JESSE'S FAVOURITE HAUNTS AND RURAL STUDIES. IN this volume of
observations upon Nature, and reminiscences of men and scenes made memorable by books, Mr. Jesse's object was partly similar to Mr. Howitt's in the Homes and Haunts of the British Poets ; but there is this great practical difference between them. Mr. Howitt started on his tour with the view of writing not only a book but a very bulky one, and worked his subjects proportionately. Mr. Jesse seems to have written his book because his trips and his reading had made and left pleasurable impressions. Hence, with far less ambitious effort, the Favourite Haunts and Rural Studies is more fresh and agreeable than the heavy work of Homes and Haunts. From long familiarity with some of the scenes, there is a more thorough saturation with the essence of the landscape, and less laborious enumeration of details. The writer is so grounded in the scenery that he can trust his mind to throw off its characteristics without referring to the note-book, where he has taken an inventory of the landscape. We suspect, too, that Mr. Jesse has a more real love for Nature—for Nature's self; or the habit of professional observation has given him a keener eye for her seemingly little peculiarities. Hence there is often much of freshness and agreeable picture-like effect in his descriptions, mingled with remarks of practical utility. Take, for example, the following passages from his description of Burnham Beeches ; a part of Buckinghamshire topographically memor- able, amongst other things, for Gray's residence in the district. "As we approach the parish bounds of Burnham, the open surface of the cotunry entirely disappears, and is covered with thick coppice-wood, interspersed with fine old beech-trees, and penetrated in various directions by green lanes, winding here and there through their varied scenery, and adorned by hollies, and by bushes of the evergreen juniper. These latter are generally of extraordinary size and beauty, and form a peculiar contrast to each other: some of them take a spiral shape of considerable height; while others creep along the ground, forming large beds, and appearing, to use an expression of to float redundant OR the grass.'
"To those whom the natural charms of sylvan scenery inspire, and who look
either with the painter's or the poet's eye on the forms presented to their view either by single trees or the combination of groups of different species, it would be difficult to point out a spot where the taste would be more gratified than in the place we are now describing. As we proceed into the interior of the wood, we find the land broken by inequalities on the surface, and varied by glens and willies interspersed with little rushy pools, the winter haunt of the snipe and woodcock, and overhung with the rich foliage of the holly, birch, juniper, and other trees, under whose shade the purple heaths flourish, and the tern and fox- gloves add a variety and charm to the scenery. " Much beauty is derived from the little forest-roads that wind among the pollard-trees, sometimes through open spaces of green sward, reminding us of the sketches of Ruysdael and Waterloo; and sometimes dipping down a declivity, or gradually lost in the thickening foliage of the wood. It is commonly believed in the neighbourhood that the Roman legions encamped in this spot; and certainly at no great distance, we mean in the parish of Langley, the remains of one of their encampments are still to be seen. That any even of the oldest and most venerable of the present trees—the patriarchs of the grove—existed in those far distant times, we can with difficulty believe, as it would carry us back to a period so remote as would be inconsistent with the character which botanists have given of the beech-tree: it is, however, highly probable that the present trees are their immediate descendants; and they too can boast of a noble progeny now spring ing up to perpetuate their race, on a spot which time has consecrated and the hand of taste has preserved from violation. " It is difficult togive the reader such a description of these trees as will en- able him to form a just idea of them. Some of them are of gigantic growth, and of most picturesque character. From their huge trunks, boughs of a size little inferior to the parent stem throw far and wide their horizontal shade; while their no less massive roots, rising above the soil in solid blocks, or twisting their gnarled talons deep into the ground, show at once the firmness with which these vegetable monsters are fixed, the power with which they can resist the fury of the storm, and the distance from which they derive that vital nourishment which is seen alike in their strength and their beauty—in the tenacity of their fibrous
growth and the splendour of their luxuriant foliage. • • •
" While on the subject of Burnham Beeches, I may be allowed to venture an opinion that this very interesting wood would have lost much of its present cha- racter had there been a great admixture of oak and other trees in it. I have long thought, that in making plantations and clumps of trees there should be groups of different species kept entirely distinct from each other, in order to produce a good effect. Clusters of beech, protecting the evergreen hollies under them, such as we see them at Bearwood in Berkshire, in some parts of Windsor Great Park, and at Burnham, are more striking than they would be if contrasted closely with other trees. I know nothing finer of the sort than the group of noble Scotch firs in Sir Henry Fletcher's park near Walton on Thames, with its heronry on their tops. The ash neither combines well with the oak or beech; and yet I was much struck with a wood composed entirely of fine ash-trees in Devonshire' OD the slope of a hill, the ground underneath them being covered with the wild blue columbine in full blossom. In the early spring the case is different, for then almost all trees put forth their light and cheerful green leaves; but in the autumn we then see the bare and leafless horse-chestnuts, sycamores, and limes, and fre- quently the ash, if there has been an early frost, while the oak retains its fresh verdure, and the beech is glowing with all the charms of its orange tints. Even a clamp of the copper beech, and another of birch, with their silvery stems and pendant boughs, produce a far better effect than they would if mixed with other
trees."
Mere description, however, can only escape tediousness by great inte- rest in the scenery, or great felicity of style, mingled with no little art in the describer. "Groves nod at groves "- one lane or landscape is the counterpart of another, or differs in (over) detail; and buildings, however carious for their architecture or interesting for their inhabitants, want on paper the interest which company, the holyday feeling, the sights, scents, sounds, and vivifying freshness of nature, impart to the reality ; albeit actual sight-seeing itself is often very tiresome work. Again, reminis- cences, unless happily managed, are apt to pall upon a tall-informed reader, because they frequently tell him nothing which he did not know before. Hence, notwithstanding the obvious feeling of the writer in his themes, and the brevity with which he dismisses subjects of limited lute-, rest, there is a want of attraction in several of the chapters. As it is, the volume is inferior to some of Mr. Jesse's previous publications, and would have been flatter, had it not been relieved by a variety of papers on the inexhaustible subject of natural history. These, gathered fresh from Nature, and often presenting her excellences—the genii, as it were, of animal life—give the attention of the reader a fillip when he is be- ginning to flag over accounts of mansions, parks, and places, to which in some cases he cannot get access like Mr. Jesse.
One of the most interesting visits to a house is to Beaconsfield, the residence of Burke. His old gardener is still living, and tells some anecdotes which excite attention from exhibiting so celebrated a man in his daily life. Mr. Jesse also hunted up a farmer's family whose head was the identical infant Hercules of Reynolds, and whose mother-in-law
well remembered the philosophic statesman.
"But there was a third person present, whom I mast attempt to describe. It WAS the mother of my hostess a venerable lady nearly eighty years of age; and never did I see old age more graceful or respectable or with fewer marks of the hand of Time. Seated in a high chair, with a cane respectable, surrounded with carved oak or- naments of an ancient date, she discoursed of Burke with a freshness and vivacity which were truly 'busing. In this chair, she told us, her grandmother had sat; and I can verily believe it. I must confess that I rather coveted it, although it became the good old lady, with her neat white cap and appropriate dress, ex- tremely well. She described in vivid terms the tall figure of Mr. Barker his well-bred manners, and interesting appearance. She told of his extreme grief at the loss of his son—his avoiding the town of Beaconsfield after his death and. coming by a back-way to Gre,gones; and of his never having again entered the church where his son's remains were deposited. She then told me a circum- stance which I was little prepared to hear, and which I must add contributed greatly to the pleasure of my visit. It was the fact that her good, honest, and portly son-in-law, whom I saw before me, was the very infant whom Sir Joshua Reynolds took as the model of his well-known picture of the Infant Hercules. This pocket Hercules had now, indeed, grown up into a real one, stout of limb and boner broad-chested, and as fine a specimen as could be well seen of a real English yeo- man. It was therefore no difficult matter to suppose that in his cradle he bore a due proportion to the appearance he now exhibited. The story of the Infant Hercules is soon told; and I only regret that I cannot relate it in the very words in which I heard it. "It appears that the infant's father was the farm-bailiff of Mr. Burke, with whom he was an especial favourite; that great man frequently coming to the cot- tage, sometimes eating potatoes roasted in the embers of a wood-fire, and once try- ing the merits of a rook or jackdaw pie, or rather a mixture of both. It was on one of these occasions that he saw this stoat boy, then seven or eight months old, and was much struck with his appearance. Soon afterwards, Sir Joshua Rey- nolds came to Gregories, and informed him that the celebrated Catherine Empress of Russia had sent him an order to paint her a picture, but that he was at a lose for a subject,. In the coarse of a-walk, Mr. Burke took Sir Joshua Reynolds to his bailiff's cottage. The boy was in a cradle in the kitchen; and as they entered it, he was discovered nearly naked, having kicked off the clothes, and thus ex- posed his chest and brawny limbs. Sir Joshua 'Reynolds was delighted with the subject before him. He sent to London immediately for his paletteand colours, an&painted his Infant Hercules strangling two serpents."
The prose of Favourite Haunts and .Rural Studies is intermingled with poetry, by the author's friend the Reverend J. Mitford, who accom- panied him in many of his excursions round his neighbourhood. Mr. Jesse himself, too, has contributed several tales illustrative of common life and character, though one has a spice of romance about it ; so that there is no lack- of variety. The volume is illustrated by -many first-rate wood-cuts, portraitures of objects mentioned in the text.
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