Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Juliet Sutherland, Tom Allen, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team THE OPEN AIR RICHARD JEFFERIES NOTE For permission to collect these papers my thanks are due to the Editors of the following publications: _The Standard_, _English Illustrated Magazine_, _Longman's Magazine_, _St. James's Gazette_, _Chambers's Journal_, _Manchester Guardian_, _Good Words_, and _Pall Mall Gazette_. R.J. CONTENTS SAINT GUIDO GOLDEN-BROWN WILD FLOWERS SUNNY BRIGHTON THE PINE WOOD NATURE ON THE ROOF ONE OF THE NEW VOTERS THE MODERN THAMES THE SINGLE-BARREL GUN THE HAUNT OF THE HARE THE BATHING SEASON UNDER THE ACORNS DOWNS FOREST BEAUTY IN THE COUNTRY OUT OF DOORS IN FEBRUARY HAUNTS OF THE LAPWING OUTSIDE LONDON ON THE LONDON ROAD RED ROOFS OF LONDON A WET NIGHT IN LONDON SAINT GUIDO St. Guido ran out at the garden gate into a sandy lane, and down the lane till he came to a grassy bank. He caught hold of the bunches of grass and so pulled himself up. There was a footpath on the top which went straight in between fir-trees, and as he ran along they stood on each side of him like green walls. They were very near together, and even at the top the space between them was so narrow that the sky seemed to come down, and the clouds to be sailing but just over them, as if they would catch and tear in the fir-trees. The path was so little used that it had grown green, and as he ran he knocked dead branches out of his way. Just as he was getting tired of running he reached the end of the path, and came out into a wheat-field. The wheat did not grow very closely, and the spaces were filled with azure corn-flowers. St. Guido thought he was safe away now, so he stopped to look. Those thoughts and feelings which are not sharply defined but have a haze of distance and beauty about them are always the dearest. His name was not really Guido, but those who loved him had called him so in order to try and express their hearts about him. For they thought if a great painter could be a little boy, then he would be something like this one. They were not very learned in the history of painters: they had heard of Raphael, but Raphael was too elevated, too much of the sky, and of Titian, but Titian was fond of feminine loveliness, and in the end somebody said Guido was a dreamy name, as if it belonged to one who was full of faith. Those golden curls shaking about his head as he ran and filling the air with radiance round his brow, looked like a Nimbus or circlet of glory. So they called him St. Guido, and a very, very wild saint he was.