This eBook was produced by Les Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset.
A WALK FROM LONDON TO JOHN O'GROATS
with notes by the way.
BY ELIHU BURRITT.
CONTENTS.
PREFACE
CHAPTER I. Motives to the Walk--The Iron Horse and his Rider-- The Losses and Gains by Speed--The Railway Track and Turnpike Road: Their Sceneries Compared.
CHAPTER II. First Day's Observations and Enjoyment--Rural Foot- paths; Visit to Tiptree Farm--Alderman Mechi's Operations-- Improvements Introduced, Decried and Adopted--Steam Power, Under- draining, Deep Tillage, Irrigation--Practical Results.
CHAPTER III. English and American Birds--The Lark and its Song.
CHAPTER IV. Talk with an Old Man on the Way--Old Houses in England--Their American Relationships--English Hedges and Hedge-row Trees--Their Probable Fate--Change of Rural Scenery without them.
CHAPTER V. A Footpath Walk and its Incidents--Harvest Aspects-- English and American Skies--Humbler Objects of Contemplation--The Donkey: Its Uses and Abuses.
CHAPTER VI. Hospitalities of "Friends"--Harvest Aspects: English Country Inns; their Appearance, Names and Distinctive Characteristics--The Landlady, Waiter, Chambermaid and Boots--Extra Fees and Extra Comforts.
CHAPTER VII. Light of Human Lives--Photographs and Biographs--The late Jonas Webb, his Life, Labors and Memory.
CHAPTER VIII. Threshing Machine--Flower Show--The Hollyhock and its Suggestions--The Law of Co-operative Activities in Vegetable, Animal, Mental and Moral Life.
CHAPTER IX. Visit to a Three-Thousand-Acre Farm--Samuel Jonas; His Agricultural Operations, their Extent, Success and General Economy.
CHAPTER X. Royston and its Specialities--Entertainment in a Small Village--St. Ives--Visits to Adjoining Villages--A Fen-Farm-- Capital Invested in English and American Agriculture Compared-- Allotments and Garden Tenantry--Barley Grown on Oats.
CHAPTER XI. The Miller of Houghton--An Hour in Huntingdon--Old Houses--Whitewashed Tapestry and Works of Art--"The Old Mermaid" and "The Green Man"--Talk with Agricultural Laborers--Thoughts on their Condition, Prospects and Possibilities.
CHAPTER XII. Farm Game--Hallett Wheat--Oundle--Country Bridges-- Fotheringay Castle--Queen Mary's Imprisonment and Execution-- Burghley House: The Park, Avenues, Elms and Oaks--Thoughts on Trees, English and American.
CHAPTER XIII. Walk to Oakham--The English and American Spring--The English Gentry--A Specimen of the Class--Melton Mowbray and its Specialities--Belvoir Vale and its Beauty--Thoughts on the Blind Painter.
CHAPTER XIV. Nottingham and its Characteristics--Newstead Abbey-- Mansfield--Talk in a Blacksmith's Shop--Chesterfield, Chatsworth and Haddon Hall--Aristocratic Civilisation, Present and Past.
CHAPTER XV. Sheffield and its Individuality--The Country, Above Ground and Under Ground--Wakefield and Leeds--Wharf Vale--Farnley Hall--Harrogate; Ripley Castle; Ripon; Conservatism of Country Towns--Fountain Abbey; Studley Park--Rievaulx Abbey--Lord Faversham's Shorthorn Stock.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Walk from London to John O'Groat's by Burritt
- 2: When I was constrained to suspend the tour
- 3: In which the locomotives are housed
- 4: In a picturesque and undulating country
- 5: First day's observations and enjoyment rural foot paths
- 6: To inveigle down to Tiptree Hall noblemen
- 7: Though he passes most of his time in Summer at Tiptree
- 8: Or to make an even mixture of the liquified manure
- 9: Was an iron hurdling for folding sheep
- 10: His tile draining of clay lands was a capital success
- 11: And grain in the year than the Tiptree Farm
- 12: Tiptree Hall has its own literature also
- 13: How the lark's life and song blend
- 14: Compared with the notes of the English lark
- 15: The lark mounts on high and warbles away
- 16: We ought to have the English lark with us
- 17: And our bobolink would be as easily acclimatised in Europe
- 18: They are the living spirits of feudalism
- 19: And hedges of the quiet country
- 20: He had nearly filled his barrow
- 21: And baptised in the parish church
- 22: From Coggeshall to Great Bardfield
- 23: The wheat on each side of the hedge was thick
- 24: And a little additional rentage to the latter
- 25: It is only twelve miles from Great Bardfield
- 26: Blue bosom are so near at midnight
- 27: The donkey shall go into it first
- 28: He often looks comfortable and sleek
- 29: A little rill of this benevolence has reached the donkey
- 30: And distinctive characteristics the landlady
- 31: Surrounded with all its rural associations
- 32: It is always The Hare and Hounds
- 33: All pervading soul of the establishment is the LANDLADY
- 34: And boots are independent parties
- 35: Or when the waiter or the chambermaid
- 36: As well as polishing boots and shoes
- 37: Pinions less ethereal than theirs
- 38: But grows brighter and brighter
- 39: Let him tread that disk of light reverentially
- 40: There is one feature of agricultural enterprize
- 41: Jonas Webb was born at Great Thurlow
- 42: What I intend exhibiting in future will be shearlings only
- 43: Webb presented to the Emperor his prize ram
- 44: Not closely allied with the Babraham flock
- 45: And thus was dispersed the famous Babraham flock
- 46: The courier followed the direction
- 47: Webb had not furnished one of the stands
- 48: The incidents and coincidents of the last
- 49: As it left the stilled temple of its earthly habitation
- 50: From Chesterford I went on to Cambridge
- 51: And nearly as large as the dahlia
- 52: The floriculturist is an astronomer
- 53: Or fringe it or tinge it with a new glory
- 54: Face to face with all the varieties which the dahlia
- 55: If given in the simplest forms of truthful statement
- 56: Vitalising the body with intelligence
- 57: Where was this scaffolding the highest
- 58: Him whom ye ignorantly worship declare I unto you
- 59: And ascend from sphere to sphere
- 60: May be had here in abundance for foremen
- 61: Hoeing four or five drills at once
- 62: 700 pounds yearly for artificial fertilisers
- 63: 700 Labor of 100 men and boys at the average of 20l
- 64: Jonas adopts the latter course
- 65: 16 lbs Trefoil
- 66: Performs prodigies of activity and labor
- 67: It is called The Royston Crow
- 68: And I asked Landlord Rufus for one doubtingly
- 69: Showed in the fire light like a work of artistry
- 70: Generally called here the Fens
- 71: Ploughs and other implements 1
- 72: Carting and stacking or ricking his grain
- 73: Each generally containing a rood
- 74: The head and berry were barley
- 75: Followed the north bank of the Ouse to Huntingdon
- 76: Caps and bonnets piggledy higgledy
- 77: And vine work from carved cornices and wainscoting
- 78: About five miles from Huntingdon
- 79: Several agricultural laborers drifted in
- 80: Jug is capricious as well as capacious
- 81: Portable stoves and cooking ranges
- 82: That will raise them to a new status and condition
- 83: Nor any benevolent association
- 84: At 12s per weekWeekly Expense $ c
- 85: Their weekly savings hardly differ by a penny
- 86: I took a northward course and walked on to Oundle
- 87: A farmer exhibited a head of the Hallett wheat
- 88: From Oundle I walked the next day to Stamford
- 89: It may be truly said of Fotheringay Castle
- 90: Lofty columns of this long cathedral aisle
- 91: Skill and labor enough to rebuild it in three years
- 92: Loves to be called The Elm City
- 93: Our autumnal scenery without the maple
- 94: How diversified is the economy of light and heat
- 95: Providence tempers the wind to the shorn lamb
- 96: Who come in between the nobility and middle men
- 97: He distances the Chartists altogether in his programme
- 98: The chief and capital of Rutlandshire
- 99: Melton Mowbray has also a very respectable individuality
- 100: Broom and clumps of shrubby trees
- 101: Who still wears a smock frock and hob nailed shoes
- 102: Crossing a grand old bridge over the Trent
- 103: Is wound around in this groove
- 104: Within about three miles of Mansfield
- 105: When about half way from Mansfield to Chesterfield
- 106: Chesterfield is an intelligent looking town
- 107: Compare it with that of Chatsworth
- 108: What you will find at Chatsworth
- 109: From Chatsworth I went on to Sheffield
- 110: Sheffield was a huge jack knife
- 111: I lodged at a little village inn between Wakefield and Leeds
- 112: Passing through Otley and across the celebrated Wharf Vale
- 113: And extending back almost to Harrogate
- 114: A special constable against burglary
- 115: After spending a few hours at Studley Park
- 116: And found to be composed of cinders
- 117: The next day I took staff for Northallerton
- 118: Lodged in a little village about eight miles from Hexham
- 119: But the Briton lives in his breast
- 120: And Christendom is tremulous with their emotion
- 121: The London man read it Tweeds
- 122: They are the ruins of Melrose Abbey
- 123: Nature has hung one of hers to Dryburgh Abbey
- 124: It is brim full of him and his histories
- 125: On signing my name in the register
- 126: I reached Galashiels about 5 p
- 127: These hospitals are the Holyroods of Edinburgh II
- 128: American manure forks and hay forks
- 129: These straths are numerous in Scotland
- 130: Reached Perth a little after dark
- 131: Just think of the pasturage of the Tay
- 132: When it would fold and feed millions of salmon
- 133: The whole way to Dunkeld was full of interest
- 134: Having remained the best part of two days in Dunkeld
- 135: It was indescribably grand and beautiful
- 136: Without a shelf of books in it
- 137: He said the Cheviots were equally adapted to the Highlands
- 138: I set out with the hope of reaching Inverness before night
- 139: So associated with the venerated memory of Hugh Miller
- 140: Crossed the Dornoch Firth in a sail ferry boat
- 141: Bleak summit of one of these Sutherland mountains
- 142: The next day made a walk to Helmsdale
- 143: The family of this wayside inn
- 144: A brave little city by the Norse Sea
- 145: Oats and barley constitute the grain crops
- 146: Came to this coast of Caithness
- 147: Containing about two hundred acres
- 148: Sittyton designates hardly a village in Aberdeenshire
- 149: These constituted the nucleus of his herd at Sittyton