THE
Toilers of the Field
BY
RICHARD JEFFERIES
AUTHOR OF "THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME," ETC. ETC.
NEW IMPRESSION
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1898
All rights reserved
RICHARD JEFFERIES.
From the bust by Miss Margaret Thomas, in Salisbury Cathedral.
Photographed by Mr. Owen, Salisbury.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.
| First Edition, October 1892. |
| Reprinted, November 1892 and January 1893. |
| Issued in Silver Library, November 1893. |
| Reprinted, June 1898. |
PREFACE.
The first and larger part of this volume, from which it takes its name,consists of papers which will be new to the large majority of readers ofRichard Jefferies' works. The five entitled, "The Farmer at Home," "TheLabourer's Daily Life," "Field-faring Women," "An English Homestead,"and "John Smith's Shanty," appeared in Fraser's Magazine in 1874, longbefore Jefferies had gained any portion of that fame which was so longin coming, and came in full measure too late. Of the three letters tothe Times, written in 1872, one was republished, with the permissionof Mrs. Jefferies, in an appendix to Mr. Walter Besant's "Eulogy ofRichard Jefferies." It finds its natural place in this volume with theother papers, which give so clear a picture of the life of all classesof the cultivators of the soil in the early seventies. The "True Tale ofthe Wiltshire Labourer" has never previously[Pg v] been published, and isincluded in this volume by the kind permission of Mr. G. H. Harmer ofthe Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, for which paper it was writtenwhen Jefferies was on its staff, but for some reason was never used.
All the papers in Part II. have appeared in Longman's Magazine, sinceJefferies' death, and though they are with one exception very slight,yet they are all characteristic specimens of his work. From internalevidence it appears certain that the longest of them, entitled "TheComing of Summer," was written on June 1, 1881, and the subsequent days.It contains one or two points of resemblance with the famous "Pageant ofSummer," which appeared in Longman's Magazine for June 1883. It wasperhaps the first study of which that paper is the finished picture.
The frontispiece is reproduced by kind permission of Mr. J. Owen ofSalisbury, from a photograph taken by him of Miss Thomas' bust ofJefferies in Salisbury Cathedral.
C. J. LONGMAN.