LORE OF THE WANDERER WALKING TOURS R. L. STEVENSON Ir must not be imagined that a walking tour, as some would have us fancy, is merely a better or worse way of seeing the country. There are many ways of seeing landscape quite as good; and none more vivid, in spite of canting dilettanti, than from a railway train. But landscape on a walking tour is quite accessory. He who is indeed of the brotherhood does not voyage in quest of the picturesque, but of certain jolly humours -of the hope and spirit with which the march begins at morning, and the peace and spiritual repletion of the evening's rest. He cannot tell whether he puts his knapsack on, or takes it off, with more delight. The excitement of the departure puts him in key for that of the arrival. Whatever he does is not only a Walking Tours. This essay was first published in the Cornhill Magazine for June, 1876. It is to be found also in Virginibus Puerisque, a volume of Stevenson's collected essays. reward in itself, but will be further rewarded in the sequel; and so pleasure leads on to pleasure in an endless chain. It is this that so few can understand; they will either be always lounging or always at five miles an hour; they do not play off the one against the other, prepare all day for the evening, and all evening for the next day. And, above all, it is here that your overwalker fails of comprehension. His heart rises against those who drink their curaçoa in liqueur glasses, when he himself can swill it in a brown. John. He will not believe that the flavour is more delicate in the smaller dose. He will not believe that to walk this unconscionable distance is merely to stupefy and brutalise himself, and come to his inn, at night, with a sort of frost on his five wits, and a starless night of darkness in his spirit. Not for him the mild luminous evening of the temperate walker! He has nothing left of man but a physical need for bedtime. and a double nightcap; and even his pipe, if he be a smoker, will be savourless and disenchanted. It is the fate of such an one to take twice as much trouble as is needed to obtain happiness, and miss the happiness in the end; he is the man of the proverb, in short, who goes further and fares worse. Now, to be properly enjoyed, a walking tour should Curaçoa. A liqueur made of brandy, orange peel and cinnamon. Liqueurs are cordials which are drunk in small glasses and not in brown Johns, i.e., in large mugs or other vessels. It is not clear what Stevenson means by a brown John, there may be a confusion in his mind between (1) brown George, a brown earthenware vessel or pitcher; (2) black Jack, a large leathern beer jug, and (3) demijohn, a large bottle with bulging body and narrow neck. |
