122 TRAMPS 



tramping over the broad grain plains of Artois or 

 French Flanders, or between those interminable lines 

 of poplars along those white, powdery imperial ways 

 that radiate from the capital to its utmost boundaries ; 

 or imagine burrowing in the noonday heat among the 

 lizards on the bare glaring face of a Provence hill. It 

 might be a pleasanter lot certainly than that of the 

 pilgrim on the torrid clay plains of the Castiles, OH 

 among the savage sierras of the South, where the bitter 

 wind cuts you of a summer night like an Albacete 

 knife-blade. Moreover in both peninsulas, Italian and 

 Iberian, the tramp life would flicker down, and speedily 

 expire in inanition. Mendicity and relief are thoroughly 

 decentralised in both countries, and there are far too 

 many undeserving local objects for a stranger to have 

 much chance of making a lucrative quest. The stiletto 

 or cuchillo indeed would promptly bring such unfair 

 foreign competition to a sudden, and probably a violent, 

 end. 



In England the competition is the chief drawback to 

 the profession. Otherwise it has so many attractions 

 that it is hard to see why it should not be more over- 

 stocked than it is. You are absolutely your own 

 master, free to wander whither you will, and make 

 what plans you please for the morrow, not chained by 

 the leg to some dismal den you pay to kennel in. 

 You escape rent and taxes. You have no landlords' 

 agents watching your outgoings or incomings, and 

 keeping by deputy a keen eye on the solitary table you 

 too rarely have occasion to use. You enjoy in its 



