1 4 Concerning Kingsleys in General i 



Bohmervvald and the Erz-Gebirge, through the Swiss 

 or the Tyrolean Alps, and once through Bohemia 

 and Moravia, and far away into the Carpathian 

 mountains. He wandered ever by himself, alone. 

 There might be sunshine or there might be rain ; the 

 roads might be heavy with mire or hidden with 

 swirls of dust ; there might be no roads — it mattered 

 not to him, so he were free, with German beer and a 

 German bed at the end of a long day's tramp, or a 

 draught of water and a dry rock under the lee of a 

 mountain crag, or a hay-loft and sour wine, it mattered 

 not : all that mattered was being free. When he 

 was tired of the glory of cloudland, forest, and 

 mountain, he could dwell in a palace of dreams ; and 

 when he was tired of dreaming he could match the 

 rhythm of his footfalls to the rhythm of a song : — 



' Wenn's kaum in Osten gliihte, 

 Der Welt noch still und weit ; 

 Da weht rechts durch's Gemiithe, 

 Die schone Bliithenzeit ! ' ^ 



as the words of an old Wanderslied runs scribbled 

 down on a leaf in one of his old sketch-books. 



His wonderful power of adapting himself to his 

 surroundings, his genial nature, and his love of sport, 

 made it easy for him to win a way into the hearts of 

 the good-natured peasants with whom he spent his 

 time. He could listen with rapt attention to the 

 poems of a German schoolmaster, comparing them 

 to every effort of the Teutonic lyre from Anne 

 1 " Reiselied," by Joseph Freiherr v. Eichendorff. 



