《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 - 冬 14的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

If the ingenious foreigner found himself in some village of manufacturing Lancashire, he would be otherwise impressed. Here something of the power of England might be revealed to him, but of England's worth, little enough. Hard ugliness would everywhere assail his eyes; the visages and voices of the people would seem to him thoroughly akin to their surroundings. Scarcely could one find, in any civilized nation, a more notable contrast than that between these two English villages and their inhabitants.

如果一个聪敏的外国人置身于制造业重地兰开夏郡的某个村庄，他会形成另一种印象。在这里，他也许会感受到英格兰力量的某个方面，但只能感受到一点点英格兰的价值。粗硬的丑陋事物从四面八方袭击他的眼睛，人们的面孔和声音在他看来和周围的环境十分相配。在任何一个文明国家，很少能发现比两个英国村庄及其居民之间更显著的差别了。

Yet Lancashire is English, and there among the mill chimneys, in the hideous little street, folk are living whose domestic thoughts claim undeniable kindred with those of the villagers of the kinder south. But to understand how "comfort," and the virtues it implies, can exist amid such conditions, one must penetrate to the hearthside; the door must be shut, the curtain drawn; here "home" does not extend beyond the threshold. After all, this grimy row of houses, ugliest that man ever conceived, is more representative of England to-day than the lovely village among the trees and meadows. More than a hundred years ago, power passed from the south of England to the north. The vigorous race on the other side of Trent5 only found its opportunity when the age of machinery began; its civilization, long delayed, differs in obvious respects from that of older England. In Sussex or in Somerset, however dull and clownish the typical inhabitant, he plainly belongs to an ancient order of things, represents an immemorial subordination. The rude man of the north is—by comparison—but just emerged from barbarism, and under any circumstances would show less smooth a front. By great misfortune, he has fallen under the harshest lordship the modern world has known—that of scientific industrialism, and all his vigorous qualities are subdued to a scheme of life based upon the harsh, the ugly, the sordid. His racial heritage, of course, marks him to the eye; even as ploughman or shepherd, he differs notably from him of the same calling in the weald or on the downs. But the frank brutality of the man in all externals has been encouraged, rather than mitigated, by the course his civilization has taken, and hence it is that, unless one knows him well enough to respect him, he seems even yet stamped with the half-savagery of his folk as they were a century and a half ago. His fierce shyness, his arrogant self-regard, are notes of a primitive state. Naturally, he never learnt to house himself as did the Southerner, for climate, as well as social circumstance, was unfavourable to all the graces of life. And now one can only watch the encroachment of his rule upon that old, that true England whose strength and virtue were so differently manifested. This fair broad land of the lovely villages signifies little save to the antiquary, the poet, the painter. Vainly, indeed, should I show its beauty and its peace to the observant foreigner; he would but smile, and, with a glance at the traction-engine just coming along the road, indicate the direction of his thoughts.

但兰开夏郡是英国的，在林立的工厂烟囱之间，在丑陋的狭窄街巷里，这里居民们的家庭观念却和更友善的南方村庄居民的不可否认地一脉相承。但要理解这种环境怎会存在“舒适”和它所隐含的优点，你要深入探查到他们的炉火旁；关上门，拉上窗帘，这里的“家”不会延伸到门槛之外。毕竟，这一排排肮脏的房子，虽是人们所能想到的最丑陋的，却比起掩映在树木和草地间的可爱村庄，它们更能代表今天的英格兰。一个多世纪以前，权力从英格兰南部转移到北部。特伦特河另一边的强壮民族在机器时代到来时才找到自己的机会；它的文明延迟了很长时间才来临，与早期的英格兰文明有着明显区别。在苏塞克斯郡或萨默塞特郡，不管那里的典型居民多么无趣和滑稽，都显然属于一种古老的秩序，代表着一种久远的屈从。北方的粗人——相形之下——不过是刚刚脱离了野蛮时代，在任何环境下都会露出不温和的面目。非常不幸，他还沦落成为现代世界迄今最严酷的暴君——即科学工业主义的属下——他所有活跃的品质都要屈服于一种基于严酷、丑陋和肮脏的生活秩序。当然，他的种族遗传基因给他全身都打上了烙印；就算是做农夫或牧羊人，他和在旷野或南部高地上的同行也有显著区别。但是这种人外在的赤裸裸的野蛮性，受到他所经历的文明进程的鼓励而非遏制。因此，除非人们对他非常了解从而尊重他，他身上似乎还打着一个半世纪前他的祖先半开化状态的烙印。他的凶残和胆怯，他的傲慢自大，都是原始状态的痕迹，他自然也从未学会像南方人那样建造房屋。那里的气候和社会环境，都不利于培育生活所有的优雅。现在，人们只能看着他的统治蚕食着古老的真正的英格兰，而它的力量和美德都以如此不同的方式得到体现。除了文物工作者、诗人和画家，这些可爱村庄的美丽广阔的土地对其他人没多少意义。将它的美丽与和平展示给那个锐敏的外国人，实在是徒劳；他只会微笑，把目光转向路上驶来的一辆牵引机车，表明了他思想的方向。