A Foot in England

Born, on tfcc, South American Pampas | ?s/a/Lí5 Circa 1846^OhiitLorídor^ 1C)22 | » PROPIEDAD DE LA Mtinlcipolidod de Busnos Aires 0^ 9 Pdt ZSSiS' DIRECCION DE BIBLIOTECAS FCB1K AS MUNICIPAL N°. O:.DEN UBICACION Reto Moteriol onU, t THIS EDITION IS LIMITED TO 75O COPIES FOR SALE IN ENGLAND, IOO FOR SALE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND 35 PRESENTATION COPIES THE COLLECTED WORKS W. H. HÜDSON IN TWENTY-FOUR VOLUMES AFOOT IN ENGLAND FROM A SKETCH BY A MCCORMICK AFOOT IN ENGLAND BY W. H. HUDSON MCMXXIII LONDON y TORONTO J. M. DENT & SONS LTD. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. A ti riehts reserved PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN About half the matter contained in this volume has appeared in various papers and periodicals—the Saturday Review, the Speaker, the Morning Post; one article in the English Review; one in Longmans’ Magazine. The chapter entitled "Rural Rides” is based on a Saturday Review paper, which was afterwards included in a volume edited by Mr. Harold Hodge, entitled Recrea- tions and Reflections. I have to thank the editors for permission to make use of this material. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE Guide-Books: An Introduction .... i A multiplicity of guide-books, large and small—Treasured possessions—Ways of using them—The author’s plan —Pleasure in the unexpected—An ancient hill-town —A too-much advertised spot—A wonderful echo— The guide-book at fault—A church in a wood—Legend of its building—An incurious historian—The charm of the unknown. CHAPTER II On Going Back............................................................................. 13 A word of waming—Danger of blurring first impressions —A west-country village—The great church—An en- chanting picture—Human figures—An irruption of choir-boys—An uproarious organ-performance—Sky- larking in the church—A stained-glass window—The vicar—The new church and its patroness—The oíd church—Why it was demolished—Keeping pet toads in church—Their Sunday dinner—The batrachians banished—A last glimpse of the vicar—Sense of some- thing strange—Slipping backwards through time— An impression left unspoiled. CHAPTER III Walking and Cycling.......................................................25 A walker’s limitations — Compensations — Kindly inter- course with country folk—A hunt for lodgings—Mr. Brownjohn—Mrs. Flowerdew—A tale of trouble—The empty spare room—Foraging for food and fumiture— Nightjars and a nightingale—Mr. Flowerdew’s home- coming—Market gossip—An oíd man with a young mind—A bit of a humbug—Things the wheelman misses. ix X GONTENTS CHAPTER IV PAGE Sebking a Shelter .................................................................33 Lean years and meagre holidays—An adventure in Surrey —An odd-looking young man—His discourse—An oíd house—The aristocratic woodman and his plebeian wife—Three families in one house—Serious folk—A home-built chapel—A good reason for unpopularity— A sorrowful vigil—A stubbom youth—The penis attendant on smoking—A village without an inn— Home-brewed ale and happiness. CHAPTER V Wind, Wave and Spirit .... 44 General insipidity of seaside holidays—Negligible mem- ories—A pleasure town on the Norfolk coast—Finding a lodging—The greatest pleasure in life—Our landlady and her boy—Schools as shoddy-factories—The land lady’s story—Bad weather—Frenzy of the swifts— The modern craze for the sea—An oíd village—The holiday crowd—The large English blonde type—Beauty of bare feet—Two little black-haired girís—Beautiful wildness—A determined little Saxon—The Iberian type and its sub-types—Blue eyes and black—A buming spirit in a frail frame—A day of days—Magical effect of haze—Transfigured sea-gulls—A world all spirit. CHAPTER VI By Swallowfield . .... 68 First visit to a favourite haunt—Reading—Three Mile Cross—Swallowfield—Miss Mitford’s monument—A pencil sketch of her—An estímate of her work—Her ambitious failures—Her letters—Our Village—Literary expression of personal charm—The inn at Three Mile Cross—Silchester—Easter Sunday in Silchester Church —The imprisoned red admiráis and the aigrette-wearers. CONTENTS xi CHAPTER VII PAGB Román Calleva . ... 79 An autumn afternoon—Earthwork and Román walls— Slow levelling process—A satisfying solitude—Sense oí the continuity of the human race—A memory oí the New World—Repeopling the land with potsherds— Gaps in human history—Terror of the void—Human associations—Individual and species—A comforting illusion. CHAPTER VIII A Cold Day at Silchester . 88 The cali of the distance—Retum to Silchester—A bleak summer day—A gathering of small birds—Chaffinch persecuting a sick blackbird—The blackbird’s retalia- tion—Watching the excavators—Sympathetic feelings —Ivy on ruins—Insects and ivy-honey—The ivy’s one bird. CHAPTER IX Rural Rides 96 Choice of a title—Birds and bicycles—Running over a snake —Woodpecker’s dust-bath — Newbury in October— Belated swallows—Hibemation of swallow tribe— Shaw House—Coombe Hill—Coombe village—Stock- doves on a lawn—The gibbet on Coombe Hill—A singular crime—Rival villages—The execution—The poisoned dew-pond—The gibbet twice renewed—The vicar of Coombe—"Tingling silence”—The open church—Hurstbourne Tarrant—The Rookery—Cobbett and his fríend Blount — Cobbett’s style — Blount’s hobby—Cirl bunting—A gorgeous tramp—Crux Easton —A. pretty picture—A remarkable fog—Rooks and the fog—Highclere—A flock of crossbills—Autumnal tree-tints—Covering up the excavations. xii CONTENTS CHAPTER X PAGE The Last of his Ñame ...... 124 A pseudonymous village—The baker—A “cup of tea”— A week in the village—The late squire—His history— A visit to his house—A book of sonnets—Lack of amenities in village life—The squire’s verses on “ Inno- cent Amusements”—The class-barrier. CHAPTER XI Salisbury and its Doves -137 A bad season for the birds—Wheatear on Salisbury Plain —At Salisbury—The cathedral—An oíd man's criticism —Birds about the cathedral—Tragedy of a humble- bee—Daws and kestrel—Stock-doves—Doves perse- cuted by daws—An attempted eviction—The stock- dove’s varied note—An organ accompaniment. CHAPTER XII Whitesheet Hill .146 Primrose-gatherers—Easter Sunday on Whitesheet Hill —A bleak spot—Wheatear—Magpies—Crow pursuing kestrel—Eider bushes on the downs—The wheatear as a tree-planter—A dead wheatear—The mystery of death—Burying the wheatear. CHAPTER XIII Bath and Wells Revisited 154 Harmonious aspect of Bath—The abbey—Memorial tablets —Inscriptions to unknown strangers—Quin’s epitaph —A beautiful memorial—John Sibthorp and the Flora Grtsca—A costly work—Changes in familiar faces—Time the enemy—Story of a portrait—Un- spoken words of comfort — Shepton Mallet — The eating-house keeper and St. Paul — The brewery hooter—The road from Shepton to Wells—Birds and a boy—Wells Cathedral—Green woodpecker—An oíd dog-friend—Noisy Bristol—Un-English peasantry. CONTENTS xiii CHAPTER XIV PAGB The Return of the Native I7O Revisiting famous places—Sad and happy returns—Buying back the oíd home—The man f rom Australia—A mental picture—Hunting for the original—Disappointments and success—A dream fulfilled. CHAPTER XV SUMMER DAYS ON THE OTTER I79 Between the Exe and the Axe—The confinement of deep lañes—Banks of the Otter—An otter-hunt—Unfamiliar aspects of things—A pair of crows—Curious behaviour of a young crow—A crow with crimson eyes—Instances of red light in eyes of men and animáis—A danger signal? CHAPTER XVI In Praise of the Cow . .187 Moved on by a thunderstorm—Reaction to the weather— A cowman and his cows—The shining face—The dumb cows of the Mendips—The maternal instinct—A cow that refused to be cheated—A revulsión against flesh- eating—Another cowman—His bovine expression— A cow's caress. CHAPTER XVII An Old Road leading Nowhere 195 Bearing to the left—A sunken road—A hill-top—How to distinguish crow from rook—Jay—Yellowhammer— Redstart—Its incomplete song—Its supposed mimicry —A forsaken farm—The desoíate farm-house and its silent inmate. xiv CONTENTS CHAPTER XVIII PAGE Branscombe . 204 A hot walk—The comely Devon women—Two types—A native’s praise of Branscombe—The village and its setting—Villagers and visitors—The coast—A colony of herring-gulls—Vegetable plots among the rocks— Beauty of the gulls—Their objection to strangers— Gull language—A strange chorus. CHAPTER XIX Abbotsbury ... .215 An unspoilt village—Starlings—A massacre—The sports man^ repentance—The Chesil Bank—Seaward-flying swans—The village described—A red road—Red and green in due proportion—The mole as a colourist— Red cows in a meadow—Iron-stained soil—A lump of ironstone—A view of the Chesil Bank—The coming of the mackerel—A draught of jelly-fish—A sunset piece—Incommunicable rapture—Heroic ablutions. CHAPTER XX Salisbury Revisited ... 226 The cathedral birds in the breeding-season—Young daws ejected from their nests—Insect-like manoeuvres of martins—Beauty of the cathedral—Nature's artistry —“Living stains”—The interior—Its spacious bright- ness—Beauty by glimpses—Intermittent enjoyment of aesthetic pleasures—A sight-seer from the North— One thing at a time—The American method. CHAPTER XXI Stonehenge. 235 Poor Indiana!—First visit to Stonehenge—A disillusion- ment — Mental pictures formed in childhood — The Italian exile and the crane—A cluster of poor little grey stones—Nesting sparrows—Going to see the sun CONTENTS xv rise—An ancient custom—Shrewton—Soldiers on the Plain—A Japanese superstition—The sense of histori- cal time—Extirpation of wild life by the soldiers—A midnight walk—The unbedding of the lark—The watchers at Stonehenge—A rabbit hunt—Fun with the motorists—Sunday morning at Shrewton Church— An altemative sermón. CHAPTER XXII The Village and “The Stones” 251 Tales of my landlady—Compelling eyes—A strong person- ality—Village tragedies—The delusion of human un- happiness — Outdoor sounds — A waming—A walk in the darkness—Bird’s-foot trefoil—A gathering at “The Stones”—An unknown ancientry—A place to look for visions in—An apocryphal visión.

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