Of other walks I had in England, I recall with pleasure a Sunday up the
Thames toward Windsor: the day perfect, the river alive with row-boats,
the shore swarming with pedestrians and picnickers; young athletic
London, male and female, rushing forth as hungry for the open air and
the water as young mountain herds for salt. I never saw or imagined
anything like it. One shore of the Thames, sometimes the right,
sometimes the left, it seems, belongs to the public. No private grounds,
however lordly, are allowed to monopolize both sides.
Another walk was about Winchester and Salisbury, with more
cathedral-viewing. One of the most human things to be seen in the great
cathedrals is the carven image of some old knight or warrior prince
resting above his tomb, with his feet upon his faithful dog. I was
touched by this remembrance of the dog. In all cases he looked alert and
watchful, as if guarding his master while he slept. I noticed that
Cromwell's soldiers were less apt to batter off the nose and ears of the
dog than they were those of the knight.
At Stratford I did more walking. After a row on the river, we strolled
through the low, grassy field in front of the church, redolent of cattle
and clover, and sat for an hour on the margin of the stream and enjoyed
the pastoral beauty and the sunshine. In the afternoon (it was Sunday)
I walked across the fields to Shottery, and then followed the road as
it wound amid the quaint little thatched cottages till it ended at a
stile from which a footpath led across broad, sunny fields to a stately
highway. To give a more minute account of English country scenes and
sounds in midsummer, I will here copy some jottings in my note-book,
made then and there:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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