Please see the Transcriber’s Notes at the end of this text.
THE
RURAL LIFE OF ENGLAND.
BY
WILLIAM HOWITT,
AUTHOR OF THE “BOOK OF THE SEASONS,” ETC.
SECOND EDITION,CORRECTED AND REVISED.
WITH
ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD BY BEWICK AND S. WILLIAMS.
LONDON:
LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS.
1840.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY MANNING AND MASON,
IVY-LANE, ST. PAUL’S.
Preparing for Publication, in One Volume, 8vo.
THE BALLAD POETRY OF MRS. HOWITT.
To be beautifully embellished with Wood Engravings from original Designs.
TO
THOMAS AND PHEBE HOWITT,
OF HEANOR, IN THE COUNTY OF DERBY.
My dear Parents,
There are no living persons to whom this Volumecan be with so much propriety inscribed as to you. To you myheart desires to present some visible token of that affection andgratitude which animate it in reviewing all the good it hasderived from you. It was to your inculcations, but far more tothe spirit of your daily life,—to the purity, integrity, independentfeeling, and simple religion,—in fact, to the pervading and perpetualatmosphere of your house, that I owe every thing which hasdirected me onward in life: scorning whatever is mean; aspiringafter whatever is generous and noble; loving the poor and theweak, and fearless of the strong; in a word, every thing which hasnot only prolonged life but blessed and sanctified it. Followingyour counsels and example, I have striven not so much for wealthas for an independent spirit and a pure conscience. Do I not oweyou much for these? But besides this, it was under your roof thatI passed a childhood and youth the happiest that ever were passed;it was there that I imbibed that love of nature, which must livethough it cannot die with me. But beyond this, the presentvolume is descriptive of that ru