A Walk from London to John OGroats

A Walk from London to John
O'Groat's, by

Elihu Burritt
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Title: A Walk from London to John O'Groat's
Author: Elihu Burritt
Release Date: April 11, 2004 [eBook #12000]
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WALK
FROM LONDON TO JOHN O'GROAT'S***
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.
CHAPTER XVI.
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.
CHAPTER XVII.
Loch Leven--Its Island Castle--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.
CHAPTER XVIII.
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.
CHAPTER XIX.
Anthony Cruickshank--The Greatest Herd of Shorthorns in the
World--Return to London and Termination of my Tour.

PREFACE.

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 in movements which soon absorbed all my time
and strength. For the ensuing ten years I was nearly the whole time in
Great Britain, travelling from one end of the kingdom to the other, to
promote the movements referred to; still desiring to accomplish the
walk originally proposed. On returning to England at the beginning of
1863, after a continuous residence of seven years in America, I found
myself, for the first time, in the condition to carry out my intention of
1846. Several new motives had been added in the interval to those that
had at first operated upon my mind. I had dabbled a little in farming in

my native village, New Britain, Connecticut, and had labored to excite
additional interest in agriculture among my