was shown the wonders of the place, the railway, the post-office,
the hotels, and so forth. In the evening the friend accompanied her a
short way on the return journey, and as they went out of the town,
they passed the church. Looking suddenly up at the tower, the visitor
exclaimed, 'Lard-a-mussy! you've got another moon here. Yourn have got
figures all round un!' In her excitement, and prepared to see marvels,
she had mistaken the large dial of the church clock for a moon of a
different kind to the one which shone upon her native home. This old
tale, familiar to country folk as an illustration of simplicity, has
to-day a wider meaning. Until recent years the population dwelling in
villages and hamlets, and even in little rural towns, saw indeed the
sun by day and the moon by night, and learned the traditions and
customs of their forefathers, such as had been handed down for
generations. But now a new illumination has fallen upon these far-away
places. The cottager is no longer ignorant, and his child is well
grounded in rudimentary education, read