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CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
NATURE AROUND LONDON.
BY MEAD AND STREAM.
SOME QUEER DISHES.
A WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE.
OUR HEALTH.
THE COMMON-SENSE OF SUPERSTITIONS.
NOXIOUS MANUFACTURES.
TRIMMING THE FEET OF ELEPHANTS.
SONNETS OF PRAISE.
No. 15.—Vol. I.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1884.
NATURE AROUND LONDON.
Most people have the impression that to enjoycountry sights and sounds, and all the peacefulrural beauties and bright hues of an Englishlandscape, one must go a long way out of London.Mr Richard Jefferies, in his recent volume, Naturenear London (Chatto and Windus), has, with hisadmirable power of nature-painting, shown thisto be a mistake. About twelve miles from thegreat metropolis there are to be found smallpicturesque villages lying in the heart of leafycopses, and rural lanes imbedded in greenery,and filled with bird and insect life. Here thewayfarer, weary with the dust and smoke ofLondon, may inhale an atmosphere laden withresinous and balmy scents, and stretch himselfin the cool grass beside streams beloved by theangler, where patches of forget-me-nots gem thegreensward with their soft turquoise-blue, and theyellow flag hangs out in the bright summer sunshineits gay streamers of gold.
Mr Jefferies tells us regarding one of thesetiny brooks, that he watched season afterseason a large trout that lay in a deep poolunder the shadow of a great beech-tree. Fornearly four years, in shadow and sunshine,he observed this veteran of the finny tribe ashe lay meditatively watching the world outsidefrom the quiet depths of his snug pool. Thenoisy little sedge-birds chattered overhead, andthe patient anglers cast their lines with crafty careby the side of the brook; but no bait they coulduse had any charm for him. At length, by slowdegrees, there came to be a comparative friendlinessand confidence between the trout and thepatient watcher who stood so still and silentby the edge of the pool. Sometimes the troutwould venture out of the shadow, and raisinghimself over a dead branch that lay in the water,display all his speckled beauties in the rippleand sunshine. At last, one bright summermorning, an end came to this quaint friendship.An awful revolution occurred in the quiet life ofthe brook—the water was dammed