Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1893-05-02
LITERARY TRAMPS.
AUTHORS WHO ARE NOTED m HIS.
TORY As PEDESTRIANS.

Homer Was Among the First Of WHOM,
We Have Any Eecord-In the Middle
Ages the singers Of Ballads Moved from
Place TO Place on Foot.
The literary tramp is no new thing.
thousands cf years ago blind one sang OF
She beauty Of Helen and the vaIor Of
Achilles. Nearer our own days planners,
with scrip and scallop shell. told tales for
bread as they tramped toward the Holy
Land or home from 1t. Troubaflours sang
As they strolled from castle TO castle and
became the fathers Of literature. Then
literature ceased 70 go on foot When 1t
could not ride, as Cbaucer did, 1t staid at
home. Bad roads, sparse habitations, above
all, the growth Of cities, did away with lit
erary vagabondage. Literature almost
forgot nature in time, and the 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, IL
Indeed they come within the description at
all, were Shelley ard Mary Goodwin. They
have left little trace of their adventures,
yet that they conld walk, or thought they
could, Is evident In their plan to go on
loot from Paris to Lausanne. We catch a
fleeing glimpse Of them trudging with
Jane Clairmont through the dust and
grumbling bitterly at the evil fare and
housing OF yagabondage, the two women
riding by turns on their only donkey till n
sprained ankle promoted Shelley himself
/ IN rida mr. that- hoA .st,x- Nh. -.
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.
Doubtless 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
"sprainf'
A stouter If less romantic pair Of pedes-
TRANS were James and Harriet Martineau,
who in 1922 made a tour on foot together in
Scotland, walking 800 miles in a month.
Miss Martineau was always a 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
lured her to follow streams or to dream
beneath rustling foliage. Herbert Brown
ing and Sarianna were another brother
and sis6er who covered miles upon miles
together. The popularity Of their journeys
lies in the fact that they did not begin
them till both were middle aged They
formed their companionship after Mrs
Rrowning's death, with whose feeble steps
neither of them had ever kept pace
Browning speaks of seventeen mile walks
with Sarianna, and records nine miles
accomplished in less than two hours
which certainly required more than tbs
usual "manly stride" from his companion
,, The Wordsworths, brother and sister
were splendid examples of literary tramp
: ing. Mrs. Wordsworth told Harriet Mar
,, tineau that William and Dorothy some
times walked forty miles day Tours OF
foot were large part of their experience
together The first thing they did aftel
|. their reunion in 1874 was 20 start off upor
), little stroll, Of which Dorothy wrote, ..
a walked with my brother from Kendall t.
!, Grasmere, eighteen miles, and afterwart
!, to Keswick, fifteen miles, through tbs
:, most delightful country that ever wa
: seen." In November, 1871, they started
!, upon a pedestrian tour with Coleridg
a along the seacoast.
A little later in the same month tn
A three set out at 4:30 of dark and cloud.
I afternoon, walking eight miles for a start
while the two poets laid the plan of bal
,, lad, with the sale of which they hoped Il
pay the expenses Of the excursion. Tn
;, methods of the two did not run easily &c
: gether, and THE Ancient Mariner" wa
a, soon given over entirely to Coleridge
- Dorothy did not walk in a black silk gown
:, Doubts are reasonable if even she ever ha,
= one Her usual walking costume was 'lit
;, tie jacket and brown dress" Coleridge W
n may imagine in the same raiment in whic
"a he afterward travelled with the two j
/. Scotland--the soiled nankeen trousers, tn
- blue coat with brass buttons, in which b
II mounted Unitarian pulpit and preache
n a candidate sermon. Wordsworth doub
less also wore his usual suit of ding
brown, with tapping, broad brimme
straw hat to protect his weak eyes.
is They were not three graces, this distiI
g guished trio Of trampsl Wordsworth wa
u not a handsome man; not even an impress
N I've man. In spite of the fact that I'll
le brother and sister walked, according to
rs Ouincev's calculation, between l70, 600 an
IL $50, 900 miles, his legs were the worst pal
IA of him, and the total effect of his narro
10 person was even more uncomely in NOV
ment than in repose. His walk was "a 70
lie and a lunge, with eyes fixed on the groun'
"Mumbly on his legs" the neighbors d
e scribed him. Once Dorothy, walking ia
re Their behind him than usual and thus sc
r. ting a better view, was heard to exclail
iiscontentedly several times, Can that
y, William:" Dorothy herself was short an
slight, with such a gypsy tan as is rare
be seen upon an English face. Her eyes wei
. not sc.t nor were they fierce or bold, bt
they were wild and startling aud Lurrie
In their motion. like those Of some viii
wood Observation-Disclosures Magazine