A Shepherd's Life [Hardcover]

Hudson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2003

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III Winterbourne Bishop A favourite village—Isolated situation—Appearance of the village—Hedge-fruit—The winterbourne—Human interest—The home feeling—Man in harmony with nature—Human bones thrown out by a rabbit —A spot unspoiled and unchanged Of the few widely separated villages, hidden away among the lonely downs in the large, blank spaces between the rivers, the one I love best is Winterbourne Bishop. Yet of the entire number—I know them all intimately—I daresay it would be pronounced by most persons the least attractive. It has less shade from trees in summer and is more exposed in winter to the bleak winds of this high country, from whichever quarter they may blow. Placed high itself on a wide, unwooded valley or depression, with the low, sloping downs at some distance away, the village is about as cold a place to pass a winter in as one couldfind in this district. And, it may be added, the most inconvenient to live in at any time, the nearest town, or the easiest to get to, being Salisbury, twelve miles distant by a hilly road. The only means of getting to that great centre of life which the inhabitants possess is by the carrier's cart, which makes the weary four-hours' journey once a week, on market-day. Naturally, not many of them see that place of delights oftener than once a year, and some but once in five or more years. Then, as to the village itself, when you have got down into its one long, rather winding street, or road. This has a green bank, five or six feet high, on either side, on which stand the cottages, mostly facing the road. Real houses there are- none—buildings worthy of being called houses in these great days—unless the three small farm-houses are considered better than cottages, and the rather mean-looking rectory—the rector, poor m...

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

W. H. Hudson is the author of Far Away and Long Ago, Green Mansions, The Naturalist in La Plata, and The Purple Land.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 204 pages
• Publisher: IndyPublish.com (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1404384928
• ISBN-13: 978-1404384927
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,727,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an obscure classic, May 13, 2008

By 

Ted Byrd - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Shepherd's Life (Dodo Press) (Paperback)

A Shepherds Life deals with a time and place which seems quite obscure, the Salisbury Plain of the 19th century. W. H, Hudson assembled this history from the tales and remembrances of some of the aged residents, particularly an old man who had been a shepherd his entire life. There are many descriptions of the relationship between shepherds and their dogs,peculiar behaviors of various animals,tales of strange people, and extensive descriptions of the land itself. There are stories of the humble lives of the sheepherders and their many hardships. There is condemnation of the hoggish practices of the large landowners who lived in luxury and hoarded all the land and the rights thereof, yet denied the common people even a decent living. Shining through all this is the pride these simple workmen felt in their craft and expertise. The book had a slow start and seemed rather mundane at first, but gradually built up a mood which drew me in to this world. It is a very quaint change of pace to our modern existence. The quality of writing was excellent. I read this book because I enjoyed the author's natural history classic,The Naturalist in La Plata. I felt rewarded that I did.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Smatterings, November 8, 2006

By 

Julie A. Smith "avidreader" (Boston, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Shepherd's Life (Paperback)

I love the pieces that are included in this edition; however, they are merely smatterings taken from A Shepherd's Life. I had hoped the book I ordered was unabridged. That aside, W.H. Hudson was a masterfull writer and his prose, in most instances, magnificent and highly descriptive.