224 NATURAL BEAUTY 



side of the valley on which I lived I used constantly, 

 to go. But over the hills on the far side of the river 

 I was never taken. So I us^d to picture to myself 

 wonderful woods and rivers, and castles and great 

 cities, and I longed to go there. The lure of 

 Natural Beauty was beginning to make itself felt. 

 As I grew to boyhood I was fortunate enough to 

 be taken to North Wales, Devonshire and Corn- 

 wall, and later on to Switzerland and the South 

 of France, and everyjvhere I saw much Natural 

 Beauty. But, still, that only made me want to see 

 more. 



In all these cases, however, I only went where I 

 was taken. I did not go where I chose or with an 

 object of my own. It was not till I was in India 

 and had the first leave from my regiment that I 

 could go where I liked. Now, where I liked was to 

 the Himalaya. And if I look back now and enquire 

 of myself what made me choose the Himalaya, I can 

 say most clearly that it was because I had in my 

 mind a vision of long snowy ranges, and dazzling 

 peaks, and frowning precipices, and rushing tor- 

 rents, and endless forests. I thought how glorious 

 it would be to be able to wander about at will and 

 see all the magnificent scenery, to feast on the 

 Natural Beauty, and when I came back to be able 

 to tell others of the wonders I had seen. 



So I made my first short trip in the Himalaya.' 

 But this only served to arouse my curiosity still 

 more. I had seen some great mountains. But 

 they were none of them more than 20,000 feet in 

 height. I wanted to see still higher mountains. I 

 heard, too, that up the valley of the Sutlej were 



