s and writes with facility, and
is not without knowledge of the higher sort. Thus there is now another
moon with the figures of education all round it. In this book some
notes have been made of the former state of things before it passes
away entirely. But I would not have it therefore thought that I wish
it to continue or return. My sympathies and hopes are with the light
of the future, only I should like it to come from nature. The clock
should be read by the sunshine, not the sun timed by the clock. The
latter is indeed impossible, for though all the clocks in the world
should declare the hour of dawn to be midnight, the sun will presently
rise just the same.

RICHARD JEFFERIES.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. OKEBOURNE CHACE. FELLING TREES. 1

II. CICELY. THE BROOK. 20

III. A PACK OF STOATS. BIRDS. 42

IV. HAMLET FOLK. 61

V. WIND-ANEMONES. THE FISHPOND. 82

VI. A FARMER OF THE OLDEN TIMES. 103

VII. THE CUCKOO-FIELDS. 125

VIII. CICELY'S DAIRY. HILARY'S TALK. 144

IX. THE WATER-MILL. FIELD NAMES. 163

X. THE COOMBE-BOTTOM. CONCLUSION. 183

ROUND ABOUT A GREAT ESTATE.

CHAPTER I.

OKEBOURNE CHACE. FELLING TREES.

The great house at Okebourne Chace stands in the midst of the park,
and from the southern windows no dwellings are visible. Near at hand
the trees appear isolated, but further away insensibly gather
together, and above them rises the distant Down crowned with four
tumuli. Among several private paths which traverse the park there is
one that, passing through a belt of ash wood, enters the meadows.
Sometimes following the hedges and sometimes crossing the angles, this
path finally ends, after about a mile, in the garden surrounding a
large thatched farmhouse. In the maps of the parish it has probably
another name, but from being so long inhabited by the Lucketts it is
always spoken of as Lucketts' Place.

The house itself and ninety acres of grass land have been their
freehold for many generations; in fact, although there is no actual
deed of entail, the property is as strictly preserved in the family
and descends from heir to heir as regularly as the grea