Chapter Xl—.fMz^RCH 



The North Side 



" And there 

 The sunshine in the happy glens is fair. 

 And by the sea, and in the brakes 

 The grass is cool, the seaside air 

 Buoyant and fresh, the mountain flowers 

 More virginal and sweet than ours." 



Matthew Arnold. 



A JOURNEY to the north side of this 

 island is something quite apart 

 from the ordinary run of travel 

 in the modern world. A very 

 mountainous country, girt with precipitous sea- 

 cliffs and intersected by a succession of ravines ; 

 with no roads other than mere horse-tracks at 

 the best and almost impassable foot-paths at the 

 worst ; an absence of any other than the most 

 simple lodging and most homely fare in the 

 seldom visited villages ; such are the conditions 

 of the journey. But its very difficulties have 

 produced their own remedy. The necessity 

 of carrying across mountain passes or up 



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