England

The railway from Wareham to Dorchester runs through the heart of that great wild tract that under the general name of Egdon Heath forms a picturesque and often gloomy background to many of Mr. Hardy's romances. These heath-lands are a marked characteristic of the scenery of this part of the county. Repellent at first, their dark beauty, more often than not, will capture the interest and perhaps awe of the stranger.

The fashionable Weymouth of to-day is the Melcombe Regis of the past, and quite a proportion of visitors to Melcombe never go into the real Weymouth at all. The tarry, fishy and beery (in a manufacturing sense only) old town is on the south side of the harbour bridge and has little in common with the busy and popular watering place on the north and east. Once separate boroughs, the towns are now under one government, and Melcombe Regis has dropped its name almost entirely in favour of that of the older partner.

The branch line of the Great Western from Maiden Newton makes a wide detour northwards to reach Bridport, passing through a very charming and unspoilt countryside where old "Do'set" ways still hold out against that drab uniformity that seems to be creeping over rustic England. In this out-of-the-way region are small old stone-built villages lying forgotten between the folds of the hills and rejoicing in names that makes one want to visit them if only for the sake of their quaint nomenclature.

To go from one Dorset or East Devon coast town to another by rail involves an amount of thought and a consultation of time-tables that would not be required for a journey from London to Aberystwyth, and unless the traveller hits on a particularly lucky set of connexions he will find that he can walk from one town to the other in less time than by taking the train. From Lyme to Seaton by the Landslip is barely seven miles; by rail it is fifteen, involving two changes. From Seaton to Sidmouth is nine miles by road and twenty-four by rail, with two changes and a possible third.

Chard is a place which satisfies the aesthetic sense at first sight and does not pall after close and long acquaintance. The great highway from Honiton to Yeovil becomes, as it passes through the last town in South Somerset, a spacious and dignified High Street with two or three beautiful old houses, among a large number of other picturesque dwellings which would sustain the reputation of Chard even without their aid. First is the one-time Court House of the Manor, opposite the Town Hall. Part of the building is called Waterloo House.

There are three obvious ways of approaching Salisbury from Shaftesbury and the west: by railway from Semley; by the main road, part of the great trunk highway from London to Exeter via Yeovil; and by a kind of loop road that leaves this at Whitesand Cross and follows the valley of the Ebble between the lonely hills of Cranborne Chase and the long line of chalk downs that have their escarpment to the north, overlooking the Exeter road.

In presenting this volume to the public, I feel that a few words of explanation are due to the readers that it may obtain, in addition to those offered to them in the first chapter.  When I first visited England, in 1846, it was my intention to make a pedestrian tour from one end of the island to the other, in order to become more acquainted with the country and people than I could by any other mode of travelling.  A few weeks after my arrival, I set out on such a walk, and had made about one hundred miles on foot, when I was constrained to suspend the tour, in order to take part

HEXHAM - THE NORTH TYNE - BORDER-LAND AND ITS SUGGESTIONS - HAWICK - TEVIOTDALE - BIRTH-PLACE OF LEYDEN - MELROSE AND DRYBURGH ABBEYS - ABBOTSFORD: SIR WALTER SCOTT; HOMAGE TO HIS GENIUS - THE FERRY AND THE OAR-GIRL - NEW FARM STEDDINGS - SCENERY OF THE TWEED VALLEY - EDINBURGH AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS.

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.

LOCH LEVEN-ITS ISLANDCASTLE - STRATHS - PERTH - SALMON-BREEDING - THOUGHTS ON FISH-FARMING - DUNKELD - BLAIR ATHOLL - DUCAL TREE-PLANTER - STRATHSPEY AND ITS SCENERY - THE ROADS - SCOTCH CATTLE AND SHEEP - NIGHT IN A WAYSIDE COTTAGE - ARRIVAL AT INVERNESS.