Chapter I: Front Matter

THE SOUTH COUNTRY

THE HEART OF ENGLAND SERIES

This Series opens with a new work by Mr. EDWARD THOMAS, that curious and enthusiastic explorer of the English Countryside, whose prose style gives him a claim to be regarded as the successor, as he is the biographer, of Richard Jefferies. The Series includes a new edition of Mr. THOMAS’S other work, “The Heart of England,” and Mr. HILAIRE BELLOC’S “The Historic Thames.” These two volumes were originally issued in limited editions at one Guinea net per volume.

THE SOUTH COUNTRY. By EDWARD THOMAS. Small crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.

Mr. Thomas in this new book gives his impressions of a year’s wanderings afoot as the seasons change through Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Cornwall. It is a prose-poem of the most beautiful counties in England.

THE HEART OF ENGLAND. By EDWARD THOMAS. Small crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.

THE HISTORIC THAMES. By HILAIRE BELLOC, M.P. 3s. 6d. net.

_Prospectus of above Books sent post free on application._

J. M. DENT & CO.

29-30, BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.

THE SOUTH
COUNTRY

_by Edward Thomas_

LONDON
_J. M. DENT & CO._
_1909_

RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

“As I can’t leap from cloud to cloud, I want to wander from road to road. That little path there by the clipped hedge goes up to the high road. I want to go up that path and to walk along the high road, and so on and on and on, and to know all kinds of people. Did you ever think that the roads are the only things that are endless; that one can walk on and on, and never be stopped by a gate or a wall? They are the serpent of eternity. I wonder they have never been worshipped. What are the stars beside them? They never meet one another. The roads are the only things that are infinite. They are all endless.”

PAUL RUTTLEDGE in
_Where there is Nothing_,
by W. B. YEATS.

TO

EDWARD GARNETT

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
I. THE SOUTH COUNTRY 1
II. THE END OF WINTER--SUFFOLK--HAMPSHIRE 15
III. SPRING--HAMPSHIRE--KENT--SURREY 40
IV. AN ADVENTURER 61
V. SUSSEX 68
VI. A RETURN TO NATURE 73
VII. A RAILWAY CARRIAGE--SURREY--SUSSEX 95
VIII. JUNE--HAMPSHIRE--THE GOLDEN AGE--TRAHERNE 121
IX. HISTORY AND THE PARISH--HAMPSHIRE--CORNWALL 147
X. SUMMER--SUSSEX 180
XI. HAMPSHIRE--AN UMBRELLA MAN 186
XII. CHILDREN OF EARTH--HAMPSHIRE AND SUSSEX 196
XIII. AUGUST--GOING WESTWARD--HAMPSHIRE AND WILTSHIRE 210
XIV. AN OLD HOUSE AND A BOOK--WILTSHIRE 235
XV. AN OUTCAST--WILTSHIRE 245
XVI. THE END OF SUMMER--KENT--BERKSHIRE--HAMPSHIRE--SUSSEX--THE
FAIR 255

Several short passages from this book have been printed in “The Saturday Review,” “The Nation,” “The New Age,” “The Daily Chronicle,” and “The Daily News,” and are reprinted by permission.

THE SOUTH COUNTRY