,the ,footpath ,way ,,an ,,anthology ,,for ,,walkers ,,with ,,an ,,introduction ,,by ,hilaire ,belloc ,illustration3 ,logo ,,london ,sidgwick ,jackson ,ltd4 #aiaa ,all ,rights ,reserved ,,contents ,,page ,,introduction #a ,h4 ,belloc ,,walking ,,an ,,antidote ,,to ,,city ,,poison #ag ,sidney ,smith ,,on ,,going ,a ,,journey #ai ,william ,hazlitt ,,the ,,bishop ,,of ,,salisbury',s ,,horse #cg ,izaak ,walton ,a ,,strolling ,,pedlar #ci ,sir ,walter ,scott ,a ,,stout ,,pedestrian #db ,sir ,walter ,scott ,,lake ,,scenery #dh ,william ,wordsworth ,,walking1 ,,and ,,the ,,wild #eb ,h4 ,d4 ,thoreau ,a ,,young ,,tramp #ajd ,charles ,dickens ,,de ,,quincey ,,leads ,,the ,,simple ,,life #aaa ,thomas de ,quincey ,a ,,resolution #aaf ,george ,borrow ,,the ,,snowdon ,,ranger #aca ,george ,borrow ,,song ,,of ,,the ,,open ,,road #adc ,walt ,whitman ,,walking ,,tours #aei ,r4 ,l4 ,stevenson ,,sylvanus ,,urban ,,discovers ,a ,,good ,,brew #agc ,gentleman's ,magazine ,,minchmoor #age ,dr ,john ,brown ,,in ,,praise ,,of ,,walking #aia ,leslie ,stephen ,,the ,,exhilarations ,,of ,,the ,,road #bba ,john ,burroughs ,,acknowledgments ,the thanks of the publishers are due to3 ,messrs ,chatto ,windus1 ,messrs ,duckworth1 and ,messrs ,houghton ,miflin of ,boston1 ,u4,s4,a41 for permission to include ,r4 ,l4 ,stevenson's ,walking ,tours2 ,sir ,leslie ,stephen's ,in ,praise of ,walking2 and ,mr ,john ,burroughs' ,the ,exhilarations of the ,road1 from ,winter ,sunshine2 also to ,mr ,a4 ,h4 ,bullen for the extract from ,the ,gentleman's ,magazine4 ,introduction ,so long as man does not bother about what he is or whence he came or whither he is going1 the whole thing seems as simple as the verb to be2 and you may say that the moment he does begin thinking about what he is 7which is more than thinking that he is7 and whence he came and whither he is going1 he gets on to a lot of roads that lead nowhere1 and that spread like the fingers of a hand or the sticks of a fan2 so that if he pursues two or more of them he soon gets beyond his straddle1 and if he pursues only one he gets farther and farther from the rest of all knowledge as he proceeds4 ,you may say that and it will be true4 ,but there is one kind of knowledge a man does get when he thinks about what he is1 whence he came and whither he is going1 which is this3 that it is the only important question he can ask himself4 ,now the moment a man begins asking himself those questions 7and all men begin at some time or another if you give them rope enough7 man finds himself a very puzzling fellow4 ,there was a school--it can hardly be called a school of philosophy--and it is now as dead as mutton1 but anyhow there was a school which explained the business in the very simple method known to the learned as tautology--that is1 saying the same thing over and over again4 ,for just as the woman in ,molire was dumb because she was affected with the quality of dumbness1 so man1 according to this school1 did all the extraordinary things he does do because he had developed in that way4 ,they took in a lot of people while they were alive 7,i believe a few of the very old ones still survive71 they took in nobody more than themselves2 but they have not taken in any of the younger generation4 ,we who come after these scientists continue to ask ourselves the old question1 and if there is no finding of an answer to it1 so much the worse2 for asking it1 every instinct of our nature tells us1 is the proper curiosity of man4 ,of the great many things which man does which he should not do or need not do1 if he were wholly explained by the verb to be1 you may count walking4 ,of course if you build up a long series of guesses as to the steps by which he learnt to walk1 and call that an explanation1 there is no more to be said4 ,it is as though ,i were to ask you why ,mr ,smith went to ,liverpool1 and you were to answer by giving me a list of all the stations between ,euston and ,lime ,street1 in their exact order4 ,at least that is what it would be like if your guesses were accurate1 not only in their statement1 but also in their proportion1 and also in their order4 ,it is millions to one that your guesses are nothing of the kind4 ,but even granted by a miracle that you have got them all quite right 7which is more than the wildest fanatic would grant to the dearest of his geologians7 it tells me nothing4 ,what on earth persuaded the animal to go on like that8 ,or was it nothing on earth but something in heaven8 ,just watch a man walking1 if he is a proper man1 and see the business of it3 how he expresses his pride1 or his determination1 or his tenacity1 or his curiosity1 or perhaps his very purpose in his stride6 ,well1 all that business of walking that you are looking at is a piece of extraordinarily skilful trick-acting1 such that were the animal not known to do it you would swear he could never be trained to it by any process1 however lengthy1 or however minute1 or however strict4 ,this is what happens when a man walks3 first of all he is in stable equilibrium1 though the arc of stability is minute4 ,if he stands with his feet well apart1 his centre of gravity 7which is about half way up him or a little more7 may oscillate within an arc of about five degrees on either side of stability and tend to return to rest4 ,but if it oscillates beyond that five degrees or so1 the stability of his equilibrium is lost1 and down he comes4 ,men have been known to sleep standing up without a support1 especially on military service1 which is the most fatiguing thing in the world2 but it is extremely rare1 and you may say of a man so standing1 even with his feet well spread1 that he is already doing a fine athletic feat4 ,but wait a moment3 he desires to go1 to proceed1 to reach a distant point1 and instead of going on all fours1 where equilibrium would indeed be stable1 what does he do8 ,he deliberately lifts one of his supports off the ground1 and sends his equilibrium to the devil2 at the same time he leans a little forward so as to make himself fall towards the object he desires to attain4 ,you do not know that he does this1 but that is because you are a man and your ignorance of it is like the ignorance in which so many really healthy people stand to religion1 or the ignorance of a child who thinks his family established for ever in comfort1 wealth and security4 ,what you really do1 man1 when you want to get to that distant place 7and let this be a parable of all adventure and of all desire7 is to take an enormous risk1 the risk of coming down bang and breaking something3 you lift one foot off the ground1 and1 as though that were not enough1 you deliberately throw your centre of gravity forward so that you begin to fall4 ,that is the first act of the comedy4 ,the second act is that you check your fall by bringing the foot which you had swung into the air down upon the ground again4 ,that you would say was enough of a bout4 ,slide the other foot up1 take a rest1 get your breath again and glory in your feat4 ,but not a bit of it6 ,the moment you have got that loose foot of yours firm on the earth1 you use the impetus of your first tumble to begin another one4 ,you get your centre of gravity by the momentum of your going well forward of the foot that has found the ground1 you lift the other foot without a care1 you let it swing in the fashion of a pendulum1 and you check your second fall in the same manner as you checked your first2 and even after that second clever little success you do not bring your feet both firmly to the ground to recover yourself before the next venture3 you go on with the business1 get your centre of gravity forward of the foot that is now on the ground1 swinging the other beyond it like a pendulum1 stopping your third catastrophe1 and so on2 and you have come to do all this so that you think it the most natural thing in the world6 ,not only do you manage to do it but you can do it in a thousand ways1 as a really clever acrobat will astonish his audience not only by walking on the tight-rope but by eating his dinner on it4 ,you can walk quickly or slowly1 or look over your shoulder as you walk1 or shoot fairly accurately as you walk2 you can saunter1 you can force your pace1 you can turn which way you will4 ,you certainly did not teach yourself to accomplish this marvel1 nor did your nurse4 ,there was a spirit within you that taught you and that brought you out2 and as it is with walking1 so it is with speech1 and so at last with humour and with irony1 and with affection1 and with the sense of colour and of form1 and even with honour1 and at last with prayer4 ,by all this you may see that man is very remarkable1 and this should make you humble1 not proud2 for you have been designed in spite of yourself for some astonishing fate1 of which these mortal extravagances so accurately seized and so well moulded to your being are but the symbols4 ,walking1 like talking 7which rhymes with it1 ,i am glad to say71 being so natural a thing to man1 so varied and so unthought about1 is necessarily not only among his chief occupations but among his most entertaining subjects of commonplace and of exercise4 ,thus to walk without an object is an intense burden1 as it is to talk without an object4 ,to walk because it is good for you warps the soul1 just as it warps the soul for a man to talk for hire or because he thinks it his duty4 ,on the other hand1 walking with an object brings out all that there is in a man1 just as talking with an object does4 ,and those who understand the human body1 when they confine themselves to what they know and are therefore legitimately interesting1 tell us this very interesting thing which experience proves to be true3 that walking of every form of exercise is the most general and the most complete1 and that while a man may be endangered by riding a horse or by running or swimming1 or while a man may easily exaggerate any violent movement1 walking will always be to his benefit--that is1 of course1 so long as he does not warp his soul by the detestable habit of walking for no object but exercise4 ,for it has been so arranged that the moment we begin any minor and terrestrial thing as an object in itself1 or with merely the furtherance of some other material thing1 we hurt the inward part of us that governs all4 ,but walk for glory or for adventure1 or to see new sights1 or to pay a bill or to escape the same1 and you will very soon find how consonant is walking with your whole being4 ,the chief proof of this 7and how many men have tried it1 and in how many books does not that truth shine out67 is the way in which a man walking becomes the cousin or the brother of everything round4 ,if you will look back upon your life and consider what landscapes remain fixed in your memory1 some perhaps you will discover to have struck you at the end of long rides or after you have been driven for hours1 dragged by an animal or a machine4 ,but much the most of these visions have come to you when you were performing that little miracle with a description of which ,i began this3 and what is more1 the visions that you get when you are walking1 merge pleasantly into each other4 ,some are greater1 some lesser1 and they make a continuous whole4 ,the great moments are led up to and are fittingly framed4 ,there is no time or weather1 in ,england at least1 in which a man walking does not feel this cousinship with everything round4 ,there are weathers that are intolerable if you are doing anything else but walking3 if you are crouching still against a storm or if you are driving against it2 or if you are riding in extreme cold2 or if you are running too quickly in extreme heat2 but it is not so with walking4 ,you may walk by night or by day1 in summer or in winter1 in fair weather or in foul1 in calm or in a gale1 and in every case you are doing something native to yourself and going the best way you could go4 ,all men have felt this4 ,walking1 also from this same natural quality which it has1 introduces particular sights to you in their right proportion4 ,a man gets into his motor car1 or more likely into somebody else's1 and covers a great many miles in a very few hours4 ,and what remains to him at the end of it1 when he looks closely into the pictures of his mind1 is a curious and unsatisfactory thing3 there are patches of blurred nothingness like an uneasy sleep1 one or two intense pieces of impression1 disconnected1 violently vivid and mad1 a red cloak1 a shining streak of water1 and more particularly a point of danger4 ,in all that ribbon of sights1 each either much too lightly or much too heavily impressed1 he is lucky if there is one great view which for one moment he seized and retained from a height as he whirled along4 ,the whole record is like a bit of dry point that has been done by a hand not sure of itself upon a plate that trembled1 now jagged chiselling bit into the metal2 now blurred or hardly impressed it at all3 only in some rare moment of self-possession or of comparative repose did the hand do what it willed and transfer its power4 ,you may say that riding upon a horse one has a better chance4 ,that is true1 but after all one is busy riding4 ,look back upon the very many times that you have ridden1 and though you will remember many things you will not remember them in that calm and perfect order in which they presented themselves to you when you were afoot4 ,as for a man running1 if it be for any distance the effort is so unnatural as to concentrate upon himself all a man's powers1 and he is almost blind to exterior things4 ,men at the end of such efforts are actually and physically blind2 they fall helpless4 ,then there is the way of looking at the world which rich men imagine they can purchase with money when they build a great house looking over some view--but it is not in the same street with walking6 ,you see the sight nine times out of ten when you are ill attuned to it1 when your blood is slow and unmoved1 and when the machine is not going4 ,when you are walking the machine is always going1 and every sense in you is doing what it should with the right emphasis and in due discipline to make a perfect record of all that is about4 ,consider how a man walking approaches a little town2 he sees it a long way off upon a hill2 he sees its unity1 he has time to think about it a great deal4 ,next it is hidden from him by a wood1 or it is screened by a roll of land4 ,he tops this and sees the little town again1 now much nearer1 and he thinks more particularly of its houses1 of the way in which they stand1 and of what has passed in them4 ,the sky1 especially if it has large white clouds in it and is for the rest sunlit and blue1 makes something against which he can see the little town1 and gives it life4 ,then he is at the outskirts1 and he does not suddenly occupy it with a clamour or a rush1 nor does he merely contemplate it1 like a man from a window1 unmoving4 ,he enters in4 ,he passes1 healthily wearied1 human doors and signs2 he can note all the names of the people and the trade at which they work2 he has time to see their faces4 ,the square broadens before him1 or the market-place1 and so very naturally and rightly he comes to his inn1 and he has fulfilled one of the great ends of man4 ,lord1 how tempted one is here to make a list of those monsters who are the enemies of inns6 ,there is your monster who thinks of it as a place to which a man does not walk but into which he slinks to drink2 and there is your monster who thinks of it as a place to be reached in a railway train and there to put on fine clothes for dinner and to be waited upon by ,germans4 ,there is your more amiable monster1 who says3 ,i hear there is a good inn at ,little ,studley or ,bampton ,major4 ,let us go there4 ,he waits until he has begun to be hungry1 and he shoots there in an enormous automobile4 ,there is your still more amiable monster1 who in a hippo-mobile hippogriffically tools into a town and throws the ribbons to the person in gaiters with a straw in his mouth1 and feels 7oh1 men1 my brothers7 that he is doing something like someone in a book4 ,all these men1 whether they frankly hate or whether they pretend to love1 are the enemies of inns1 and the enemies of inns are accursed before their ,creator and their kind4 ,there are some things which are a consolation for ,eden and which clearly prove to the heavily-burdened race of ,adam that it has retained a memory of diviner things4 ,we have all of us done evil4 ,we have permitted the modern cities to grow up1 and we have told such lies that now we are accursed with newspapers4 ,and we have so loved wealth that we are all in debt1 and that the poor are a burden to us and the rich are an offence4 ,but we ought to keep up our hearts and not to despair1 because we can still all of us pray when there is an absolute necessity to do so1 and we have wormed out the way of building up that splendid thing which all over ,christendom men know under many names and which is called in ,england an ,,inn4 ,i have sometimes wondered when ,i sat in one of these places1 remaking my soul1 whether the inn would perish out of ,europe4 ,i am convinced the terror was but the terror which we always feel for whatever is exceedingly beloved4 ,there is an inn in the town of ,piacenza into which ,i once walked while ,i was still full of immortality1 and there ,i found such good companions and so much marble1 rooms so large and empty and so old1 and cooking so excellent1 that ,i made certain it would survive even that immortality which1 ,i say1 was all around4 ,but no6 ,i came there eight years later1 having by that time heard the noise of the ,subterranean ,river and being well conscious of mortality4 ,i came to it as to a friend1 and the beastly thing had changed6 ,in place of the grand stone doors there was a sort of twirlygig like the things that let you in to the ,zoo1 where you pay a shilling1 and inside there were decorations made up of meaningless curves like those with which the demons have punished the city of ,berlin2 the salt at the table was artificial and largely made of chalk1 and the faces of the host and hostess were no longer kind4 ,i very well remember another inn which was native to the ,chiltern ,hills4 ,this place had bow windows1 which were divided into medium-sized panes1 each of the panes a little rounded2 and these window-panes were made of that sort of glass which ,i will adore until ,i die1 and which has the property of distorting exterior objects3 of such glass the windows of schoolrooms and of nurseries used to be made4 ,i came to that place after many years by accident1 and ,i found that ,orcus1 which has devoured all lovely things1 had devoured this too4 ,the inn was called an ,hotel1 its front was rebuilt1 the window's had only two panes1 each quite enormous and flat1 one above and one below1 and the glass was that sort of thick1 transparent glass through which it is no use to look1 for you might as well be looking through air4 ,all the faces were strange except that of one old servant in the stable-yard4 ,i asked him if he regretted the old front1 and he said ,lord1 no6 ,then he told me in great detail how kind the brewers had been to his master and how willingly they had rebuilt the whole place4 ,these things reconcile one with the grave4 ,well then1 if walking1 which has led me into this digression1 prepares one for the inns where they are worthy1 it has another character as great and as symbolic and as worthy of man4 ,for remember that of the many ways of walking there is one way which is the greatest of all1 and that is to walk away4 ,put your hand before your eyes and remember1 you that have walked1 the places from which you have walked away1 and the wilderness into which you manfully turned the steps of your abandonment4 ,there is a place above the ,roman ,wall beyond the ,river ,tyne where one can do this thing4 ,behind one lies the hospitality and the human noise which have inhabited the town of the river valley for certainly two thousand years4 ,before one is the dead line of the road1 and that complete emptiness of the moors as they rise up toward ,cheviot on the one hand and ,carter ,fell upon the other4 ,the earth is here altogether deserted and alone3 you go out into it because it is your business to go3 you are walking away4 ,as for your memories1 they are of no good to you except to lend you that dignity which can always support a memoried man2 you are bound to forget1 and it is your business to leave all that you have known altogether behind you1 and no man has eyes at the back of his head--go forward4 ,upon my soul ,i think that the greatest way of walking1 now ,i consider the matter1 or now that ,i have stumbled upon it1 is walking away4 ,h4 ,,belloc4 ,walking an ,antidote to ,city ,poison ,there is moral as well as bodily wholesomeness in a mountain walk1 if the walker has the understanding heart1 and eschews picnics4 ,it is good for any man to be alone with nature and himself1 or with a friend who knows when silence is more sociable than talk3 ,in the wilderness alone1 ,there where nature worships ,god4 ,it is well to be in places where man is little and ,god is great--where what he sees all around him has the same look as it had a thousand years ago1 and will have the same1 in all likelihood1 when he has been a thousand years in his grave4 ,it abates and rectifies a man1 if he is worth the process4 ,it is not favourable to religious feeling to hear only of the actions and interference of man1 and to behold nothing but what human ingenuity has completed4 ,there is an image of ,god's greatness impressed upon the outward face of nature fitted to make us all pious1 and to breathe into our hearts a purifying and salutary fear4 ,in cities everything is man1 and man alone4 ,he seems to move and govern all1 and be the ,providence of cities2 and there we do not render unto ,csar the things which are ,csar's1 and unto ,god the things which are ,god's2 but ,god is forgotten1 and ,csar is supreme--all is human policy1 human foresight1 human power2 nothing reminds us of invisible dominion1 and concealed omnipotence--it is all earth1 and no heaven4 ,one cure of this is prayer and the solitary place4 ,as the body1 harassed with the noxious air of cities1 seeks relief in the freedom and the purity of the fields and hills1 so the mind1 wearied by commerce with men1 resumes its vigour in solitude1 and repairs its dignity4 ,sydney ,smith4 ,on ,going a ,journey ,one of the pleasantest things in the world is going a journey2 but ,i like to go by myself4 ,i can enjoy society in a room2 but out of doors nature is company enough for me4 ,i am then never less alone than when alone4 ,the fields his study1 nature was his book4 ,i cannot see the wit of walking and talking at the same time4 ,when ,i am in the country1 ,i wish to vegetate like the country4 ,i am not for criticising hedgerows and black cattle4 ,i go out of the town in order to forget the town and all that is in it4 ,there are those who for this purpose go to watering-places1 and carry the metropolis with them4 ,i like more elbow-room1 and fewer encumbrances4 ,i like solitude1 when ,i give myself up to it1 for the sake of solitude2 nor do ,i ask for ,a friend in my retreat1 ,whom ,i may whisper solitude is sweet4 ,the soul of a journey is liberty1 perfect liberty1 to think1 feel1 do1 just as one pleases4 ,we go a journey chiefly to be free of all impediments and of all inconveniences2 to leave ourselves behind1 much more to get rid of others4 ,it is because ,i want a little breathing-space to muse on indifferent matters1 where ,contemplation ,may plume her feathers1 and let grow her wings ,that in the various bustle of resort ,were all too ruffled1 and sometimes impair'd1 that ,i absent myself from the town for a while without feeling at a loss the moment ,i am left by myself4 ,instead of a friend in a post-chaise or in a ,tilbury1 to exchange good things with and vary the same stale topics over again1 for once let me have a truce with impertinence4 ,give me the clear blue sky over my head and the green turf beneath my feet1 a winding road before me1 and a three hours' march to dinner--and then to thinking6 ,it is hard if ,i cannot start some game on these lone heaths4 ,i laugh1 ,i run1 ,i leap1 ,i sing for joy4 ,from the point of yonder rolling cloud1 ,i plunge into my past being1 and revel there1 as the sunburnt ,indian plunges headlong into the wave that wafts him to his native shore4 ,then long-forgotten things1 like sunken wrack and sumless treasuries1 burst upon my eager sight1 and ,i begin to feel1 think1 and be myself again4 ,instead of an awkward silence1 broken by attempts at wit or dull commonplaces1 mine is that undisturbed silence of the heart which alone is perfect eloquence4 ,no one likes puns1 alliterations1 antitheses1 argument1 and analysis better than ,i do2 but ,i sometimes had rather be without them4 ,leave1 oh1 leave me to my repose6 ,i have just now other business in hand1 which would seem idle to you2 but is with me very stuff o' the conscience4 ,is not this wild rose sweet without a comment8 ,does not this daisy leap to my heart set in its coat of emerald8 ,yet if ,i were to explain to you the circumstance that has so endeared it to me1 you would only smile4 ,had ,i not better1 then1 keep it to myself1 and let it serve me to brood over1 from here to yonder craggy point1 and from thence onward to the far-distant horizon8 ,i should be but bad company all that way1 and therefore prefer being alone4 ,i have heard it said that you may1 when the moody fit comes on1 walk or ride on by yourself1 and indulge your reveries4 ,but this looks like a breach of manners1 a neglect of others1 and you are thinking all the time that you ought to rejoin your party4 ,out upon such half-faced fellowship6 say ,i4 ,i like to be either entirely to myself1 or entirely at the disposal of others2 to talk or be silent1 to walk or sit still1 to be sociable or solitary4 ,i was pleased with an observation of ,mr ,cobbett's1 that he thought it a bad ,french custom to drink our wine with our meals1 and that an ,englishman ought to do only one thing at a time4 ,so ,i cannot talk and think1 or indulge in melancholy musing and lively conversation1 by fits and starts4 ,let me have a companion of my way1 says ,sterne1 were it but to remark how the shadows lengthen as the sun declines4 ,it is beautifully said2 but1 in my opinion1 this continual comparing of notes interferes with the involuntary impression of things upon the mind1 and hurts the sentiment4 ,if you only hint what you feel in a kind of dumb show1 it is insipid2 if you have to explain it1 it is making a toil of a pleasure4 ,you cannot read the book of nature without being perpetually put to the trouble of translating it for the benefit of others4 ,i am for this synthetical method on a journey in preference to the analytical4 ,i am content to lay in a stock of ideas then1 and to examine and anatomise them afterwards4 ,i want to see my vague notions float like the down of the thistle before the breeze1 and not to have them entangled in the briars and thorns of controversy4 ,for once1 ,i like to have it all my own way2 and this is impossible unless you are alone1 or in such company as ,i do not covet4 ,i have no objection to argue a point with anyone for twenty miles of measured road1 but not for pleasure4 ,if you remark the scent of a beanfield crossing the road1 perhaps your fellow-traveller has no smell4 ,if you point to a distant object1 perhaps he is short-sighted1 and has to take out his glass to look at it4 ,there is a feeling in the air1 a tone in the colour of a cloud1 which hits your fancy1 but the effect of which you are unable to account for4 ,there is then no sympathy1 but an uneasy craving after it1 and a dissatisfaction which pursues you on the way1 and in the end probably produces ill-humour4 ,now1 ,i never quarrel with myself1 and take all my own conclusions for granted till ,i find it necessary to defend them against objections4 ,it is not merely that you may not be of accord on the objects and circumstances that present themselves before you--these may recall a number of objects1 and lead to associations too delicate and refined to be possibly communicated to others4 ,yet these ,i love to cherish1 and sometimes still fondly clutch them1 when ,i can escape from the throng to do so4 ,to give way to our feelings before company seems extravagance or affectation2 and1 on the other hand1 to have to unravel this mystery of our being at every turn1 and to make others take an equal interest in it 7otherwise the end is not answered71 is a task to which few are competent4 ,we must give it an understanding1 but no tongue4 ,my old friend ,coleridge1 however1 could do both4 ,he could go on in the most delightful explanatory way over hill and dale a summer's day1 and convert a landscape into a didactic poem or a ,pindaric ode4 ,he talked far above singing4 ,if ,i could so clothe my ideas in sounding and flowing words1 ,i might perhaps wish to have some one with me to admire the swelling theme2 or ,i could be more content1 were it possible for me still to hear his echoing voice in the woods of ,all-,foxden4 ,they had that fine madness in them which our first poets had2 and if they could have been caught by some rare instrument1 would have breathed such strains as the following3-- ,here be woods as green ,as any1 air likewise as fresh and sweet ,as when smooth ,zephyrus plays on the fleet ,face of the curled stream1 with flow'rs as many ,as the young spring gives1 and as choice as any2 ,here be all new delights1 cool streams and wells1 ,arbours o'ergrown with woodbines1 caves and dells2 ,choose where thou wilt1 whilst ,i sit by and sing1 ,or gather rushes to make many a ring ,for thy long fingers2 tell thee tales of love1 ,how the pale ,phoebe1 hunting in a grove1 ,first saw the boy ,endymion1 from whose eyes ,she took eternal fire that never dies2 ,how she conveyed him softly in a sleep1 ,his temples bound with poppy1 to the steep ,head of old ,latmos1 where she stoops each night1 ,gilding the mountain with her brother's light1 ,to kiss her sweetest4 7,,fletcher',s ,faithful ,shepherdess47 ,had ,i words and images at command like these1 ,i would attempt to wake the thoughts that lie slumbering on golden ridges in the evening clouds2 but at the sight of nature my fancy1 poor as it is1 droops and closes up its leaves1 like flowers at sunset4 ,i can make nothing out on the spot3 ,i must have time to collect myself4 ,in general1 a good thing spoils out-of-door prospects2 it should be reserved for ,table-,talk4 ,lamb is1 for this reason1 ,i take it1 the worst company in the world out of doors2 because he is the best within4 ,i grant there is one subject on which it is pleasant to talk on a journey1 and that is1 what we shall have for supper when we get to our inn at night4 ,the open air improves this sort of conversation or friendly altercation1 by setting a keener edge on appetite4 ,every mile of the road heightens the flavour of the viands we expect at the end of it4 ,how fine it is to enter some old town1 walled and turreted1 just at the approach of nightfall2 or to come to some straggling village1 with the lights streaming through the surrounding gloom2 and then after inquiring for the best entertainment that the place affords1 to take one's ease at one's inn6 ,these eventful moments in our lives' history are too precious1 too full of solid1 heartfelt happiness1 to be frittered and dribbled away in imperfect sympathy4 ,i would have them all to myself1 and drain them to the last drop2 they will do to talk of or to write about afterwards4 ,what a delicate speculation it is1 after drinking whole goblets of tea1 ,the cups that cheer1 but not inebriate1 and letting the fumes ascend into the brain1 to sit considering what we shall have for supper--eggs and a rasher1 a rabbit smothered in onions1 or an excellent veal-cutlet6 ,sancho in such a situation once fixed on cow-heel2 and his choice1 though he could not help it1 is not to be disparaged4 ,then1 in the intervals of pictured scenery and ,shandean contemplation1 to catch the preparation and the stir in the kitchen 7getting ready for the gentleman in the parlour74 ,procul1 o procul este profani6 ,these hours are sacred to silence and to musing1 to be treasured up in the memory1 and to feed the source of smiling thoughts hereafter4 ,i would not waste them in idle talk2 or if ,i must have the integrity of fancy broken in upon1 ,i would rather it were by a stranger than a friend4 ,a stranger takes his hue and character from the time and place2 he is a part of the furniture and costume of an inn4 ,if he is a ,quaker1 or from the ,west ,riding of ,yorkshire1 so much the better4 ,i do not even try to sympathise with him1 and he breaks no squares4 ,how ,i love to see the camps of the gypsies1 and to sigh my soul into that sort of life6 ,if ,i express this feeling to another1 he may qualify and spoil it with some objection4 ,i associate nothing with my travelling companion but present objects and passing events4 ,in his ignorance of me and my affairs1 ,i in a manner forget myself4 ,but a friend reminds me of other things1 rips up old grievances1 and destroys the abstraction of the scene4 ,he comes in ungraciously between us and our imaginary character4 ,something is dropped in the course of conversation that gives a hint of your profession and pursuits2 or from having some one with you that knows the less sublime portions of your history1 it seems that other people do4 ,you are no longer a citizen of the world2 but your unhoused free condition is put into circumspection and confine4 ,the incognito of an inn is one of its striking privileges--lord of one's self1 uncumbered with a name4 ,oh1 it is great to shake off the trammels of the world and of public opinion2 to lose our importunate1 tormenting1 everlasting personal identity in the elements of nature1 and become the creature of the moment1 clear of all ties2 to hold to the universe only by a dish of sweetbreads1 and to owe nothing but the score of the evening2 and no longer seeking for applause and meeting with contempt1 to be known by no other title than the gentleman in the parlour6 ,one may take one's choice of all characters in this romantic state of uncertainty as to one's real pretensions1 and become indefinitely respectable and negatively right-worshipful4 ,we baffle prejudice and disappoint conjecture2 and from being so to others1 begin to be objects of curiosity and wonder even to ourselves4 ,we are no more those hackneyed commonplaces that we appear in the world2 an inn restores us to the level of nature1 and quits scores with society6 ,i have certainly spent some enviable hours at inns--sometimes when ,i have been left entirely to myself1 and have tried to solve some metaphysical problem1 as once at ,witham ,common1 where ,i found out the proof that likeness is not a case of the association of ideas--at other times1 when there have been pictures in the room1 as at ,st ,neot's 7,i think it was71 where ,i first met with ,gribelins' engravings of the ,cartoons1 into which ,i entered at once1 and at a little inn on the borders of ,wales1 where there happened to be hanging some of ,westall's drawings1 which ,i compared triumphantly 7for a theory that ,i had1 not for the admired artist7 with the figure of a girl who had ferried me over the ,severn standing up in a boat between me and the twilight4 ,at other times ,i might mention luxuriating in books1 with a peculiar interest in this way1 as ,i remember sitting up half the night to read ,paul and ,virginia1 which ,i picked up at an inn at ,bridgewater1 after being drenched in the rain all day2 and at the same place ,i got through two volumes of ,madame ,d',arblay's ,camilla4 ,it was on the #ajth of ,april #agih1 that ,i sat down to a volume of the ,new ,helose1 at the inn at ,llangollen1 over a bottle of sherry and a cold chicken4 ,the letter ,i chose was that in which ,st ,preux describes his feelings as he first caught a glimpse from the heights of the ,jura of the ,pays de ,vaud1 which ,i had brought with me as a bon bouche to crown the evening with4 ,it was my birthday1 and ,i had for the first time come from a place in the neighbourhood to visit this delightful spot4 ,the road to ,llangollen turns off between ,chirk and ,wrexham2 and on passing a certain point you come all at once upon the valley1 which opens like an amphitheatre1 broad1 barren hills rising in majestic state on either side1 with green upland swells that echo to the bleat of flocks below1 and the river ,dee babbling over its stony bed in the midst of them4 ,the valley at this time glittered green with sunny showers1 and a budding ash-tree dipped its tender branches in the chiding stream4 ,how proud1 how glad ,i was to walk along the highroad that overlooks the delicious prospect1 repeating the lines which ,i have just quoted from ,mr ,coleridge's poems6 ,but besides the prospect which opened beneath my feet1 another also opened to my inward sight1 a heavenly vision on which were written in letters large as ,hope could make them1 these four words1 ,,liberty1 ,,genius1 ,,love1 ,,virtue1 which have since faded into the light of the common day1 or mock my idle gaze4 ,the beautiful is vanished1 and returns not4 ,still1 ,i would return some time or other to this enchanted spot2 but ,i would return to it alone4 ,what other self could ,i find to share that influx of thoughts1 of regret1 and delight1 the fragments of which ,i could hardly conjure up to myself1 so much have they been broken and defaced8 ,i could stand on some tall rock1 and overlook the precipice of years that separates me from what ,i then was4 ,i was at that time going shortly to visit the poet whom ,i have above named4 ,where is he now8 ,not only ,i myself have changed2 the world1 which was then new to me1 has become old and incorrigible4 ,yet will ,i turn to thee in thought1 ,o sylvan ,dee1 in joy1 in youth and gladness1 as thou then wert2 and thou shalt always be to me the river of ,paradise1 where ,i will drink of the waters of life freely6 ,there is hardly anything that shows the short-sightedness or capriciousness of the imagination more than travelling does4 ,with change of place we change our ideas2 nay1 our opinions and feelings4 ,we can by an effort1 indeed1 transport ourselves to old and long-forgotten scenes1 and then the picture of the mind revives again2 but we forget those that we have just left4 ,it seems that we can think but of one place at a time4 ,the canvas of the fancy is but of a certain extent1 and if we paint one set of objects upon it1 they immediately efface every other4 ,we cannot enlarge our conceptions1 we only shift our point of view4 ,the landscape bares its bosom to the enraptured eye2 we take our fill of it1 and seem as if we could form no other image of beauty or grandeur4 ,we pass on1 and think no more of it3 the horizon that shuts it from our sight also blots it from our memory like a dream4 ,in travelling through a wild1 barren country1 ,i can form no idea of a woody and cultivated one4 ,it appears to me that all the world must be barren1 like what ,i see of it4 ,in the country we forget the town1 and in town we despise the country4 ,beyond ,hyde ,park1 says ,sir ,fopling ,flutter1 all is a desert4 ,all that part of the map that we do not see before us is blank4 ,the world in our conceit of it is not much bigger than a nutshell4 ,it is not one prospect expanded into another1 county joined to county1 kingdom to kingdom1 land to seas1 making an image voluminous and vast2 the mind can form no larger idea of space than the eye can take in at a single glance4 ,the rest is a name written in a map1 a calculation of arithmetic4 ,for instance1 what is the true signification of that immense mass of territory and population known by the name of ,china to us8 ,an inch of pasteboard on a wooden globe1 of no more account than a china orange6 ,things near us are seen of the size of life2 things at a distance are diminished to the size of the understanding4 ,we measure the universe by ourselves1 and even comprehend the texture of our own being only piecemeal4 ,in this way1 however1 we remember an infinity of things and places4 ,the mind is like a mechanical instrument that plays a great variety of tunes1 but it must play them in succession4 ,one idea recalls another1 but at the same time excludes all others4 ,in trying to renew old recollections1 we cannot as it were unfold the whole web of our existence2 we must pick out the single threads4 ,so in coming to a place where we have formerly lived1 and with which we have intimate associations1 every one must have found that the feeling grows more vivid the nearer we approach the spot1 from the mere anticipation of the actual impression3 we remember circumstances1 feelings1 persons1 faces1 names that we had not thought of for years2 but for the time all the rest of the world is forgotten6 ,to return to the question ,i have quitted above3 ,i have no objection to go to see ruins1 aqueducts1 pictures1 in company with a friend or a party1 but rather the contrary1 for the former reason reversed4 ,they are intelligible matters1 and will bear talking about4 ,the sentiment here is not tacit1 but communicable and overt4 ,salisbury ,plain is barren of criticism1 but ,stonehenge will bear a discussion antiquarian1 picturesque1 and philosophical4 ,in setting out on a party of pleasure1 the first consideration always is where we shall go to3 in taking a solitary ramble1 the question is what we shall meet with by the way4 ,the mind is its own place2 nor are we anxious to arrive at the end of our journey4 ,i can myself do the honours indifferently well to the works of art and curiosity4 ,i once took a party to ,oxford1 with no mean clat--showed them that seat of the ,muses at a distance1 ,with glistering spires and pinnacles adorn'd1 descanted on the learned air that breathes from the grassy quadrangles and stone walls of halls and colleges2 was at home in the ,bodleian2 and at ,blenheim quite superseded the powdered cicerone that attended us1 and that pointed in vain with his wand to commonplace beauties in matchless pictures4 ,as another exception to the above reasoning1 ,i should not feel confident in venturing on a journey in a foreign country without a companion4 ,i should want at intervals to hear the sound of my own language4 ,there is an involuntary antipathy in the mind of an ,englishman to foreign manners and notions that requires the assistance of social sympathy to carry it off4 ,as the distance from home increases1 this relief1 which was at first a luxury1 becomes a passion and an appetite4 ,a person would almost feel stifled to find himself in the deserts of ,arabia without friends and countrymen3 there must be allowed to be something in the view of ,athens or old ,rome that claims the utterance of speech2 and ,i own that the ,pyramids are too mighty for any single contemplation4 ,in such situations1 so opposite to all one's ordinary train of ideas1 one seems a species by one's self1 a limb torn off from society1 unless one can meet with instant fellowship and support4 ,yet ,i did not feel this want or craving very pressing once1 when ,i first set my foot on the laughing shores of ,france4 ,calais was peopled with novelty and delight4 ,the confused1 busy murmur of the place was like oil and wine poured into my ears2 nor did the mariners' hymn1 which was sung from the top of an old crazy vessel in the harbour1 as the sun went down1 send an alien sound into my soul4 ,i only breathed the air of general humanity4 ,i walked over the vine-covered hills and gay regions of ,france1 erect and satisfied2 for the image of man was not cast down and chained to the foot of arbitrary thrones3 ,i was at no loss for language1 for that of all the great schools of painting was open to me4 ,the whole is vanished like a shade4 ,pictures1 heroes1 glory1 freedom1 all are fled2 nothing remains but the ,bourbons and the ,french people6 ,there is undoubtedly a sensation in travelling into foreign parts that is to be had nowhere else2 but it is more pleasing at the time than lasting4 ,it is too remote from our habitual associations to be a common topic of discourse or reference1 and1 like a dream or another state of existence1 does not piece into our daily modes of life4 ,it is an animated but a momentary hallucination4 ,it demands an effort to exchange our actual for our ideal identity2 and to feel the pulse of our old transports revive very keenly1 we must jump all our present comforts and connections4 ,our romantic and itinerant character is not to be domesticated4 ,dr ,johnson remarked how little foreign travel added to the facilities of conversation in those who had been abroad4 ,in fact1 the time we have spent there is both delightful and1 in one sense1 instructive2 but it appears to be cut out of our substantial downright existence1 and never to join kindly on to it4 ,we are not the same1 but another1 and perhaps more enviable individual all the time we are out of our own country4 ,we are lost to ourselves as well as to our friends4 ,so the poet somewhat quaintly sings3 ,out of my country and myself ,i go4 ,those who wish to forget painful thoughts do well to absent themselves for a while from the ties and objects that recall them3 but we can be said only to fulfil our destiny in the place that gave us birth4 ,i should on this account like well enough to spend the whole of my life in travelling abroad1 if ,i could anywhere borrow another life to spend afterwards at home6 ,william ,hazlitt4 ,the ,bishop of ,salisbury's ,horse ,as soon as he was perfectly recovered of this sickness1 he took a journey from ,oxford to ,exeter1 to satisfy and see his good ,mother1 being accompanied with a countryman and companion of his own ,college1 and both on foot2 which was then either more in fashion1 or want of money1 or their humility made it so3 but on foot they went1 and took ,salisbury on their way1 purposely to see the good ,bishop1 who made ,mr ,hooker and his companion dine with him at his own table3 which ,mr ,hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude when he saw his mother and friends3 and at the ,bishop's parting with him1 the ,bishop gave him good counsel1 and his benediction1 but forgot to give him money2 which when the ,bishop had considered1 he sent a servant in all haste to call ,richard back to him3 and at ,richard's return1 the ,bishop said to him1 ,richard1 ,i sent for you back to lend you a horse1 which hath carried me many a mile1 and1 ,i thank ,god1 with much ease2 and presently delivered into his hand a walking-staff1 with which he professed he had travelled through many parts of ,germany4 ,and he said1 ,richard1 ,i do not give1 but lend you my horse3 be sure you be honest1 and bring my horse back to me at your return this way to ,oxford4 ,and ,i do now give you ten groats1 to bear your charges to ,exeter3 and here is ten groats more1 which ,i charge you to deliver to your ,mother and tell her ,i send her a ,bishop's benediction with it1 and beg the continuance of her prayers for me4 ,and if you bring my horse back to me1 ,i will give you ten groats more1 to carry you on foot to the ,college1 and so ,god bless you1 good ,richard4 ,izaak ,walton4 ,a ,strolling ,pedlar ,my frame gradually became hardened with my constitution1 and being both tall and muscular1 ,i was rather disfigured than disabled by my lameness4 ,this personal disadvantage did not prevent me from taking much exercise on horseback1 and making long journeys on foot1 in the course of which ,i often walked from twenty to thirty miles a day4 ,a distinct instance occurs to me4 ,i remember walking with poor ,james ,ramsay1 my fellow-apprentice1 now no more1 and two other friends1 to breakfast at ,prestonpans4 ,we spent the forenoon visiting the ruins at ,seton and the field of battle at ,preston--dined at ,prestonpans on tiled haddocks very sumptuously--drank half a bottle of port each1 and returned in the evening4 ,this could not be less than thirty miles1 nor do ,i remember being at all fatigued upon the occasion4 ,these excursions on foot and horseback formed by far my most favourite amusement4 ,i have all my life delighted in travelling1 though ,i have never enjoyed that pleasure upon a large scale4 ,it was a propensity which ,i sometimes indulged so unduly as to alarm and vex my parents4 ,wood1 water1 wilderness itself had an inexpressible charm for me1 and ,i had a dreamy way of going much farther than ,i intended1 so that unconsciously my return was protracted1 and my parents had sometimes serious cause of uneasiness4 ,for example1 ,i once set out with ,mr ,george ,abercromby 7son of the immortal general71 ,mr ,william ,clerk1 and some others1 to fish in the lake above ,howgate1 and the stream which descends from it into the ,esk4 ,we breakfasted at ,howgate1 and fished the whole day2 and while we were on our return next morning1 ,i was easily seduced by ,william ,clerk1 then a great intimate1 to visit ,pennycuik ,house1 the seat of his family4 ,here he and ,john ,irving1 and ,i for their sake1 were overwhelmed with kindness by the late ,sir ,john ,clerk and his lady1 the present ,dowager ,lady ,clerk4 ,the pleasure of looking at fine pictures1 the beauty of the place1 and the flattering hospitality of the owners1 drowned all recollection of home for a day or two4 ,meanwhile our companions1 who had walked on without being aware of our digression1 returned to ,edinburgh without us1 and excited no small alarm in my father's household4 ,at length1 however1 they became accustomed to my escapades4 ,my father used to protest to me on such occasions that he thought ,i was born to be a strolling pedlar2 and though the prediction was intended to mortify my conceit1 ,i am not sure that ,i altogether disliked it4 ,i was now familiar with ,shakespeare1 and thought of ,autolycus's song3 ,jog on1 jog on the footpath way ,and merrily hent the stile-a2 ,a merry heart goes all the day1 ,your sad tires in a mile-a4 ,sir ,walter ,scott4 ,a ,stout ,pedestrian ,let the reader conceive to himself a clear frosty ,november morning1 the scene an open heath1 having for the background that huge chain of mountains in which ,skiddaw and ,saddleback are preeminent2 let him look along that blind road1 by which ,i mean the track so slightly marked by the passengers' footsteps that it can but be traced by a slight shade of verdure from the darker heath around it1 and1 being only visible to the eye when at some distance1 ceases to be distinguished while the foot is actually treading it--along this faintly-traced path advances the object of our present narrative4 ,his firm step1 his erect and free carriage1 have a military air1 which corresponds well with his well-proportioned limbs1 and stature of six feet high4 ,his dress is so plain and simple that it indicates nothing as to rank--it may be that of a gentleman who travels in this manner for his pleasure1 or of an inferior person of whom it is the proper and usual garb4 ,nothing can be on a more reduced scale than his travelling equipment4 ,a volume of ,shakespeare in each pocket1 a small bundle with a change of linen slung across his shoulders1 an oaken cudgel in his hand1 complete our pedestrian's accommodations1 and in this equipage we present him to our readers4 ,brown had parted that morning from his friend ,dudley1 and began his solitary walk towards ,scotland4 ,the first two or three miles were rather melancholy1 from want of the society to which he had of late been accustomed4 ,but this unusual mood of mind soon gave way to the influence of his natural good spirits1 excited by the exercise and the bracing effects of the frosty air4 ,he whistled as he went along1 not from want of thought1 but to give vent to those buoyant feelings which he had no other mode of expressing4 ,for each peasant whom he chanced to meet1 he had a kind greeting or a good-humoured jest2 the hardy ,cumbrians grinned as they passed1 and said1 ,that's a kind heart1 ,god bless un6 and the market-girl looked more than once over her shoulder at the athletic form1 which corresponded so well with the frank and blithe address of the stranger4 ,a rough terrier dog1 his constant companion1 who rivalled his master in glee1 scampered at large in a thousand wheels round the heath1 and came back to jump up on him1 and assure him that he participated in the pleasure of the journey4 ,dr ,johnson thought life had few things better than the excitation produced by being whirled rapidly along in a post-chaise2 but he who has in youth experienced the confident and independent feeling of a stout pedestrian in an interesting country1 and during fine weather1 will hold the taste of the great moralist cheap in comparison4 ,part of ,brown's view in choosing that unusual tract which leads through the eastern walls of ,cumberland into ,scotland1 had been a desire to view the remains of the celebrated ,roman ,wall1 which are more visible in that direction than in any other part of its extent4 ,his education had been imperfect and desultory2 but neither the busy scenes in which he had been engaged1 nor the pleasures of youth1 nor the precarious state of his own circumstances1 had diverted him from the task of mental improvement4--,and this then is the ,roman ,wall1 he said1 scrambling up to a height which commanded the course of that celebrated work of antiquity3 ,what a people6 whose labours1 even at this extremity of their empire1 comprehended such space1 and were executed upon a scale of such grandeur6 ,in future ages1 when the science of war shall have changed1 how few traces will exist of the labours of ,vauban and ,coehorn1 while this wonderful people's remains will even then continue to interest and astonish posterity6 ,their fortifications1 their aqueducts1 their theatres1 their fountains1 all their public works1 bear the grave1 solid1 and majestic character of their language2 while our modern labours1 like our modern tongues1 seem but constructed out of their fragments4 ,having thus moralised1 he remembered that he was hungry1 and pursued his walk to a small public-house at which he proposed to get some refreshment4 ,the alehouse1 for it was no better1 was situated in the bottom of a little dell1 through which trilled a small rivulet4 ,it was shaded by a large ash-tree1 against which the clay-built shed1 that served the purpose of a stable1 was erected1 and upon which it seemed partly to recline4 ,in this shed stood a saddled horse1 employed in eating his corn4 ,the cottages in this part of ,cumberland partake of the rudeness which characterises those of ,scotland4 ,the outside of the house promised little for the interior1 notwithstanding the vaunt of a sign1 where a tankard of ale voluntarily decanted itself into a tumbler1 and a hieroglyphical scrawl below attempted to express a promise of good entertainment for man and horse4 ,brown was no fastidious traveller--he stooped and entered the cabaret4 ,the first object which caught his eye in the kitchen was a tall1 stout1 country-looking man1 in a large jockey great-coat1 the owner of the horse which stood in the shed1 who was busy discussing huge slices of cold boiled beef1 and casting from time to time an eye through the window1 to see how his steed sped with his provender4 ,a large tankard of ale flanked his plate of victuals1 to which he applied himself by intervals4 ,the good woman of the house was employed in baking4 ,the fire1 as is usual in that country1 was on a stone hearth1 in the midst of an immensely large chimney1 which had two seats extended beneath the vent4 ,on one of these sat a remarkably tall woman1 in a red cloak and slouched bonnet1 having the appearance of a tinker or beggar4 ,she was busily engaged with a short black tobacco-pipe4 ,at the request of ,brown for some food1 the landlady wiped with her mealy apron one corner of the deal table1 placed a wooden trencher and knife and fork before the traveller1 pointed to the round of beef1 recommended ,mr ,dinmont's good example1 and1 finally1 filled a brown pitcher with her home-brewed4 ,brown lost no time in doing ample credit to both4 ,for a while1 his opposite neighbour and he were too busy to take much notice of each other1 except by a good-humoured nod as each in turn raised the tankard to his head4 ,at length1 when our pedestrian began to supply the wants of little ,wasp1 the ,scotch store-farmer1 for such was ,mr ,dinmont1 found himself at leisure to enter into conversation4 ,sir ,walter ,scott1--,guy ,mannering4 ,lake ,scenery ,the morning was clear and cheerful after a night of sharp frost4 ,at ten o'clock we took our way on foot towards ,pooley ,bridge on the same side of the lake we had coasted in a boat the day before4--,looked backwards to the south from our favourite station above ,blowick4 ,the dazzling sunbeams striking upon the church and village1 while the earth was steaming with exhalations not traceable in other quarters1 rendered their forms even more indistinct than the partial and flitting veil of unillumined vapour had done two days before4 ,the grass on which we trod1 and the trees in every thicket1 were dripping with melted hoar-frost4 ,we observed the lemon-coloured leaves of the birches1 as the breeze turned them to the sun1 sparkle1 or rather flash1 like diamonds1 and the leafless purple twigs were tipped with globes of shining crystal4 ,the day continued delightful1 and unclouded to the end4 ,i will not describe the country which we slowly travelled through nor relate our adventures2 and will only add1 that on the afternoon of the thirteenth we returned along the banks of ,ulswater by the usual road4 ,the lake lay in deep repose after the agitations of a wet and stormy morning4 ,the trees in ,gowbarrow park were in that state when what is gained by the exposure of their bark and branches compensates1 almost1 for the loss of foliage1 exhibiting the variety which characterises the point of time between autumn and winter4 ,the hawthorns were leafless2 their round heads covered with rich scarlet berries1 and adorned with arches of green brambles1 and eglantines hung with glossy hips2 and the grey trunks of some of the ancient oak1 which in the summer season might have been regarded only for their venerable majesty1 now attracted notice by a pretty embellishment of green mosses and fern intermixed with russet leaves retained by those slender outstarting twigs which the veteran tree would not have tolerated in his strength4 ,the smooth silver branches of the ashes were bare2 most of the alders as green as the ,devonshire cottage-myrtle that weathers the snows of ,christmas4--,will you accept it as some apology for my having dwelt so long on the woodland ornaments of these scenes--that artists speak of the trees on the banks of ,ulswater1 and especially along the bays of ,stybarrow crags1 as having a peculiar character of picturesque intricacy in their stems and branches1 which their rocky stations and the mountain winds have combined to give them8 ,at the end of ,gowbarrow park a large herd of deer were either moving slowly or standing still among the fern4 ,i was sorry when a chance-companion1 who had joined us by the way1 startled them with a whistle1 disturbing an image of grave simplicity and thoughtful enjoyment2 for ,i could have fancied that those natives of this wild and beautiful region were partaking with us a sensation of the solemnity of the closing day4 ,the sun had been set some time2 and we could perceive that the light was fading away from the coves of ,helvellyn1 but the lake under a luminous sky1 was more brilliant than before4 ,after tea at ,patterdale1 set out again3--a fine evening2 the seven stars close to the mountain-top2 all the stars seemed brighter than usual4 ,the steeps were reflected in ,brotherswater1 and1 above the lake appeared like enormous black perpendicular walls4 ,the ,kirkstone torrents had been swoln by the rain1 and now filled the mountain pass with their roaring1 which added greatly to the solemnity of our walk4 ,behind us1 when we had climbed to a great height1 we saw one light very distant in the vale1 like a large red star--a solitary one in the gloomy region4 ,the cheerfulness of the scene was in the sky above us4 ,reached home a little before midnight4 ,william ,wordsworth4 ,walking1 and the ,wild ,i wish to speak a word for ,nature1 for absolute freedom and wildness1 as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil1--to regard man as an inhabitant1 or a part and parcel of ,nature1 rather than a member of society4 ,i wish to make an extreme statement1 if so ,i may make an emphatic one1 for there are enough champions of civilisation3 the minister and the school committee1 and every one of you will take care of that4 ,i have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of ,walking1 that is1 of taking walks1--who had a genius1 so to speak1 for sauntering3 which word is beautifully derived from idle people who roved about the country1 in the ,middle ,ages1 and asked charity1 under pretence of going la ,sainte ,terre1 to the ,holy ,land1 till the children exclaimed1 ,there goes a ,sainte-,terrer1 a ,saunterer--a ,holy-,lander4 ,they who never go to the ,holy ,land in their walks1 as they pretend1 are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds2 but they who do go there are saunterers in the good sense1 such as ,i mean4 ,some1 however1 would derive the word from sans terre1 without land or a home1 which therefore1 in the good sense1 will mean1 having no particular home1 but equally at home everywhere4 ,for this is the secret of successful sauntering4 ,he who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all2 but the saunterer1 in the good sense1 is no more vagrant than the meandering river1 which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea4 ,but ,i prefer the first1 which indeed is the most probable derivation4 ,for every walk is a sort of crusade1 preached by some ,peter the ,hermit in us1 to go forth and reconquer this ,holy ,land from the hands of the ,infidels4 ,it is true we are but faint-hearted crusaders1 even the walkers1 nowadays1 who undertake no persevering1 never-ending enterprises4 ,our expeditions are but tours1 and come round again at evening to the old hearth-side from which we set out4 ,half the work is but retracing our steps4 ,we should go forth on the shortest walk1 perchance1 in the spirit of undying adventure1 never to return--prepared to send back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms4 ,if you are ready to leave father and mother1 and brother and sister1 and wife and child and friends1 and never see them again--if you have paid your debts1 and made your will1 and settled all your affairs1 and are a free man1 then you are ready for a walk4 ,to come down to my own experience1 my companion and ,i1 for ,i sometimes have a companion1 take pleasure in fancying ourselves knights of a new1 or rather an old1 order--not ,equestrians or ,chevaliers1 not ,ritters or ,riders1 but ,walkers1 a still more ancient and honourable class1 ,i trust4 ,the chivalric and heroic spirit which once belonged to the ,rider seems now to reside in1 or perchance to have subsided into1 the ,walker1--not the ,knight1 but ,walker ,errant4 ,he is a sort of fourth estate1 outside of ,church and ,state and ,people4 ,we have felt that we almost alone hereabouts practised this noble art2 though1 to tell the truth1 at least if their own assertions are to be received1 most of my townsmen would fain walk sometimes1 as ,i do1 but they cannot4 ,no wealth can buy the requisite leisure1 freedom1 and independence1 which are the capital in this profession4 ,it comes only by the grace of ,god4 ,it requires a direct dispensation from ,heaven to become a walker4 ,you must be born into the family of the ,walkers4 ,ambulator nascitur1 non fit4 ,some of my townsmen1 it is true1 can remember and have described to me some walks which they took ten years ago1 in which they were so blessed as to lose themselves for half-an-hour in the woods2 but ,i know very well that they have confined themselves to the highway ever since1 whatever pretensions they may make to belong to this select class4 ,no doubt they were elevated for a moment as by the reminiscence of a previous state of existence1 when even they were foresters and outlaws4 ,when he came to grene wode1 ,in a mery mornynge1 ,there he herde the notes small ,of byrdes mery syngynge4 ,it is ferre gone1 sayd ,robyn1 ,that ,i was last here2 ,me lyste a lytell for to shote ,at the donne dere4 ,i think that ,i cannot preserve my health and spirits unless ,i spend four hours a day at least--and it is commonly more than that--sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields1 absolutely free from all worldly engagements4 ,you may safely say1 ,a penny for your thoughts1 or a thousand pounds4 ,when sometimes ,i am reminded that the mechanics and shopkeepers stay in their shops not only all the forenoon1 but all the afternoon too1 sitting with crossed legs1 so many of them--as if the legs were made to sit upon1 and not to stand or walk upon--,i think that they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago4 ,i1 who cannot stay in my chamber for a single day without acquiring some rust1 and when sometimes ,i have stolen forth for a walk at the eleventh hour of four o'clock in the afternoon1 too late to redeem the day1 when the shades of night were already beginning to be mingled with the daylight1 have felt as if ,i had committed some sin to be atoned for1--,i confess that ,i am astonished at the power of endurance1 to say nothing of the moral insensibility1 of my neighbours who confine themselves to shops and offices the whole day for weeks and months1 ay1 and years almost together4 ,i know not what manner of stuff they are of--sitting there now at three o'clock in the afternoon1 as if it were three o'clock in the morning4 ,bonaparte may talk of the three-o'clock-in-the-morning courage1 but it is nothing to the courage which can sit down cheerfully at this hour in the afternoon over against one's self whom you have known all the morning1 to starve out a garrison to whom you are bound by such strong ties of sympathy4 ,i wonder that about this time1 or say between four and five o'clock in the afternoon1 too late for the morning papers and too early for the evening ones1 there is not a general explosion heard up and down the street1 scattering a legion of antiquated and house-bred notions and whims to the four winds for an airing--and so the evil cure itself4 ,how womankind1 who are confined to the house still more than men1 stand it ,i do not know2 but ,i have ground to suspect that most of them do not stand it at all4 ,when1 early in the summer afternoon1 we have been shaking the dust of the village from the skirts of our garments1 making haste past those houses with purely ,doric or ,gothic fronts1 which have such an air of repose about them1 my companion whispers that probably about these times their occupants are all gone to bed4 ,then it is that ,i appreciate the beauty and the glory of architecture1 which itself never turns in1 but for ever stands out and erect1 keeping watch over the slumberers4 ,no doubt temperament1 and1 above all1 age1 have a good deal to do with it4 ,as a man grows older1 his ability to sit still and follow indoor occupations increases4 ,he grows vespertinal in his habits as the evening of life approaches1 till at last he comes forth only just before sundown1 and gets all the walk that he requires in half-an-hour4 ,but the walking of which ,i speak has nothing in it akin to taking exercise1 as it is called1 as the sick take medicine at stated hours--as the swinging of dumb-bells or chairs2 but is itself the enterprise and adventure of the day4 ,if you would get exercise1 go in search of the springs of life4 ,think of a man's swinging dumb-bells for his health1 when those springs are bubbling up in far-off pastures unsought by him6 ,moreover1 you must walk like a camel1 which is said to be the only beast which ruminates when walking4 ,when a traveller asked ,wordsworth's servant to show him her master's study1 she answered1 ,here is his library1 but his study is out of doors4 ,living much out of doors1 in the sun and wind1 will no doubt produce a certain roughness of character--will cause a thicker cuticle to grow over some of the finer qualities of our nature1 as on the face and hands1 or as severe manual labour robs the hands of some of their delicacy of touch4 ,so staying in the house1 on the other hand1 may produce a softness and smoothness1 not to say thinness of skin1 accompanied by an increased sensibility to certain impressions4 ,perhaps we should be more susceptible to some influences important to our intellectual and moral growth if the sun had shone and the wind blown on us a little less2 and no doubt it is a nice matter to proportion rightly the thick and thin skin4 ,but methinks that is a scurf that will fall off fast enough--that the natural remedy is to be found in the proportion which the night bears to the day1 the winter to the summer1 thought to experience4 ,there will be so much the more air and sunshine in our thoughts4 ,the callous palms of the labourer are conversant with finer tissues of self-respect and heroism1 whose touch thrills the heart1 than the languid fingers of idleness4 ,that is mere sentimentality that lies abed by day and thinks itself white1 far from the tan and callus of experience4 ,when we walk1 we naturally go to the fields and woods3 what would become of us if we walked only in the garden or a mall8 ,even some sects of philosophers have felt the necessity of importing the woods to themselves1 since they did not go to the woods4 ,they planted groves and walks of ,platanes1 where they took subdiales ambulationes in porticos open to the air4 ,of course it is of no use to direct our steps to the woods if they do not carry us thither4 ,i am alarmed when it happens that ,i have walked a mile into the woods bodily without getting there in spirit4 ,in my afternoon walk ,i would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society4 ,but it sometimes happens that ,i cannot easily shake off the village4 ,the thought of some work will run in my head1 and ,i am not where my body is--,i am out of my senses4 ,in my walks ,i would fain return to my senses4 ,what business have ,i in the woods1 if ,i am thinking of something out of the woods8 ,i suspect myself1 and cannot help a shudder1 when ,i find myself so implicated even in what are called good works--for this may sometimes happen4 ,my vicinity affords many good walks2 and though for so many years ,i have walked almost every day1 and sometimes for several days together1 ,i have not yet exhausted them4 ,an absolutely new prospect is a great happiness1 and ,i can still get this any afternoon4 ,two or three hours' walking will carry me to as strange a country as ,i expect ever to see4 ,a single farmhouse which ,i had not seen before is sometimes as good as the dominions of the ,king of ,dahomey4 ,there is in fact a sort of harmony discoverable between the capabilities of the landscape within a circle of ten miles' radius1 or the limits of an afternoon walk1 and the threescore years and ten of human life4 ,it will never become quite familiar to you4 ,nowadays almost all man's improvements1 so called1 as the building of houses1 and the cutting down of the forest and of all large trees1 simply deform the landscape1 and make it more and more tame and cheap4 ,a people who would begin by burning the fences and let the forest stand6 ,i saw the fences half consumed1 their ends lost in the middle of the prairie1 and some worldly miser with a surveyor looking after his bounds1 while heaven had taken place around him1 and he did not see the angels going to and fro1 but was looking for an old posthole in the midst of paradise4 ,i looked again1 and saw him standing in the middle of a boggy1 stygian fen1 surrounded by devils1 and he had found his bounds without a doubt1 three little stones1 where a stake had been driven1 and looking nearer1 ,i saw that the ,prince of ,darkness was his surveyor4 ,i can easily walk ten1 fifteen1 twenty1 any number of miles1 commencing at my own door1 without going by any house1 without crossing a road except where the fox and the mink do3 first along by the river1 and then the brook1 and then the meadow and the wood-side4 ,there are square miles in my vicinity which have no inhabitant4 ,from many a hill ,i can see civilisation and the abodes of man afar4 ,the farmers and their works are scarcely more obvious than woodchucks and their burrows4 ,man and his affairs1 church and state and school1 trade and commerce1 and manufactures and agriculture1 even politics1 the most alarming of them all1--,i am pleased to see how little space they occupy in the landscape4 ,politics is but a narrow field1 and that still narrower highway yonder leads to it4 ,i sometimes direct the traveller thither4 ,if you would go to the political world1 follow the great road--follow that market-man1 keep his dust in your eyes1 and it will lead you straight to it2 for it1 too1 has its place merely1 and does not occupy all space4 ,i pass from it as from a beanfield into the forest1 and it is forgotten4 ,in one half-hour ,i can walk off to some portion of the earth's surface where a man does not stand from one year's end to another and there1 consequently1 politics are not1 for they are but as the cigar-smoke of a man4 ,the village is the place to which the roads tend1 a sort of expansion of the highway1 as a lake of a river4 ,it is the body of which roads are the arms and legs--a trivial or quadrivial place1 the thoroughfare and ordinary of travellers4 ,the word is from the ,latin villa1 which1 together with via1 a way1 or more anciently ved and vella1 ,varro derives from veho1 to carry1 because the villa is the place to and from which things are carried4 ,they who get their living by teaming were said vellaturam facere4 ,hence1 too1 apparently1 the ,latin word vilis and our vile2 also villain4 ,this suggests what kind of degeneracy villagers are liable to4 ,they are wayworn by the travel that goes by and over them1 without travelling themselves4 ,some do not walk at all2 others walk in the highways2 a few walk across lots4 ,roads are made for horses and men of business4 ,i do not travel in them much1 comparatively1 because ,i am not in a hurry to get to any tavern or grocery or livery-stable or dept to which they lead4 ,i am a good horse to travel1 but not from choice a roadster4 ,the landscape-painter uses the figures of men to mark a road4 ,he would not make that use of my figure4 ,i walk out into a ,nature such as the old prophets and poets1 ,menu1 ,moses1 ,homer1 ,chaucer1 walked in4 ,you may name it ,america1 but it is not ,america3 neither ,americus ,vespucius1 nor ,columbus1 nor the rest were the discoverers of it4 ,there is a truer account of it in mythology than in any history of ,america1 so called1 that ,i have seen4 ,at present1 in this vicinity1 the best part of the land is not private property2 the landscape is not owned1 and the walker enjoys comparative freedom4 ,but possibly the day will come when it will be partitioned off into so-called pleasure-grounds1 in which a few will take a narrow and exclusive pleasure only1--when fences shall be multiplied1 and mantraps and other engines invented to confine men to the public road1 and walking over the surface of ,god's earth shall be construed to mean trespassing on some gentleman's grounds4 ,to enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it4 ,let us improve our opportunities1 then1 before the evil days come4 ,what is it that makes it so hard sometimes to determine whither we will walk8 ,i believe that there is a subtle magnetism in ,nature which1 if we unconsciously yield to it1 will direct us aright4 ,it is not indifferent to us which way we walk4 ,there is a right way2 but we are very liable from heedlessness and stupidity to take the wrong one4 ,we would fain take that walk1 never yet taken by us through this actual world1 which is perfectly symbolical of the path which we love to travel in the interior and ideal world2 and sometimes1 no doubt1 we find it difficult to choose our direction1 because it does not yet exist distinctly in our idea4 ,when ,i go out of the house for a walk1 uncertain as yet whither ,i will bend my steps1 and submit myself to my instinct to decide for me1 ,i find1 strange and whimsical as it may seem1 that ,i finally and inevitably settle south-west1 toward some particular wood or meadow or deserted pasture or hill in that direction4 ,my needle is slow to settle1--varies a few degrees1 and does not always point due south-west1 it is true1 and it has good authority for this variation1 but it always settles between west and south-south-west4 ,the future lies that way to me1 and the earth seems more unexhausted and richer on that side4 ,the outline which would bound my walks would be1 not a circle1 but a parabola1 or rather like one of those cometary orbits which have been thought to be non-returning curves1 in this case opening westward1 in which my house occupies the place of the sun4 ,i turn round and round irresolute1 sometimes for a quarter of an hour1 until ,i decide1 for a thousandth time1 that ,i will walk into the south-west or west4 ,eastward ,i go only by force2 but westward ,i go free4 ,thither no business leads me4 ,it is hard for me to believe that ,i shall find fair landscapes or sufficient wildness and freedom behind the eastern horizon4 ,i am not excited by the prospect of a walk thither2 but ,i believe that the forest which ,i see in the western horizon stretches uninterruptedly toward the setting sun1 and there are no towns nor cities in it of enough consequence to disturb me4 ,let me live where ,i will1 on this side is the city1 on that the wilderness1 and ever ,i am leaving the city more and more1 and withdrawing into the wilderness4 ,i should not lay so much stress on this fact1 if ,i did not believe that something like this is the prevailing tendency of my countrymen4 ,i must walk toward ,oregon1 and not toward ,europe4 ,and that way the nation is moving1 and ,i may say that mankind progress from east to west4 ,within a few years we have witnessed the phenomenon of a south-eastward migration in the settlement of ,australia2 but this affects us as a retrograde movement1 and1 judging from the moral and physical character of the first generation of ,australians1 has not yet proved a successful experiment4 ,the eastern ,tartars think that there is nothing west beyond ,thibet4 ,the world ends there1 say they2 beyond there is nothing but a shoreless sea4 ,it is unmitigated ,east where they live4 ,we go eastward to realise history and study the works of art and literature1 retracing the steps of the race2 we go westward as into the future1 with a spirit of enterprise and adventure4 ,the ,atlantic is a ,lethean stream1 in our passage over which we have had an opportunity to forget the ,old ,world and its institutions4 ,if we do not succeed this time1 there is perhaps one more chance for the race left before it arrives on the banks of the ,styx2 and that is in the ,lethe of the ,pacific1 which is three times as wide4 ,i know not how significant it is1 or how far it is an evidence of singularity1 that an individual should thus consent in his pettiest walk with the general movement of the race2 but ,i know that something akin to the migratory instinct in birds and quadrupeds1--which1 in some instances1 is known to have affected the squirrel tribe1 impelling them to a general and mysterious movement1 in which they were seen1 say some1 crossing the broadest rivers1 each on its particular chip1 with its tail raised for a sail1 and bridging narrower streams with their dead1--that something like a furor which affects the domestic cattle in the spring1 and which is referred to a worm in their tails1--affects both nations and individuals1 either perennially or from time to time4 ,not a flock of wild geese cackles over our town1 but it to some extent unsettles the value of real estate here1 and1 if ,i were a broker1 ,i should probably take that disturbance into account4 ,than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages1 ,and palmeres for to seken strange strondes4 ,every sunset which ,i witness inspires me with the desire to go to a ,west as distant and as fair as that into which the sun goes down4 ,he appears to migrate westward daily1 and tempts us to follow him4 ,he is the ,great ,western ,pioneer whom the nations follow4 ,we dream all night of those mountain-ridges in the horizon1 though they may be of vapour only1 which were last gilded by his rays4 ,the islands of ,atlantis1 and the islands and gardens of the ,hesperides1 a sort of terrestrial paradise1 appear to have been the ,great ,west of the ancients1 enveloped in mystery and poetry4 ,who has not seen in imagination1 when looking into the sunset sky1 the gardens of the ,hesperides1 and the foundation of all those fables8 ,columbus felt the westward tendency more strongly than any before4 ,he obeyed it1 and found a ,new ,world for ,castile and ,leon4 ,the head of men in those days scented fresh pastures from afar4 ,and now the sun had stretched out all the hills1 ,and now was dropped into the western bay2 ,at last he rose1 and twitched his mantle blue2 ,to-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new4 ,where on the globe can there be found an area of equal extent with that occupied by the bulk of our ,states1 so fertile and so rich and varied in its proportions1 and at the same time so habitable by the ,european1 as this is8 ,michaux1 who knew but part of them1 says that the species of large trees are much more numerous in ,north ,america than in ,europe2 in the ,united ,states there are more than one hundred and forty species that exceed thirty feet in height2 in ,france there are but thirty that attain this size4 ,later botanists more than confirm his observations4 ,humboldt came to ,america to realise his youthful dreams of a tropical vegetation1 and he beheld it in its greatest perfection in the primitive forests of the ,amazon1 the most gigantic wilderness on the earth1 which he has so eloquently described4 ,the geographer ,guyot1 himself a ,european1 goes farther--farther than ,i am ready to follow him2 yet not when he says3 ,as the plant is made for the animal1 as the vegetable world is made for the animal world1 ,america is made for the man of the ,old ,world4444 ,the man of the ,old ,world sets out upon his way4 ,leaving the highlands of ,asia1 he descends from station to station towards ,europe4 ,each of his steps is marked by a new civilisation superior to the preceding1 by a greater power of development4 ,arrived at the ,atlantic1 he pauses on the shore of this unknown ocean1 the bounds of which he knows not1 and turns upon his footprints for an instant4 ,when he has exhausted the rich soil of ,europe1 and reinvigorated himself1 then recommences his adventurous career westward as in the earliest ages4 ,so far ,guyot4 ,from this western impulse coming in contact with the barrier of the ,atlantic sprang the commerce and enterprise of modern times4 ,the younger ,michaux1 in his ,travels ,west of the ,alleghanies in #ahjb1 says that the common inquiry in the newly settled ,west was1 ',from what part of the world have you come8' ,as if these vast and fertile regions would naturally be the place of meeting and common country of all the inhabitants of the globe4 ,to use an obsolete ,latin word1 ,i might say1 ,ex ,oriente lux2 ex ,occidente ,,frux4 ,from the ,east light2 from the ,west fruit4 ,sir ,francis ,head1 an ,english traveller and a ,governor-,general of ,canada1 tells us that in both the northern and southern hemispheres of the ,new ,world1 ,nature has not only outlined her words on a larger scale1 but has painted the whole picture with brighter and more costly colours than she used in delineating and in beautifying the ,old ,world4444 ,the heavens of ,america appear infinitely higher1 the sky is bluer1 the air is fresher1 the cold is intenser1 the moon looks larger1 the stars are brighter1 the thunder is louder1 the lightning is vivider1 the wind is stronger1 the rain is heavier1 the mountains are higher1 the rivers longer1 the forests bigger1 the plains broader4 ,this statement will do at least to set against ,buffon's account of this part of the world and its productions4 ,linnus said long ago1 ,nescio qu facies lta1 glabra plantis ,americanis3 ,i know not what there is of joyous and smooth in the aspect of ,american plants2 and ,i think that in this country there are no1 or at most very few1 ,african besti1 ,african beasts1 as the ,romans called them1 and that in this respect also it is peculiarly fitted for the habitation of man4 ,we are told that within three miles of the centre of the ,east ,indian city of ,singapore1 some of the inhabitants are annually carried off by tigers2 but the traveller can lie down in the woods at night almost anywhere in ,north ,america without fear of wild beasts4 ,these are encouraging testimonies4 ,if the moon looks larger here than in ,europe1 probably the sun looks larger also4 ,if the heavens of ,america appear infinitely higher1 and the stars brighter1 ,i trust that these facts are symbolical of the height to which the philosophy and poetry and religion of her inhabitants may one day soar4 ,at length1 perchance1 the immaterial heaven will appear as much higher to the ,american mind1 and the intimations that star it as much brighter4 ,for ,i believe that climate does thus react on man--as there is something in the mountain air that feeds the spirit and inspires4 ,will not man grow to greater perfection intellectually as well as physically under these influences8 ,or is it unimportant how many foggy days there are in his life8 ,i trust that we shall be more imaginative1 that our thoughts will be clearer1 fresher1 and more ethereal1 as our sky--our understanding more comprehensive and broader1 like our plains--our intellect generally on a grander scale1 like our thunder and lightning1 our rivers and mountains and forests--and our hearts shall even correspond in breadth and depth and grandeur to our inland seas4 ,perchance there will appear to the traveller something1 he knows not what1 of lta and glabra1 of joyous and serene1 in our very faces4 ,else to what end does the world go on1 and why was ,america discovered8 ,to ,americans ,i hardly need to say3 ,westward the star of empire takes its way4 ,as a true patriot1 ,i should be ashamed to think that ,adam in paradise was more favourably situated on the whole than the backwoodsman in this country4 ,our sympathies in ,massachusetts are not confined to ,new ,england2 though we may be estranged from the ,south1 we sympathise with the ,west4 ,there is the home of the younger sons1 as among the ,scandinavians they took to the sea for their inheritance4 ,it is too late to be studying ,hebrew2 it is more important to understand even the slang of to-day4 ,some months ago ,i went to see a panorama of the ,rhine4 ,it was like a dream of the ,middle ,ages4 ,i floated down its historic stream in something more than imagination1 under bridges built by the ,romans1 and repaired by later heroes1 past cities and castles whose very names were music to my ears1 and each of which was the subject of a legend4 ,there were ,ehrenbreitstein and ,rolandseck and ,coblentz1 which ,i knew only in history4 ,they were ruins that interested me chiefly4 ,there seemed to come up from its waters and its vine-clad hills and valleys a hushed music as of ,crusaders departing for the ,holy ,land4 ,i floated along under the spell of enchantment1 as if ,i had been transported to an heroic age1 and breathed an atmosphere of chivalry4 ,soon after ,i went to see a panorama of the ,mississippi1 and as ,i worked my way up the river in the light of to-day1 and saw the steamboats wooding up1 counted the rising cities1 gazed on the fresh ruins of ,nauvoo1 beheld the ,indians moving west across the stream1 and1 as before ,i had looked up the ,moselle1 now looked up the ,ohio and the ,missouri and heard the legends of ,dubuque and of ,wenona's ,cliff1--still thinking more of the future than of the past or present1--,i saw that this was a ,rhine stream of a different kind2 that the foundations of castles were yet to be laid1 and the famous bridges were yet to be thrown over the river2 and ,i felt that this was the heroic age itself1 though we know it not1 for the hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men4 ,the ,west of which ,i speak is but another name for the ,wild2 and what ,i have been preparing to say is1 that in ,wildness is the preservation of the ,world4 ,every tree sends its fibres forth in search of the ,wild4 ,the cities import it at any price4 ,men plough and sail for it4 ,from the forest and wilderness come the tonics and barks which brace mankind4 ,our ancestors were savages4 ,the story of ,romulus and ,remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable4 ,the founders of every ,state which has risen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigour from a similar wild source4 ,it was because the children of the ,empire were not suckled by the wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the ,northern forests who were4 ,i believe in the forest1 and in the meadow1 and in the night in which the corn grows4 ,we require an infusion of hemlock-spruce or arbor-vit in our tea4 ,there is a difference between eating and drinking for strength and from mere gluttony4 ,the ,hottentots eagerly devour the marrow of the koodoo and other antelopes raw1 as a matter of course4 ,some of our ,northern ,indians eat raw the marrow of the ,arctic reindeer1 as well as various other parts1 including the summits of the antlers1 as long as they are soft4 ,and herein1 perchance1 they have stolen a march on the cooks of ,paris4 ,they get what usually goes to feed the fire4 ,this is probably better than stall-fed beef and slaughter-house pork to make a man of4 ,give me a wildness whose glance no civilisation can endure1--as if we lived on the marrow of koodoos devoured raw4 ,there are some intervals which border the strain of the wood-thrush1 to which ,i would migrate1--wild lands where no settler has squatted2 to which1 methinks1 ,i am already acclimated4 ,the ,african hunter ,cummings tells us that the skin of the eland1 as well as that of most other antelopes just killed1 emits the most delicious perfume of trees and grass4 ,i would have every man so much like a wild antelope1 so much a part and parcel of ,nature1 that his very person should thus sweetly advertise our senses of his presence1 and remind us of those parts of ,nature which he most haunts4 ,i feel no disposition to be satirical1 when the trapper's coat emits the odour of musquash even2 it is a sweeter scent to me than that which commonly exhales from the merchant's or the scholar's garments4 ,when ,i go into their wardrobes and handle their vestments1 ,i am reminded of no grassy plains and flowery meads which they have frequented1 but of dusty merchants' exchanges and libraries rather4 ,a tanned skin is something more than respectable1 and perhaps olive is a fitter colour than white for a man--a denizen of the woods4 ,the pale white man6 ,i do not wonder that the ,african pitied him4 ,darwin the naturalist says1 ,a white man bathing by the side of a ,tahitian was like a plant bleached by the gardener's art1 compared with a fine1 dark green one1 growing vigorously in the open fields4 ,ben ,jonson exclaims3 ,how near to good is what is fair6 ,so ,i would say3 ,how near to good is what is wild6 ,life consists with wildness4 ,the most alive is the wildest4 ,not yet subdued to man1 its presence refreshes him4 ,one who pressed forward incessantly and never rested from his labours1 who grew fast and made infinite demands on life1 would always find himself in a new country or wilderness1 and surrounded by the raw material of life4 ,he would be climbing over the prostrate stems of primitive forest trees4 ,hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields1 not in towns and cities1 but in the impervious and quaking swamps4 ,when1 formerly1 ,i have analysed my partiality for some farm which ,i had contemplated purchasing1 ,i have frequently found that ,i was attracted solely by a few square rods of impermeable and unfathomable bog--a natural sink in one corner of it4 ,that was the jewel which dazzled me4 ,i derive more of my subsistence from the swamps which surround my native town than from the cultivated gardens in the village4 ,there are no richer parterres to my eyes than the dense beds of dwarf andromeda 7,cassandra calyculata7 which cover these tender places on the earth's surface4 ,botany cannot go further than tell me the names of the shrubs which grow there--the high-blueberry1 panicled andromeda1 lambkill1 azalea1 and rhodora--all standing in the quaking sphagnum4 ,i often think that ,i should like to have my house front on this mass of dull red bushes1 omitting other flower plots and borders1 transplanted spruce and trim box1 even gravelled walks--to have this fertile spot under my windows1 not a few imported barrowfuls of soil only to cover the sand which was thrown out in digging the cellar4 ,why not put my house1 my parlour1 behind this plot1 instead of behind that meagre assemblage of curiosities1 that poor apology for a ,nature and ,art which ,i call my front yard8 ,it is an effort to clear up and make a decent appearance when the carpenter and mason have departed1 though done as much for the passer-by as the dweller within4 ,the most tasteful front-yard fence was never an agreeable object of study to me2 the most elaborate ornaments1 acorn-tops1 or what not1 soon wearied and disgusted me4 ,bring your sills up to the very edge of the swamp1 then 7though it may not be the best place for a dry cellar71 so that there be no access on that side to citizens4 ,front yards are not made to walk in1 but1 at most1 through1 and you could go in the back way4 ,yes1 though you may think me perverse1 if it were proposed to me to dwell in the neighbourhood of the most beautiful garden that ever human art contrived1 or else of a dismal swamp1 ,i should certainly decide for the swamp4 ,how vain1 then1 have been all your labours1 citizens1 for me6 ,my spirits infallibly rise in proportion to the outward dreariness4 ,give me the ocean1 the desert or the wilderness6 ,in the desert1 pure air and solitude compensate for want of moisture and fertility4 ,the traveller ,burton says of it--,your morale improves2 you become frank and cordial1 hospitable and single-minded4444 ,in the desert1 spirituous liquors excite only disgust4 ,there is a keen enjoyment in a mere animal existence4 ,they who have been travelling long on the steppes of ,tartary say--,on re-entering cultivated lands1 the agitation1 perplexity1 and turmoil of civilisation oppressed and suffocated us2 the air seemed to fail us1 and we felt every moment as if about to die of asphyxia4 ,when ,i would recreate myself1 ,i seek the darkest wood1 the thickest and most interminable1 and1 to the citizen1 most dismal swamp4 ,i enter a swamp as a sacred place1--a sanctum sanctorum4 ,there is the strength1 the marrow of ,nature4 ,the wild-wood covers the virgin mould1--and the same soil is good for men and for trees4 ,a man's health requires as many acres of meadow to his prospect as his farm does loads of muck4 ,there are the strong meats on which he feeds4 ,a town is saved1 not more by the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that surround it4 ,a township where one primitive forest waves above while another primitive forest rots below1--such a town is fitted to raise not only corn and potatoes1 but poets and philosophers for the coming ages4 ,in such a soil grew ,homer and ,confucius and the rest1 and out of such a wilderness comes the ,reformer eating locusts and wild honey4 ,to preserve wild animals implies generally the creation of a forest for them to dwell in or resort to4 ,so it is with man4 ,a hundred years ago they sold bark in our streets peeled from our own woods4 ,in the very aspect of those primitive and rugged trees there was1 methinks1 a tanning principle which hardened and consolidated the fibres of men's thoughts4 ,ah6 already ,i shudder for these comparatively degenerate days of my native village1 when you cannot collect a load of bark of good thickness2 and we no longer produce tar and turpentine4 ,the civilised nations--,greece1 ,rome1 ,england--have been sustained by the primitive forests which anciently rotted where they stand4 ,they survive as long as the soil is not exhausted4 ,alas for human culture6 little is to be expected of a nation when the vegetable mould is exhausted1 and it is compelled to make manure of the bones of its fathers4 ,there the poet sustains himself merely by his own superfluous fat1 and the philosopher comes down on his marrow-bones4 ,it is said to be the task of the ,american to work the virgin soil1 and that agriculture here already assumes proportions unknown everywhere else4 ,i think that the farmer displaces the ,indian even because he redeems the meadow1 and so makes himself stronger and in some respects more natural4 ,i was surveying for a man the other day a single straight line one hundred and thirty-two rods long1 through a swamp1 at whose entrance might have been written the words which ,dante read over the entrance to the infernal regions--,leave all hope1 ye that enter1--that is1 of ever getting out again2 where at one time ,i saw my employer actually up to his neck and swimming for his life in his property1 though it was still winter4 ,he had another similar swamp which ,i could not survey at all1 because it was completely under water2 and nevertheless1 with regard to a third swamp1 which ,i did survey from a distance1 he remarked to me1 true to his instincts1 that he would not part with it for any consideration1 on account of the mud which it contained4 ,and that man intends to put a girdling ditch round the whole in the course of forty months1 and so redeem it by the magic of his spade4 ,i refer to him only as the type of a class4 ,the weapons with which we have gained our most important victories1 which should be handed down as heirlooms from father to son1 are not the sword and the lance1 but the bush-whack1 the turf cutter1 the spade1 and the bog-hoe1 rusted with the blood of many a meadow1 and begrimed with the dust of many a hard-fought field4 ,the very winds blew the ,indian's corn-field into the meadow1 and pointed out the way which he had not the skill to follow4 ,he had no better implement with which to intrench himself in the land than a clamshell4 ,but the farmer is armed with plough and spade4 ,in ,literature it is only the wild that attracts us4 ,dullness is but another name for tameness4 ,it is the uncivilised free and wild thinking in ,hamlet and the ,iliad1 in all the ,scriptures and ,mythologies1 not learned in the schools1 that delights us4 ,as the wild duck is more swift and beautiful than the tame1 so is the wild--the mallard--thought1 which 'mid falling dews wings its way above the fens4 ,a truly good book is something as natural1 and as unexpectedly and unaccountably fair and perfect1 as a wild flower discovered on the prairies of the ,west or in the jungles of the ,east4 ,genius is a light which makes the darkness visible1 like the lightning's flash1 which perchance shatters the temple of knowledge itself1--and not a taper lighted at the hearth-stone of the race1 which pales before the light of common day4 ,english literature1 from the days of the minstrels to the ,lake ,poets--,chaucer and ,spenser and ,milton1 and even ,shakespeare1 included--breathes no quite fresh and in this sense wild strain4 ,it is an essentially tame and civilised literature1 reflecting ,greece and ,rome4 ,her wilderness is a green wood1--her wild man a ,robin ,hood4 ,there is plenty of genial love of ,nature1 but not so much of ,nature herself4 ,her chronicles inform us when her wild animals1 but not when the wild man in her1 became extinct4 ,the science of ,humboldt is one thing1 poetry is another thing4 ,the poet to-day1 notwithstanding all the discoveries of science1 and the accumulated learning of mankind1 enjoys no advantage over ,homer4 ,where is the literature which gives expression to ,nature8 ,he would be a poet who could impress the winds and streams into his service1 to speak for him2 who nailed words to their primitive senses1 as farmers drive down stakes in the spring1 which the frost has heaved2 who derived his words as often as he used them--transplanted them to his page with earth adhering to their roots2 whose words were so true and fresh and natural that they would appear to expand like the buds at the approach of spring1 though they lay half-smothered between two musty leaves in a library1--ay1 to bloom and bear fruit there1 after their kind1 annually1 for the faithful reader1 in sympathy with surrounding ,nature4 ,i do not know of any poetry to quote which adequately expresses this yearning for the ,wild4 ,approached from this side1 the best poetry is tame4 ,i do not know where to find in any literature1 ancient or modern1 any account which contents me of that ,nature with which even ,i am acquainted4 ,you will perceive that ,i demand something which no ,augustan nor ,elizabethan age1 which no culture1 in short1 can give4 ,mythology comes nearer to it than anything4 ,how much more fertile a ,nature1 at least1 has ,grecian mythology its root in than ,english literature4 ,mythology is the crop which the ,old ,world bore before its soil was exhausted1 before the fancy and imagination were affected with blight2 and1 which it still bears1 whenever its pristine vigour is unabated4 ,all other literatures endure only as the elms which overshadow our houses2 but this is like the great dragon-tree of the ,western ,isles1 as old as mankind1 and1 whether that does or not1 will endure as long2 for the decay of other literatures makes the soil in which it thrives4 ,the ,west is preparing to add its fables to those of the ,east4 ,the valleys of the ,ganges1 the ,nile1 and the ,rhine1 having yielded their crop1 it remains to be seen what the valleys of the ,amazon1 the ,plate1 the ,orinoco1 the ,st ,lawrence1 and the ,mississippi will produce4 ,perchance1 when1 in the course of ages1 ,american liberty has become a fiction of the past--as it is to some extent a fiction of the present--the poets of the world will be inspired by ,american mythology4 ,the wildest dreams of wild men1 even1 are not the less true1 though they may not recommend themselves to the sense which is most common among ,englishmen and ,americans to-day4 ,it is not every truth that recommends itself to the common sense4 ,nature has a place for the wild clematis as well as for the cabbage4 ,some expressions of truth are reminiscent1--others merely sensible1 as the phrase is1--others prophetic4 ,some forms of disease1 even1 may prophesy forms of health4 ,the geologist has discovered that the figures of serpents1 griffins1 flying dragons1 and other fanciful embellishments of heraldry1 have their prototypes in the forms of fossil species which were extinct before man was created1 and hence indicate a faint and shadowy knowledge of a previous state of organic existence4 ,the ,hindoos dreamed that the earth rested on an elephant1 and the elephant on a tortoise1 and the tortoise on a serpent2 and though it may be an unimportant coincidence1 it will not be out of place here to state that a fossil tortoise has lately been discovered in ,asia large enough to support an elephant4 ,i confess that ,i am partial to these wild fancies1 which transcend the order of time and development4 ,they are the sublimest recreation of the intellect4 ,the partridge loves peas1 but not those that go with her into the pot4 ,in short1 all good things are wild and free ,there is something in a strain of music1 whether produced by an instrument or by the human voice1--take the sound of a bugle in a summer night for instance1--which by its wildness1 to speak without satire1 reminds me of the cries emitted by wild beasts in their native forests4 ,it is so much of their wildness as ,i can understand4 ,give me for my friends and neighbours wild men1 not tame ones4 ,the wilderness of the savage is but a faint symbol of the awful ferity with which good men and lovers meet4 ,i love even to see the domestic animals reassert their native rights1--any evidence that they have not wholly lost their original wild habits and vigour2 as when my neighbour's cow breaks out of her pasture early in the spring and boldly swims the river1 a cold1 grey tide1 twenty-five or thirty rods wide1 swollen by the melted snow4 ,it is the buffalo crossing the ,mississippi4 ,this exploit confers some dignity on the herd of my eyes--already dignified4 ,the seeds of instinct are preserved under the thick hides of cattle and horses1 like seeds in the bowels of the earth1 an indefinite period4 ,any sportiveness in cattle is unexpected4 ,i saw one day a herd of a dozen bullocks and cows running about and frisking in unwieldy sport1 like huge rats1 even like kittens4 ,they shook their heads1 raised their tails1 and rushed up and down a hill1 and ,i perceived by their horns1 as well as by their activity1 their relation to the deer tribe4 ,but1 alas6 a sudden loud ,whoa6 would have damped their ardour at once1 reduced them from venison to beef1 and stiffened their sides and sinews like the locomotive4 ,who but the ,evil ,one has cried1 ,whoa6 to mankind8 ,indeed1 the life of cattle1 like that of many men1 is but a sort of locomotiveness2 they move a side at a time1 and man1 by his machinery1 is meeting the horse and the ox half way4 ,whatever part the whip has touched is thenceforth palsied4 ,who would ever think of a side of any of the supple cat tribe1 as we speak of a side of beef8 ,i rejoice that horses and steers have to be broken before they can be made the slaves of men1 and that men themselves have some wild oats still left to sow before they become submissive members of society4 ,undoubtedly1 all men are not equally fit subjects for civilisation2 and because the majority1 like dogs and sheep1 are tame by inherited disposition1 this is no reason why the others should have their natures broken that they may be reduced to the same level4 ,men are in the main alike1 but they were made several in order that they might be various4 ,if a low use is to be served1 one man will do nearly or quite as well as another2 if a high one1 individual excellence is to be regarded4 ,any man can stop a hole to keep the wind away1 but no other man could serve so rare a use as the author of this illustration did4 ,confucius says--,the skins of the tiger and the leopard1 when they are tanned1 are as the skins of the dog and the sheep tanned4 ,but it is not the part of a true culture to tame tigers1 any more than it is to make sheep ferocious2 and tanning their skins for shoes is not the best use to which they can be put4 ,when looking over a list of men's names in a foreign language1 as of military officers1 or of authors who have written on a particular subject1 ,i am reminded once more that there is nothing in a name4 ,the name ,menschikoff1 for instance1 has nothing in it to my ears more human than a whisker1 and it may belong to a rat4 ,as the names of the ,poles and ,russians are to us1 so are ours to them4 ,it is as if they had been named by the child's rigmarole--,iery wiery ichery van1 tittle-tol-tan4 ,i see in my mind a herd of wild creatures swarming over the earth1 and to each the herdsman has affixed some barbarous sound in his own dialect4 ,the names of men are of course as cheap and as meaningless as ,bose and ,tray1 the names of dogs4 ,methinks it would be some advantage to philosophy if men were named merely in the gross1 as they are known4 ,it would be necessary only to know the genus1 and perhaps the race or variety1 to know the individual4 ,we are not prepared to believe that every private soldier in a ,roman army had a name of his own1 because we have not supposed that he had a character of his own4 ,at present1 our only true names are nicknames4 ,i knew a boy who1 from his peculiar energy1 was called ,buster by his playmates1 and this rightly supplanted his ,christian name4 ,some travellers tell us that an ,indian had no name given him at first1 but earned it1 and his name was his fame2 and among some tribes he acquired a new name with every new exploit4 ,it is pitiful when a man bears a name for convenience merely1 who has earned neither name nor fame4 ,i will not allow mere names to make distinctions for me1 but still see men in herds for all them4 ,a familiar name cannot make a man less strange to me4 ,it may be given to a savage who retains in secret his own wild title earned in the woods4 ,we have a wild savage in us1 and a savage name is perchance somewhere recorded as ours4 ,i see that my neighbour1 who bears the familiar epithet ,william1 or ,edwin1 takes it off with his jacket4 ,it does not adhere to him when asleep or in anger1 or aroused by any passion or inspiration4 ,i seem to hear pronounced by some of his kin at such a time his original wild name in some jaw-breaking or else melodious tongue4 ,here is this vast1 savage1 howling mother of ours1 ,nature1 lying all around1 with such beauty1 and such affection for her children1 as the leopard2 and yet we are so early weaned from her breast to society1 to that culture which is exclusively an interaction of man on man--a sort of breeding in and in1 which produces at most a merely ,english nobility1 a civilisation destined to have a speedy limit4 ,in society1 in the best institutions of men1 it is easy to detect a certain precocity4 ,when we should still be growing children1 we are already little men4 ,give me a culture which imports much muck from the meadows1 and deepens the soil--not that which trusts to heating manures and improved implements and modes of culture only4 ,many a poor sore-eyed student that ,i have heard of would grow faster1 both intellectually and physically1 if1 instead of sitting up so very late1 he honestly slumbered a fool's allowance4 ,there may be an excess even of informing light4 ,nipce1 a ,frenchman1 discovered actinism1 that power in the sun's rays which produces a chemical effect1--that granite rocks1 and stone structures1 and statues of metal1 are all alike destructively acted upon during the hours of sunshine1 and1 but for provisions of ,nature no less wonderful1 would soon perish under the delicate touch of the most subtile of the agencies of the universe4 ,but he observed that those bodies which underwent this change during the daylight possessed the power of restoring themselves to their original conditions during the hours of night1 when this excitement was no longer influencing them4 ,hence it has been inferred that the hours of darkness are as necessary to the creation as we know night and sleep are to the organic kingdom4 ,not even does the moon shine every night1 but gives place to darkness4 ,i would not have every man nor every part of man cultivated1 any more than ,i would have every acre of earth cultivated3 part will be tillage1 but the greater part will be meadow and forest1 not only serving an immediate use1 but preparing a mould against a distant future1 by the annual decay of the vegetation which it supports4 ,there are other letters for the child to learn than those which ,cadmus invented4 ,the ,spaniards have a good term to express this wild and dusky knowledge1--,gramtica parda1 tawny grammar1--a kind of mother-wit derived from that same leopard to which ,i have referred4 ,we have heard of a ,society for the ,diffusion of ,useful ,knowledge4 ,it is said that knowledge is power2 and the like4 ,methinks there is equal need of a ,society for the ,diffusion of ,useful ,ignorance1 what we will call ,beautiful ,knowledge1 a knowledge useful in a higher sense3 for what is most of our boasted so-called knowledge but a conceit that we know something1 which robs us of the advantage of our actual ignorance8 ,what we call knowledge is often our positive ignorance2 ignorance our negative knowledge4 ,by long years of patient industry and reading of the newspapers--for what are the libraries of science but files of newspapers8--a man accumulates a myriad facts1 lays them up in his memory1 and then when in some spring of his life he saunters abroad into the ,great ,fields of thought1 he1 as it were1 goes to grass like a horse and leaves all his harness behind in the stable4 ,i would say to the ,society for the ,diffusion of ,useful ,knowledge1 sometimes1--,go to grass4 ,you have-eaten hay long enough4 ,the spring has come with its green crop4 ,the very cows are driven to their country pastures before the end of ,may2 though ,i have heard of one unnatural farmer who kept his cow in the barn and fed her on hay all the year round4 ,so1 frequently1 the ,society for the ,diffusion of ,useful ,knowledge treats its cattle4 ,a man's ignorance sometimes is not only useful1 but beautiful1--while his knowledge1 so called1 is oftentimes worse than useless1 besides being ugly4 ,which is the best man to deal with--he who knows nothing about a subject1 and1 what is extremely rare1 knows that he knows nothing1 or he who really knows something about it1 but thinks that he knows all8 ,my desire for knowledge is intermittent2 but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant4 ,the highest that we can attain to is not ,knowledge1 but ,sympathy with ,intelligence4 ,i do not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all that we called ,knowledge before--a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy4 ,it is the lighting up of the mist by the sun4 ,man cannot know in any higher sense than this1 any more than he can look serenely and with impunity in the face of the sun3 ,greek3 ,hs ti non ny keinon noseis1--,you will not perceive that1 as perceiving a particular thing1 say the ,chaldean ,oracles4 ,there is something servile in the habit of seeking after a law which we may obey4 ,we may study the laws of matter at and for our convenience1 but a successful life knows no law4 ,it is an unfortunate discovery certainly1 that of a law which binds us where we did not know before that we were bound4 ,live free1 child of the mist1--and with respect to knowledge we are all children of the mist4 ,the man who takes the liberty to live is superior to all the laws1 by virtue of his relation to the law-maker4 ,that is active duty1 says the ,vishnu ,purana1 which is not for our bondage2 that is knowledge which is for our liberation3 all other duty is good only unto weariness2 all other knowledge is only the cleverness of an artist4 ,it is remarkable how few events or crises there are in our histories2 how little exercised we have been in our minds2 how few experiences we have had4 ,i would fain be assured that ,i am growing apace and rankly1 though my very growth disturb this dull equanimity1--though it be with struggle through long1 dark1 muggy nights or seasons of gloom4 ,it would be well if all our lives were a divine tragedy even1 instead of this trivial comedy or farce4 ,dante1 ,bunyan1 and others1 appear to have been exercised in their minds more than we3 they were subjected to a kind of culture such as our district schools and colleges do not contemplate4 ,even ,mahomet1 though many may scream at his name1 had a good deal more to live for1 ay1 and to die for1 than they have commonly4 ,when1 at rare intervals1 some thought visits one1 as perchance he is walking on a railroad1 then indeed the cars go by without his hearing them4 ,but soon1 by some inexorable law1 our life goes by and the cars return4 ,gentle breeze1 that wanderest unseen1 ,and bendest the thistles round ,loira of storms1 ,traveller of the windy glens1 ,why hast thou left my ear so soon8 ,while almost all men feel an attraction drawing them to society1 few are attracted strongly to ,nature4 ,in their relation to ,nature men appear to me for the most part1 notwithstanding their arts1 lower than the animals4 ,it is not often a beautiful relation1 as in the case of the animals4 ,how little appreciation of the beauty of the landscape there is among us6 ,we shall have to be told that the ,greeks called the world ,greek3 ,kosmos1 ,beauty1 or ,order1 but we do not see clearly why they did so1 and we esteem it at best only a curious philological fact4 ,for my part1 ,i feel that with regard to ,nature ,i live a sort of border life1 on the confines of a world into which ,i make occasional and transitional and transient forays only1 and my patriotism and allegiance to the ,state into whose territories ,i seem to retreat are those of a moss-trooper4 ,unto a life which ,i call natural ,i would gladly follow even a will-o'-the wisp through bogs and sloughs unimaginable1 but no moon nor fire-fly has shown me the causeway to it4 ,nature is a personality so vast and universal that we have never seen one of her features4 ,the walker in the familiar fields which stretch around my native town sometimes finds himself in another land than is described in their owners' deeds1 as it were in some far-away field on the confines of the actual ,concord1 where her jurisdiction ceases1 and the idea which the word ,concord suggests ceases to be suggested4 ,these farms which ,i have myself surveyed1 these bounds which ,i have set up1 appear dimly still as through a mist2 but they have no chemistry to fix them2 they fade from the surface of the glass2 and the picture which the painter painted stands out dimly from beneath4 ,the world with which we are commonly acquainted leaves no trace1 and it will have no anniversary4 ,i took a walk on ,spaulding's ,farm the other afternoon4 ,i saw the setting sun lighting up the opposite side of a stately pine wood4 ,its golden rays straggled into the aisles of the wood as into some noble hall4 ,i was impressed as if some ancient and altogether admirable and shining family had settled there in that part of the land called ,concord1 unknown to me1--to whom the sun was servant1--who had not gone into society in the village1--who had not been called on4 ,i saw their park1 their pleasure-ground1 beyond through the wood1 in ,spaulding's cranberry-meadow4 ,the pines furnished them with gables as they grew4 ,their house was not obvious to vision2 the trees grew through it4 ,i do not know whether ,i heard the sounds of a suppressed hilarity or not4 ,they seemed to recline on the sunbeams4 ,they have sons and daughters4 ,they are quite well4 ,the farmer's cart-path1 which leads directly through their hall1 does not in the least put them out1--as the muddy bottom of a pool is sometimes seen through the reflected skies4 ,they never heard of ,spaulding1 and do not know that he is their neighbour1--notwithstanding ,i heard him whistle as he drove his team through the house4 ,nothing can equal the serenity of their lives4 ,their coat of arms is simply a lichen4 ,i saw it painted on the pines and oaks4 ,their attics were in the tops of the trees4 ,they are of no politics4 ,there was no noise of labour4 ,i did not perceive that they were weaving or spinning4 ,yet ,i did detect1 when the wind lulled and hearing was done away1 the finest imaginable sweet musical hum1--as of a distant hive in ,may1 which perchance was the sound of their thinking4 ,they had no idle thoughts1 and no one without could see their work1 for their industry was not as in knots and excrescences embayed4 ,but ,i find it difficult to remember them4 ,they fade irrevocably out of my mind even now while ,i speak and endeavour to recall them1 and recollect myself4 ,it is only after a long and serious effort to recollect my best thoughts that ,i become again aware of their cohabitancy4 ,if it were not for such families as this1 ,i think ,i should move out of ,concord4 ,we are accustomed to say in ,new ,england that few and fewer pigeons visit us every year4 ,our forests furnish no mast for them4 ,so1 it would seem1 few and fewer thoughts visit each growing man from year to year1 for the grove in our minds is laid waste1--sold feed unnecessary fires of ambition1 or sent to mill1 and there is scarcely a twig left for them to perch on4 ,they no longer build nor breed with us4 ,in some more genial season1 perchance1 a faint shadow flits across the landscape of the mind1 cast by the wings of some thought in its vernal or autumnal migration1 but1 looking up1 we are unable to detect the substance of the thought itself4 ,our winged thoughts are turned to poultry4 ,they no longer soar1 and they attain only to a ,shanghai and ,cochin-,china grandeur4 ,those gra-a-ate thoughts1 those gra-a-ate men you hear of6 ,we hug the earth--how rarely we mount6 ,methinks we might elevate ourselves a little more4 ,we might climb a tree1 at least4 ,i found my account in climbing a tree once4 ,it was a tall white pine1 on the top of a hill2 and though ,i got well pitched1 ,i was well paid for it1 for ,i discovered new mountains in the horizon which ,i had never seen before1--so much more of the earth and the heavens4 ,i might have walked about the foot of the tree for threescore years and ten1 and yet ,i certainly should never have seen them4 ,but1 above all1 ,i discovered around me1--it was near the end of ,june1--on the ends of the topmost branches only1 a few minute and delicate red cone-like blossoms1 the fertile flower of the white pine looking heavenward4 ,i carried straightway to the village the topmost spire1 and showed it to stranger jurymen who walked the streets1--for it was court-week1--and to farmers and lumber-dealers and wood-choppers and hunters1 and not one had ever seen the like before1 but they wondered as at a star dropped down4 ,tell of ancient architects finishing their works on the tops of columns as perfectly as on the lower and more visible parts6 ,nature has from the first expanded the minute blossoms of the forest only toward the heavens1 above men's heads and unobserved by them4 ,we see only the flowers that are under our feet in the meadows4 ,the pines have developed their delicate blossoms on the highest twigs of the wood every summer for ages1 as well over the heads of ,nature's red children as of her white ones2 yet scarcely a farmer or hunter in the land has ever seen them4 ,above all1 we cannot afford not to live in the present4 ,he is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life in remembering the past4 ,unless our philosophy hears the cock crow in every barn-yard within our horizon1 it is belated4 ,that sound commonly reminds us that we are growing rusty and antique in our employments and habits of thought4 ,his philosophy comes down to a more recent time than ours4 ,there is something suggested by it that is a newer testament--the gospel according to this moment4 ,he has not fallen astern2 he has got up early and kept up early1 and to be where he is to be in season1 in the foremost rank of time4 ,it is an expression of the health and soundness of ,nature1 a brag for all the world1--healthiness as of a spring burst forth1 a new fountain of the ,muses1 to celebrate this last instant of time4 ,where he lives no fugitive slave laws are passed4 ,who has not betrayed his master many times since last he heard the note8 ,the merit of this bird's strain is in its freedom from all plaintiveness4 ,the singer can easily move us to tears or to laughter1 but where is he who can excite in us a pure morning joy8 ,when1 in doleful dumps1 breaking the awful stillness of our wooden sidewalk on a ,sunday1 or1 perchance1 a watcher in the house of mourning1 ,i hear a cockerel crow far or near1 ,i think to myself1 ,there is one of us well1 at any rate1--and with a sudden gush return to my senses4 ,we had a remarkable sunset one day last ,november4 ,i was walking in a meadow1 the source of a small brook1 when the sun at last1 just before setting1 after a cold grey day1 reached a clear stratum in the horizon1 and the softest1 brightest morning sunlight fell on the dry grass and on the stems of the trees in the opposite horizon1 and on the leaves of the shrub-oaks on the hillside1 while our shadows stretched long over the meadow eastward1 as if we were the only motes in its beams4 ,it was such a light as we could not have imagined a moment before1 and the air also was so warm and serene that nothing was wanting to make a paradise of that meadow4 ,when we reflected that this was not a solitary phenomenon1 never to happen again1 but that it would happen for ever and ever an infinite number of evenings1 and cheer and reassure the latest child that walked there1 it was more glorious still4 ,the sun sets on some retired meadow1 where no house is visible1 with all the glory and splendour that it lavishes on cities1 and1 perchance1 as it has never set before1--where there is but a solitary marsh-hawk to have his wings gilded by it1 or only a musquash looks out from his cabin1 and there is some little black-veined brook in the midst of the marsh1 just beginning to meander1 winding slowly round a decaying stump4 ,we walked in so pure and bright a light1 gilding the withered grass and leaves1 so softly and serenely bright1 ,i thought ,i had never bathed in such a golden flood1 without a ripple or a murmur to it4 ,the west side of every wood and rising ground gleamed like the boundary of ,elysium1 and the sun on our backs seemed like a gentle herdsman driving us home at evening4 ,so we saunter toward the ,holy ,land1 till one day the sun shall shine more brightly than ever he has done1 shall perchance shine into our minds and hearts1 and light up our whole lives with a great awakening light1 as warm and serene and golden as on a bank-side in autumn4 ,h4 ,d4 ,thoreau4 ,a ,young ,tramp ,a plan had occurred to me for passing the night1 which ,i was going to carry into execution4 ,this was1 to lie behind the wall at the back of my old school1 in a corner where there used to be a haystack4 ,i imagined it would be a kind of company to have the boys1 and the bedroom where ,i used to tell the stories1 so near me3 although the boys would know nothing of my being there1 and the bedroom would yield me no shelter4 ,i had had a hard day's work1 and was pretty well jaded when ,i came climbing out1 at last1 upon the level of ,blackheath4 ,it cost me some trouble to find out ,salem ,house2 but ,i found it1 and ,i found a haystack in the corner1 and ,i lay down by it2 having first walked round the wall1 and looked up at the windows1 and seen that all was dark and silent within4 ,never shall ,i forget the lonely sensation of first lying down1 without a roof above my head4 ,sleep came upon me as it came on many other outcasts1 against whom house-doors were locked1 and house-dogs barked1 that night--and ,i dreamed of lying on my old school-bed1 talking to the boys in my room2 and found myself sitting upright1 with ,steerforth's name upon my lips1 looking wildly at the stars that were glistening and glimmering above me4 ,when ,i remembered where ,i was at that untimely hour1 a feeling stole upon me that made me get up1 afraid of ,i don't know what1 and walk about4 ,but the faint glimmering of the stars1 and the pale light in the sky where the day was coming1 reassured me3 and my eyes being very heavy1 ,i lay down again1 and slept--though with a knowledge in my sleep that it was cold--until the warm beams of the sun1 and the ringing of the getting-up bell at ,salem ,house1 awoke me4 ,if ,i could have hoped that ,steerforth was there1 ,i would have lurked about until he came out alone2 but ,i knew he must have left long since4 ,traddles still remained1 perhaps1 but it was very doubtful2 and ,i had not sufficient confidence in his discretion or good luck1 however strong my reliance was on his good-nature1 to wish to trust him with my situation4 ,so ,i crept away from the wall as ,mr ,creakle's boys were getting up1 and struck into the long dusty track which ,i had first known to be the ,dover ,road when ,i was one of them1 and when ,i little expected that any eyes would ever see me the wayfarer ,i was now1 upon it4 ,what a different ,sunday morning from the old ,sunday morning at ,yarmouth6 ,in due time ,i heard the church-bells ringing1 as ,i plodded on2 and ,i met people who were going to church2 and ,i passed a church or two where the congregation were inside1 and the sound of singing came out into the sunshine1 while the beadle sat and cooled himself in the shade of the porch1 or stood beneath the yew-tree1 with his hand to his forehead1 glowering at me going by4 ,but the peace and rest of the old ,sunday morning were on everything1 except me4 ,that was the difference4 ,i felt quite wicked in my dirt and dust1 with my tangled hair4 ,but for the quiet picture ,i had conjured up1 of my mother in her youth and beauty1 weeping by the fire1 and my aunt relenting to her1 ,i hardly think ,i should have had courage to go on until next day4 ,but it always went before me1 and ,i followed4 ,i got1 that ,sunday1 through three-and-twenty miles on the straight road1 though not very easily1 for ,i was new to that kind of toil4 ,i see myself1 as evening closes in1 coming over the bridge at ,rochester1 footsore and tired1 and eating bread that ,i had bought for supper4 ,one or two little houses1 with the notice1 ,lodgings for ,travellers1 hanging out1 had tempted me2 but ,i was afraid of spending the few pence ,i had1 and was even more afraid of the vicious looks of the trampers ,i had met or overtaken4 ,i sought no shelter1 therefore1 but the sky2 and toiling into ,chatham1--which1 in that night's aspect1 is a mere dream of chalk1 and drawbridges1 and mastless ships in a muddy river1 roofed like ,noah's arks1--crept1 at last1 upon a sort of grass-grown battery overhanging a lane1 where a sentry was walking to and fro4 ,here ,i lay down1 near a cannon2 and1 happy in the society of the sentry's footsteps1 though he knew no more of my being above him than the boys at ,salem ,house had known of my lying by the wall1 slept soundly until morning4 ,charles ,dickens1--,david ,copperfield4 ,,better ,,than ,,the ,,gig6 ,mr ,pecksniff's horse being regarded in the light of a sacred animal1 only to be driven by him1 the chief priest of that temple1 or by some person distinctly nominated for the time being to that high office by himself1 the two young men agreed to walk to ,salisbury2 and so1 when the time came1 they set off on foot2 which was1 after all1 a better mode of travelling than in the gig1 as the weather was very cold and very dry4 ,better6 ,a rare strong1 hearty1 healthy walk--four statute miles an hour--preferable to that rumbling1 tumbling1 jolting1 shaking1 scraping1 creaking1 villainous old gig8 ,why1 the two things will not admit of comparison4 ,it is an insult to the walk1 to set them side by side4 ,where is an instance of a gig having ever circulated a man's blood1 unless when1 putting him in danger of his neck1 it awakened in his veins and in his ears1 and all along his spine1 a tingling heat1 much more peculiar than agreeable8 ,when did a gig ever sharpen anybody's wits and energies1 unless it was when the horse bolted1 and1 crashing madly down a steep hill with a stone wall at the bottom1 his desperate circumstances suggested to the only gentleman left inside1 some novel and unheard-of mode of dropping out behind8 ,better than the gig6 ,the air was cold1 ,tom2 so it was1 there was no denying it2 but would it have been more genial in the gig8 ,the blacksmith's fire burned very bright1 and leaped up high1 as though it wanted men to warm2 but would it have been less tempting1 looked at from the clammy cushions of a gig8 ,the wind blew keenly1 nipping the features of the hardy wight who fought his way along2 blinding him with his own hair if he had enough of it1 and wintry dust if he hadn't2 stopped his breath as though he had been soused in a cold bath2 tearing aside his wrappings-up1 and whistling in the very marrow of his bones2 but it would have done all this a hundred times more fiercely to a man in a gig1 wouldn't it8 ,a fig for gigs6 ,better than the gig6 ,when were travellers by wheels and hoofs seen with such red-hot cheeks as those8 when were they so good-humouredly and merrily bloused8 when did their laughter ring upon the air1 as they turned them round1 what time the stronger gusts came sweeping up2 and1 facing round again as they passed by1 dashed on1 in such a glow of ruddy health as nothing could keep pace with1 but the high spirits it engendered8 ,better than the gig6 ,why1 here is a man in a gig coming the same way now4 ,look at him as he passes his whip into his left hand1 chafes his numbed right fingers on his granite leg1 and beats those marble toes of his upon the footboard4 ,ha1 ha1 ha6 ,who would exchange this rapid hurry of the blood for yonder stagnant misery1 though its pace were twenty miles for one8 ,better than the gig6 ,no man in a gig could have such interest in the milestones4 ,no man in a gig could see1 or feel1 or think1 like merry users of their legs4 ,how1 as the wind sweeps on1 upon these breezy downs1 it tracks its flight in darkening ripples on the grass1 and smoothest shadows on the hills6 ,look round and round upon this bare black plain1 and see even here1 upon a winter's day1 how beautiful the shadows are6 ,alas6 it is the nature of their kind to be so4 ,the loveliest things in life1 ,tom1 are but shadows2 and they come and go1 and change and fade away1 as rapidly as these6 ,another mile1 and then begins a fall of snow1 making the crow1 who skims away so close above the ground to shirk the wind1 a blot of ink upon the landscape4 ,but though it drives and drifts against them as they walk1 stiffening on their skirts1 and freezing in the lashes of their eyes1 they wouldn't have it fall more sparingly1 no1 not so much as by a single flake1 although they had to go a score of miles4 ,and1 lo6 the towers of the ,old ,cathedral rise before them1 even now6 and by-and-bye they come into the sheltered streets1 made strangely silent by their white carpet2 and so to the ,inn for which they are bound2 where they present such flushed and burning faces to the cold waiter1 and are so brimful of vigour1 that he almost feels assaulted by their presence2 and1 having nothing to oppose to the attack 7being fresh1 or rather stale1 from the blazing fire in the coffee-room71 is quite put out of his pale countenance4 ,charles ,dickens1--,martin ,chuzzlewit4 ,de ,quincey leads the ,simple ,life ,there were already1 even in those days of #ahjb1 numerous inns1 erected at reasonable distances from each other1 for the accommodation of tourists3 and no sort of disgrace attached in ,wales1 as too generally upon the great roads of ,england1 to the pedestrian style of travelling4 ,indeed1 the majority of those whom ,i met as fellow-tourists in the quiet little cottage-parlours of the ,welsh posting-houses were pedestrian travellers4 ,all the way from ,shrewsbury through ,llangollen1 ,llanrwst1 ,conway1 ,bangor1 then turning to the left at right angles through ,carnarvon1 and so on to ,dolgelly 7the chief town of ,merionethshire71 ,tan-y-,bwlch1 ,harlech1 ,barmouth1 and through the sweet solitudes of ,cardiganshire1 or turning back sharply towards the ,english border through the gorgeous wood scenery of ,montgomeryshire--everywhere at intermitting distances of twelve to sixteen miles1 ,i found the most comfortable inns4 ,one feature indeed of repose in all this chain of solitary resting-houses--viz41 the fact that none of them rose above two storeys in height--was due to the modest scale on which the travelling system of the ,principality had moulded itself in correspondence to the calls of ,england1 which then 7but be it remembered this then was in #ahjb1 a year of peace7 threw a very small proportion of her vast migratory population annually into this sequestered channel4 ,no huge ,babylonian centres of commerce towered into the clouds on these sweet sylvan routes3 no hurricanes of haste1 or fever-stricken armies of horses and flying chariots1 tormented the echoes in these mountain recesses4 ,and it has often struck me that a world-wearied man1 who sought for the peace of monasteries separated from their gloomy captivity--peace and silence such as theirs combined with the large liberty of nature--could not do better than revolve amongst these modest inns in the five northern ,welsh counties of ,denbigh1 ,montgomery1 ,carnarvon1 ,merioneth1 and ,cardigan4 ,sleeping1 for instance1 and breakfasting at ,carnarvon2 then1 by an easy nine-mile walk1 going forwards to dinner at ,bangor1 thence to ,aber--nine miles2 or to ,llanberris2 and so on for ever1 accomplishing seventy to ninety or one hundred miles in a week4 ,this1 upon actual experiment1 and for week after week1 ,i found the most delightful of lives4 ,here was the eternal motion of winds and rivers1 or of the ,wandering ,jew liberated from the persecution which compelled him to move1 and turned his breezy freedom into a killing captivity4 ,happier life ,i cannot imagine than this vagrancy1 if the weather were but tolerable1 through endless successions of changing beauty1 and towards evening a courteous welcome in a pretty rustic home--that having all the luxuries of a fine hotel 7in particular some luxuries#a that are almost sacred to ,alpine regions71 was at the same time liberated from the inevitable accompaniments of such hotels in great cities or at great travelling stations--viz41 the tumult and uproar4 ,life on this model was but too delightful2 and to myself especially1 that am never thoroughly in health unless when having pedestrian exercise to the extent of fifteen miles at the most1 and eight to ten miles at the least4 ,living thus1 a man earned his daily enjoyment4 ,but what did it cost8 ,about half a guinea a day3 whilst my boyish allowance was not a third of this4 ,the flagrant health1 health boiling over in fiery rapture1 which ran along1 side by side1 with exercise on this scale1 whilst all the while from morning to night ,i was inhaling mountain air1 soon passed into a hateful scourge4 ,perquisites to servants and a bed would have absorbed the whole of my weekly guinea4 ,my policy therefore was1 if the autumnal air was warm enough1 to save this expense of a bed and the chambermaid by sleeping amongst ferns or furze upon a hillside2 and perhaps with a cloak of sufficient weight as well as compass1 or an ,arab's burnoose1 this would have been no great hardship4 ,but then in the daytime what an oppressive burden to carry6 ,so perhaps it was as well that ,i had no cloak at all4 ,i did1 however1 for some weeks try the plan of carrying a canvas tent manufactured by myself1 and not larger than an ordinary umbrella3 but to pitch this securely ,i found difficult2 and on windy nights it became a troublesome companion4 ,as winter drew near1 this bivouacking system became too dangerous to attempt4 ,still one may bivouack decently1 barring rain and wind1 up to the end of ,october4 ,and ,i counted1 on the whole1 that in a fortnight ,i spent nine nights abroad4 ,there are1 as perhaps the reader knows by experience1 no jaguars in ,wales--nor pumas--nor anacondas--nor 7generally speaking7 any ,thugs4 ,what ,i feared most1 but perhaps only through ignorance of zoology1 was1 lest1 whilst my sleeping face was upturned to the stars1 some one of the many little ,brahminical-looking cows on the ,cambrian hills1 one or other1 might poach her foot into the centre of my face4 ,i do not suppose any fixed hostility of that nature to ,english faces in ,welsh cows3 but everywhere ,i observe in the feminine mind something of beautiful caprice1 a floral exuberance of that charming wilfulness which characterises our dear human sisters ,i fear through all worlds4 ,against ,thugs ,i had ,juvenal's license to be careless in the emptiness of my pockets 7cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator74 ,but ,i fear that ,juvenal's license will not always hold water4 ,there are people bent upon cudgelling one who will persist in excusing one's having nothing but a bad shilling in one's purse1 without reading in that ,juvenalian vacuitas any privilege or license of exemption from the general fate of travellers that intrude upon the solitude of robbers4 ,thomas de ,quincey4 ,,footnote3 #a ,but a luxury of another class1 and quite peculiar to ,wales1 was in those days 7,i hope in these7 the ,welsh harp1 in attendance at every inn4 ,a ,resolution ,i had long ago determined to leave ,london as soon as the means should be in my power1 and1 now that they were1 ,i determined to leave the ,great ,city2 yet ,i felt some reluctance to go4 ,i would fain have pursued the career of original authorship which had just opened itself to me1 and have written other tales of adventure4 ,the bookseller had given me encouragement enough to do so2 he had assured me that he should be always happy to deal with me for an article 7that was the word7 similar to the one ,i had brought him1 provided my terms were moderate2 and the bookseller's wife1 by her complimentary language1 had given me yet more encouragement4 ,but for some months past ,i had been far from well1 and my original indisposition1 brought on partly by the peculiar atmosphere of the ,big ,city1 partly by anxiety of mind1 had been much increased by the exertions which ,i had been compelled to make during the last few days4 ,i felt that1 were ,i to remain where ,i was1 ,i should die1 or become a confirmed valetudinarian4 ,i would go forth into the country1 travelling on foot1 and1 by exercise and inhaling pure air1 endeavour to recover my health1 leaving my subsequent movements to be determined by ,providence4 ,but whither should ,i bend my course8 ,once or twice ,i thought of walking home to the old town1 stay some time with my mother and my brother1 and enjoy the pleasant walks in the neighbourhood2 but1 though ,i wished very much to see my mother and my brother1 and felt much disposed to enjoy the said pleasant walks1 the old town was not exactly the place to which ,i wished to go at this present juncture4 ,i was afraid the people would ask1 ,where are your ,northern ,ballads8 ,where are your alliterative translations from ,ab ,gwilym--of which you were always talking1 and with which you promised to astonish the world8 ,now1 in the event of such interrogations1 what could ,i answer8 ,it is true ,i had compiled ,newgate ,lives and ,trials1 and had written the life of ,joseph ,sell1 but ,i was afraid that the people of the old town would scarcely consider these as equivalents for the ,northern ,ballads and the songs of ,ab ,gwilym4 ,i would go forth and wander in any direction but that of the old town4 ,but how one's sensibility on any particular point diminishes with time2 at present1 ,i enter the old town perfectly indifferent as to what the people may be thinking on the subject of the songs and ballads4 ,with respect to the people themselves1 whether1 like my sensibility1 their curiosity has altogether evaporated1 or whether1 which is at least equally probable1 they never entertained any1 one thing is certain1 that never in a single instance have they troubled me with any remarks on the subject of the songs and ballads4 ,as it was my intention to travel on foot1 with a bundle and a stick1 ,i despatched my trunk containing some few clothes and books to the old town4 ,my preparations were soon made2 in about three days ,i was in readiness to start4 ,,stonehenge ,after standing still a minute or two1 considering what ,i should do1 ,i moved down what appeared to be the street of a small straggling town2 presently ,i passed by a church1 which rose indistinctly on my right hand2 anon there was the rustling of foliage and the rushing of waters4 ,i reached a bridge1 beneath which a small stream was running in the direction of the south4 ,i stopped and leaned over the parapet1 for ,i have always loved to look upon streams1 especially at the still hours4 ,what stream is this1 ,i wonder8 said ,i1 as ,i looked down from the parapet into the water1 which whirled and gurgled below4 ,leaving the bridge1 ,i ascended a gentle acclivity1 and presently reached what appeared to be a tract of moory undulating ground4 ,it was now tolerably light1 but there was a mist or haze abroad which prevented my seeing objects with much precision4 ,i felt chill in the damp air of the early morn1 and walked rapidly forward4 ,in about half an hour ,i arrived where the road divided into two1 at an angle or tongue of dark green sward4 ,to the right or the left8 said ,i1 and forthwith took1 without knowing why1 the left-hand road1 along which ,i proceeded about a hundred yards1 when1 in the midst of the tongue of sward formed by the two roads1 collaterally with myself1 ,i perceived what ,i at first conceived to be a small grove of blighted trunks of oaks1 barked and grey4 ,i stood still for a moment1 and then1 turning off the road1 advanced slowly towards it over the sward2 as ,i drew nearer1 ,i perceived that the objects which had attracted my curiosity1 and which formed a kind of circle1 were not trees1 but immense upright stones4 ,a thrill pervaded my system2 just before me were two1 the mightiest of the whole1 tall as the stems of proud oaks1 supporting on their tops a huge transverse stone1 and forming a wonderful doorway4 ,i knew now where ,i was1 and1 laying down my stick and bundle1 and taking off my hat1 ,i advanced slowly1 and cast myself--it was folly1 perhaps1 but ,i could not help what ,i did--cast myself1 with my face on the dewy earth1 in the middle of the portal of giants1 beneath the transverse stone4 ,the spirit of ,stonehenge was strong upon me6 ,and after ,i had remained with my face on the ground for some time1 ,i arose1 placed my hat on my head1 and1 taking up my stick and bundle1 wandered around the wondrous circle1 examining each individual stone1 from the greatest to the least2 and then1 entering by the great door1 seated myself upon an immense broad stone1 one side of which was supported by several small ones1 and the other slanted upon the earth2 and there in deep meditation1 ,i sat for an hour or two1 till the sun shone in my face above the tall stones of the eastern side4 ,and as ,i still sat there1 ,i heard the noise of bells1 and presently a large number of sheep came browsing past the circle of stones2 two or three entered1 and grazed upon what they could find1 and soon a man also entered the circle at the northern side4 ,early here1 sir1 said the man1 who was tall1 and dressed in a dark green slop1 and had all the appearance of a shepherd2 a traveller1 ,i suppose8 ,yes1 said ,i1 ,i am a traveller2 are these sheep yours8 ,they are1 sir2 that is1 they are my master's4 ,a strange place this1 sir1 said he1 looking at the stones2 ever here before8 ,never in body1 frequently in mind4 ,heard of the stones1 ,i suppose2 no wonder--all the people of the plain talk of them4 ,what do the people of the plain say of them8 ,why1 they say--,how did they ever come here8 ,do they not suppose them to have been brought8 ,who should have brought them8 ,i have read that they were brought by many thousand men4 ,where from8 ,ireland4 ,how did they bring them8 ,i don't know4 ,and what did they bring them for8 ,to form a temple1 perhaps4 ,what is that8 ,a place to worship ,god in4 ,a strange place to worship ,god in4 ,why8 ,it has no roof4 ,yes1 it has4 ,where8 said the man1 looking up4 ,what do you see above you8 ,the sky4 ,well8 ,well6 ,have you anything to say8 ,how did those stones come here8 ,are there other stones like these on the plains8 said ,i4 ,none2 and yet there are plenty of strange things on these downs4 ,what are they8 ,strange heaps1 and barrows1 and great walls of earth built on the top of hills4 ,do the people of the plain wonder how they came there8 ,they do not4 ,why8 ,they were raised by hands4 ,and these stones8 ,how did they ever come here8 ,i wonder whether they are here8 said ,i4 ,these stones8 ,yes4 ,so sure as the world1 said the man2 and as the world1 they will stand as long4 ,i wonder whether there is a world4 ,what do you mean8 ,an earth and sea1 moon and stars1 sheep and men4 ,do you doubt it8 ,sometimes4 ,i never heard it doubted before4 ,it is impossible there should be a world4 ,it ain't possible there shouldn't be a world4 ,just so4 ,at this moment a fine ewe1 attended by a lamb1 rushed into the circle and fondled the knees of the shepherd4 ,i suppose you would not care to have some milk8 said the man4 ,why do you suppose so8 ,because1 so be1 there be no sheep1 no milk1 you know2 and what there ben't is not worth having4 ,you could not have argued better1 said ,i1 that is1 supposing you have argued2 with respect to the milk you may do as you please4 ,be still1 ,nanny1 said the man2 and producing a tin vessel from his scrip1 he milked the ewe into it4 ,here is milk of the plains1 master1 said the man1 as he handed the vessel to me4 ,where are those barrows and great walls of earth you were speaking of8 said ,i1 after ,i had drunk some of the milk2 are there any near where we are8 ,not within many miles2 the nearest is yonder away1 said the shepherd1 pointing to the south-east4 ,it's a grand place1 that1 but not like this2 quite different1 and from it you have a sight of the finest spire in the world4 ,i must go to it1 said ,i1 and ,i drank the remainder of the milk2 yonder1 you say4 ,yes1 yonder2 but you cannot get to it in that direction1 the river lies between4 ,what river8 ,the ,avon4 ,avon is ,british1 said ,i4 ,yes1 said the man1 we are all ,british here4 ,no1 we are not1 said ,i4 ,what are we1 then8 ,english4 ,a'n't they one8 ,no4 ,who were the ,british8 ,the men who are supposed to have worshipped ,god in this place1 and who raised these stones4 ,where are they now8 ,our forefathers slaughtered them1 spilled their blood all about1 especially in this neighbourhood1 destroyed their pleasant places1 and left not1 to use their own words1 one stone upon another4 ,yes1 they did1 said the shepherd1 looking aloft at the transverse stone4 ,and it is well for them they did2 whenever that stone1 which ,english hands never raised1 is by ,english hands thrown down1 woe1 woe1 woe to the ,english race2 spare it1 ,english6 ,hengist spared it6--,here is sixpence4 ,i won't have it1 said the man4 ,why not8 ,you talk so prettily about these stones2 you seem to know all about them4 ,i never receive presents2 with respect to the stones1 ,i say with yourself1 ,how did they ever come here8 ,how did they ever come here8 said the shepherd4 ,a ,,prospect ,leaving the shepherd1 ,i bent my way in the direction pointed out by him as that in which the most remarkable of the strange remains of which he had spoken lay4 ,i proceeded rapidly1 making my way over the downs covered with coarse grass and fern2 with respect to the river of which he had spoken1 ,i reflected that1 either by wading or swimming1 ,i could easily transfer myself and what ,i bore to the opposite side4 ,on arriving at its banks1 ,i found it a beautiful stream1 but shallow1 with here and there a deep place1 where the water ran dark and still4 ,always fond of the pure lymph1 ,i undressed1 and plunged into one of these gulfs1 from which ,i emerged1 my whole frame in a glow1 and tingling with delicious sensations4 ,after conveying my clothes and scanty baggage to the farther side1 ,i dressed1 and then with hurried steps bent my course in the direction of some lofty ground2 ,i at length found myself on a high road1 leading over wide and arid downs2 following the road for some miles without seeing anything remarkable1 ,i supposed at length that ,i had taken the wrong path1 and wended on slowly and disconsolately for some time1 till1 having nearly surmounted a steep hill1 ,i knew at once1 from certain appearances1 that ,i was near the object of my search4 ,turning to the right near the brow of the hill1 ,i proceeded along a path which brought me to a causeway leading over a deep ravine1 and connecting the hill with another which had once formed part of it1 for the ravine was evidently the work of art4 ,i passed over the causeway1 and found myself in a kind of gateway which admitted me into a square space of many acres1 surrounded on all sides by mounds or ramparts of earth4 ,though ,i had never been in such a place before1 ,i knew that ,i stood within the precincts of what had been a ,roman encampment1 and one probably of the largest size1 for many thousand warriors might have found room to perform their evolutions in that space1 in which corn was now growing1 the green ears waving in the morning wind4 ,after ,i had gazed about the space for a time1 standing in the gateway formed by the mounds1 ,i clambered up the mound to the left hand1 and on the top of that mound ,i found myself at a great altitude2 beneath1 at the distance of a mile1 was a fair old city1 situated amongst verdant meadows1 watered with streams1 and from the heart of that old city1 from amidst mighty trees1 ,i beheld towering to the sky the finest spire in the world4 ,after ,i had looked from the ,roman rampart for a long time1 ,i hurried away1 and1 retracing my steps along the causeway1 regained the road1 and1 passing over the brow of the hill1 descended to the city of the spire4 ,,one ,,of ,,the ,,pleasant ,,moments ,,of ,,life ,after walking about a dozen miles1 ,i came to a town1 where ,i rested for the night4 ,the next morning ,i set out again in the direction of the north-west4 ,i continued journeying for four days1 my daily journeys varying from twenty to twenty-five miles4 ,during this time nothing occurred to me worthy of any especial notice4 ,the weather was brilliant1 and ,i rapidly improved both in strength and spirits4 ,on the fifth day1 about two o'clock1 ,i arrived at a small town4 ,feeling hungry1 ,i entered a decent-looking inn--within a kind of bar ,i saw a huge1 fat1 landlord-looking person1 with a very pretty1 smartly-dressed maiden4 ,addressing myself to the fat man1 ,house6 said ,i1 house6 ,can ,i have dinner1 house8 ,young gentleman1 said the huge fat landlord1 you are come at the right time2 dinner will be taken up in a few minutes1 and such a dinner1 he continued1 rubbing his hands1 as you will not see every day in these times4 ,i am hot and dusty1 said ,i1 and should wish to cool my hands and face4 ,jenny6 said the huge landlord1 with the utmost gravity1 show the gentleman into number seven1 that he may wash his hands and face4 ,by no means1 said ,i1 ,i am a person of primitive habits1 and there is nothing like the pump in weather like this4 ,jenny6 said the landlord1 with the same gravity as before1 go with the young gentleman to the pump in the back kitchen1 and take a clean towel along with you4 ,thereupon the rosy-faced clean-looking damsel went to a drawer1 and producing a large1 thick1 but snowy-white towel1 she nodded to me to follow her2 whereupon ,i followed ,jenny through a long passage into the back kitchen4 ,and at the end of the back kitchen there stood a pump2 and going to it ,i placed my hands beneath the spout1 and said1 ,pump1 ,jenny2 and ,jenny incontinently1 without laying down the towel1 pumped with one hand1 and ,i washed and cooled my heated hands4 ,and1 when my hands were washed and cooled1 ,i took off my neckcloth1 and unbuttoning my shirt collar1 ,i placed my head beneath the spout of the pump1 and ,i said unto ,jenny1 ,now1 ,jenny1 lay down the towel1 and pump for your life4 ,thereupon ,jenny1 placing the towel on a linen-horse1 took the handle of the pump with both hands and pumped over my head as handmaid had never pumped before2 so that the water poured in torrents from my head1 my face1 and my hair down upon the brick floor4 ,and after the lapse of somewhat more than a minute1 ,i called out with a half-strangled voice1 ,hold1 ,jenny6 and ,jenny desisted4 ,i stood for a few moments to recover my breath1 then taking the towel which ,jenny proffered1 ,i dried composedly my hands and head1 my face and hair2 then1 returning the towel to ,jenny1 ,i gave a deep sigh and said1 ,surely this is one of the pleasant moments of life4 ,george ,borrow1--,lavengro4 ,the ,snowdon ,ranger ,i quickened my steps1 and soon came up to the two individuals4 ,one was an elderly man1 dressed in a smock frock1 and with a hairy cap on his head4 ,the other was much younger1 wore a hat1 and was dressed in a coarse suit of blue1 nearly new1 and doubtless his ,sunday's best4 ,he was smoking a pipe4 ,i greeted them in ,english1 and sat down near them4 ,they responded in the same language1 the younger man with considerable civility and briskness1 the other in a tone of voice denoting some reserve4 ,may ,i ask the name of this lake8 said ,i1 addressing myself to the young man1 who sat between me and the elderly one4 ,its name is ,llyn ,cwellyn1 sir1 said he1 taking the pipe out of his mouth4 ,and a fine lake it is4 ,plenty of fish in it8 ,i demanded4 ,plenty1 sir2 plenty of trout and pike and char4 ,is it deep8 said ,i4 ,near the shore it is shallow1 sir1 but in the middle and near the other side it is deep1 so deep that no one knows how deep it is4 ,what is the name1 said ,i1 of the great black mountain there on the other side8 ,it is called ,mynydd ,mawr1 or the ,great ,mountain4 ,yonder rock1 which bulks out from it1 down the lake yonder1 and which you passed as you came along1 is called ,castell ,cidwm1 which means ,wolf s rock or castle4 ,did a wolf ever live there8 ,i demanded4 ,perhaps so1 said the man1 for ,i have heard say that there were wolves of old in ,wales4 ,and what is the name of the beautiful hill yonder1 before us across the water8 ,that1 sir1 is called ,cairn ,drws y ,coed1 said the man4 ,the stone heap of the gate of the wood1 said ,i4 ,are you ,welsh1 sir8 said the man4 ,no1 said ,i1 but ,i know something of the language of ,wales4 ,i suppose you live in that house8 ,not exactly1 sir2 my father-in-law here lives in that house1 and my wife with him4 ,i am a miner1 and spend six days in the week at my mine1 but every ,sunday ,i come here1 and pass the day with my wife and him4 ,and what profession does he follow8 said ,i2 is he a fisherman8 ,fisherman6 said the elderly man contemptuously1 not ,i4 ,i am the ,snowdon ,ranger4 ,and what is that8 said ,i4 ,the elderly man tossed his head proudly1 and made no reply4 ,a ranger means a guide1 sir1 said the younger man--my father-in-law is generally termed the ,snowdon ,ranger because he is a tip-top guide1 and he has named the house after him the ,snowdon ,ranger4 ,he entertains gentlemen in it who put themselves under his guidance in order to ascend ,snowdon and to see the country4 ,there is some difference in your professions1 said ,i2 he deals in heights1 you in depths2 both1 however1 are break-necky trades4 ,i run more risk from gunpowder than anything else1 said the younger man4 ,i am a slate-miner1 and am continually blasting4 ,i have1 however1 had my falls4 ,are you going far to-night1 sir8 ,i am going to ,bethgelert1 said ,i4 ,a good six miles1 sir1 from here4 ,do you come from ,caernarvon8 ,farther than that1 said ,i4 ,i come from ,bangor4 ,to-day1 sir1 and walking8 ,to-day1 and walking4 ,you must be rather tired1 sir2 you came along the valley very slowly4 ,i am not in the slightest degree tired1 said ,i2 when ,i start from here1 ,i shall put on my best pace1 and soon get to ,bethgelert4 ,anybody can get along over level ground1 said the old man1 laconically4 ,not with equal swiftness1 said ,i4 ,i do assure you1 friend1 to be able to move at a good swinging pace over level ground is something not to be sneezed at4 ,not1 said ,i1 lifting up my voice1 that ,i would for a moment compare walking on the level ground to mountain ranging1 pacing along the road to springing up crags like a mountain goat1 or assert that even ,powell himself1 the first of all road walkers1 was entitled to so bright a wreath of fame as the ,snowdon ,ranger4 ,won't you walk in1 sir8 said the elderly man4 ,no1 ,i thank you1 said ,i2 ,i prefer sitting out here1 gazing on the lake and the noble mountains4 ,i wish you would1 sir1 said the elderly man1 and take a glass of something2 ,i will charge you nothing4 ,thank you1 said ,i--,i am in want of nothing1 and shall presently start4 ,do many people ascend ,snowdon from your house8 ,not so many as ,i could wish1 said the ranger2 people in general prefer ascending ,snowdon from that trumpery place ,bethgelert2 but those who do are fools--begging your honour's pardon4 ,the place to ascend ,snowdon from is my house4 ,the way from my house up ,snowdon is wonderful for the romantic scenery which it affords2 that from ,bethgelert can't be named in the same day with it for scenery2 moreover1 from my house you may have the best guide in ,wales2 whereas the guides of ,bethgelert--but ,i say nothing4 ,if your honour is bound for the ,wyddfa1 as ,i suppose you are1 you had better start from my house to-morrow under my guidance4 ,i have already been up the ,wyddfa from ,llanberis1 said ,i1 and am now going through ,bethgelert to ,llangollen1 where my family are2 were ,i going up ,snowdon again1 ,i should most certainly start from your house under your guidance1 and were ,i not in a hurry at present1 ,i would certainly take up my quarters here for a week1 and every day make excursions with you into the recesses of ,eryri4 ,i suppose you are acquainted with all the secrets of the hills8 ,trust the old ranger for that1 your honour4 ,i would show your honour the black lake in the frightful hollow1 in which the fishes have monstrous heads and little bodies1 the lake on which neither swan1 duck nor any kind of wildfowl was ever seen to light4 ,then ,i would show your honour the fountain of the hopping creatures1 where1 where---- ,were you ever at that ,wolf's crag1 that ,castell y ,cidwm8 said ,i4 ,can't say ,i ever was1 your honour4 ,you see it lies so close by1 just across that lake1 that---- ,you thought you could see it any day1 and so never went1 said ,i4 ,can't you tell me whether there are any ruins upon it8 ,i can't1 your honour4 ,i shouldn't wonder1 said ,i1 if in old times it was the stronghold of some robber-chieftain2 cidwm in the old ,welsh is frequently applied to a ferocious man4 ,castell ,cidwm1 ,i should think1 rather ought to be translated the robber's castle1 than the wolf's rock4 ,if ,i ever come into these parts again1 you and ,i will visit it together1 and see what kind of a place it is4 ,now farewell6 ,it is getting late4 ,i then departed4 ,what a nice gentleman6 said the younger man1 when ,i was a few yards distant4 ,i never saw a nicer gentleman1 said the old ranger4 ,i sped along1 ,snowdon on my left1 the lake on my right1 and the tip of a mountain peak right before me in the east4 ,after a little time ,i looked back2 what a scene6 ,the silver lake and the shadowy mountain over its southern side looking now1 methought1 very much like ,gibraltar4 ,i lingered and lingered1 gazing and gazing1 and at last only by an effort tore myself away4 ,the evening had now become delightfully cool in this land of wonders4 ,on ,i sped1 passing by two noisy brooks coming from ,snowdon to pay tribute to the lake4 ,and now ,i had left the lake and the valley behind1 and was ascending a hill4 ,as ,i gained its summit1 up rose the moon to cheer my way4 ,in a little time1 a wild stony gorge confronted me1 a stream ran down the gorge with hollow roar1 a bridge lay across it4 ,i asked a figure whom ,i saw standing by the bridge the place's name4 ,rhyd du--the black ford--,i crossed the bridge4 ,the voice of the ,methodist was yelling from a little chapel on my left4 ,i went to the door and listened3 ,when the sinner takes hold of ,god1 ,god takes hold of the sinner4 ,the voice was frightfully hoarse4 ,i passed on2 night fell fast around me1 and the mountain to the south-east1 towards which ,i was tending1 looked blackly grand4 ,and now ,i came to a milestone1 on which ,i read with difficulty3 ,three miles to ,bethgelert4 ,the way for some time had been upward1 but now it was downward4 ,i reached a torrent1 which1 coming from the north-west1 rushed under a bridge1 over which ,i passed4 ,the torrent attended me on my right hand the whole way to ,bethgelert4 ,the descent now became very rapid4 ,i passed a pine wood on my left1 and proceeded for more than two miles at a tremendous rate4 ,i then came to a wood--this wood was just above ,bethgelert--proceeding in the direction of a black mountain1 ,i found myself amongst houses1 at the bottom of a valley4 ,i passed over a bridge1 and inquiring of some people1 whom ,i met1 the way to the inn1 was shown an edifice brilliantly lighted up1 which ,i entered4 ,,of ,,umbrellas ,wending my course to the north1 ,i came to the white bare spot which ,i had seen from the moor1 and which was in fact the top of a considerable elevation over which the road passed4 ,here ,i turned and looked at the hills ,i had come across4 ,there they stood1 darkly blue1 a rain cloud1 like ink1 hanging over their summits4 ,o1 the wild hills of ,wales1 the land of old renown and of wonder1 the land of ,arthur and ,merlin4 ,the road now lay nearly due west4 ,rain came on1 but it was at my back1 so ,i expanded my umbrella1 flung it over my shoulder and laughed4 ,o1 how a man laughs who has a good umbrella when he has the rain at his back1 aye and over his head too1 and at all times when it rains except when the rain is in his face1 when the umbrella is not of much service4 ,o1 what a good friend to a man is an umbrella in rain time1 and likewise at many other times4 ,what need he fear if a wild bull or a ferocious dog attacks him1 provided he has a good umbrella8 he unfurls the umbrella in the face of the bull or dog1 and the brute turns round quite scared1 and runs away4 ,or if a footpad asks him for his money1 what need he care provided he has an umbrella8 he threatens to dodge the ferrule into the ruffian's eye1 and the fellow starts back and says1 ,lord1 sir6 ,i meant no harm4 ,i never saw you before in all my life4 ,i merely meant a little fun4 ,moreover1 who doubts that you are a respectable character provided you have an umbrella8 you go into a public-house and call for a pot of beer1 and the publican puts it down before you with one hand without holding out the other for the money1 for he sees that you have an umbrella and consequently property4 ,and what respectable man1 when you overtake him on the way and speak to him1 will refuse to hold conversation with you1 provided you have an umbrella8 ,no one4 ,the respectable man sees you have an umbrella and concludes that you do not intend to rob him1 and with justice1 for robbers never carry umbrellas4 ,o1 a tent1 a shield1 a lance and a voucher for character is an umbrella4 ,amongst the very best friends of man must be reckoned an umbrella4#b ,the way lay over dreary1 moory hills3 at last it began to descend and ,i saw a valley below me with a narrow river running through it to which wooded hills sloped down2 far to the west were blue mountains4 ,the scene was beautiful but melancholy2 the rain had passed away1 but a gloomy almost ,november sky was above1 and the mists of night were coming down apace4 ,i crossed a bridge at the bottom of the valley and presently saw a road branching to the right4 ,i paused1 but after a little time went straight forward4 ,gloomy woods were on each side of me and night had come down4 ,fear came upon me that ,i was not in the right road1 but ,i saw no house at which ,i could inquire1 nor did ,i see a single individual for miles of whom ,i could ask4 ,at last ,i heard the sound of hatchets in a dingle on my right1 and catching a glimpse of a gate at the head of a path1 which led down into it1 ,i got over it4 ,after descending some time ,i hallooed4 ,the noise of the hatchets ceased4 ,i hallooed again1 and a voice cried in ,welsh1 ,what do you want8 ,to know the way to ,bala1 ,i replied4 ,there was no answer1 but presently ,i heard steps1 and the figure of a man drew nigh half undistinguishable in the darkness and saluted me4 ,i returned his salutation1 and told him ,i wanted to know the way to ,bala4 ,he told me1 and ,i found ,i had been going right4 ,i thanked him and regained the road4 ,i sped onward and in about half an hour saw some houses1 then a bridge1 then a lake on my left1 which ,i recognised as the lake of ,bala4 ,i skirted the end of it1 and came to a street cheerfully lighted up1 and in a minute more was in the ,white ,lion ,inn4 ,,supper--,,and ,a ,,morning ,,view ,the sun was going down as ,i left the inn4 ,i recrossed the streamlet by means of the pole and rail4 ,the water was running with much less violence than in the morning1 and was considerably lower4 ,the evening was calm and beautifully cool1 with a slight tendency to frost4 ,i walked along with a bounding and elastic step1 and never remember to have felt more happy and cheerful4 ,i reached the hospice at about six o'clock1 a bright moon shining upon me1 and found a capital supper awaiting me1 which ,i enjoyed exceedingly4 ,how one enjoys one's supper at one's inn1 after a good day's walk1 provided one has the proud and glorious consciousness of being able to pay one's reckoning on the morrow6 ,the morning of the sixth was bright and glorious4 ,as ,i looked from the window of the upper sitting-room of the hospice the scene which presented itself was wild and beautiful to a degree4 ,the oak-covered tops of the volcanic crater were gilded with the brightest sunshine1 whilst the eastern side remained in dark shade and the gap or narrow entrance to the north in shadow yet darker1 in the midst of which shone the silver of the ,rheidol cataract4 ,should ,i live a hundred years ,i shall never forget the wild fantastic beauty of that morning scene4 ,george ,borrow1--,wild ,wales4 ,,footnote3 #b ,as the umbrella is rather a hackneyed subject two or three things will of course be found in the above eulogium on an umbrella which have been said by other folks on that subject2 the writer1 however1 flatters himself that in his eulogium on an umbrella two or three things will also be found which have never been said by any one else about an umbrella4 ,song of the ,open ,road ,afoot and light-hearted ,i take to the open road6 ,healthy1 free1 the world before me1 ,the long brown path before me1 leading where-ever ,i choose6 ,henceforth ,i ask not good-fortune1 ,i myself am good-fortune1 ,henceforth ,i whimper no more1 postpone no more1 need nothing1 ,done with indoor complaints1 libraries1 querulous criticisms1 ,strong and content ,i travel the open road4 ,the earth--that is sufficient1 ,i do not want the constellations any nearer1 ,i know they are very well where they are1 ,i know they suffice for those who belong to them4 ,still here ,i carry my old delicious burdens1 ,i carry them1 men and women--,i carry them with me wherever ,i go1 ,i swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them1 ,i am fill'd with them1 and ,i will fill them in return4 ,you road ,i travel and look around6 ,i believe you are not all that is here6 ,i believe that something unseen is also here4 ,here is the profound lesson of reception1 neither preference or denial2 ,the black with his woolly head1 the felon1 the diseased1 the illiterate person1 are not denied1 ,the birth1 the hasting after the physician1 the beggar's tramp1 the drunkard's stagger1 the laughing party of mechanics1 ,the escaped youth1 the rich person's carriage1 the fop1 the eloping couple1 ,the early market-man1 the hearse1 the moving of furniture into the town1 the return back from the town1 ,they pass1 ,i also pass1 any thing passes1 none can be interdicted1 ,none but are accepted1 none but are dear to me4 ,you air that serves me with breath to speak6 ,you objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them shape6 ,you light that wraps me and all things in delicate equable showers6 ,you paths worn in the irregular hollows by the road-sides6 ,i think you are latent with curious existences--you are so dear to me4 ,you flagg'd walks of the cities6 you strong curbs at the edges6 ,you ferries6 you planks and posts of wharves6 you timber-lined sides6 you distant ships6 ,you rows of houses6 you window-pierced faades6 you roofs6 ,you porches and entrances6 you copings and iron guards6 ,you windows whose transparent shells might expose so much6 ,you doors and ascending steps6 you arches6 ,you grey stones of interminable pavements6 you trodden crossings6 ,from all that has been near you ,i believe you have imparted to yourselves1 and now would impart the same secretly to me1 ,from the living and the dead ,i think you have peopled your impassive surfaces1 and the spirits thereof would be evident and amicable with me4 ,the earth expanding right hand and left hand1 ,the picture alive1 every part in its best light1 ,the music falling in where it is wanted1 and stopping where it is not wanted1 ,the cheerful voice of the public road--the gay fresh sentiment of the road4 ,o highway ,i travel6 ,o public road6 ,do you say to me1 ,do not leave me8 ,do you say1 ,venture not8--,if you leave me you are lost8 ,do you say1 ,i am already prepared--,i am well beaten and undenied--adhere to me8 ,o public road6 ,i say back ,i am not afraid to leave you--yet ,i love you1 ,you express me better than ,i can express myself1 ,you shall be more to me than my poem4 ,i think heroic deeds were all conceived in the open air1 ,i think ,i could stop here myself and do miracles1 ,i think whatever ,i meet on the road ,i shall like1 and whoever beholds me shall like me1 ,i think whoever ,i see must be happy4 ,from this hour1 freedom6 ,from this hour ,i ordain myself loosed of limits and imaginary lines6 ,going where ,i list--my own master1 total and absolute1 ,listening to others1 considering well what they say1 ,pausing1 searching1 receiving1 contemplating4 ,gently but with undeniable will divesting myself of the holds that would hold me4 ,i inhale great draughts of air1 ,the east and the west are mine1 and the north and the south are mine4 ,i am larger than ,i thought6 ,i did not know ,i held so much goodness6 ,all seems beautiful to me1 ,i can repeat over to men and women1 ,you have done such good to me1 ,i would do the same to you1 ,i will recruit for myself and you as ,i go1 ,i will scatter myself among men and women as ,i go1 ,i will toss a new gladness and roughness among them1 ,whoever denies me it shall not trouble me1 ,whoever accepts me he or she shall be blessed and shall bless me4 ,now if a thousand perfect men were to appear1 it would not amaze me1 ,now if a thousand beautiful forms of women appear'd1 it would not astonish me4 ,now ,i see the secret of the making of the best persons1 ,it is to grow in the open air1 and eat and sleep with the earth4 ,here a great personal deed has room1 7,such a deed seizes upon the hearts of the whole race of men1 ,its effusion of strength and will overwhelms laws and mocks all authority and all argument against it47 ,here is the test of wisdom1 ,wisdom is not finally tested in schools1 ,wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it to another not having it1 ,wisdom is of the soul1 is not susceptible of proof1 is its own proof1 ,applies to all stages and objects and qualities and is content1 ,is the certainty of the reality and immortality of things1 and the excellence of things2 ,something there is in the float of the sight of things that provokes it out of the soul4 ,now ,i re-examine philosophies and religions1 ,they may prove well in lecture-rooms1 yet not prove at all under the spacious clouds and along the landscape and flowing currents4 ,here is realization1 ,here is a man tallied--he realizes here what he has in him1 ,the past1 the future1 majesty1 love--if they are vacant of you1 you are vacant of them4 ,only the kernel of every object nourishes2 ,where is he who tears off the husks for you and me8 ,where is he that undoes stratagems and envelopes for you and me8 ,here is adhesiveness1 it is not previously fashion'd1 it is apropos2 ,do you know what it is as you pass to be loved by strangers8 ,do you know the talk of those turning eyeballs8 ,here is the efflux of the soul1 ,the efflux of the soul comes from within through embower'd gates1 ever provoking questions4 ,these yearnings why are they8 these thoughts in the darkness why are they8 ,why are there men and women that while they are nigh me the sunlight expands my blood8 ,why when they leave me do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank8 ,why are there trees ,i never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me8 7,i think they hang there winter and summer on those trees and almost drop fruit as ,i pass27 ,what is it ,i interchange so suddenly with strangers8 ,what with some driver as ,i ride on the seat by his side8 ,what with some fisherman drawing his seine by the shore as ,i walk by and pause8 ,what gives me to be free to a woman's and man's good-will8 what gives them to be free to mine8 ,the efflux of the soul is happiness1 here is happiness4 ,i think it pervades the open air1 waiting at all times1 ,now it flows unto us1 we are rightly charged4 ,here rises the fluid and attaching character1 ,the fluid and attaching character is the freshness and sweetness of man and woman1 7,the herbs of the morning sprout no fresher and sweeter every day out of the roots of themselves1 than it sprouts fresh and sweet continually out of itself47 ,toward the fluid and attaching character exudes the sweat of the love of young and old1 ,from it falls distill'd the charm that mocks beauty and attainments1 ,toward it heaves the shuddering longing ache of contact4 ,allons6 whoever you are come travel with me4 ,travelling with me you find what never tires4 ,the earth never tires1 ,the earth is rude1 silent1 incomprehensible at first1 ,nature is rude and incomprehensible at first1 ,be not discouraged1 keep on1 there are divine things well envelop'd1 ,i swear to you there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell4 ,allons6 we must not stop here1 ,however sweet these laid-up stores1 however convenient this dwelling we cannot remain here1 ,however shelter'd this port and however calm these waters we must not anchor here1 ,however welcome the hospitality that surrounds us we are permitted to receive it but a little while4 ,allons6 the inducements shall be greater1 ,we will sail pathless and wild seas1 ,we will go where winds blow1 waves dash1 and the ,yankee clipper speeds by under full sail4 ,allons6 with power1 liberty1 the earth1 the elements1 ,health1 defiance1 gaiety1 self-esteem1 curiosity2 ,allons6 from all formulas6 ,from your formulas1 ,o bat-eyed and materialistic priests4 ,the stale cadaver blocks up the passage--the burial waits no longer4 ,allons6 yet take warning6 ,he travelling with me needs the best blood1 thews1 endurance1 ,none may come to the trial till he or she bring courage and health1 ,come not here if you have already spent the best of yourself1 ,only those may come who come in sweet and determined bodies1 ,no diseas'd person1 no rum drinker or venereal taint is permitted here4 7,i and mine do not convince by arguments1 similes1 rhymes1 ,we convince by our presence47 ,listen6 ,i will be honest with you1 ,i do not offer the old smooth prizes1 but offer rough new prizes1 ,these are the days that must happen to you3 ,you shall not heap up what is call'd riches3 ,you shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve1 ,you but arrive at the city to which you were destin'd1 you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call'd by an irresistible call to depart1 ,you shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those who remain behind you1 ,what beckonings of love you receive you shall only answer with passionate kisses of parting1 ,you shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach'd hands toward you4 ,allons6 after the great ,companions1 and to belong to them6 ,they too are on the road--they are the swift and majestic men--they are the greatest women1 ,enjoyers of calms of seas and storms of seas1 ,sailors of many a ship1 walkers of many a mile of land1 ,habitus of many distant countries1 habitus of far distant dwellings1 ,trusters of men and women1 observers of cities1 solitary toilers1 ,pausers and contemplators of tufts1 blossoms1 shells of the shore1 ,dancers at wedding-dances1 kissers of brides1 tender helpers of children1 bearers of children1 ,soldiers of revolts1 standers by gaping graves1 lowerers-down of coffins1 ,journeyers over consecutive seasons1 over the years1 the curious years each emerging from that which preceded it1 ,journeyers as with companions1 namely their own diverse phases1 ,forth-steppers from the latent unrealized baby-days1 ,journeyers gaily with their own youth1 journeyers with their bearded and well-grain'd manhood1 ,journeyers with their womanhood1 ample1 unsurpass'd1 content1 ,journeyers with their own sublime old age1 of manhood or womanhood1 ,old age1 calm1 expanded1 broad with the haughty breadth of the universe1 ,old age1 flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death4 ,allons6 to that which is endless as it was beginningless1 ,to undergo much1 tramps of days1 rests of nights1 ,to merge all in the travel they tend to1 and the days and nights they tend to1 ,again to merge them in the start of superior journeys1 ,to see nothing anywhere but what you may reach it and pass it1 ,to conceive no time1 however distant1 but what you may reach it and pass it1 ,to look up or down the road but it stretches and waits for you1 however long but it stretches and waits for you1 ,to see no being1 not ,god's or any1 but you also go thither1 ,to see no possession but may possess it1 enjoying all without labour or purchase1 abstracting the feast yet not abstracting one particle of it1 ,to take the best of the farmer's farm and the rich man's elegant villa1 and the chaste blessings of the well-married couple1 and the fruits of orchards and flowers of gardens1 ,to take to your use out of the compact cities as you pass through1 ,to carry buildings and streets with you afterward where-ever you go1 ,to gather the minds of men out of their brains as you encounter them1 to gather the love out of their hearts4 ,to take your lovers on the road with you1 for all that you leave them behind you1 ,to know the universe itself as a road1 as many roads1 as roads for travelling souls4 ,all parts away for the progress of souls1 ,all religion1 all solid things1 arts1 governments--all that was or is apparent upon this globe or any globe1 falls into niches and corners before the procession of souls along the grand roads of the universe4 ,of the progress of the souls of men and women along the grand roads of the universe1 all other progress is the needed emblem and sustenance4 ,forever alive1 forever forward1 ,stately1 solemn1 sad1 withdrawn1 baffled1 mad1 turbulent1 feeble1 dissatisfied1 ,desperate1 proud1 fond1 sick1 accepted by men1 rejected by men1 ,they go6 they go6 ,i know that they go1 but ,i know not where they go1 ,but ,i know that they go toward the best--toward something great4 ,whoever you are1 come forth6 or man or woman come forth6 ,you must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house1 though you built it1 or though it has been built for you4 ,out of the dark confinement6 out from behind the screen6 ,it is useless to protest1 ,i know all and expose it4 ,behold through you as bad as the rest1 ,through the laughter1 dancing1 dining1 supping of people1 ,inside of dresses and ornaments1 inside of those wash'd and trimm'd faces1 ,behold a secret silent loathing and despair4 ,no husband1 no wife1 no friend1 trusted to hear the confession1 ,another self1 a duplicate of every one1 skulking and hiding it goes1 ,formless and wordless through the streets of the cities1 polite and bland in the parlours1 ,in the cars of railroads1 in steamboats1 in the public assembly1 ,home to the houses of men and women1 at the table1 in the bed-room1 everywhere1 ,smartly attired1 countenance smiling1 form upright1 death under the breast-bones1 hell under the skull-bones1 ,under the broadcloth and gloves1 under the ribbons and artificial flowers1 ,keeping fair with the customs1 speaking not a syllable of itself4 ,speaking of anything else1 but never of itself4 ,allons6 through struggles and wars6 ,the goal that was named cannot be countermanded4 ,have the past struggles succeeded8 ,what has succeeded8 yourself8 your nation8 ,nature8 ,now understand me well--it is provided in the essence of things that from any fruition of success1 no matter what1 shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary4 ,my call is the call of the battle1 ,i nourish active rebellion1 ,he going with me must go well arm'd1 ,he going with me goes often with spare diet1 poverty1 angry enemies1 desertions4 ,allons6 the road is before us6 ,it is safe--,i have tried it--my own feet have tried it well--be not detain'd6 ,let the paper remain on the desk unwritten1 and the book on the shelf unopen'd6 ,let the tools remain in the workshop6 let the money remain unearn'd6 ,let the school stand6 mind not the cry of the teacher6 ,let the preacher preach in his pulpit6 let the lawyer plead in the court1 and the judge expound the law4 ,camerado1 ,i will give you my hand6 ,i give you my love more precious than money1 ,i give you myself before preaching or law2 ,will you give me yourself8 will you come travel with me8 ,shall we stick by each other as long as we live8 ,walt ,whitman4 ,walking ,tours ,it must not be imagined that a walking tour1 as some would have us fancy1 is merely a better or worse way of seeing the country4 ,there are many ways of seeing landscape quite as good2 and none more vivid1 in spite of canting dilettantes1 than from a railway train4 ,but landscape on a walking tour is quite accessory4 ,he who is indeed of the brotherhood does not voyage in quest of the picturesque1 but of certain jolly humours--of the hope and spirit with which the march begins at morning1 and the peace and spiritual repletion of the evening's rest4 ,he cannot tell whether he puts his knapsack on1 or takes it off1 with more delight4 ,the excitement of the departure puts him in key for that of the arrival4 ,whatever he does is not only a reward in itself1 but will be further rewarded in the sequel2 and so pleasure leads on to pleasure in an endless chain4 ,it is this that so few can understand2 they will either be always lounging or always at five miles an hour2 they do not play off the one against the other1 prepare all day for the evening1 and all evening for the next day4 ,and1 above all1 it is here that your overwalker fails of comprehension4 ,his heart rises against those who drink their curaoa in liqueur glasses1 when he himself can swill it in a brown john4 ,he will not believe that the flavour is more delicate in the smaller dose4 ,he will not believe that to walk this unconscionable distance is merely to stupefy and brutalise himself1 and come to his inn1 at night1 with a sort of frost on his five wits1 and a starless night of darkness in his spirit4 ,not for him the mild luminous evening of the temperate walker6 ,he has nothing left of man but a physical need for bedtime and a double nightcap2 and even his pipe1 if he be a smoker1 will be savourless and disenchanted4 ,it is the fate of such an one to take twice as much trouble as is needed to obtain happiness1 and miss the happiness in the end2 he is the man of the proverb1 in short1 who goes further and fares worse4 ,now1 to be properly enjoyed1 a walking tour should be gone upon alone4 ,if you go in a company1 or even in pairs1 it is no longer a walking tour in anything but name2 it is something else and more in the nature of a picnic4 ,a walking tour should be gone upon alone1 because freedom is of the essence2 because you should be able to stop and go on1 and follow this way or that1 as the freak takes you2 and because you must have your own pace1 and neither trot alongside a champion walker1 nor mince in time with a girl4 ,and then you must be open to all impressions and let your thoughts take colour from what you see4 ,you should be as a pipe for any wind to play upon4 ,i cannot see the wit1 says ,hazlitt1 of walking and talking at the same time4 ,when ,i am in the country1 ,i wish to vegetate like the country1 which is the gist of all that can be said upon the matter4 ,there should be no cackle of voices at your elbow1 to jar on the meditative silence of the morning4 ,and so long as a man is reasoning he cannot surrender himself to that fine intoxication that comes of much motion in the open air1 that begins in a sort of dazzle and sluggishness of the brain1 and ends in a peace that passes comprehension4 ,during the first day or so of any tour there are moments of bitterness1 when the traveller feels more than coldly towards his knapsack1 when he is half in a mind to throw it bodily over the hedge and1 like ,christian on a similar occasion1 give three leaps and go on singing4 ,and yet it soon acquires a property of easiness4 ,it becomes magnetic2 the spirit of the journey enters into it4 ,and no sooner have you passed the straps over your shoulder than the lees of sleep are cleared from you1 you pull yourself together with a shake1 and fall at once into your stride4 ,and surely1 of all possible moods1 this1 in which a man takes the road1 is the best4 ,of course1 if he will keep thinking of his anxieties1 if he will open the merchant ,abudah's chest and walk arm in arm with the hag--why1 wherever he is1 and whether he walk fast or slow1 the chances are that he will not be happy4 ,and so much the more shame to himself6 ,there are perhaps thirty men setting forth at that same hour1 and ,i would lay a large wager there is not another dull face among the thirty4 ,it would be a fine thing to follow1 in a coat of darkness1 one after another of these wayfarers1 some summer morning1 for the first few miles upon the road4 ,this one1 who walks fast1 with a keen look in his eyes1 is all concentrated in his own mind2 he is up at his loom1 weaving and weaving1 to set the landscape to words4 ,this one peers about1 as he goes1 among the grasses2 he waits by the canal to watch the dragon-flies2 he leans on the gate of the pasture1 and cannot look enough upon the complacent kine4 ,and here comes another talking1 laughing1 and gesticulating to himself4 ,his face changes from time to time1 as indignation flashes from his eyes or anger clouds his forehead4 ,he is composing articles1 delivering orations1 and conducting the most impassioned interviews1 by the way4 ,a little farther on1 and it is as like as not he will begin to sing4 ,and well for him1 supposing him to be no great master in that art1 if he stumble across no stolid peasant at a corner2 for on such an occasion1 ,i scarcely know which is the more troubled1 or whether it is worse to suffer the confusion of your troubadour or the unfeigned alarm of your clown4 ,a sedentary population1 accustomed1 besides1 to the strange mechanical bearing of the common tramp1 can in no wise explain to itself the gaiety of these passers-by4 ,i knew one man who was arrested as a runaway lunatic1 because1 although a full-grown person with a red beard1 he skipped as he went like a child4 ,and you would be astonished if ,i were to tell you all the grave and learned heads who have confessed to me that1 when on walking tours1 they sang--and sang very ill--and had a pair of red ears when1 as described above1 the inauspicious peasant plumped into their arms from round a corner4 ,and here1 lest you think ,i am exaggerating1 is ,hazlitt's own confession1 from his essay ,on going a ,journey1 which is so good that there should be a tax levied on all who have not read it3-- ,give me the clear blue sky over my head1 says he1 and the green turf beneath my feet1 a winding road before me1 and a three hours' march to dinner--and then to thinking6 ,it is hard if ,i cannot start some game on these lone heaths4 ,i laugh1 ,i run1 ,i leap1 ,i sing for joy4 ,bravo6 ,after that adventure of my friend with the policeman1 you would not have cared1 would you1 to publish that in the first person8 ,but we have no bravery nowadays1 and1 even in books1 must all pretend to be as dull and foolish as our neighbours4 ,it was not so with ,hazlitt4 ,and notice how learned he is 7as1 indeed1 throughout the essay7 in the theory of walking tours4 ,he is none of your athletic men in purple stockings1 who walk their fifty miles a day3 three hours' march is his ideal4 ,and then he must have a winding road1 the epicure6 ,yet there is one thing ,i object to in these words of his1 one thing in the great master's practice that seems to me not wholly wise4 ,i do not approve of that leaping and running4 ,both of these hurry the respiration2 they both shake up the brain out of its glorious open-air confusion2 and they both break the pace4 ,uneven walking is not so agreeable to the body1 and it distracts and irritates the mind4 ,whereas1 when once you have fallen into an equable stride1 it requires no conscious thought from you to keep it up1 and yet it prevents you from thinking earnestly of anything else4 ,like knitting1 like the work of a copying clerk1 it gradually neutralises and sets to sleep the serious activity of the mind4 ,we can think of this or that1 lightly and laughingly1 as a child thinks1 or as we think in a morning doze2 we can make puns or puzzle out acrostics1 and trifle in a thousand ways with words or rhymes2 but when it comes to honest work1 when we come to gather ourselves together for an effort1 we may sound the trumpet as loud and long as we please2 the great barons of the mind will not rally to the standard1 but sit1 each one1 at home1 warming his hands over his own fire and brooding on his own private thought6 ,in the course of a day's walk1 you see1 there is much variance in the mood4 ,from the exhilaration of the start1 to the happy phlegm of the arrival1 the change is certainly great4 ,as the day goes on1 the traveller moves from the one extreme towards the other4 ,he becomes more and more incorporated with the material landscape1 and the open-air drunkenness grows upon him with great strides1 until he posts along the road1 and sees everything about him1 as in a cheerful dream4 ,the first is certainly brighter1 but the second stage is the more peaceful4 ,a man does not make so many articles towards the end1 nor does he laugh aloud2 but the purely animal pleasures1 the sense of physical well-being1 the delight of every inhalation1 of every time the muscles tighten down the thigh1 console him for the absence of the others1 and bring him to his destination still content4 ,nor must ,i forget to say a word on bivouacs4 ,you come to a milestone on a hill1 or some place where deep ways meet under trees2 and off goes the knapsack1 and down you sit to smoke a pipe in the shade4 ,you sink into yourself1 and the birds come round and look at you1 and your smoke dissipates upon the afternoon under the blue dome of heaven2 and the sun lies warm upon your feet1 and the cool air visits your neck and turns aside your open shirt4 ,if you are not happy1 you must have an evil conscience4 ,you may dally as long as you like by the roadside4 ,it is almost as if the millennium were arrived1 when we shall throw our clocks and watches over the housetop1 and remember time and seasons no more4 ,not to keep hours for a lifetime is1 ,i was going to say1 to live for ever4 ,you have no idea1 unless you have tried it1 how endlessly long is a summer's day1 that you measure out only by hunger1 and bring to an end only when you are drowsy4 ,i know a village where there are hardly any clocks1 where no one knows more of the days of the week than by a sort of instinct for the fte on ,sundays1 and where only one person can tell you the day of the month1 and she is generally wrong2 and if people were aware how slow ,time journeyed in that village1 and what armfuls of spare hours he gives1 over and above the bargain1 to its wise inhabitants1 ,i believe there would be a stampede out of ,london1 ,liverpool1 ,paris1 and a variety of large towns1 where the clocks lose their heads1 and shake the hours out each one faster than the other1 as though they were all in a wager4 ,and all these foolish pilgrims would each bring his own misery along with him1 in a watch-pocket6 ,it is to be noticed1 there were no clocks and watches in the much-vaunted days before the flood4 ,it follows1 of course1 there were no appointments1 and punctuality was not yet thought upon4 ,though ye take from a covetous man all his treasure1 says ,milton1 he has yet one jewel left2 ye cannot deprive him of his covetousness4 ,and so ,i would say of a modern man of business1 you may do what you will for him1 put him in ,eden1 give him the elixir of life--he has still a flaw at heart1 he still has his business habits4 ,now1 there is no time when business habits are more mitigated than on a walking tour4 ,and so during these halts1 as ,i say1 you will feel almost free4 ,but it is at night1 and after dinner1 that the best hour comes4 ,there are no such pipes to be smoked as those that follow a good day's march2 the flavour of the tobacco is a thing to be remembered1 it is so dry and aromatic1 so full and so fine4 ,if you wind up the evening with grog1 you will own there was never such grog2 at every sip a jocund tranquillity spreads about your limbs1 and sits easily in your heart4 ,if you read a book--and you will never do so save by fits and starts--you find the language strangely racy and harmonious2 words take a new meaning2 single sentences possess the ear for half an hour together2 and the writer endears himself to you1 at every page1 by the nicest coincidence of sentiment4 ,it seems as if it were a book you had written yourself in a dream4 ,to all we have read on such occasions we look back with special favour4 ,it was on the #ajth of ,april #agih1 says ,hazlitt1 with amorous precision1 that ,i sat down to a volume of the new ,helose1 at the ,inn at ,llangollen1 over a bottle of sherry and a cold chicken4 ,i should wish to quote more1 for though we are mighty fine fellows nowadays1 we cannot write like ,hazlitt4 ,and1 talking of that1 a volume of ,hazlitt's essays would be a capital pocket-book on such a journey2 so would a volume of ,heine's songs2 and for ,tristram ,shandy ,i can pledge a fair experience4 ,if the evening be fine and warm1 there is nothing better in life than to lounge before the inn door in the sunset1 or lean over the parapet of the bridge1 to watch the weeds and the quick fishes4 ,it is then1 if ever1 that you taste joviality to the full significance of that audacious word4 ,your muscles are so agreeably slack1 you feel so clean and so strong and so idle1 that whether you move or sit still1 whatever you do is done with pride and a kingly sort of pleasure4 ,you fall in talk with any one1 wise or foolish1 drunk or sober4 ,and it seems as if a hot walk purged you1 more than of anything else1 of all narrowness and pride1 and left curiosity to play its part freely1 as in a child or a man of science4 ,you lay aside all your own hobbies1 to watch provincial humours develop themselves before you1 now as a laughable farce1 and now grave and beautiful like an old tale4 ,or perhaps you are left to your own company for the night1 and surly weather imprisons you by the fire4 ,you may remember how ,burns1 numbering past pleasures1 dwells upon the hours when he has been happy thinking4 ,it is a phrase that may well perplex a poor modern girt about on every side by clocks and chimes1 and haunted1 even at night1 by flaming dial-plates4 ,for we are all so busy1 and have so many far-off projects to realise1 and castles in the fire to turn into solid1 habitable mansions on a gravel soil1 that we can find no time for pleasure trips into the ,land of ,thought and among the ,hills of ,vanity4 ,changed times1 indeed1 when we must sit all night1 beside the fire1 with folded hands2 and a changed world for most of us1 when we find we can pass the hours without discontent1 and be happy thinking4 ,we are in such haste to be doing1 to be writing1 to be gathering gear1 to make our voice audible a moment in the derisive silence of eternity1 that we forget that one thing1 of which these are but the parts--namely1 to live4 ,we fall in love1 we drink hard1 we run to and fro upon the earth like frightened sheep4 ,and now you are to ask yourself if1 when all is done1 you would not have been better to sit by the fire at home1 and be happy thinking4 ,to sit still and contemplate1--to remember the faces of women without desire1 to be pleased by the great deeds of men without envy1 to be everything and everywhere in sympathy1 and yet content to remain where and what you are--is not this to know both wisdom and virtue1 and to dwell with happiness8 ,after all1 it is not they who carry flags1 but they who look upon it from a private chamber1 who have the fun of the procession4 ,and once you are at that1 you are in the very humour of all social heresy4 ,it is no time for shuffling1 or for big empty words4 ,if you ask yourself what you mean by fame1 riches1 or learning1 the answer is far to seek2 and you go back into that kingdom of light imaginations1 which seem so vain in the eyes of ,philistines perspiring after wealth1 and so momentous to those who are stricken with the disproportions of the world1 and1 in the face of the gigantic stars1 cannot stop to split differences between two degrees of the infinitesimally small1 such as a tobacco pipe or the ,roman ,empire1 a million of money or a fiddlestick's end4 ,you lean from the window1 your last pipe reeking whitely into the darkness1 your body full of delicious pains1 your mind enthroned in the seventh circle of content2 when suddenly the mood changes1 the weathercock goes about1 and you ask yourself one question more3 whether1 for the interval1 you have been the wisest philosopher or the most egregious of donkeys8 ,human experience is not yet able to reply2 but at least you have had a fine moment1 and looked down upon all the kingdoms of the earth4 ,and whether it was wise or foolish1 to-morrow's travel will carry you1 body and mind1 into some different parish of the infinite4 ,robert ,louis ,stevenson4 ,sylvanus ,urban discovers a ,good ,brew ,it must be nearly thirty years ago1 long before the days of bicycles and motors1 since ,sylvanus ,urban1 then but a boy1 passed over it4 ,he had started from ,chepstow on a solitary walking tour1 and was soon caught in a rattling thunderstorm on the ,wyndcliff4 ,tintern ,abbey and ,raglan ,castle are fresh in his memory to-day4 ,a mile or two out of ,monmouth he came upon some excellent nutty-hearted ale1 that ,george ,borrow would have immortalised4 ,as he pursued his way to ,raglan ,castle he pondered on the ale--this way and that dividing the swift mind--until at length1 in despair of meeting an equal brew1 he turned back again and had another tankard4 ,heavens1 what days were those6 ,in his pack he carried the ,essays of ,elia and read them in an old inn at ,llandovery1 where the gracious hostess lighted in his honour tall wax candles fit to stand before an altar4 ,after leaving ,llandovery1 he lost his way among the ,caermarthenshire hills1 and was in very poor plight with hunger and fatigue when he reached the white-washed walls of ,tregaron4 ,at ,harlech he rested for a couple of days1 and then covered the way to ,beddgelert--twenty miles1 if he remembers rightly--at a spanking pace2 proceeding in the late afternoon to climb ,snowdon1 and arriving at ,llanberis an hour or so before midnight4 ,back to ,london1 every inch of the way1 walked the young ,sylvanus4 ,he indulges the hope that he may yet shoulder his pack again4 ,gentleman's ,magazine4 ,minchmoor ,now that everybody is out of town1 and every place in the guide-books is as well known as ,princes ,street or ,pall-,mall1 it is something to discover a hill everybody has not been to the top of1 and which is not in ,black4 ,such a hill is ,minchmoor1 nearly three times as high as ,arthur's ,seat1 and lying between ,tweed and ,yarrow4 ,the best way to ascend it is from ,traquair4 ,you go up the wild old ,selkirk road1 which passes almost right over the summit1 and by which ,montrose and his cavaliers fled from ,philiphaugh1 where ,sir ,walter's mother remembered crossing1 when a girl1 in a coach-and-six1 on her way to a ball at ,peebles1 several footmen marching on either side of the carriage to prop it up or drag it out of the moss haggs2 and where1 to our amazement1 we learned that the ,duchess of ,buccleuch had lately driven her ponies4 ,before this we had passed the grey1 old-world entrance to ,traquair ,house1 and looked down its grassy and untrod avenue to the pallid1 forlorn mansion1 stricken all o'er with eld1 and noticed the wrought-iron gate embedded in a foot deep and more of soil1 never having opened since the '#de4 ,there are the huge ,bradwardine bears on each side--most grotesque supporters--with a superfluity of ferocity and canine teeth4 ,the whole place1 like the family whose it has been1 seems dying out--everything subdued to settled desolation4 ,the old race1 the old religion1 the gaunt old house1 with its small1 deep1 comfortless windows1 the decaying trees1 the stillness about the doors1 the grass overrunning everything1 nature reinstating herself in her quiet way--all this makes the place look as strange and pitiful among its fellows in the vale as would the ,earl who built it three hundred years ago if we met him tottering along our way in the faded dress of his youth2 but it looks the ,earl's house still1 and has a dignity of its own4 ,we soon found the ,minchmoor road1 and took at once to the hill1 the ascent being1 as often is with other ascents in this world1 steepest at first4 ,nothing could be more beautiful than the view as we ascended1 and got a look of the eye-sweet ,tweed hills1 and their silver stream4 ,it was one of the five or six good days of this summer--in early morning1 soft and doubtful2 but the mists drawing up1 and now the noble1 tawny hills were dappled with gleams and shadows-- ,sunbeams upon distant hills gliding apace-- the best sort of day for mountain scenery--that ripple of light and shadow brings out the forms and the depths of the hills far better than a cloudless sky2 and the horizon is generally wider4 ,before us and far away was the round flat head of ,minchmoor1 with a dark1 rich bloom on it from the thick1 short heather--the hills around being green4 ,near the top1 on the ,tweed side1 its waters trotting away cheerily to the glen at ,bold1 is the famous ,cheese ,well--always full1 never overflowing4 ,here every traveler--,duchess1 shepherd1 or houseless mugger--stops1 rests1 and is thankful2 doubtless so did ,montrose1 poor fellow1 and his young nobles and their jaded steeds1 on their scurry from ,lesly and his ,dragoons4 ,it is called the ,cheese ,well from those who rest there dropping in bits of their provisions1 as votive offerings to the fairies whose especial haunt this mountain was4 ,after our rest and drink1 we left the road and made for the top4 ,when there we were well rewarded4 ,the great round-backed1 kindly1 solemn hills of ,tweed1 ,yarrow1 and ,ettrick lay all about like sleeping mastiffs--too plain to be grand1 too ample and beautiful to be commonplace4 ,there1 to the north-east1 is the place--,williamhope ridge--where ,sir ,walter ,scott bade farewell to his heroic friend ,mungo ,park4 ,they had come up from ,ashestiel1 where ,scott then lived1 and where ,marmion was written and its delightful epistles inspired--where he passed the happiest part of his life--leaving it1 as ,hogg said1 for gude an' a'2 for his fatal dreams about his cottage were now begun4 ,he was to have a hundred acres1 two spare bed-rooms1 with dressing rooms1 each of which will on a pinch have a couch-bed4 ,we all know what the dream1 and the cottage1 and the hundred acres came to--the ugly ,abbotsford2 the over-burdened1 shattered brain driven wild1 and the end1 death1 and madness4 ,well1 it was on the ridge that the two friends--each romantic1 but in such different ways--parted never to meet again4 ,there is the ditch ,park's horse stumbled over and all but fell4 ,i am afraid1 ,mungo1 that's a bad omen1 said the ,sheriff2 to which he answered1 with a bright smile on his handsome1 fearless face--,freits 7omens7 follow those who look to them4 ,with this expression1 he struck the spurs into his horse1 and ,scott never saw him again4 ,he had not long been married to a lovely and much-loved woman1 and had been speaking to ,scott about his new ,african scheme1 and how he meant to tell his family he had some business in ,edinburgh--send them his blessing1 and be off--alas6 never to return6 ,scott used to say1 when speaking of this parting1 ,i stood and looked back1 but he did not4 ,a more memorable place for two such men to part in would not easily be found4 ,where we are standing is the spot ,scott speaks of when writing to ,joanna ,baillie about her new tragedies--,were it possible for me to hasten the treat ,i expect in such a composition with you1 ,i would promise to read the volume at the silence of noonday upon the top of ,minchmoor4 ,the hour is allowed1 by those skilful in demonology1 to be as full of witching as midnight itself2 and ,i assure you ,i have felt really oppressed with a sort of fearful loneliness when looking around the naked towering ridges of desolate barrenness1 which is all the eye takes in from the top of such a mountain1 the patches of cultivation being hidden in the little glens1 or only appearing to make one feel how feeble and ineffectual man has been to contend with the genius of the soil4 ,it is in such a scene that the unknown and gifted author of ,albania places the superstition which consists in hearing the noise of a chase1 the baying of the hounds1 the throttling sobs of the deer1 the wild hollos of the huntsmen1 and the 'hoof thick beating on the hollow hill4' ,i have often repeated his verses with some sensations of awe1 in this place4 ,the lines--and they are noble1 and must have sounded wonderful with his voice and look--are as follows4 ,can no one tell us anything more of their author8-- ,there oft is heard1 at midnight1 or at noon1 ,beginning faint1 but rising still more loud1 ,and nearer1 voice of hunters1 and of hounds2 ,and horns1 hoarse-winded1 blowing far and keen6 ,forthwith the hubbub multiplies2 the gale ,labours with wilder shrieks1 and rifer din ,of hot pursuit2 the broken cry of deer ,mangled by throttling dogs2 the shouts of men1 ,and hoofs thick beating on the hollow hill4 ,sudden the grazing heifer in the vale ,starts at the noise1 and both the herdman's ears ,tingle with inward dread--aghast he eyes ,the mountain's height1 and all the ridges round1 ,yet not one trace of living wight discerns1 ,nor knows1 o'erawed and trembling as he stands1 ,to what or whom he owes his idle fear-- ,to ghost1 to witch1 to fairy1 or to fiend2 ,but wonders1 and no end of wondering finds4 ,we listened for the hunt1 but could only hear the wind sobbing from the blind ,hopes4#c ,the view from the top reaches from the huge ,harestane ,broadlaw--nearly as high as ,ben ,lomond--whose top is as flat as a table1 and would make a race-course of two miles1 and where the clouds are still brooding1 to the ,cheviot2 and from the ,maiden ,paps in ,liddesdale1 and that wild huddle of hills at ,moss ,paul1 to ,dunse ,law1 and the weird ,lammermoors4 ,there is ,ruberslaw1 always surly and dark4 ,the ,dunion1 beyond which lies ,jedburgh4 ,there are the ,eildons1 with their triple heights2 and you can get a glimpse of the upper woods of ,abbotsford1 and the top of the hill above ,cauldshiels ,loch1 that very spot where the wondrous potentate1--when suffering from languor and pain1 and beginning to break down under his prodigious fertility1--composed those touching lines3-- ,the sun upon the ,weirdlaw ,hill ,in ,ettrick's vale is sinking sweet2 ,the westland wind is hushed and still2 ,the lake lies sleeping at my feet4 ,yet not the landscape to mine eye ,bears those bright hues that once it bore1 ,though evening1 with her richest dye1 ,flames o'er the hills of ,ettrick's shore4 ,with listless look along the plain ,i see ,tweed's silver current glide1 ,and coldly mark the holy fane ,of ,melrose rise in ruined pride4 ,the quiet lake1 and balmy air1 ,the hill1 the stream1 the tower1 the tree1 ,are they still such as once they were1 ,or is the dreary change in me8 ,alas6 the warped and broken board1 ,how can it bear the painter's dye6 ,the harp of strained and tuneless chord1 ,how to the minstrel's skill reply6 ,to aching eyes each landscape lowers1 ,to feverish pulse each gale blows chill2 ,and ,araby or ,eden's bowers ,were barren as this moorland hill4 ,there1 too1 is ,minto ,hill1 as modest and shapely and smooth as ,clytie's shoulders1 and ,earlston ,black ,hill1 with ,cowdenknowes at its foot2 and there1 standing stark and upright as a warder1 is the stout old ,smailholme ,tower1 seen and seeing all around4 ,it is quite curious how unmistakable and important it looks at what must be twenty and more miles4 ,it is now ninety years since that lonely infant1 who has sung its awful joys1 was found in a thunderstorm1 as we all know1 lying on the soft grass at the foot of the grey old ,strength1 clapping his hands at each flash1 and shouting1 ,bonny6 bonny6 ,we now descended into ,yarrow1 and forgathered with a shepherd who was taking his lambs over to the great ,melrose fair4 ,he was a fine specimen of a border herd--young1 tall1 sagacious1 self-contained1 and free in speech and air4 ,we got his heart by praising his dog ,jed1 a very fine collie1 black and comely1 gentle and keen--,ay1 she's a fell yin2 she can do a' but speak4 ,on asking him if the sheep dogs needed much teaching--,whyles ay and whyles no2 her kind 7,jed's7 needs nane4 ,she sooks't in wi' her mither's milk4 ,on asking him if the dogs were ever sold1 he said--,never1 but at an orra time4 ,naebody wad sell a gude dowg1 and naebody wad buy an ill ane4 ,he told us with great feeling1 of the death of one of his best dogs by poison4 ,it was plainly still a grief to him4 ,what was he poisoned with8 ,strychnia1 he said1 as decidedly as might ,dr ,christison4 ,how do you know8 ,i opened him1 puir fallow1 and got him analeezed6 ,now we are on ,birkindale ,brae1 and are looking down on the same scene as did ,james ,boyd 7the ,earle of ,arran1 his brother was he71 when he crossed ,minchmoor on his way to deliver ,james the ,fifth's message to ,yon outlaw ,murray1 ,surely whaur bauldly bideth he4 ,down ,birkindale ,brae when that he cam ,he saw the feir ,foreste wi' his ee4 ,how ,james ,boyd fared1 and what the outlaw said1 and what ,james and his nobles said and did1 and how the outlaw at last made peace with his ,king1 and rose up ,sheriffe of ,ettricke ,foreste1 and how the bold ruffian boasted1 ,fair ,philiphaugh is mine by right1 ,and ,lewinshope still mine shall be2 ,newark1 ,foulshiels1 and ,tinnies baith ,my bow and arrow purchased me4 ,and ,i have native steads to me ,the ,newark ,lee o' ,hangingshaw4 ,i have many steads in the ,forest schaw1 ,but them by name ,i dinna knaw4 ,and how ,king ,james snubbed ,the kene ,laird of ,buckscleuth1 ,a stalwart man and stern was he4 ,when the ,laird hinted that1 ,for a king to gang an outlaw till ,is beneath his state and dignitie4 ,the man that wins yon forest intill ,he lives by reif and felony4 ,then out and spak the nobil ,king1 ,and round him cast a wilie ee4 ',now haud thy tongue1 ,sir ,walter ,scott1 ,nor speak o' reif or felonie-- ,for1 had every honest man his awin kye1 ,a richt puir clan thy name wud be6' 7by-the-bye1 why did ,professor ,aytoun leave out this excellent hit in his edition87--all this and much more may you see if you take up ,the ,border ,minstrelsy1 and read ,the ,song of the ,outlaw ,murray1 with the incomparable notes of ,scott4 ,but we are now well down the hill4 ,there to the left1 in the hollow1 is ,permanscore1 where the ,king and the outlaw met3-- ,bid him mete me at ,permanscore1 ,and bring four in his companie2 ,five ,erles sall cum wi' mysel'1 ,gude reason ,i sud honoured be4 ,and there goes our ,shepherd with his long swinging stride4 ,as different from his dark1 wily companion1 the ,badenoch drover1 as was ,harry ,wakefield from ,robin ,oig2 or as the big1 sunny ,cheviot is from the lowering ,ruberslaw2 and there is ,jed trotting meekly behind him--may she escape strychnia1 and1 dying at the fireside among the children1 be laid like ,paddy ,tims--whose soul at aise is-- ,with the point of his nose ,and the tips of his toes ,turn'd up to the roots of the daisies-- unanaleezed1 save by the slow cunning of the grave4 ,and may her master get the top price for his lambs6 ,do you see to the left that little plantation on the brow of ,foulshiels ,hill1 with the sunlight lying on its upper corner8 ,if you were there you might find among the brackens and foxglove a little headstone with ,i4 ,t4 rudely carved on it4 ,that is ,tibbie ,tamson's grave1 known and feared all the country round4 ,this poor outcast was a ,selkirk woman1 who1 under the stress of spiritual despair--that sense of perdition1 which1 as in ,cowper's case1 often haunts and overmasters the deepest and gentlest natures1 making them think themselves ,damn'd below ,judas1 more abhorred than he was1-- committed suicide2 and being1 with the gloomy1 cruel superstition of the time1 looked on by her neighbours as accursed of ,god1 she was hurried into a rough white deal coffin1 and carted out of the town1 the people stoning it all the way till it crossed the ,ettrick4 ,here1 on this wild hillside1 it found its rest1 being buried where three lairds' lands meet4 ,may we trust that the light of ,god's reconciled countenance has for all these long years been resting on that once forlorn soul1 as ,his blessed sunshine now lies on her moorland grave6 ,for the mountains shall depart1 and the hills be removed2 but my kindness shall not depart from thee1 neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed1 saith the ,lord that hath mercy on thee4 ,now1 we see down into the ,yarrow--there is the famous stream twinkling in the sun4 ,what stream and valley was ever so be-sung6 ,you wonder at first why this has been1 but the longer you look the less you wonder4 ,there is a charm about it--it is not easy to say what4 ,the huge sunny hills in which it is embosomed give it a look at once gentle and serious4 ,they are great1 and their gentleness makes them greater4 ,wordsworth has the right words1 pastoral melancholy2 and besides1 the region is not uninformed with phantasy and looks that threaten the profane--the ,flowers of ,yarrow1 the ,douglas ,tragedy1 the ,dowie ,dens1 ,wordsworth's ,yarrow ,unvisited1 ,visited1 and ,re-,visited1 and1 above all1 the glamour of ,sir ,walter1 and ,park's fatal and heroic story4 ,where can you find eight more exquisite lines anywhere than ,logan's1 which we all know by heart3-- ,his mother from the window looked1 ,with all the longing of a mother2 ,his little sister1 weeping1 walked ,the greenwood path to meet her brother4 ,they sought him east1 they sought him west1 ,they sought him all the forest thorough-- ,they only saw the cloud of night1 ,they only heard the roar of ,yarrow4 ,and there is ,newark ,tower among the rich woods2 and ,harehead1 that cosiest1 loveliest1 and hospitablest of nests4 ,methinks ,i hear certain young voices among the hazels2 out they come on the little haugh by the side of the deep1 swirling stream1 fabulosus as was ever ,hydaspes4 ,there they go running races in their mirth1 and is not that--an me ludit amabilis insania8--the voice of ma pauvre petite--animosa infans--the wilful1 rich-eyed1 delicious ,eppie8 ,oh blessed vision1 happy child1 ,thou art so exquisitely wild6 ,and there is ,black ,andro and ,glowr owr'em and ,foulshiels1 where ,park was born and bred2 and there is the deep pool in the ,yarrow where ,scott found him plunging one stone after another into the water1 and watching anxiously the bubbles as they rose to the surface4 ,this1 said ,scott to him1 appears but an idle amusement for one who has seen so much adventure4 ,not so idle1 perhaps1 as you suppose1 answered ,mungo1 this was the way ,i used to ascertain the depth of a river in ,africa4 ,he was then meditating his second journey1 but had said so to no one4 ,we go down by ,broadmeadows1 now held by that ,yair ,hoppringle--who so well governed ,scinde--and into the grounds of ,bowhill1 and passing ,philiphaugh1 see where stout ,david ,lesly crossed in the mist at daybreak with his heavy dragoons1 many of them old soldiers of ,gustavus1 and routed the gallant ,graeme2 and there is ,slainmens ,lee1 where the royalists lie2 and there is ,carterhaugh1 the scene of the strange wild story of ,tamlane and ,lady ,janet1 when ,she prinked hersell and prinned hersell ,by the ae light of the moon1 ,and she's awa' to ,carterhaugh ,to speak wi' young ,tamlane4 ,noel ,paton might paint that night1 when ',twixt the hours of twelve and yin ,a north wind tore the bent2 when fair ,janet in her green mantle ---- heard strange elritch sounds ,upon the wind that went4 ,and straightway ,about the dead hour o' the night ,she heard the bridles ring2 ,their oaten pipes blew wondrous shrill1 ,the hemlock small blew clear2 ,and louder notes from hemlock large ,and bog reed1 struck the ear1 and then the fairy cavalcade swept past1 while ,janet1 filled with love and fear1 looked out for the milk-white steed1 and gruppit it fast1 and pu'd the rider doon1 the young ,tamlane1 whom1 after dipping in a stand of milk and then in a stand of water1 ,she wrappit ticht in her green mantle1 ,and sae her true love won6 ,this ended our walk4 ,we found the carriage at the ,philiphaugh home-farm1 and we drove home by ,yair and ,fernilee1 ,ashestiel and ,elibank1 and passed the bears as ferocious as ever1 the orange sky of evening glowing through their wild tusks1 the old house looking even older in the fading light4 ,and is not this a walk worth making8 ,one of our number had been at the ,land's ,end and ,johnnie ,groat's1 and now on ,minchmoor2 and we wondered how many other men had been at all the three1 and how many had enjoyed ,minchmoor more than he4 ,dr ,john ,brown4 ,,footnote3 #c ,the native word for hollows in the hills3 thus1 ,dryhope1 ,gameshope1 ,chapelhope1 c4 ,in ,praise of ,walking ,as a man grows old1 he is told by some moralists that he may find consolation for increasing infirmities in looking back upon a well-spent life4 ,no doubt such a retrospect must be very agreeable1 but the question must occur to many of us whether our life offers the necessary materials for self-complacency4 ,what part of it1 if any1 has been well spent8 ,to that ,i find it convenient to reply1 for my own purposes1 any part in which ,i thoroughly enjoyed myself4 ,if it be proposed to add innocently1 ,i will not quarrel with the amendment4 ,perhaps1 indeed1 ,i may have a momentary regret for some pleasures which do not quite deserve that epithet1 but the pleasure of which ,i am about to speak is obtrusively and pre-eminently innocent4 ,walking is among recreations what ploughing and fishing are among industrial labours3 it is primitive and simple2 it brings us into contact with mother earth and unsophisticated nature2 it requires no elaborate apparatus and no extraneous excitement4 ,it is fit even for poets and philosophers1 and he who can thoroughly enjoy it must have at least some capacity for worshipping the cherub ,contemplation4 ,he must be able to enjoy his own society without the factitious stimulants of the more violent physical recreations4 ,i have always been a humble admirer of athletic excellence4 ,i retain1 in spite of much head-shaking from wise educationalists1 my early veneration for the heroes of the river and the cricket-field4 ,to me they have still the halo which surrounded them in the days when muscular ,christianity was first preached and the whole duty of man said to consist in fearing ,god and walking a thousand miles in a thousand hours4 ,i rejoice unselfishly in these later days to see the stream of bicyclists restoring animation to deserted highroads or to watch even respected contemporaries renewing their youth in the absorbing delights of golf4 ,while honouring all genuine delight in manly exercises1 ,i regret only the occasional admixture of lower motives which may lead to its degeneration4 ,now it is one merit of walking that its real devotees are little exposed to such temptations4 ,of course there are such things as professional pedestrians making records and seeking the applause of the mob4 ,when ,i read of the immortal ,captain ,barclay performing his marvellous feats1 ,i admire respectfully1 but ,i fear that his motives included a greater admixture of vanity than of the emotions congenial to the higher intellect4 ,the true walker is one to whom the pursuit is in itself delightful2 who is not indeed priggish enough to be above a certain complacency in the physical prowess required for his pursuit1 but to whom the muscular effort of the legs is subsidiary to the cerebration stimulated by the effort2 to the quiet musings and imaginings which arise most spontaneously as he walks1 and generate the intellectual harmony which is the natural accompaniment to the monotonous tramp of his feet4 ,the cyclist or the golf-player1 ,i am told1 can hold such intercourse with himself in the intervals of striking the ball or working his machine4 ,but the true pedestrian loves walking because1 so far from distracting his mind1 it is favourable to the equable and abundant flow of tranquil and half-conscious meditation4 ,therefore ,i should be sorry if the pleasures of cycling or any other recreation tended to put out of fashion the habit of the good old walking tour4 ,for my part1 when ,i try to summon up remembrance of well-spent moments1 ,i find myself taking a kind of inverted view of the past2 inverted1 that is1 so far as the accidental becomes the essential4 ,if ,i turn over the intellectual album which memory is always compiling1 ,i find that the most distinct pictures which it contains are those of old walks4 ,other memories of incomparably greater intrinsic value coalesce into wholes4 ,they are more massive but less distinct4 ,the memory of a friendship that has brightened one's whole life survives not as a series of incidents but as a general impression of the friend's characteristic qualities due to the superposition of innumerable forgotten pictures4 ,i remember him1 not the specific conversations by which he revealed himself4 ,the memories of walks1 on the other hand1 are all localised and dated2 they are hitched on to particular times and places2 they spontaneously form a kind of calendar or connecting thread upon which other memories may be strung4 ,as ,i look back1 a long series of little vignettes presents itself1 each representing a definite stage of my earthly pilgrimage summed up and embodied in a walk4 ,their background of scenery recalls places once familiar1 and the thoughts associated with the places revive thoughts of the contemporary occupations4 ,the labour of scribbling books happily leaves no distinct impression1 and ,i would forget that it had ever been undergone2 but the picture of some delightful ramble includes incidentally a reference to the nightmare of literary toil from which it relieved me4 ,the author is but the accidental appendage of the tramp4 ,my days are bound each to each not by natural piety 7or not1 let me say1 by natural piety alone7 but by pedestrian enthusiasm4 ,the memory of school days1 if one may trust to the usual reminiscences1 generally clusters round a flogging1 or some solemn words from the spiritual teacher instilling the seed of a guiding principle of life4 ,i remember a sermon or two rather ruefully2 and ,i confess to memories of a flogging so unjust that ,i am even now stung by the thought of it4 ,but what comes most spontaneously to my mind is the memory of certain strolls1 out of bounds1 when ,i could forget the ,latin grammar1 and enjoy such a sense of the beauties of nature as is embodied for a child in a pond haunted by water-rats1 or a field made romantic by threats of mantraps and spring-guns4 ,then1 after a crude fashion1 one was becoming more or less of a reflecting and individual being1 not a mere automaton set in movement by pedagogic machinery4 ,the day on which ,i was fully initiated into the mysteries is marked by a white stone4 ,it was when ,i put on a knapsack and started from ,heidelberg for a march through the ,odenwald4 ,then ,i first knew the delightful sensation of independence and detachment enjoyed during a walking tour4 ,free from all bothers of railway time-tables and extraneous machinery1 you trust to your own legs1 stop when you please1 diverge into any track that takes your fancy1 and drop in upon some quaint variety of human life at every inn where you put up for the night4 ,you share for the time the mood in which ,borrow settled down in the dingle after escaping from his bondage in the publishers' ,london slums4 ,you have no dignity to support1 and the dress-coat of conventional life has dropped into oblivion1 like the bundle from ,christian's shoulders4 ,you are in the world of ,lavengro1 and would be prepared to take tea with ,miss ,isopel ,berners or with the ,welsh preacher who thought that he had committed the unpardonable sin4 ,borrow1 of course1 took the life more seriously than the literary gentleman who is only escaping on ticket-of-leave from the prison-house of respectability1 and is quite unequal to a personal conflict with blazing ,bosville--the flaming tinman4 ,he is only dipping in the element where his model was thoroughly at home4 ,i remember1 indeed1 one figure in that first walk which ,i associate with ,benedict ,moll1 the strange treasure-seeker whom ,borrow encountered in his ,spanish rambles4 ,my acquaintance was a mild ,german innkeeper1 who sat beside me on a bench while ,i was trying to assimilate certain pancakes1 the only dinner he could provide1 still fearful in memory1 but just attackable after a thirty-miles' tramp4 ,he confided to me that1 poor as he was1 he had discovered the secret of perpetual motion4 ,he kept his machine upstairs1 where it discharged the humble duty of supplying the place of a shoe-black2 but he was about to go to ,london to offer it to a ,british capitalist4 ,he looked wistfully at me as possibly a capitalist in 7very deep7 disguise1 and ,i thought it wise to evade a full explanation4 ,i have not been worthy to encounter many of such quaint incidents and characters as seem to have been normal in ,borrow's experience2 but the first walk1 commonplace enough1 remains distinct in my memory4 ,i kept no journal1 but ,i could still give the narrative day by day--the sights which ,i dutifully admired and the very state of my bootlaces4 ,walking tours thus rescue a bit of one's life from oblivion4 ,they play in one's personal recollections the part of those historical passages in which ,carlyle is an unequalled master2 the little islands of light in the midst of the darkening gloom of the past1 on which you distinguish the actors in some old drama actually alive and moving4 ,the devotee of other athletic sports remembers special incidents3 the occasion on which he hit a cricket-ball over the pavilion at ,lord's1 or the crab which he caught as his boat was shooting ,barnes ,bridge4 ,but those are memories of exceptional moments of glory or the reverse1 and apt to be tainted by vanity or the spirit of competition4 ,the walks are the unobtrusive connecting thread of other memories1 and yet each walk is a little drama in itself1 with a definite plot with episodes and catastrophes1 according to the requirements of ,aristotle2 and it is naturally interwoven with all the thoughts1 the friendships1 and the interests that form the staple of ordinary life4 ,walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect but to turn it out to play for a season4 ,all great men of letters have1 therefore1 been enthusiastic walkers 7exceptions1 of course1 excepted74 ,shakespeare1 besides being a sportsman1 a lawyer1 a divine1 and so forth1 conscientiously observed his own maxim1 ,jog on1 jog on1 the footpath way2 though a full proof of this could only be given in an octavo volume4 ,anyhow1 he divined the connection between walking and a merry heart2 that is1 of course1 a cheerful acceptance of our position in the universe founded upon the deepest moral and philosophical principles4 ,his friend1 ,ben ,jonson1 walked from ,london to ,scotland4 ,another gentleman of the period 7,i forget his name7 danced from ,london to ,norwich4 ,tom ,coryate hung up in his parish church the shoes in which he walked from ,venice and then started to walk 7with occasional lifts7 to ,india4 ,contemporary walkers of more serious character might be quoted1 such as the admirable ,barclay1 the famous ,quaker apologist1 from whom the great ,captain ,barclay inherited his prowess4 ,every one1 too1 must remember the incident in ,walton's ,life of ,hooker4 ,walking from ,oxford to ,exeter1 ,hooker went to see his godfather1 ,bishop ,jewel1 at ,salisbury4 ,the ,bishop said that he would lend him a horse which hath carried me many a mile1 and1 ,i thank ,god1 with much ease1 and presently delivered into his hands a walking staff with which he professed he had travelled through many parts of ,germany4 ,he added ten groats and munificently promised ten groats more when ,hooker should restore the horse4 ,when1 in later days1 ,hooker once rode to ,london1 he expressed more passion than that mild divine was ever known to show upon any other occasion against a friend who had dissuaded him from footing it4 ,the hack1 it seems1 trotted when he did not1 and discomposed the thoughts which had been soothed by the walking staff4 ,his biographer must be counted1 ,i fear1 among those who do not enjoy walking without the incidental stimulus of sport4 ,yet the ,compleat ,angler and his friends start by a walk of twenty good miles before they take their morning draught4 ,swift1 perhaps1 was the first person to show a full appreciation of the moral and physical advantages of walking4 ,he preached constantly upon this text to ,stella1 and practised his own advice4 ,it is true that his notions of a journey were somewhat limited4 ,ten miles a day was his regular allowance when he went from ,london to ,holyhead1 but then he spent time in lounging at wayside inns to enjoy the talk of the tramps and ostlers4 ,the fact1 though his biographers are rather scandalised1 shows that he really appreciated one of the true charms of pedestrian expeditions4 ,wesley is generally credited with certain moral reforms1 but one secret of his power is not always noticed4 ,in his early expeditions he went on foot to save horse hire1 and made the great discovery that twenty or thirty miles a day was a wholesome allowance for a healthy man4 ,the fresh air and exercise put spirit into his sermons1 which could not be rivalled by the ordinary parson of the period1 who too often passed his leisure lounging by his fireside4 ,fielding points the contrast4 ,trulliber1 embodying the clerical somnolence of the day1 never gets beyond his pig-sties1 but the model ,parson ,adams steps out so vigorously that he distances the stagecoach1 and disappears in the distance rapt in the congenial pleasures of walking and composing a sermon4 ,fielding1 no doubt1 shared his hero's taste1 and that explains the contrast between his vigorous naturalism and the sentimentalism of ,richardson1 who was to be seen1 as he tells us1 stealing along from ,hammersmith to ,kensington with his eyes on the ground1 propping his unsteady limbs with a stick4 ,even the ponderous ,johnson used to dissipate his early hypochondria by walking from ,lichfield to ,birmingham and back 7thirty-two miles71 and his later melancholy would have changed to a more cheerful view of life could he have kept up the practice in his beloved ,london streets4 ,the literary movement at the end of the eighteenth century was obviously due in great part1 if not mainly1 to the renewed practice of walking4 ,wordsworth's poetical autobiography shows how every stage in his early mental development was connected with some walk in the ,lakes4 ,the sunrise which startled him on a walk after a night spent in dancing first set him apart as a dedicated spirit4 ,his walking tour in the ,alps--then a novel performance--roused him to his first considerable poem4 ,his chief performance is the record of an excursion on foot4 ,he kept up the practice1 and ,de ,quincey calculates somewhere what multiple of the earth's circumference he had measured on his legs1 assuming1 it appears1 that he averaged ten miles a day4 ,de ,quincey himself1 we are told1 slight and fragile as he was1 was a good walker1 and would run up a hill like a squirrel4 ,opium-eating is not congenial to walking1 yet even ,coleridge1 after beginning the habit1 speaks of walking forty miles a day in ,scotland1 and1 as we all know1 the great manifesto of the new school of poetry1 the ,lyrical ,ballads1 was suggested by the famous walk with ,wordsworth1 when the first stanzas of the ,ancient ,mariner were composed4 ,a remarkable illustration of the wholesome influence might be given from the cases of ,scott and ,byron4 ,scott1 in spite of his lameness1 delighted in walks of twenty and thirty miles a day1 and in climbing crags1 trusting to the strength of his arms to remedy the stumblings of his foot4 ,the early strolls enabled him to saturate his mind with local traditions1 and the passion for walking under difficulties showed the manly nature which has endeared him to three generations4 ,byron's lameness was too severe to admit of walking1 and therefore all the unwholesome humours which would have been walked off in a good cross-country march accumulated in his brain and caused the defects1 the morbid affectation and perverse misanthropy1 which half ruined the achievement of the most masculine intellect of his time4 ,it is needless to accumulate examples of a doctrine which will no doubt be accepted as soon as it is announced4 ,walking is the best of panaceas for the morbid tendencies of authors4 ,it is1 ,i need only observe1 as good for reasoners as for poets4 ,the name of peripatetic suggests the connection4 ,hobbes walked steadily up and down the hills in his patron's park when he was in his venerable old age4 ,to the same practice may be justly ascribed the utilitarian philosophy4 ,old ,jeremy ,bentham kept himself up to his work for eighty years by his regular post-jentacular circumgyrations4 ,his chief disciple1 ,james ,mill1 walked incessantly and preached as he walked4 ,john ,stuart ,mill imbibed at once psychology1 political economy1 and a love of walks from his father4 ,walking was his one recreation2 it saved him from becoming a mere smoke-dried pedant2 and though he put forward the pretext of botanical researches1 it helped him to perceive that man is something besides a mere logic machine4 ,mill's great rival as a spiritual guide1 ,carlyle1 was a vigorous walker1 and even in his latest years was a striking figure when performing his regular constitutionals in ,london4 ,one of the vivid passages in the ,reminiscences describes his walk with ,irving from ,glasgow to ,drumclog4 ,here they sat on the brow of a peat hag1 while far1 far away to the westward1 over our brown horizon1 towered up white and visible at the many miles of distance a high irregular pyramid4 ,ailsa ,craig we at once guessed1 and thought of the seas and oceans over yonder4 ,the vision naturally led to a solemn conversation1 which was an event in both lives4 ,neither ,irving nor ,carlyle himself feared any amount of walking in those days1 it is added1 and next day ,carlyle took his longest walk1 fifty-four miles4 ,carlyle is unsurpassable in his descriptions of scenery3 from the pictures of mountains in ,sartor ,resartus to the battle-pieces in ,frederick4 ,ruskin1 himself a good walker1 is more rhetorical but not so graphic2 and it is self-evident that nothing educates an eye for the features of a landscape so well as the practice of measuring it by your own legs4 ,the great men1 it is true1 have not always acknowledged their debt to the genius1 whoever he may be1 who presides over pedestrian exercise4 ,indeed1 they have inclined to ignore the true source of their impulse4 ,even when they speak of the beauties of nature1 they would give us to understand that they might have been disembodied spirits1 taking aerial flights among mountain solitudes1 and independent of the physical machinery of legs and stomachs4 ,when long ago the ,alps cast their spell upon me1 it was woven in a great degree by the eloquence of ,modern ,painters4 ,i hoped to share ,ruskin's ecstasies in a reverent worship of ,mont ,blanc and the ,matterhorn4 ,the influence of any cult1 however1 depends upon the character of the worshipper1 and ,i fear that in this case the charm operated rather perversely4 ,i stimulated a passion for climbing which absorbed my energies and distracted me from the prophet's loftier teaching4 ,i might have followed him from the mountains to picture-galleries1 and spent among the stones of ,venice hours which ,i devoted to attacking hitherto unascended peaks and so losing my last chance of becoming an art critic4 ,i became a fair judge of an ,alpine guide1 but ,i do not even know how to make a judicious allusion to ,botticelli or ,tintoretto4 ,i can't say that ,i feel the smallest remorse4 ,i had a good time1 and at least escaped one temptation to talking nonsense4 ,it follows1 however1 that my passion for the mountains had something earthly in its composition4 ,it is associated with memories of eating and drinking4 ,it meant delightful comradeship with some of the best of friends2 but our end1 ,i admit1 was not always of the most exalted or sthetic strain4 ,a certain difficulty results4 ,i feel an uncomfortable diffidence4 ,i hold that ,alpine walks are the poetry of the pursuit2 ,i could try to justify the opinion by relating some of the emotions suggested by the great scenic effects3 the sunrise on the snow fields2 the storm-clouds gathering under the great peaks2 the high pasturages knee-deep in flowers2 the torrents plunging through the cloven ravines1 and so forth4 ,but the thing has been done before1 better than ,i could hope to do it2 and when ,i look back at those old passages in ,modern ,painters1 and think of the enthusiasm which prompted to exuberant sentences of three or four hundred words1 ,i am not only abashed by the thought of their unapproachable eloquence1 but feel as though they conveyed a tacit reproach4 ,you1 they seem to say1 are1 after all1 a poor prosaic creature1 affecting a love of sublime scenery as a cloak for more grovelling motives4 ,i could protest against this judgment1 but it is better at present to omit the topic1 even though it would give the strongest groundwork for my argument4 ,perhaps1 therefore1 it is better to trust the case for walking to where the external stimulus of splendours and sublimities is not so overpowering4 ,a philosophic historian divides the world into the regions where man is stronger than nature and the regions where nature is stronger than man4 ,the true charm of walking is most unequivocally shown when it is obviously dependent upon the walker himself4 ,i became an enthusiast in the ,alps1 but ,i have found almost equal pleasure in walks such as one described by ,cowper1 where the view from a summit is bounded1 not by ,alps or ,apennines1 but by a lofty quickset hedge4 ,walking gives a charm to the most commonplace ,british scenery4 ,a love of walking not only makes any ,english county tolerable but seems to make the charm inexhaustible4 ,i know only two or three districts minutely1 but the more familiar ,i have become with any of them the more ,i have wished to return1 to invent some new combination of old strolls or to inspect some hitherto unexplored nook4 ,i love the ,english ,lakes1 and certainly not on account of associations4 ,i cannot associate4 ,much as ,i respect ,wordsworth1 ,i don't care to see the cottage in which he lived3 it only suggests to me that anybody else might have lived there4 ,there is an intrinsic charm about the ,lake ,country1 and to me at least a music in the very names of ,helvellyn and ,skiddaw and ,scawfell4 ,but this may be due to the suggestion that it is a miniature of the ,alps4 ,i appeal1 therefore1 to the ,fen ,country1 the country of which ,alton ,locke's farmer boasted that it had none of your darned ups and downs and was as flat as his barn-door for forty miles on end4 ,i used to climb the range of the ,gogmagogs1 to see the tower of ,ely1 some sixteen miles across the dead level1 and ,i boasted that every term ,i devised a new route for walking to the cathedral from ,cambridge4 ,many of these routes led by the little public-house called ,five ,miles from ,anywhere3 which in my day was the ,mecca to which a remarkable club1 called--from the name of the village--the ,upware ,republic1 made periodic pilgrimages4 ,what its members specifically did when they got there beyond consuming beer is unknown to me2 but the charm was in the distance from anywhere--a sense of solitude under the great canopy of the heavens1 where1 like emblems of infinity1 ,the trenched waters run from sky to sky4 ,i have always loved walks in the ,fens4 ,in a steady march along one of the great dykes by the monotonous canal with the exuberant vegetation dozing in its stagnant waters1 we were imbibing the spirit of the scenery4 ,our talk might be of senior wranglers or the ,university crew1 but we felt the curious charm of the great flats4 ,the absence1 perhaps1 of definite barriers makes you realise that you are on the surface of a planet rolling through free and boundless space4 ,one queer figure comes back to me--a kind of scholar-gipsy of the fens4 ,certain peculiarities made it undesirable to trust him with cash1 and his family used to support him by periodically paying his score at riverside publics4 ,they allowed him to print certain poems1 moreover1 which he would impart when one met him on the towpath4 ,in my boyhood1 ,i remember1 ,i used to fancy that the most delightful of all lives must be that of a bargee--enjoying a perpetual picnic4 ,this gentleman seemed to have carried out the idea2 and in the intervals of lectures1 ,i could fancy that he had chosen the better part4 ,his poems1 alas6 have long vanished from my memory1 and ,i therefore cannot quote what would doubtless have given the essence of the local sentiment and invested such names as ,wicken ,fen or ,swaffham ,lode with associations equal to those of ,arnold's ,hincksey ridge and ,fyfield elm4 ,another set of walks may1 perhaps1 appeal to more general sympathy4 ,the voice of the sea1 we know1 is as powerful as the voice of the mountain2 and1 to my taste1 it is difficult to say whether the ,land's ,end is not in itself a more impressive station than the top of ,mont ,blanc4 ,the solitude of the frozen peaks suggests tombstones and death4 ,the sea is always alive and at work4 ,the hovering gulls and plunging gannets and the rollicking porpoises are animating symbols of a gallant struggle with wind and wave4 ,even the unassociative mind has a vague sense of the ,armada and ,hakluyt's heroes in the background4 ,america and ,australia are just over the way4 ,is not this a dull place8 asked some one of an old woman whose cottage was near to the ,lizard lighthouse4 ,no1 she replied1 it is so 'cosmopolitan4' ,that was a simple-minded way of expressing the charm suggested in ,milton's wonderful phrase3 ,where the great ,vision of the guarded ,mount ,looks towards ,namancos and ,bayona's hold4 ,she could mentally follow the great ships coming and going1 and shake hands with people at the ends of the earth4 ,the very sight of a fishing-boat1 as painters seem to have found out1 is a poem in itself4 ,but is it not all written in ,westward ,ho6 and in the ,prose ,idylls1 in which ,kingsley put his most genuine power8 ,of all walks that ,i have made1 ,i can remember none more delightful than those round the south-western promontory4 ,i have followed the coast at different times from the mouth of the ,bristol ,avon by the ,land's ,end to the ,isle of ,wight1 and ,i am only puzzled to decide which bay or cape is the most delightful4 ,i only know that the most delightful was the more enjoyable when placed in its proper setting by a long walk4 ,when you have made an early start1 followed the coastguard track on the slopes above the cliffs1 struggled through the gold and purple carpeting of gorse and heather on the moors1 dipped down into quaint little coves with a primitive fishing village1 followed the blinding whiteness of the sands round a lonely bay1 and at last emerged upon a headland where you can settle into a nook of the rocks1 look down upon the glorious blue of the ,atlantic waves breaking into foam on the granite1 and see the distant sea-levels glimmering away till they blend imperceptibly into cloudland2 then you can consume your modest sandwiches1 light your pipe1 and feel more virtuous and thoroughly at peace with the universe than it is easy even to conceive yourself elsewhere4 ,i have fancied myself on such occasions to be a felicitous blend of poet and saint--which is an agreeable sensation4 ,what ,i wish to point out1 however1 is that the sensation is confined to the walker4 ,i respect the cyclist1 as ,i have said2 but he is enslaved by his machine3 he has to follow the highroad1 and can only come upon what points of view open to the commonplace tourist4 ,he can see nothing of the retired scenery which may be close to him1 and cannot have his mind brought into due harmony by the solitude and by the long succession of lovely bits of scenery which stand so coyly aside from public notice4 ,the cockney cyclist who wisely seeks to escape at intervals from the region where houses thick and sewers annoy the air1 suffers the same disadvantages4 ,to me1 for many years1 it was a necessity of life to interpolate gulps of fresh air between the periods of inhaling ,london fogs4 ,when once beyond the town ,i looked out for notices that trespassers would be prosecuted4 ,that gave a strong presumption that the trespass must have some attraction4 ,the cyclist could only reflect that trespassing for him was not only forbidden but impossible4 ,to me it was a reminder of the many delicious bits of walking which1 even in the neighbourhood of ,london1 await the man who has no superstitious reverence for legal rights4 ,it is indeed surprising how many charming walks can be contrived by a judicious combination of a little trespassing with the rights of way happily preserved over so many commons and footpaths4 ,london1 it is true1 goes on stretching its vast octopus arms farther into the country4 ,unlike the devouring dragon of ,wantley1 to whom houses and churches were like geese and turkies1 it spreads houses and churches over the fields of our childhood4 ,and yet1 between the great lines of railway there are still fields not yet desecrated by advertisements of liver pills4 ,it is a fact that within twenty miles of ,london two travellers recently asked their way at a lonely farmhouse2 and that the mistress of the house1 seeing that they were far from an inn1 not only gave them a seat and luncheon1 but positively refused to accept payment4 ,that suggested an idyllic state of society which1 it is true1 one must not count upon discovering4 ,yet hospitality1 the virtue of primitive regions1 has not quite vanished1 it would appear1 even from this over-civilised region4 ,the travellers1 perhaps1 had something specially attractive in their manners4 ,in that or some not distant ramble they made time run back for a couple of centuries4 ,they visited the quiet grave where ,penn lies under the shadow of the old ,friends' meeting-house1 and came to the cottage where the seat on which ,milton talked to ,ellwood about ,paradise ,regained seems to be still waiting for his return2 and climbed the hill to the queer monument which records how ,captain ,cook demonstrated the goodness of ,providence by disproving the existence of a continent in the ,south ,sea--7the argument is too obvious to require exposition72 and then gazed reverently upon the obelisk1 not far off1 which marks the point at which ,george ,,iii4 concluded a famous stag hunt4 ,a little valley in the quiet chalk country of ,buckinghamshire leads past these and other memorials1 and the lover of historical associations1 with the help of ,thorne's ,environs of ,london1 may add indefinitely to the list4 ,i don't object to an association when it presents itself spontaneously and unobtrusively4 ,it should not be the avowed goal but the accidental addition to the interest of a walk2 and it is then pleasant to think of one's ancestors as sharers in the pleasures4 ,the region enclosed within a radius of thirty miles from ,charing ,cross has charms enough even for the least historical of minds4 ,you can't hold a fire in your hand1 according to a high authority1 by thinking on the frosty ,caucasus2 but ,i can comfort myself now and then1 when the fellow-passengers who tread on my heels in ,london have put me out of temper1 by thinking of ,leith ,hill4 ,it only rises to the height of a thousand feet by help of the ,folly on the top1 but you can see1 says my authority1 twelve counties from the tower2 and1 if certain legendary ordnance surveyors spoke the truth1 distinguish the ,english ,channel to the south1 and ,dunstable ,hill1 far beyond ,london1 to the north4 ,the ,crystal ,palace1 too1 as we are assured1 sparkles like a diamond4 ,that is gratifying2 but to me the panorama suggests a whole network of paths1 which have been the scene of personally conducted expeditions1 in which ,i displayed the skill on which ,i most pride myself--skill1 ,i mean1 in devising judicious geographical combinations1 and especially of contriving admirable short cuts4 ,the persistence of some companions in asserting that my short cuts might be the longest way round shows that the best of men are not free from jealousy4 ,mine1 at any rate1 led me and my friends through pleasant places innumerable4 ,my favourite passage in ,pilgrim's ,progress--an allegory which could have occurred1 by the way1 to no one who was not both a good man and a good walker--was always that in which ,christian and ,hopeful leave the highroad to cross a stile into ,bypath ,meadow4 ,i should certainly have approved the plan4 ,the path led them1 it is true1 into the castle of ,giant ,despair2 but the law of trespass has become milder2 and the incident really added that spice of adventure which is delightful to the genuine pilgrim4 ,we defied ,giant ,despair2 and if our walks were not quite so edifying as those of ,christian and his friends1 they add a pleasant strand to the thread of memory which joins the past years4 ,conversation1 we are often told1 like letter-writing1 is a lost art4 ,we live too much in crowds4 ,but if ever men can converse pleasantly1 it is when they are invigorated by a good march3 when the reserve is lowered by the long familiarity of a common pursuit1 or when1 if bored1 you can quietly drop behind1 or perhaps increase the pace sufficiently to check the breath of the persistent argufier4 ,nowhere1 at least1 have ,i found talk flow so freely and pleasantly as in a march through pleasant country4 ,and yet there is also a peculiar charm in the solitary expedition when your interlocutor must be yourself4 ,that may be enjoyed1 perhaps even best enjoyed1 in ,london streets themselves4 ,i have read somewhere of a distinguished person who composed his writings during such perambulations1 and the statement was supposed to prove his remarkable power of intellectual concentration4 ,my own experience would tend to diminish the wonder4 ,i hopelessly envy men who can think consecutively under conditions distracting to others--in a crowded meeting or in the midst of their children--for ,i am as sensitive as most people to distraction2 but if ,i can think at all1 ,i am not sure that the roar of the ,strand is not a more favourable environment than the quiet of my own study4 ,the mind--one must only judge from one's own--seems to me to be a singularly ill-constructed apparatus4 ,thoughts are slippery things4 ,it is terribly hard to keep them in the track presented by logic4 ,they jostle each other1 and suddenly skip aside to make room for irrelevant and accidental neighbours2 till the stream of thought1 of which people talk1 resembles rather such a railway journey as one makes in dreams1 where at every few yards you are shunted on to the wrong line4 ,now1 though a ,london street is full of distractions1 they become so multitudinous that they neutralise each other4 ,the whirl of conflicting impulses becomes a continuous current because it is so chaotic and determines a mood of sentiment if not a particular vein of reflection4 ,wordsworth describes the influence upon himself in a curious passage of his ,prelude4 ,he wandered through ,london as a raw country lad1 seeing all the sights from ,bartholomew ,fair to ,st ,stephen's1 and became a unit of the monstrous ant-hill in a too busy world4 ,of course1 according to his custom1 he drew a moral1 and a most excellent moral1 from the bewildering complexity of his new surroundings4 ,he learnt1 it seems1 to recognise the unity of man and to feel that the spirit of nature was upon him in ,london's vast domain as well as on the mountains4 ,that comes of being a philosophical poet with a turn for optimism4 ,i will not try to interpret or to comment1 for ,i am afraid that ,i have not shared the emotions which he expresses4 ,a cockney1 born and bred1 takes surroundings for granted4 ,the hubbub has ceased to distract him2 he is like the people who were said to become deaf because they always lived within the roar of a waterfall3 he realises the common saying that the deepest solitude is solitude in a crowd2 he derives a certain stimulus from a vague sympathy with the active life around him1 but each particular stimulus remains1 as the phrase goes1 below the threshold of consciousness4 ,to some such effect1 till psychologists will give me a better theory1 ,i attribute the fact that what ,i please to call my mind seems to work more continuously and coherently in a street walk than elsewhere4 ,this1 indeed1 may sound like a confession of cynicism4 ,the man who should open his mind to the impressions naturally suggested by the monstrous ant-hill would be in danger of becoming a philanthropist or a pessimist1 of being overpowered by thoughts of gigantic problems1 or of the impotence of the individual to solve them4 ,carlyle1 if ,i remember rightly1 took ,emerson round ,london in order to convince his optimistic friend that the devil was still in full activity4 ,the gates of hell might be found in every street4 ,i remember how1 when coming home from a country walk on a sweltering summer night1 and seeing the squalid population turning out for a gasp of air in their only playground1 the vast labyrinth of hideous lanes1 ,i seemed to be in ,thomson's ,city of ,dreadful ,night4 ,even the vanishing of quaint old nooks is painful when one's attention is aroused4 ,there is a certain churchyard wall1 which ,i pass sometimes1 with an inscription to commemorate the benefactor who erected it to keep out the pigs4 ,i regret the pigs and the village green which they presumably imply4 ,the heart1 it may be urged1 must be hardened not to be moved by many such texts for melancholy reflection4 ,i will not argue the point4 ,none of us can be always thinking over the riddle of the universe1 and ,i confess that my mind is generally employed on much humbler topics4 ,i do not defend my insensibility nor argue that ,london walks are the best4 ,i only maintain that even in ,london1 walking has a peculiar fascination4 ,the top of an omnibus is an excellent place for meditation2 but it has not1 for me at least1 that peculiar hypnotic influence which seems to be favourable to thinking1 and to pleasant daydreaming when locomotion is carried on by one's own muscles4 ,the charm1 however1 is that even a walk in ,london often vaguely recalls better places and nobler forms of the exercise4 ,wordsworth's ,susan hears a thrush at the corner of ,wood ,street1 and straightway sees ,a mountain ascending1 a vision of trees1 ,bright volumes of vapour through ,lothbury glide1 ,and a river flows on through the vale of ,cheapside4 ,the gulls which seem lately to have found out the merits of ,london give to occasional ,susans1 ,i hope1 a whiff of fresh sea-breezes4 ,but1 even without gulls or wood-pigeons1 ,i can often find occasions in the heart of ,london for recalling the old memories1 without any definable pretext2 little pictures of scenery1 sometimes assignable to no definable place1 start up invested with a faint aroma of old friendly walks and solitary meditations and strenuous exercise1 and ,i feel convinced that1 if ,i am not a thorough scoundrel1 ,i owe that relative excellence to the harmless monomania which so often took me1 to appropriate ,bunyan's phrase1 from the amusements of ,vanity ,fair to the ,delectable ,mountains of pedestrianism4 ,leslie ,stephen4 ,the ,exhilarations of the ,road ,afoot and light-hearted ,i take to the open road4 ,,whitman4 ,occasionally on the sidewalk1 amid the dapper1 swiftly-moving1 high-heeled boots and gaiters1 ,i catch a glimpse of the naked human foot4 ,nimbly it scuffs along1 the toes spread1 the sides flatten1 the heel protrudes2 it grasps the curbing1 or bends to the form of the uneven surfaces1--a thing sensuous and alive1 that seems to take cognisance of whatever it touches or passes4 ,how primitive and uncivil it looks in such company1--a real barbarian in the parlour4 ,we are so unused to the human anatomy1 to simple1 unadorned nature1 that it looks a little repulsive2 but it is beautiful for all that4 ,though it be a black foot and an unwashed foot1 it shall be exalted4 ,it is a thing of life amid leather1 a free spirit amid cramped1 a wild bird amid caged1 an athlete amid consumptives4 ,it is the symbol of my order1 the ,order of ,walkers4 ,that unhampered1 vitally playing piece of anatomy is the type of the pedestrian1 man returned to first principles1 in direct contact and intercourse with the earth and the elements1 his faculties unsheathed1 his mind plastic1 his body toughened1 his heart light1 his soul dilated3 while those cramped and distorted members in the calf and kid are the unfortunate wretches doomed to carriages and cushions4 ,i am not going to advocate the disuse of boots and shoes1 or the abandoning of the improved modes of travel2 but ,i am going to brag as lustily as ,i can on behalf of the pedestrian1 and show how all the shining angels second and accompany the man who goes afoot1 while all the dark spirits are ever looking out for a chance to ride4 ,when ,i see the discomforts that able-bodied ,american men will put up with rather than go a mile or half a mile on foot1 the abuses they will tolerate and encourage1 crowding the street car on a little fall in the temperature or the appearance of an inch or two of snow1 packing up to overflowing1 dangling to the straps1 treading on each other's toes1 breathing each other's breaths1 crushing the women and children1 hanging by tooth and nail to a square inch of the platform1 imperilling their limbs and killing the horses1--,i think the commonest tramp in the street has good reason to felicitate himself on his rare privilege of going afoot4 ,indeed1 a race that neglects or despises this primitive gift1 that fears the touch of the soil1 that has no footpaths1 no community of ownership in the land which they imply1 that warns off the walker as a trespasser1 that knows no way but the highway1 the carriage-way1 that forgets the stile1 the foot-bridge1 that even ignores the rights of the pedestrian in the public road1 providing no escape for him but in the ditch or up the bank1 is in a fair way to far more serious degeneracy4 ,shakespeare makes the chief qualification of the walker a merry heart3-- ,jog on1 jog on the footpath way1 ,and merrily hent the stile-a2 ,a merry heart goes all the day1 ,your sad tires in a mile-a4 ,the human body is a steed that goes freest and longest under a light rider1 and the lightest of all riders is a cheerful heart4 ,your sad1 or morose1 or embittered1 or preoccupied heart settles heavily into the saddle1 and the poor beast1 the body1 breaks down the first mile4 ,indeed1 the heaviest thing in the world is a heavy heart4 ,next to that the most burdensome to the walker is a heart not in perfect sympathy and accord with the body--a reluctant or unwilling heart4 ,the horse and rider must not only both be willing to go the same way1 but the rider must lead the way and infuse his own lightness and eagerness into the steed4 ,herein is no doubt our trouble and one reason of the decay of the noble art in this country4 ,we are unwilling walkers4 ,we are not innocent and simple-hearted enough to enjoy a walk4 ,we have fallen from that state of grace which capacity to enjoy a walk implies4 ,it cannot be said that as a people we are so positively sad1 or morose1 or melancholic as that we are vacant of that sportiveness and surplusage of animal spirits that characterised our ancestors1 and that springs from full and harmonious life1--a sound heart in accord with a sound body4 ,a man must invest himself near at hand and in common things1 and be content with a steady and moderate return1 if he would know the blessedness of a cheerful heart and the sweetness of a walk over the round earth4 ,this is a lesson the ,american has yet to learn--capability of amusement on a low key4 ,he expects rapid and extraordinary returns4 ,he would make the very elemental laws pay usury4 ,he has nothing to invest in a walk2 it is too slow1 too cheap4 ,we crave the astonishing1 the exciting1 the far away1 and do not know the highways of the gods when we see them1--always a sign of the decay of the faith and simplicity of man4 ,if ,i say to my neighbour1 ,come with me1 ,i have great wonders to show you1 he pricks up his ears and comes forthwith2 but when ,i take him on the hills under the full blaze of the sun1 or along the country road1 our footsteps lighted by the moon and stars1 and say to him1 ,behold1 these are the wonders1 these are the circuits of the gods1 this we now tread is a morning star1 he feels defrauded1 and as if ,i had played him a trick4 ,and yet nothing less than dilatation and enthusiasm like this is the badge of the master walker4 ,if we are not sad we are careworn1 hurried1 discontented1 mortgaging the present for the promise of the future4 ,if we take a walk1 it is as we take a prescription1 with about the same relish and with about the same purpose2 and the more the fatigue the greater our faith in the virtue of the medicine4 ,of those gleesome saunters over the hills in spring1 or those sallies of the body in winter1 those excursions into space when the foot strikes fire at every step1 when the air tastes like a new and finer mixture1 when we accumulate force and gladness as we go along1 when the sight of objects by the roadside and of the fields and woods pleases more than pictures or than all the art in the world1--those ten or twelve mile dashes that are but the wit and affluence of the corporeal powers1--of such diversion and open road entertainment1 ,i say1 most of us know very little4 ,i notice with astonishment that at our fashionable watering-places nobody walks2 that of all those vast crowds of health-seekers and lovers of country air1 you can never catch one in the fields or woods1 or guilty of trudging along the country road with dust on his shoes and sun-tan on his hands and face4 ,the sole amusement seems to be to eat and dress and sit about the hotels and glare at each other4 ,the men look bored1 the women look tired1 and all seem to sigh1 ,o ,lord6 what shall we do to be happy and not be vulgar8 ,quite different from our ,british cousins across the water1 who have plenty of amusement and hilarity1 spending most of the time at their watering-places in the open air1 strolling1 picnicking1 boating1 climbing1 briskly walking1 apparently with little fear of sun-tan or of compromising their gentility4 ,it is indeed astonishing with what ease and hilarity the ,english walk4 ,to an ,american it seems a kind of infatuation4 ,when ,dickens was in this country ,i imagine the aspirants to the honour of a walk with him were not numerous4 ,in a pedestrian tour of ,england by an ,american1 ,i read that after breakfast with the ,independent minister1 he walked with us for six miles out of town upon our road4 ,three little boys and girls1 the youngest six years old1 also accompanied us4 ,they were romping and rambling about all the while1 and their morning walk must have been as much as fifteen miles2 but they thought nothing of it1 and when we parted were apparently as fresh as when they started1 and very loath to return4 ,i fear1 also1 the ,american is becoming disqualified for the manly art of walking1 by a falling off in the size of his foot4 ,he cherishes and cultivates this part of his anatomy1 and apparently thinks his taste and good breeding are to be inferred from its diminutive size4 ,a small1 trim foot1 well booted or gaitered1 is the national vanity4 ,how we stare at the big feet of foreigners1 and wonder what may be the price of leather in those countries1 and where all the aristocratic blood is1 that these plebeian extremities so predominate4 ,if we were admitted to the confidences of the shoemaker to ,her ,majesty or to ,his ,royal ,highness1 no doubt we would modify our views upon this latter point1 for a truly large and royal nature is never stunted in the extremities2 a little foot never yet supported a great character4 ,it is said that ,englishmen when they first come to this country are for some time under the impression that ,american women all have deformed feet1 they are so coy of them and so studiously careful to keep them hid4 ,that there is an astonishing difference between the women of the two countries in this respect1 every traveller can testify2 and that there is a difference equally astonishing between the pedestrian habits and capabilities of the rival sisters is also certain4 ,the ,english pedestrian1 no doubt1 has the advantage of us in the matter of climate2 for notwithstanding the traditional gloom and moroseness of ,english skies1 they have in that country none of those relaxing1 sinking1 enervating days1 of which we have so many here1 and which seem especially trying to the female constitution--days which withdraw all support from the back and loins1 and render walking of all things burdensome4 ,theirs is a climate of which it has been said that it invites men abroad more days in the year and more hours in the day than that of any other country4 ,then their land is threaded with paths which invite the walker1 and which are scarcely less important than the highways4 ,i heard of a surly nobleman near ,london who took it into his head to close a footpath that passed through his estate near his house1 and open another one a little farther off4 ,the pedestrians objected2 the matter got into the courts1 and after protracted litigation the aristocrat was beaten4 ,the path could not be closed or moved4 ,the memory of man ran not to the time when there was not a footpath there1 and every pedestrian should have the right of way there still4 ,i remember the pleasure ,i had in the path that connects ,stratford-on-,avon with ,shottery1 ,shakespeare's path when he went courting ,anne ,hathaway4 ,by the king's highway the distance is somewhat farther1 so there is a well-worn path along the hedgerows and through the meadows and turnip patches4 ,the traveller in it has the privilege of crossing the railroad track1 an unusual privilege in ,england1 and one denied to the lord in his carriage1 who must either go over or under it4 7,it is a privilege1 is it not1 to be allowed the forbidden1 even if it be the privilege of being run over by the engine87 ,in strolling over the ,south ,downs1 too1 ,i was delighted to find that where the hill was steepest some benefactor of the order of walkers had made notches in the sward1 so that the foot could bite the better and firmer2 the path became a kind of stairway1 which ,i have no doubt the ploughman respected4 ,when you see an ,english country church withdrawn1 secluded1 out of the reach of wheels1 standing amid grassy graves and surrounded by noble trees1 approached by paths and shaded lanes1 you appreciate more than ever this beautiful habit of the people4 ,only a race that knows how to use its feet1 and holds footpaths sacred1 could put such a charm of privacy and humility into such a structure4 ,i think ,i should be tempted to go to church myself if ,i saw all my neighbours starting off across the fields or along paths that led to such charmed spots1 and was sure ,i would not be jostled or run over by the rival chariots of the worshippers at the temple doors4 ,i think this is what ails our religion2 humility and devoutness of heart leave one when he lays by his walking shoes and walking clothes1 and sets out for church drawn by something4 ,indeed1 ,i think it would be tantamount to an astonishing revival of religion if the people would all walk to church on ,sunday and walk home again4 ,think how the stones would preach to them by the wayside2 how their benumbed minds would warm up beneath the friction of the gravel2 how their vain and foolish thoughts1 their desponding thoughts1 their besetting demons of one kind and another1 would drop behind them1 unable to keep up or to endure the fresh air4 ,they would walk away from their ennui1 their worldly cares1 their uncharitableness1 their pride of dress2 for these devils always want to ride1 while the simple virtues are never so happy as when on foot4 ,let us walk by all means2 but if we will ride1 get an ass4 ,then the ,english claim that they are a more hearty and robust people than we are4 ,it is certain they are a plainer people1 have plainer tastes1 dress plainer1 build plainer1 speak plainer1 keep closer to facts1 wear broader shoes and coarser clothes1 place a lower estimate on themselves1 etc4--all of which traits favour pedestrian habits4 ,the ,english grandee is not confined to his carriage2 but if the ,american aristocrat leaves his1 he is ruined4 ,oh1 the weariness1 the emptiness1 the plotting1 the seeking rest and finding none1 that goes by in the carriages6 while your pedestrian is always cheerful1 alert1 refreshed1 with his heart in his hand and his hand free to all4 ,he looks down upon nobody2 he is on the common level4 ,his pores are all open1 his circulation is active1 his digestion good4 ,his heart is not cold1 nor his faculties asleep4 ,he is the only real traveller2 he alone tastes the gay1 fresh sentiment of the road4 ,he is not isolated1 but one with things1 with the farms and industries on either hand4 ,the vital1 universal currents play through him4 ,he knows the ground is alive2 he feels the pulses of the wind1 and reads the mute language of things4 ,his sympathies are all aroused2 his senses are continually reporting messages to his mind4 ,wind1 frost1 rain1 heat1 cold1 are something to him4 ,he is not merely a spectator of the panorama of nature1 but a participator in it4 ,he experiences the country he passes through--tastes it1 feels it1 absorbs it2 the traveller in his fine carriage sees it merely4 ,this gives the fresh charm to that class of books that may be called ,views ,afoot1 and to the narratives of hunters1 naturalists1 exploring parties1 etc4 ,the walker does not need a large territory4 ,when you get into a railway car you want a continent1 the man in his carriage requires a township2 but a walker like ,thoreau finds as much and more along the shores of ,walden ,pond4 ,the former1 as it were1 has merely time to glance at the headings of the chapters1 while the latter need not miss a line1 and ,thoreau reads between the lines4 ,then the walker has the privilege of the fields1 the woods1 the hills1 the by-ways4 ,the apples by the roadside are for him1 and the berries1 and the spring of water1 and the friendly shelter2 and if the weather is cold1 he eats the frost grapes and the persimmons1 or even the white meated turnip1 snatched from the field he passed through1 with incredible relish4 ,afoot and in the open road1 one has a fair start in life at last4 ,there is no hindrance now4 ,let him put his best foot forward4 ,he is on the broadest humane plane4 ,this is on the level of all the great laws and heroic deeds4 ,from this platform he is eligible to any good fortune4 ,he was sighing for the golden age2 let him walk to it4 ,every step brings him nearer4 ,the youth of the world is but a few days' journey distant4 ,indeed1 ,i know persons who think they have walked back to that fresh aforetime of a single bright ,sunday in autumn or early spring4 ,before noon they felt its airs upon their cheeks1 and by nightfall1 on the banks of some quiet stream1 or along some path in the wood1 or on some hill-top1 aver they have heard the voices and felt the wonder and the mystery that so enchanted the early races of men4 ,i think if ,i could walk through a country ,i should not only see many things and have adventures that ,i should otherwise miss1 but that ,i should come into relations with that country at first hand1 and with the men and women in it1 in a way that would afford the deepest satisfaction4 ,hence ,i envy the good fortune of all walkers1 and feel like joining myself to every tramp that comes along4 ,i am jealous of the clergyman ,i read about the other day who footed it from ,edinburgh to ,london1 as poor ,effie ,deans did1 carrying her shoes in her hand most of the way1 and over the ground that rugged ,ben ,jonson strode1 larking it to ,scotland1 so long ago4 ,i read with longing of the pedestrian feats of college youths1 so gay and light-hearted1 with their coarse shoes on their feet and their knapsacks on their backs4 ,it would have been a good draught of the rugged cup to have walked with ,wilson the ornithologist1 deserted by his companions1 from ,niagara to ,philadelphia through the snows of winter4 ,i almost wish that ,i had been born to the career of a ,german mechanic1 that ,i might have had that delicious adventurous year of wandering over my country before ,i settled down to work4 ,i think how much richer and firmer-grained life would be to me if ,i could journey afoot through ,florida and ,texas1 or follow the windings of the ,platte or the ,yellowstone1 or stroll through ,oregon1 or browse for a season about ,canada4 ,in the bright inspiring days of autumn ,i only want the time and the companion to walk back to the natal spot1 the family nest1 across two ,states and into the mountains of a third4 ,what adventures we would have by the way1 what hard pulls1 what prospects from hills1 what spectacles we would behold of night and day1 what passages with dogs1 what glances1 what peeps into windows1 what characters we should fall in with1 and how seasoned and hardy we should arrive at our destination6 ,for companion ,i should want a veteran of the war6 ,those marches put something into him ,i like4 ,even at this distance his mettle is but little softened4 ,as soon as he gets warmed up it all comes back to him4 ,he catches your step and away you go1 a gay1 adventurous1 half predatory couple4 ,how quickly he falls into the old ways of jest and anecdote and song6 ,you may have known him for years without having heard him hum an air1 or more than casually revert to the subject of his experience during the war4 ,you have even questioned and cross-questioned him without firing the train you wished4 ,but get him out on a vacation tramp1 and you can walk it all out of him4 ,by the camp-fire at night or swinging along the streams by day1 song1 anecdote1 adventure1 come to the surface1 and you wonder how your companion has kept silent so long4 ,it is another proof of how walking brings out the true character of a man4 ,the devil never yet asked his victims to take a walk with him4 ,you will not be long in finding your companion out4 ,all disguises will fall away from him4 ,as his pores open his character is laid bare4 ,his deepest and most private self will come to the top4 ,it matters little whom you ride with1 so he be not a pickpocket2 for both of you will1 very likely1 settle down closer and firmer in your reserve1 shaken down like a measure of corn by the jolting as the journey proceeds4 ,but walking is a more vital copartnership2 the relation is a closer and more sympathetic one1 and you do not feel like walking ten paces with a stranger without speaking to him4 ,hence the fastidiousness of the professional walker in choosing or admitting a companion1 and hence the truth of a remark of ,emerson that you will generally fare better to take your dog than to invite your neighbour4 ,your cur-dog is a true pedestrian1 and your neighbour is very likely a small politician4 ,the dog enters thoroughly into the spirit of the enterprise2 he is not indifferent or preoccupied2 he is constantly sniffing adventure1 laps at every spring1 looks upon every field and wood as a new world to be explored1 is ever on some fresh trail1 knows something important will happen a little farther on1 gazes with the true wonder-seeing eyes1 whatever the spot or whatever the road finds it good to be there--in short1 is just that happy1 delicious1 excursive vagabond that touches one at so many points1 and whose human prototype in a companion robs miles and leagues of half their power to fatigue4 ,persons who find themselves spent in a short walk to the market or the post-office1 or to do a little shopping1 wonder how it is that their pedestrian friends can compass so many weary miles and not fall down from sheer exhaustion2 ignorant of the fact that the walker is a kind of projectile that drops far or near according to the expansive force of the motive that set it in motion1 and that it is easy enough to regulate the charge according to the distance to be traversed4 ,if ,i am loaded to carry only one mile and am compelled to walk three1 ,i generally feel more fatigue than if ,i had walked six under the proper impetus of pre-adjusted resolution4 ,in other words1 the will or corporeal mainspring1 whatever it be1 is capable of being wound up to different degrees of tension1 so that one may walk all day nearly as easy as half that time if he is prepared beforehand4 ,he knows his task1 and he measures and distributes his powers accordingly4 ,it is for this reason that an unknown road is always a long road4 ,we cannot cast the mental eye along it and see the end from the beginning4 ,we are fighting in the dark1 and cannot take the measure of our foe4 ,every step must be preordained and provided for in the mind4 ,hence also the fact that to vanquish one mile in the woods seems equal to compassing three in the open country4 ,the furlongs are ambushed1 and we magnify them4 ,then1 again1 how annoying to be told it is only five miles to the next place when it is really eight or ten6 ,we fall short nearly half the distance1 and are compelled to urge and roll the spent ball the rest of the way4 ,in such a case walking degenerates from a fine art to a mechanic art2 we walk merely2 to get over the ground becomes the one serious and engrossing thought2 whereas success in walking is not to let your right foot know what your left foot doeth4 ,your heart must furnish such music that in keeping time to it your feet will carry you around the globe without knowing it4 ,the walker ,i would describe takes no note of distance2 his walk is a sally1 a bon mot1 an unspoken jeu d'esprit2 the ground is his butt1 his provocation2 it furnishes him the resistance his body craves2 he rebounds upon it1 he glances off and returns again1 and uses it gaily as his tool4 ,i do not think ,i exaggerate the importance or the charms of pedestrianism1 or our need as a people to cultivate the art4 ,i think it would tend to soften the national manners1 to teach us the meaning of leisure1 to acquaint us with the charms of the open air1 to strengthen and foster the tie between the race and the land4 ,no one else looks out upon the world so kindly and charitably as the pedestrian2 no one else gives and takes so much from the country he passes through4 ,next to the labourer in the fields1 the walker holds the closest relation to the soil2 and he holds a closer and more vital relation to ,nature because he is freer and his mind more at leisure4 ,man takes root at his feet1 and at best he is no more than a potted plant in his house or carriage till he has established communication with the soil by the loving and magnetic touch of his soles to it4 ,then the tie of association is born2 then spring those invisible fibres and rootlets through which character comes to smack of the soil1 and which make a man kindred to the spot of earth he inhabits4 ,the roads and paths you have walked along in summer and winter weather1 the fields and hills which you have looked upon in lightness and gladness of heart1 where fresh thoughts have come into your mind1 or some noble prospect has opened before you1 and especially the quiet ways where you have walked in sweet converse with your friend1 pausing under the trees1 drinking at the spring--henceforth they are not the same2 a new charm is added2 those thoughts spring there perennial1 your friend walks there for ever4 ,we have produced some good walkers and saunterers1 and some noted climbers2 but as a staple recreation1 as a daily practice1 the mass of the people dislike and despise walking4 ,thoreau said he was a good horse1 but a poor roadster4 ,i chant the virtues of the roadster as well4 ,i sing of the sweetness of gravel1 good sharp quartz-grit4 ,it is the proper condiment for the sterner seasons1 and many a human gizzard would be cured of half its ills by a suitable daily allowance of it4 ,i think ,thoreau himself would have profited immensely by it4 ,his diet was too exclusively vegetable4 ,a man cannot live on grass alone4 ,if one has been a lotus-eater all summer1 he must turn gravel-eater in the fall and winter4 ,those who have tried it know that gravel possesses an equal though an opposite charm4 ,it spurs to action4 ,the foot tastes it and henceforth rests not4 ,the joy of moving and surmounting1 of attrition and progression1 the thirst for space1 for miles and leagues of distance1 for sights and prospects1 to cross mountains and thread rivers1 and defy frost1 heat1 snow1 danger1 difficulties1 seizes it2 and from that day forth its possessor is enrolled in the noble army of walkers4 ,john ,burroughs4 ,,the ,,riverside ,,press ,,limited1 ,,edinburgh4