SOURCE: "Richard Jefferies," in The Vagabond in Literature, J. M. Dent & Co., 1906, pp. 141-66.

In the following excerpt, Rickett discusses Jefferies as a vagabond temperment, stating that he 'presents to my mind all the characteristics of the Vagabond," including "his many graces and charms," as well as "his notable deficiencies. '

Looking at [Jefferies] first of all as an artist, the most obvious thing that strikes a reader is his power to convey sensuous impressions. He loved the Earth, not as some have done with the eye or ear only, but with every nerve of his body. His scenic pictures are more glowing, more ardent than those of Thoreau. There was more of the poet, less of the naturalist in Jefferies. Perhaps it would have been juster to call Thoreau a poetic naturalist, and reserved the term poet-naturalist for Jefferies. Be that as it may, no one can...