A Walk 

 From London to John 'Groat 's. 



CHAPTER I. 



MOTIVES TO THE WALK. THE IRON HORSE AND HIS RIDER THE LOSSES 



AND GAINS BY SPEED THE RAILWAY TRACK AND TURNPIKE ROAD : 



THEIR SCENERIES COMPARED. 



ONE of my motives for making this tour was to 

 look at the country towns and villages on the 

 way in the face and eyes ; to enter them by the front 

 door, and to see them as they were made to be seen 

 first, as far as man's mind and hand intended and 

 wrought. Eailway travelling, as yet, takes everything 

 at a disadvantage ; it does not front on nature, or art, 

 or the common conditions and industries of men in 

 town or country. If it does not actually of itself turn, 

 it presents everything the wrong side outward. In 

 cities, it reveals the ragged and smutty companionship 

 of tumble-down outhouses, and mysteries of cellar and 

 bacXkitchen life which were never intended for other 

 eyes than those that grope in them by day and night. 



