Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading team FIELD AND HEDGEROW BEING THE LAST ESSAYS OF RICHARD JEFFERIES _COLLECTED BY HIS WIDOW_ PREFACE. For permission to reprint my husband's latest Essays my sincere thanks are due to the Editors of the following publications:-- _The Fortnightly Review._ _Manchester Guardian._ _Pall Mall Gazette_. _Standard._ _English Illustrated Magazine._ _Longman's Magazine._ _St. James's Gazette._. _Art Journal._ _Chambers's Journal._ _Magazine of Art._ _Century Illustrated Magazine._ J.J. CONTENTS. HOURS OF SPRING NATURE AND BOOKS THE JULY GRASS WINDS OF HEAVEN THE COUNTRY SUNDAY THE COUNTRY-SIDE: SUSSEX SWALLOW-TIME BUCKHURST PARK HOUSE-MARTINS AMONG THE NUTS WALKS IN THE WHEAT-FIELDS JUST BEFORE WINTER LOCALITY AND NATURE COUNTRY PLACES FIELD WORDS AND WAYS COTTAGE IDEAS APRIL GOSSIP SOME APRIL INSECTS THE TIME OF YEAR MIXED DAYS OF MAY AND DECEMBER THE MAKERS OF SUMMER STEAM ON COUNTRY ROADS FIELD SPORTS IN ART: THE MAMMOTH HUNTER BIRDS' NESTS NATURE IN THE LOUVRE SUMMER IN SOMERSET AN ENGLISH DEER-PARK MY OLD VILLAGE MY CHAFFINCH HOURS OF SPRING. It is sweet on awaking in the early morn to listen to the small bird singing on the tree. No sound of voice or flute is like to the bird's song; there is something in it distinct and separate from all other notes. The throat of woman gives forth a more perfect music, and the organ is the glory of man's soul. The bird upon the tree utters the meaning of the wind--a voice of the grass and wild flower, words of the green leaf; they speak through that slender tone. Sweetness of dew and rifts of sunshine, the dark hawthorn touched with breadths of open bud, the odour of the air, the colour of the daffodil--all that is delicious and beloved of spring-time are expressed in his song. Genius is nature, and his lay, like the sap in the bough from which he sings, rises without thought. Nor is it necessary that it should be a song; a few short notes in the sharp spring morning are sufficient to stir the heart. But yesterday the least of them all came to a bough by my window, and in his call I heard the sweet-briar wind rushing over the young grass. Refulgent fall the golden rays of the sun; a minute only, the clouds cover him and the hedge is dark. The bloom of the gorse is shut like a book; but it is there--a few hours of warmth and the covers will fall open. The meadow is bare, but in a little while the heart-shaped celandine leaves will come in their accustomed place. On the pollard willows the long wands are yellow-ruddy in the passing gleam of sunshine, the first colour of spring appears in their bark. The delicious wind rushes among them and they bow and rise; it touches the top of the dark pine that looks in the sun the