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 neighbors. We had formed an Agricultural Club, and met weekly for several winters to compare notes, exchange opinions' and discuss matters connected with the occupation. They had honored me with the post of Corresponding Secretary from the beginning. We held a meeting the evening before I left for England, when they not only refused to