Writer on rural subjects, born near Swindon, Wilts, son of a gamekeeper; was first a journalist and novelist, but attained success in "The Gamekeeper at Home," 1878; other books display a very accurate faculty of observation and description, a reverence for nature, for rural scenes and people; "The Story of my Heart," 1883, is an introspective and somewhat morbid autobiography; he died after six years' illness at Goring, Sussex; Prof. Saintsbury pronounces him "the greatest minute describer of English country life since White of Selborne" (1848-1887).