The Story of My Heart, 1883

CHAPTER I: THE STORY OF MY HEART [published Oct. 1883] commences seventeen years ago. In the glow of youth there were times every now and then when I felt the necessity of a strong inspiration of soul thought. My heart was dusty, parched for want of the rain of deep feeling; my mind arid and dry, for there is a dust which settles on the heart as well as that which falls on a ledge. ... When this began to form I felt eager to escape from it, to throw off the heavy clothing, to drink deeply once more at the fresh fountains of life. An inspiration―a long deep breath of the pure air of thought―could alone give health to the heart. There is a hill [Liddington] to which I used to resort at such periods. The labour of walking three miles to it, all the while gradually ascending, seemed to clear my blood of the heaviness accumulated at home. On a warm summer day the slow continued rise required continual effort, which carried away the sense of oppression.... I began to breathe a new air and to have a fresher aspiration. ... Moving up the sweet short turf, at every step my heart seemed to obtain a wider horizon of feeling; with every inhalation of rich pure air, a deeper desire. The very light of the sun was whiter and more brilliant here. By the time I had reached the summit I had entirely forgotten the petty circumstances and the annoyances of existence. I felt myself, myself.

28 September 2018

The Richard Jefferies Society Birthday Lecture - Saturday 27 October 2018


Richard Fortey


Richard Fortey was the winner of the 2016 Richard Jefferies Society and White Horse Bookshop Literary Prize for his book The Wood for the Trees: The Long View of Nature from a Small Wood. He wrote in it: ‘After a working life spent in a great museum, the time had come for me to escape into the open air. I spent years handling fossils of extinct animals; now, the inner naturalist needed to touch living animals and plants.’
In 2011, after retiring from his role as senior palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum, and with the proceeds of presenting a TV series, he purchased four acres of prime beech and bluebell wood in the Chiltern Hills, Oxfordshire called Grim’s Dyke Wood – part of Lambridge Wood.
The Society is delighted to welcome Richard Fortey to deliver this year’s Birthday Lecture that is held in Liddington Village Hall.
The meeting is open to the public and free to attend.