Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

JEFFERIES, RICHARD (1848-1887)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 301 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

JEFFERIES, See also:RICHARD (1848-1887) , See also:English naturalist and author, was See also:born on the 6th of See also:November 1848, at the farmhouse of Coate about 22 M. from See also:Swindon, on the road to See also:Marlborough. He was sent to school, first at See also:Sydenham and then at Swindon, till the See also:age of fifteen or so, but his actual See also:education was at the hands of his See also:father, who gave him his love for Nature and taught him how to observe. For the See also:faculty of observation, as Jefferies, See also:Gilbert See also:White, and H. D. See also:Thoreau have remarked, several gifts are necessary, including the See also:possession of See also:long sight and See also:quick sight, two things which do not always go together. To them must be joined trained sight and the knowledge of what to expect. The boy's father first showed him what there was to look for in the hedge, in the See also:field, in the trees, and in the See also:sky. This See also:kind of training would in many cases be wasted: to one who can under-stand it, the See also:book of Nature will by-and-by offer pages which are blurred and illegible to the See also:city-bred lad, and even to the See also:country lad the See also:power of See also:reading them must be maintained by See also:constant practice. To live amid streets or in the working See also:world destroys it. The observer must live alone and always in the country; he must not worry himself about the ways of the world; he must be always, from See also:day to day, watching the See also:infinite changes and See also:variations of Nature. Perhaps, even when the observer can actually read this book of Nature, his power of articulate speech may prove inadequate for the expression of what he See also:sees. But Jefferies, as a boy, was more than an observer of the See also:fields; he was bookish, and read all the books that he could See also:borrow or buy.

And presently, as is See also:

apt to be the See also:fate of a bookish boy who cannot enter a learned profession, he became a journalist and obtained a See also:post on the See also:local See also:paper. He See also:developed See also:literary ambitions, but for a long See also:time to come was as one beating the See also:air. He tried local See also:history and novels; but his See also:early novels, which were published at his own See also:risk and expense, were, deservedly, failures. In 1872, however, he published a remarkable See also:letter in The Times, on " The See also:Wiltshire Labourer," full of See also:original ideas and of facts new to most readers. This was in reality the turning-point in his career. In 1893, after more false starts, Jefferies returned to his true field of See also:work, the See also:life of the country, and began to write for See also:Fraser's See also:Magazine on " Farming and Farmers." He had now found himself. The See also:rest of his history is that of continual advance, from See also:close observation becoming daily more and more close, to that intimate communion with Nature with which his later pages are filled. The developments of the later See also:period are throughout touched with the See also:melancholy that belongs to See also:ill-See also:health. For, though in his See also:prose poem called " The See also:Pageant of Summer " the writer seems absolutely revelling in the strength of manhood that be-longs to that pageant, yet, in the See also:Story of My See also:Heart, written about the same time, we detect the mind that is continually turned to See also:death. He died at See also:Goring, worn out with many ailments, on the 14th of See also:August 1887. The best-known books of Richard Jefferies are: The Gamekeeper at See also:Home (1878); The Story of My Heart ('883); Life of the Fields (1884), containing the best paper he ever wrote, " The Pageant of Summer"; See also:Amaryllis at the See also:Fair (1884), in which may be found the portraits of his own See also:people; and The Open Air. He stands among the scanty See also:company of men who address a small See also:audience, for whom he read aloud these pages of Nature spoken of above, which only he, and the few like unto him, can decipher.

See See also:

Sir See also:Walter See also:Besant, Eulogy of Richard Jefferies ('888); H. S. See also:Salt, Richard Jefferies: a Study (1894); See also:Edward See also:Thomas, Richard Jefferies, his Life and Work (1909). (W.

End of Article: JEFFERIES, RICHARD (1848-1887)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
JEEJEEBHOY (JIJIBHAI), SIR JAMSETJEE (JAMSETJI) 		[next]
JEFFERSON

Site © 2006 - Net Industries