AT A talk next Saturday Professor Patrick Dillon will offer an insight into the downland landscapes of Richard Jefferies’s country near Swindon and the changes that have taken place.

Richard Jefferies lived from 1848 to 1887, a period of intensification in agriculture, culminating in ‘high farming’, followed by depression.

The fortunes of farming and the impacts on wildlife and the countryside are recurring themes in his writing. Jefferies’s works are often seen as a commentary on the constantly evolving relationship between economy and ecology, land-use and wildlife.

The dominating influence of the London market, the relationship between ploughland and grassland, land holding and countryside sports emerge from the historical record as the chief forces that have created the landscape we see today and the wildlife that inhabits it.

The talk has been organised by the Richard Jefferies Society and takes place at Liddington Village Hall on October 25, starting at 2.30pm. Admission is free and open to the public.

  • For further information call Jean Saunders on 01793 783040.