From John OGroats to Lands End

From John O'Groats to Land's
End
by Robert Naylor and
John Naylor

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Title: From John O'Groats to Land's End
Author: Robert Naylor and John Naylor
Release Date: December 22, 2004 [EBook #14415]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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JOHN O'GROATS TO LAND'S END ***

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[Transcribers note: Authors 'R.N and J.N.' are Robert Naylor and John
Naylor.]
[Illustration: Mr. Robert Naylor FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN
DURING HIS CANDIDATURE FOR THE REPRESENTATION OF
THE CARNAVON BOROUGHS 1906]

FROM JOHN O' GROAT'S TO LAND'S END
OR 1372 MILES ON FOOT
A BOOK OF DAYS AND CHRONICLE OF ADVENTURES BY
TWO PEDESTRIANS ON TOUR

LONDON
CAXTON PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED
CLUN HOUSE, SURREY STREET, W.C.
1916

FOREWORD
When Time, who steals our hours away. Shall steal our pleasures too;
The memory of the past shall stay And half our joys renew.
As I grow older my thoughts often revert to the past, and like the old
Persian poet, Khosros, when he walked by the churchyard and thought
how many of his friends were numbered with the dead, I am often
tempted to exclaim: "The friends of my youth! where are they?" but
there is only the mocking echo to answer, as if from a far-distant land,
"Where are they?"

"One generation passeth away; and another generation cometh," and
enormous changes have taken place in this country during the past
seventy years, which one can only realise by looking back and
comparing the past with the present.
The railways then were gradually replacing the stage-coaches, of which
the people then living had many stories to tell, and the roads which
formerly had mostly been paved with cobble or other stones were being
macadamised; the brooks which ran across the surface of the roads
were being covered with bridges; toll-gates still barred the highways,
and stories of highway robbers were still largely in circulation, those
about Dick Turpin, whose wonderful mare "Black Bess" could jump
over the turnpike gates, being the most prominent, while Robin Hood
and Little John still retained a place in the minds of the people as
former heroes of the roads and forests.
Primitive methods were still being employed in agriculture. Crops were
cut with scythe and sickle, while old scythe-blades fastened at one end
of a wooden bench did duty to cut turnips in slices to feed the cattle,
and farm work generally was largely done by hand.
At harvest time the farmers depended on the services of large numbers
of men who came over from Ireland by boat, landing at Liverpool,
whence they walked across the country in gangs of twenty or more,
their first stage being Warrington, where they stayed a night at Friar's
Green, at that time the Irish quarter of the town. Some of them walked
as far as Lincolnshire, a great corn-growing county, many of them
preferring to walk bare-footed, with their shoes slung across their
shoulders. Good and steady walkers they were too, with a military step
and a four-mile-per-hour record.
The village churches were mostly of the same form in structure and
service as at the conclusion of the Civil War. The old oak pews were
still in use, as were the galleries and the old "three-decker" pulpits, with
sounding-boards overhead. The parish clerk occupied the lower deck
and gave out the hymns therefrom, as well as other notices of a
character not now announced in church. The minister read the lessons
and prayers, in a white surplice, from the second deck, and then, while

a hymn was being sung, he retired to the vestry, from which he again
emerged, attired in a black gown, to preach the sermon from the upper
deck.
The church choir was composed of both sexes, but not surpliced, and, if
there was no organ, bassoons, violins, and other instruments of music
supported the singers.
The churches generally were well filled with worshippers, for it was
within a measurable distance from the time when all parishioners were
compelled to attend church. The names of the farms or owners
appeared on the pew doors, while inferior seats, called free seats, were
reserved for the poor. Pews could be bought and sold, and often
changed hands; but the squire had a large pew railed on from the rest,
and raised a little higher than the others, which enabled him to