The real charm of a walking tour lies in the hope and spirit with which the march begins at morning and the peace and spiritual satisfaction of the evening’s rest. You cannot tell whether you put your knapsack on, or take it off, with more delight.

Now to be properly enjoyed, a walking tour should be gone upon alone. If you go in a company, or even in pairs, it is no longer a walking tour in anything but name; it is something else and more in the nature of a picnic. A walking tour should be gone upon alone, because freedom is of the essence; because you should be able to stop and go on, and follow this way or that, as your curiosity takes you; and because you must have your own pace, and neither trot alongside a champion walker, nor mince in time with a girl. You must be open to all impressions and let your thoughts take colour from what you see. “I cannot see the wit”, says Hazlitt, “of walking and talking at the same time”. There should be no cackle of voices at your elbow to jar on the meditative silence of the morning. As long as a man is reasoning and talking he cannot surrender himself to that fine intoxication that comes of much motion in the open air.

During the first day or so of any tour there are moments of bitterness, when the traveller feels more than coldly towards his knapsack, when he is half in a mind to throw it bodily over the hedge. Once the initial temptations are overcome it soon acquires a property of easiness. It becomes magnetic; the spirit of the journey enters into it. Then no sooner have you passed the straps over your shoulders, and then you pull yourself together with a shake and tall at once into your stride.

“Give me the clear blue sky over my head”, says Hazlitt, “and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours’ march to dinner – and then to thinking it is hard if I cannot start some game on these lone heaths. I laugh, I run, I leap, I sing for joy”. There is one thing I object to in these words of his. I do not approve of that leaping and running. Both of these hurry the respiration and break the pace of your walking. Uneven walking is not agreeable to the body, and it distracts and irritates the mind. With this exception the quotation from Hazlitt expresses the gist of all that can be said on walking tours.

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Difficult Words: Landscapes – inland scenery, accessory – something extra, not an essential part, knapsack – canvass or leather bag strapped to the back, mince in time – walk slowly with affected delicacy. Christian – the hero of Bunyan’s pilgrim’s progress, pull oneself together – -gain self-control,gist – substance.