These are probably the note-books of which I have spoken, and from which I have quoted. The following, dated January 29, 1885, refers to a copy of the Badminton hunting-book sent him by Mr. Longman: "You have made me pretty miserable. I have just read the otter chapter, and I can see it all so plainly--the rocks and the rush of water, and the oaks of June above. Have you ever seen the Exe and Barle? It is a land of Paradise. So you have made me miserable enough, being on all-fours; literally not able to go even on three, as the Sphynx said, but on four, crawling upstairs on hands and knees, and nailed to the uneasy chair." He offers more work from Crowborough (May 1, 1884 or 1885, uncertain). There is a new novel of which he speaks, called "A Bit of Human Nature," which never appeared, and was probably never written. The rest of the letters belong to the last few months of his life, and must be reserved for the last chapter. Enough has been quoted from these letters to show the extraordinary mental activity of the man. He is continually planning new work. He sees a whole book spread out before him complete in all its details. To make a book--that is to say, to imagine a book already made,--is nothing; what troubles him is the writing it. This temperament, however, is fatal to novel-writing, because characters cannot be seen at once; they must be studied, they require time to grow in the brain. But Jefferies cannot write enough. It seems to his fertile brain, fevered with long sickness, as if he did nothing. CHAPTER IX. THE COUNTRY LIFE.