Nature near London / by Richard Jefferies.

  • Richard Jefferies
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nature near London / by Richard Jefferies. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    30/296 page 14
    FOOTPATHS. “ Always get over a stile,” is the one rule that should ever be borne in mind by those who wish to see the land as it really is—that is to say, never omit to explore a footpath, for never was there a footpath yet which did not pass something of interest. In the meadows, everything comes pressing lovingly up to the path. The small-leaved clover can scarce he driven back by frequent footsteps from endeavour- ing to cover the bare earth of the centre. Tall buttercups, round whose stalks the cattle have care- fully grazed, stand in ranks; strong ox-eye daisies, with broad white disks and torn leaves, form with the grass the tricolour of the pasture—white, green, and gold. When the path enters the mowing-grass, ripe for the scythe, the simplicity of these cardinal hues is lost in the multitude of shades and the addition of other colours. The surface of mowing-grass is indeed made up of so many tints that at the first glance it is confusing; and hence, perhaps, it is that hardly ever has an artist succeeded in getting the effect upon canvas. Of the million blades of grass no two are of the same shade.
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