134 EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 



may be said to be a highly useful, perfectly 

 harmless, inoffensive, and very timid creature. 



I started off this morning for a six or seven 

 mile ramble along turnpike roads, green lanes, 

 and through shady woods, and I never saw a 

 human being on his feet the art of walking 

 is gradually dying out. I saw, perhaps, scores 

 of people on " bikes," or on those bumping 

 noisy things called motor-bikes ; children going 

 to school on bikes, milkmaids going to milk 

 or to the village post on bikes. No one in 

 these parts ever thinks of using his legs if he 

 wants to go a quarter of a mile from home. 

 Bikes, motor-bikes, motor-cars, motor-'buses 

 all dashing along at the rate of forty miles an 

 hour (in spite of the law), as if, like Tarn o' 

 Shanter's mare, they were being pursued by 

 some unearthly demons rolling along on 

 clouds of dust, poisoning themselves by the 

 suffocating smells of their predecessors, and 

 poisoning me a solitary pedestrian by the 

 noxious fumes they leave behind them. All 

 this is done " in the pursuit of pleasure " it is 

 difficult to see where the pleasure comes in ! 

 Bah ! I am glad at last to have reached the 



