The Hills and the Vale

The Hills and the Vale is a collection of reminiscences of a now vanished rural way of life.

Richard Jefferies (Author)

9781108025317, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 January 2011

350 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2 cm, 0.45 kg

Richard Jefferies (1848–1887) remains one of the most thoughtful and most lyrical writers on the English countryside. He had aspirations to make a living as a novelist, but it was his short, factually based articles for The Live Stock Journal and other magazines, drawn from a wealth of knowledge of the rural community into which he had been born, which when collected in book form brought him recognition (though not wealth), and which continued to be read and admired after his early death. The Hills and the Vale, first released in 1909, contains a collection of published and unpublished essays and articles. Written in Jefferies' highly descriptive style, these essays describe rural life and nature in England, illustrating folk traditions and important natural events in rural communities. The sense of wonder evoked by the natural world, which permeates all of Jefferies' works, is fully exemplified in this volume.

Introduction Edward Thomas
1. Choosing a cow
2. Skating
3. Marlborough forest
4. Village churches
5. Birds of spring
6. The spring of the year
7. Vignettes from nature
8. A king of acres
9. The story of Swindon
10. Unequal agriculture
11. Village organization
12. The idle earth
13. After the county franchise
14. The Wiltshire labourer
15. On the Downs
16. The sun and the brook
17. Nature and eternity
18. The dawn.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB]