Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-05-27
LITERARY TRAMPS.
AUTHORS WHO ARE NOTED IN HIS
TORY As PEDESTRIANS.

aomer Was Among the Fret OF whom
we Have Any Reeord-In the Middle
Ages the singers Of Ballads Moved from
Place TO Place on Foot.
! The literary tramp is no new thing.
Thousands Of years ago blind one sang oil
lhe beauty of Helen and the valor OF
Achilles. Nearer our own days palmers,
with scrip and scallop she'll told tales for
bread as they tramped toward the Holy
Land or home from IL. Troubadours sang
rs they strolled from castle to castle and
became the fathers OF literature. Then
literature ceased to go on foot. When IL
could not ride. as Chaucer did. II staid at
home. Bad roads. sparse habitations, above
all, the growth OF cities, did away with lit
erary yagabondage, Literature almost
forgot nature In time, and tho tramp took
TO garrets rather than TO highways and
wrote idylls In bed TO keep warm. Only
within the last hundred years has litera-
ture again found feet, and the pleasant
spectacle Of its makers tramping alone or
In couples again becomes prominent.
Almost the first Of literary tramps. II
indeed they come within the description at
all, were Shelley and Mary Goodwin. They
have left little trace of their adventures,
yet that they eould walk, or thought they
could, Is evident in their plan TO go on
foot from Paris to Lausanne. We catch
6eeting glimpse OF them trudging with
Jane Clairmont through the dust and
grumbling bitterly mt the evil fare and
housing of vagabondage, the two women
riding by turns on their only donkey till a
spraincd ankle promoted Shelley himself
Z 80 sl uu1 thau Ind tn bf1C nhArinf "
The poorest OF tramps they must have
been, for not love Of nature but scarcity Of
gold put them on their feet. What the
natives Of the country thought Of them NO
man can say, for the girls trudged In black
silk gowns and were OF the hated nation.
Dou btless also they trudged along in the
kid slippers and silk stockings and the
corded and iron busked stays that were OF
that day. No wonder the poet got a
"sprain"
A stouter 10 less romantic pair OF pedes-
TRANS were james and Harriet Martineau,
who in ls22 made a tour on foot together In
Scotland, walking 500 miles in a month.
Miss Martineau was always capital
, walker while she had health, and Words
worth accused her Of walking the legs
off" of half the gentlemen Of Ambleside.
For all that she was the most unimagina-
tive Of women She had manly stride"
and never nymph or pixie, elf or dryad
iured her to follow streams or to dream
! beneath rustling foliage. Herbert Brown
. ing and Sarianna were another brother
|, and sister who covered miles upon miles
/. together. The popularity Of their journeys
I, lies In the fact that they did not begin
y them till both were middle aged. They
j. formed their companionsbip after Mrs
Rrowning's death, with whose feeble steps
, neither of them had ever kept pace
J, Browning speaks OF seventeen mile walks
with Sarianna, and records nine mile:
:, accomplished in less than two hours
= which certainly required more than til,
=, usual "mnnly stride" from his companion
The WORDSWORTH, brother and sister
!, were splendid examples of literary tramp
4 Ing. Mrs. Wordsworth told Harriet Mar
. tineau that William and Dorothy some
4 times walked forty miles a day. Tours OIL
. foot were large part of their experienc,
together The first thing they did afte
their reunion In l194 was TO start off upoI
little stroll. Of which Dorothy wrote, 1"
= walked with my brother from Kendall t,
n Grasmere, eighteen miles, and afterwar'
/ to Keswick, fifteen miles, through tn
! most delightful country that ever wa
) seen" In November, lTy7, they starte,
upon a pedestrian tour with Coleridg
"a along the seaeoast.
a A little later in the same month tn
n three set out ut 4:30 Of dark and cloud
" afternoon, walking eight miles for a start
n while the two poets laid the plan of ba
n lad, with the sale of which they hoped /
= pay the expenses Of the excursion. TIL
Il methods of the two did not run easily b
= gether. and 1.-THE Ancient Mariner wa
Il soon given over entirely to Coleridgs
: Dorothy did not walk In black silk gowr
~ Doubts are reasonable If even she ever ha
lr one. Her usual walking costume was .'lit
o tie jacket and brown dress" Coleridge W
may imagine In the same raiment in whic
a he afterward travelled with the two
~ Scotland-the soiled nankeen trousers, tn
ne blue coat with brass buttons, In which
le mounted Unitarian pulpit and preache
lie q candidate sermon. Wordsworth doub
m less also wore his usual suit OF ding
in brown, with Tapping, broad brimme
h, straw hat to protecs his weak eyes.
n They were not three graces, this distii
d, guished trio of trampsi Wordsworth wa
ii not handsome man; not even an impress
n. I've man. In spite of the fact that III
m brother and sister walked, according TO L
m Quincey's calculation. between 600 an
AS $50, QUO miles. his legs were the worst pa
rs Of him, and the total effect OF his Mario
es person was even more uncomely in NOV
O. ment than In repose. His walk was a 70
and lunge, with eyes fxed on the groun'
"Mumbly on his legs the neighbors d
scribed him. Once Dorothy, walking ia
be Their behind him than usual and thus "
ey ting better view, WAS heard to exclail
IN discontentedly several times, Can that |
D William" Dorothy herself was short an
m slight, with such n gypsy tan rs Is rarel
It. seen upon an English face. Her eyes wei
Id not sc<t nor were they fierce or bold, b.
he they were wild and startling and hnrris
I'D In their motion, like those OF some viii,
m wood creature. -Macmillan's Magazine