England

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.

The direct route from Salisbury to Amesbury is (or was) the loneliest seven miles of highway in Wiltshire. No villages are passed and but one or two houses; thus the road, even with the amenities of Amesbury at the other end is, under normal conditions, an ideal introduction to the Plain. The parenthesis of doubt refers to that extraordinary and, let us hope, ephemeral transformation which has overtaken the great tract of chalk upland encircling Bulford Camp.

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.

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.

INVERNESS - ROSS-SHIRE - TAIN - DORNOCH - GOLSPIE - PROGRESS OF RAILROADS - THE SUTHERLAND EVICTION - SEA-COAST SCENERY - CAITHNESS - WICK: HERRING FISHERIES - JOHN O'GROAT'S: WALK'S END.

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.