The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-02-23
LITERARY, TRAMPS.
AUTHORS WHO ARE NOTED IN HIS
TORY As PEDESTRIANS.

iONf 40 FEDES fIRlNSs
Homer Was Among tho First of Whom
We Have Any Hecord-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 OF
the beauty of Helen and the valor Of
Achilles Nearer our own days palmers
with scrip and scallop shell, told tales for
bread as they tramped toward the Holy
Land OF home from 1t. Troubadours sang
rs they strolled from castle to castle and
became the fathers of literature. Then
literature ceased to go on foot. When II
could not ride, us Chaucer did, it staid al
home. Bad roads, sparse habitations abov,
all, the growth of cities, did away with lit
erary vagabondage Literature almost
forgot nature in time, and the tramp tool
to garrets rather than to highways ant
wrote idylls in bed to keep wnrm. Only
within the last hundred years has ltera
ture again found feet, and the pleasant
spectacle of its makers tramping alone o.
in couples again becomes prominent.
Almost the first of literary tramps, /
indeed they come within the description a
all, were Shelley and Mary Goodwin. The,
have left little trace of their adventures
yet that they could walk, or thought they
could, is evident in their plan to go OF
foot from Paris TO Lausanne. We catch
fleeting glimpse Of them trudging witt
Jane Clairnont through the dust ant
erumbling bitterly at the evil fare ant
housing Of vagabondage, the tive womei
riding by turns on their only donkey till
sprained ankle promoted Shelley himsel
to ride, and they had to buy "a chariot.
The poorest of tramps they must hav,
been, for not love Of nature but scarcity o
gold put them on their feet. What til,
natives of the country thought of them Il,
man can say, for the girls trudged in blacl
silk gowns and were of the hated nation
Doubtless also they trudged along in tn,
kid slippers and silk stockings and til,
corded and iron busked stays that were o
that day. No wonder the poet got
"sprain!'
A stollter If less romantic pair of pedes
TRANS were james and Harriet Martiueau
who in let.2 made Il tour on foot together il
Scotland, walking eco miles in q month
Miss Martineau was always n capita
walker while she had health, and Words
worth accused her Of walking the leg.
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 sister 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
Browning's death, with whose feeble steps
neither OF them had ever kept pace
Browning speaks of seventeen milo walks
with Sariauna, and records nine miles
accomplished in less than two hours
which certainly required more than the
usual "lnanly 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 OIL
foot were u large part of their experience
together The first thing they did after
their reunion in 1904 was to start off upor
little stroll, of which Dorothy wrote "a
walked with my brother from Kendall te
Grasmere, eighteen miles, and afterward
to keswick fifteen miles, through the
most delightful country that ever was
seen" In November, 1877, they started
upon pedestrian tour with Coleridge
along the seacoast.
A little later in the same month the
three set out at 4;S0 of dark and cloudy
afternoon, walking eight miles for start
while the two poets laid the plan of bal
lad, with the sale Of which they hoped te
pay the expenses Of the excursion. The
methods of the two did net run easily to
gether, and 1.-The Ancient Mariner was
soon given over entirely to Coleridge
Dorothy did not walk in black silk gown
Doubts are reasonable if even she ever had
one. Her usual walking costume was Tit
tie jacket and brown dress" Coleridge we
may imagine In the same raiment in which
he afterward Travelled with the 1.-TWO in
Scotland-tbe soiled nankeen trousers, the
blue coat with brass buttons, in which h.
mounted Unitarian pulpit and preached
a candidate sermon. Wordsworth doubt
less also wore his usual suit of dings
brown with Tapping, broad brimmed
straw hat to protect his weak eyes.
They We're not three graces, this distin,
guished trio of trampsl Wordsworth was
not n handsome man; not even an impress
I've man. III spite OIL the iacb That the
brother and sister walked, according to De
Quincey's calculation, between 11o, GOO and
10000 miles his legs were the worst part
of linn, and the total effect of his narrow
person was even more uncomcly in move
ment than in repose. His walk was roll
and n lungc, with eyes fixed on the ground.
"Mumbly on his legs the neighbors de-
scribed him. Once Dorothy, walking far
Their behind him than usual and thus get.
ting better view, was heard to exclaim
discontentedly several times, "Can that be
WilliamW Dorothy herself was short and
slight, with such a gypsy tan as is rarely
seen upon an English face. Her eyes were
not seat nor were they fierce or bold, but
they were wild and startling and hurried
in their molten, like those of some wild.
wood creature. -Macmillan's Magazine,