Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
72
III.
Sitting
in
my
garden
amid
the
evening
scent
of
roses,
I
have
read
through
Walton's
Life
of
Hooker;
could
any
place
and
time
have
been
more
appropriate?
Almost
within
sight
is
the
tower
of
Heavitree
church--Heavitree,
which
was
Hooker's
birthplace.
In
other
parts
of
England
he
must
often
have
thought
of
these
meadows
falling
to
the
green
valley
of
the
Exe,
and
of
the
sun
setting
behind
the
pines
of
Haldon.
Hooker
loved
the
country.
Delightful
to
me,
and
infinitely
touching,
is
that
request
of
his
to
be
transferred
from
London
to
a
rural
living--"where
I
can
see
God's
blessing
spring
out
of
the
earth."
And
that
glimpse
of
him
where
he
was
found
tending
sheep,
with
a
Horace
in
his
hand.
It
was
in
rural
solitudes
that
he
conceived
the
rhythm
of
mighty
prose.
What
music
of
the
spheres
sang
to
that
poor,
vixen-haunted,
pimply-faced
man!
The
last
few
pages
I
read
by
the
light
of
the
full
moon,
that
of
afterglow
having
till
then
sufficed
me.
Oh,
why
has
it
not
been
granted
me
in
all
my
long
years
of
pen-labour
to
write
something
small
and
perfect,
even
as
one
of
these
lives
of
honest
Izaak!
Here
is
literature,
look
you--not
"literary
work."
Let
me
be
thankful
that
I
have
the
mind
to
enjoy
it;
not
only
to
understand,
but
to
savour,
its
great
goodness.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
