26 THE EXHILARATIONS OF THE ROAD 



trying to the female constitution, days which 

 withdraw all support from the back and loins, and 

 render walking of all things burdensome. Theirs is 

 a climate of which it has been said that " it invites 

 men abroad more days in the year and more hours 

 in the day than that of any other country." 



Then their land is threaded with paths which 

 invite the walker, and which are scarcely less im- 

 portant than the highways. I heard of a surly 

 nobleman near London who took it into his head 

 to close a footpath that passed through his estate 

 near his house, and open another a little farther 

 off. The pedestrians objected ; the matter got into 

 the courts, and after protracted litigation the aris- 

 tocrat was beaten. The path could not be closed or 

 moved. The memory of man ran not to the time 

 when there was not a footpath there, and every 

 pedestrian should have the right of way there still. 



I remember the pleasure I had in the path that^X 

 connects Stratford-on-Avon with Shottery. Shake- 

 speare's path when he went courting Anne Hatha- 

 way. By the king's highway the distance is some 

 farther, so there is a well-worn path along the hedge- 

 rows and through the meadows and turnip patches. 

 The traveler in it has the privilege of crossing the 

 railroad track, an unusual privilege in England, and 

 one denied to the lord in his carriage, who must 

 either go over or under it. (It is a privilege, is it 

 not, to be allowed the forbidden, even if it be the 



