《四季随笔》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中对隐士赖克罗夫特醉心于书籍、自然景色与回忆过去生活的描述，其实是吉辛的自述，作者以此来抒发自己的情感，因而本书是一部富有自传色彩的小品文集。

吉辛穷困的一生，对文学名著的爱好与追求，以及对大自然恬静生活的向往，在书中均有充分的反映。本书分为春、夏、秋、冬四个部分，文笔优美，行文流畅，是英国文学中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由网友分享的《四季随笔》节选 - 夏 16的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

In the last ten years I have seen a good deal of English inns in many parts of the country, and it astonishes me to find how bad they are. Only once or twice have I chanced upon an inn (or, if you like, hotel) where I enjoyed any sort of comfort. More often than not, even the beds are unsatisfactory—either pretentiously huge and choked with drapery, or hard and thinly accoutred. Furnishing is uniformly hideous, and there is either no attempt at ornament (the safest thing) or a villainous taste thrusts itself upon one at every turn. The meals, in general, are coarse and poor in quality, and served with gross slovenliness.

过去的十年里，我在全国许多地方看到了不少英国客栈，我很吃惊地发现它们的服务质量如此之差。只有一两次，我在客栈（或者你也可以叫它旅馆)享受到某种舒适感。大多数时候，连床都不能让人满意—不是大的离谱而帷帐又密不透气，就是床板太硬铺盖单薄。家具是毫无例外的丑陋，要么根本看不出装修的意图（这是最安全的做法），要么就是品味低劣，处处恶心人。通常，饭菜本身的质量就粗糙差劲，上菜时还一副懒散邋遢的态度。

I have often heard it said that the touring cyclist has caused the revival of wayside inns. It may be so, but the touring cyclist seems to be very easily satisfied. Unless we are greatly deceived by the old writers, an English inn used to be a delightful resort, abounding in comfort, and supplied with the best of food; a place, too, where one was sure of welcome at once hearty and courteous. The inns of to-day, in country towns and villages, are not in that good old sense inns at all; they are merely public-houses. The landlord's chief interest is the sale of liquor. Under his roof you may, if you choose, eat and sleep, but what you are expected to do is to drink. Yet, even for drinking, there is no decent accommodation. You will find what is called a bar-parlour, a stuffy and dirty room, with crazy chairs, where only the sodden dramgulper could imagine himself at ease. Should you wish to write a letter, only the worst pen and the vilest ink is forthcoming; this, even in the "commercial room" of many an inn which seems to depend upon the custom of travelling tradesmen. Indeed, this whole business of innkeeping is incredibly mismanaged. Most of all does the common ineptitude or brutality enrage one when it has possession of an old and picturesque house, such as reminds you of the best tradition, a house which might be made as comfortable as house can be, a place of rest and mirth.

我常听说，是骑自行车周游的旅客带动了路边小客栈的复兴。可能如此吧，但这些人也显得太容易满足了。除非以前的作家大大地欺骗了我们，英国从前的小客栈可是个快乐的好住处，环境舒适，并提供最好的食物，客人们在这里总会受到礼貌热心的款待。而今天城镇乡村的小客栈已经不是那种古道热情的客栈了，它们只不过是酒馆而已。店主的主要生意是卖酒，在他的客栈里，如果你愿意可以吃饭住宿，但是人家期待你做的是喝酒。可即便是喝酒，你在这里也找不到一个体面的场所。你会发现一个叫做“吧台”的地方，就是一间闷热脏乱的屋子，摆着怪样的椅子，只有麻木的醉汉才能想象出这是个舒服的地方。如果你要写封信，那只有最差的笔和最糟糕的墨可用。即使在许多客栈的“商务间”，笔墨似乎也是从沿街叫卖的货郎那里买到的。整个客栈业经营的混乱无序确实令人难以置信。绝大多数都管理不善或者服务态度粗鲁，令人愤慨，因为它们拥有古雅美丽的房屋，让人忆起旧时的优秀传统，很可能经营成一个舒适的客栈和一个可供休息和玩乐的好住所。

At a public-house you expect public-house manners, and nothing better will meet you at most of the so-called inns or hotels. It surprises me to think in how few instances I have found even the pretence of civility. As a rule, the landlord and landlady are either contemptuously superior or boorishly familiar; the waiters and chambermaids do their work with an indifference which only softens to a condescending interest at the moment of your departure, when, if the tip be thought insufficient, a sneer or a muttered insult speeds you on your way. One inn I remember, where, having to go in and out two or three times in a morning, I always found the front door blocked by the portly forms of two women, the landlady and the barmaid, who stood there chatting and surveying the street. Coming from within the house, I had to call out a request for passage; it was granted with all deliberation, and with not a syllable of apology. This was the best "hotel" in a Sussex market town.

在酒馆你只能期待酒馆的服务，在多数所谓的“客栈”或“旅馆”，你也别指望能享受到更好的服务。想到甚至连伪装的礼貌都很少见到，我感觉很惊讶。一般来说，老板和老板娘的态度要么颐指气使、居高临下，要么就粗俗随便；侍者和女佣的服务态度冷漠，在得知你要离开时，他们的态度会缓和为一种屈尊俯就的殷勤，但当你的小费让他们觉得不够丰厚，便会有一声冷笑或是低声叫骂将你送出门去。我还记得一家客栈，有天早晨，我需要进出门两三次，而每次我都看到老板娘和一个女佣，两个身形肥胖的女人挡在门口，她们站在那里浏览街景和闲聊。我要出客栈，所以不得不请她们让道；她们让开时显得极为勉强，更是连一个道歉的字都没说。而这还是苏塞克斯郡商业区最好的一家“旅馆”呢。

And the food. Here, beyond doubt, there is grave degeneracy. It is impossible to suppose that the old travellers by coach were contented with entertainment such as one gets nowadays at the table of a country hotel. The cooking is wont to be wretched; the quality of the meat and vegetables worse than mediocre. What! Shall one ask in vain at an English inn for an honest chop or steak? Again and again has my appetite been frustrated with an offer of mere sinew and scrag. At a hotel where the charge for lunch was five shillings, I have been sickened with pulpy potatoes and stringy cabbage. The very joint—ribs or sirloin, leg or shoulder—is commonly a poor, underfed, sapless thing, scorched in an oven; and as for the round of beef, it has as good as disappeared—probably because it asks too much skill in the salting. Then again one's breakfast bacon; what intolerable stuff, smelling of saltpetre, has been set before me when I paid the price of the best smoked Wiltshire! It would be mere indulgence of the spirit of grumbling to talk about poisonous tea and washy coffee; every one knows that these drinks cannot be had at public tables; but what if there be real reason for discontent with one's pint of ale? Often, still, that draught from the local brewery is sound and invigorating, but there are grievous exceptions, and no doubt the tendency is here, as in other things—a falling off, a carelessness, if not a calculating dishonesty. I foresee the day when Englishmen will have forgotten how to brew beer; when one's only safety will lie in the draught imported from Munich.

再说说食物。在这里，毫无疑问，你会发现严重的退步。昔日那些坐马车的旅人，我想他们绝不可能会对摆在今天客栈餐桌上的菜肴感到满意。烹调常常是极为糟糕的，肉和蔬菜的口味差得不如嚼蜡。天哪！难道在英国的客栈点一份真正的猪排或牛排是痴心妄想吗？端上来的都是一坨腱子肉或颈骨，一次又一次令我大倒胃口。在一家旅馆，午餐的价钱是五先令，我厌透了他们绵软的土豆和多筋的老白菜。排骨—不管是肋骨还是腰肉、腿还是肩膀—总是是一块干巴巴、营养不良且无汁无味的东西，还在炉里烤焦了；至于牛大腿肉呢，瘦得都看不见了—也许把它腌咸需要很高的技术吧。还有端到我面前的早餐腌肉，这东西真让人无法忍受，闻起来有硝石的味道，而我付的钱足以买最好的威尔特郡熏肉了!抱怨这里令人作呕的茶和寡淡乏味的咖啡，只是发泄牢骚让自己痛快一下。大家都知道这些饮品不能在公共酒馆里享用，但是如果我有理由觉得连淡啤酒都不能让人满意呢？通常本地酒厂的生酒是醇厚劲足的，但也有可悲的例外，毫无疑问这种可能性存在，就像其他东西一样—这是一种退步，一种漫不经心，如果不是故意作假的话。我可以预见，有一天英国人将忘记怎样酿造真正的啤酒。那时我们唯一的安全选择，就只有从慕尼黑进口来的生啤了。