At the end of his topographical book, Algernon Gissing returns to the starting point: Saintbury Hill. Gazing over the landscape, contemplating the birds and flowers of the locality, Gissing concludes: 'all love a good story, and in country folk especially no gossip goes so readily as that upon incidents and characters of the past associated with the spots familiar to them. It seems odd that more was not made of this instinct from the very outset of our rual popular education. Richard Jefferies not only knew, but was, a countryman, and he always contended that the material most appealing to peasants was historical.' (p. 214)