The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-08-15 00:00:00

always

i economy

.hty gave

hear and fee
by steel.

;land low—

ad lamenting

w, a wild and mournful cry—
for us, a bitter death we die!

d, faint

ght, and fight in

tes to strew this desert's icy plain,
if our blood, and our dis'ant tomb to be
,ne for a vengeance worthy thee."

)ful voice, and bow'd her queenly

produces

CHAPTER, V.

These high, wild hills, and rough, uneven ways,
Draw out our miles, and make them wearisome;
And yet your fair discourse path been as sugar,
Making the hard way sweet an, delectable.'

Liverpool.)

" For know, whate'er
Beyond its natural fervour hurries on
The sanguine tide; whether the frequent bowl,
High-seasoned fare, or exercise to toil
Protracted; spurs to its last stage tired life,
And sows the temples with untimely snow."

• Doris' Manual, p. 354.

of the stick should he at a right angle with the shaft, and
not a mere knob or steam-turned bend. A good hazel,

indle worked nut of the root, comes up nearest
o the mark for durability, lightness, general service,
A small 'brass ferril, tightly fitted on,
saves the wear and tear. A stick should not be too tall.
We are indebted to a friend of the quill for these useful
suggestions on the practice of the stick. We advise the
selection of a good light cane in preference to a heavy
walking-stick. A cane of a large calibre (one of the
Malaccas is the best, though expensive) will give you
all the support you can want towards the end of the

day, not always unwelcome, whilst from its lightness,
through the whole day, it will do all but carry itself—a
companion never leaning too heavy on your arm. The
last make of umbrellas appears very inviting to use, as
they are very little heavier than a stick, the ribs being
made of fine-drawn steel. Of the comfort of an um-
brella in a soaking wet, we need not speak, nor of their
comparative inutility in a high wind, except you mean
to try the " aerial principle" of flight. Every one has
a predilection for or against a thing in matters of taste
and comfort : some never go without one, some never use

one by any chance. We can only bow our head and say,
"de gustibus non disputandum est." However,. there is
one point, touching the steel ribs to umbrellas, viz., that
they are more likely to attract lightning than whalebone,
especially if any part of the steel has been uncovered
from the varnish, or has got rubbed bright, as at the
points
leath, power lost, and glory

54. We can hardly leave off without equipping our
knight-errant with a pair of gloves, though he does not

require the " spur" ; and of gloves there is one kind far
before all other for walking, and for weather fair or wet,
hot or cold : it is the " Woodstock," or doe-skin—a
glove that will wash and wear better than any (ab-
sorbing perspiration), and keep the hands from suffering
by the weather-changes. Belts are used by some. Par-
ties are better without, unless corpulent.

THE START-FIRST DAY'S DOINGS AND UNDOINGS

55. Having all matters arranged, the toggery all
donned, the knapsack fairly strapped on, we should say,
select in the next place some suitable companion of con-
genial feelings and cheerful humour : for much of the
pleasure of a tour depends on this having of company,
even if only a dog to whistle to. " The influences of
agreeable conversation, in alleviating the toilsomeness
of travel, have been pleasantly depicted by Shakspeare :
. .......

Richard 11., Act ii., sc. 3.
Indeed, every one knows that the Irish bull, that a
journey of ten miles is reduced to five a-piece when
undertaken with a companion, is founded in truth and
nature. It may be that the cultivation of the mind, and
the improvement of the taste, might have enabled the
traveller to have found, at least in part, that companion-
ship he desired in the birds, beasts, plants, trees, brooks,
hills, and stones, he encountered in his excursion ; but
still the force of the observation remains the same, that
the most pleasing and unwearying efforts demand an
impulsion from the mind as well as from the mere bodily
powers." •
An additional reason for seeking cheerful companions
is, that the mind is unbent from intense thought or
anxious care by the presence of others and their extem-
poraneous converse, when, if left alone to yourself, it
might prove next to impracticable to unshackle the
trammelled habits of intense application ; and unless
such be accomplished, the chief end of the excursion is
missed : the mind must be at ease to allow the body
to reap the benefit of its exertions. Davis observes
most justly, in his interesting Manual, p. 355,—" As
we have seen that, for an agreeable and beneficial
exercise, there must be an harmonious action in a
large number of the parts and organs of the body, so
there should be a like harmony of excitation to call this
action forth. The will, the great stimulant of muscular
contraction, must direct its efforts with singleness of
purpose to the acting limbs."

56. The allotting of the amount of exercise each day
is, for the commencement of such a tour, and to the
unaccustomed, of the greatest consequence ; and we
must proceed to shew why it is so, in order that this
condition, absolutely essential to the pleasure and bene-
fit of the pedestrian excursion, may be cautiously secured.
People may he accustomed to walk about all day in town,
and yet find a day's walk in the country very different ;
end, from their not rightly estimating this experience,
may he very apt to overdo themselves at starting, and
so get fatigued with the new and exhilarating demands
upon their animal frame and spirits : therefore it would
be well to limit their first and even second day's work
to something under what they might possibly accomplish
at a great stretch ; for, if the first day become a toil
instead of a pleasure, the spirits begin to flag, and a
listlessness as to the objects undertaken steals over the
li
mind, owing to fatigue. Few minds can then, under the
pressure and lassitude caused by the first day's forcad
march, muster up courage sufficient to throw themselves
out of bed, early, to begin with spirit and alacrity the
second day. Davis remarks (p. 323) that " all exer-
cises should be accurately apportioned to the age,
strength, and previous habits of the individual. Where
this rule is neglected, exercise becomes an evil, and
that of serious magnitude." And further on, alluding to
undue exertion of any powers, whereby their growth and
development suffers in the young—" A state of weariness
comes on, that sleep refuses to alleviate. Such a call
is made upon the digestive organs and the nervous sys-
tem, for velocity of action, that these parts are first to
fail ; and fever, accompanied with serious digestive dis-
order, ensues. " * Under an extraordinary stimulus,
the task may possibly be performed: but tho onricp-

,
quences are disagreeable and prejudicial. Excessive
fatigue takes the place of that moderate tiredness which
conduces to sleep, and the balmy soother of wearied
nature refuses to do her office ; a painful restlessness,
attended with fever, and, in extreme cases, with deli-
rium, distresses the frame ; and when at length slum-
bers steal over the troubled system, they are not fol-

lowed with any commensurate degree of refreshment."
Dr. Combe relates a very striking instance of the folly
of over-exertion of this kind. Exercise pushed, then,
to the point of inducing fatigue, so as to render the
muscles sore and trembling from over-strained efforts,
remaining stiff and sore after a night's disturbed repose,
is not the way to derive either benefit or pleasure from
a country tour. On an average, we should say, that,
for those who can accomplish by effort some 20 miles
for a day's walk, a dozen or 15 is the outside they
should lay out for the first day's exercise; then, by
getting a refreshing night's rest, they will have the power
and disposition to walk 20 miles on the next day, and
perhaps 25 on the third, and increase a little each day as
they feel equal to do so : thus they will adopt the safest
way to secure all the beneficial and agreeable results of
a pedestrian journey. Experience will probably have
already convinced some of our readers that our advice,
resulting from the same instructive source, is not to be
despised, even by comparatively old hands, on com-
mencing a tour after a period of sedentary pursuits and
comparative bodily inactivity : though there may be
some buoyant spirits who feel as if they had done no-
thing unless they came in like a horse after a day's
hunting, tired and jaded with a glorious run, (in exci-
ting companionship of the baying hound and bugle note,)
forgetting most probably, as such highflyers generally
do, that the hunter gets the next day for recruiting re-
pose; so that, in fact, he only runs generally three or
four days out of the week. This reflection will be suf-
ficient to moderate, we hope, the zeal of those freshmen
who seem not yet to have learnt that discretion is the
better part of valorous enterprise ! We are certain that
many a green tourist gets dispirited, if not almost dis-
gusted, with what he pays too dear for in the purchase
of, whereas the fault lies entirely with the folly of his
own extravagant bid, and not in the article. This re-
mark applies not only to this little episode of our com-
mon life, but to that ordinary routine of our course, as
well, which—because we pursue with too absorbing an
aim, too avaricious a grasp—palls, wearies, and disgusts.
What saith the sage Armstrong (page 36 of his valuable
poem on health) in reference to overwrought exertion ?

57. Early rising is at all times so unquestionable a
good habit, and so conducive to mental and bodily vi-
gour, that few words need be added to enforce the car-
rying• out of this practice, as well on the starting as
on all succeeding days ; the pure freshness of the air
penetrating like a cordial to the inmost recesses of our
nature, fulfilling body and mind with the glow of con-
.