Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-01-13
LITERARY TRAMPS.
AUTHORS WHO ARE NOTED IN HIS
TORY AS PEDESTRIANS.

We HAVE Any Itecord-Ia 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 or home from IT, Tr9uhadours sang
rs they strolled from castle TO castle and
became the fathers Of literature Then
literature ceased TO go on foot. When it
could not ride, ny Chaucer did, il staid ut
home. Bad roads, sparse hahitations, above
all, the growth Of cities, did away with lit
erary vagabondagc. Literature almost
forgot nature in time, and the tramp took
to garrets rather than to highways and
wrote idylls in bed 10 keep warm. Only
within the last hundred years has itcra-
ture again found feet, and the pleasant
spectacle Of It's makers tramping alone or
in couples again becomes prominent.
Almost the first Of literary ramps, IL
indeed they come within the # .rription ut
all, were Shelley and Mary GDawin. They
have left little trace Of their adventures,
yet that they could walk, or thought they
could, is evident IN their plan 10 20 on
foot from Paris to Lausanne We catch a
hceting glimpse of them trudgng with
Jane Clairmont through the dust and
grumblinR bitterly at the evil fare and
housing Of yagabondhge, the two women
riding by turns ON their only donkey till "A
spraincd ankle promoted Shelley himself
to ride, and they had To buy "a chariot"
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 bHskcd stays that were Of
that day. No wonder the poet got IA
'sprainW
A stOutcr If less romantic palr of pefles.
TRANS were James and Harriet Martineau
who Ia 1872 made a tour on foot together in
Scotland, walking 500 miles in n month
Miss Martineau was always "A CAPITAL
walker while she had health, and Words.
worth accused her Of walking the legs
of" Of half the gentlemen Of Amblesidc.
For all that she was the most unimavina-
tive Of women. She had "manly stride
and never nymph or pixie, elf or drynd
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 iou rneys
lies In the fact that they did not begin
them I'll both were middle aged. They
formed their companionship after Mrs.
browning death, with whose feeble stems
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 the
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 ON
foot were large part Of their experience
together. The first thing they did after
their reunion in 1894 was TO start of upon
Fl little stroll, Of which Dorothy wrote, II
walked with my brother from Kendall To
Grasmere, eighteen miles, and afterward
10 Keswick, fifteen miles, through the
most delightful country that ever was |
seen" Ia November, 1871, they started /
upon pedestrian tour with ColeridYe |
along the seacoast
A little later in the. same month the !
.hree set out at 4;30 Of dark and cloudy
afternoon, walking eight miles for start. /
while the two poets laid the plan Of bal
adj, with the sale Of which they hoped To
pay the expenses Of the excursion. The
methods Of the two did not run easily to-
getber, and THE Ancient MaFinern was
,oon given over entirely TO COleridge
Dorothy did not walk In "A black silk gown.
Doubts are reasonable II even she ever had
me. Her usual walking costume was 'llt-
lie jacket and brown dress" ColeFidge we
nay imagine in the same rniment In which
he afterward travelled with the two In
'cotland-the soiled nankeen trousers, the
'lue coat with brass buttons, In which hs
mounted Unitarian pulpit and preached
candidate sermon. Wordsworth doubt
ess also wore his usual suit Of dinvy
'rown, with Tapping, broad brimmed
traw hat TO protect his weak eyes.
They were not three Rraces, this distin-
uished THO Of trampsl Wordsworth was
ot handsome man; not even an Impress
We man. In spite ~ the fact that the
rotherand sister walked, according 70 DE
calculation, between 10, 900 and
300 miles. his legs were the worst part
I him, and the total effect Of his narrow
erson was even more uncomely in move
ient than in repose. His walk WIS "A roll
nd lunge, with eyes fixed ON the ground.
Mumbly on his legs" the neighbors de
sribed him. Once Dorothy, walking far
her behind him than usual and thus get
nR better view, was heard TO exclaim
iscontentedly several times, Can that be
VilliamW Dorothy herself was short and
light, with such a gypsy tan M In rarely
en- upon an English face. Her eyes were
Of so<t nor were they fierce or bold, hut
iey were wild and startling and hurried
their motion, like those Of some wild.