THE EXHILARATIONS OF THE ROAD. 39 



this country are for some time under the impression 

 that American women all have deformed feet, they are 

 so coy of them and so studiously careful to keep them 

 hid. That there is an astonishing difference between 

 the women of the two countries in this respect, every 

 traveller can testify ; and that there is a difference 

 equally astonishing between the pedestrian habits and 

 capabilities of the rival sisters, is also certain. 



The English pedestrian, no doubt, has the advan- 

 tage of us in the matter of climate ; for, notwithstand- 

 ing the traditional gloom and moroseness of English 

 skies, they have in that country none of those relaxing, 

 sinking, enervating days, of which we have so many 

 here, and which seem especially trying to the female 

 constitution — days which withdraw all support from 

 the back and loins, and render walking of all things 

 burdensome. Theirs is a climate of which it has been 

 said that " it invites men abroad more days in the year 

 and more hours in the day than that of any other 

 country.'' 



Then their land is threaded with paths which invite 

 the walker, and which are scarcely less important than 

 the highways. I heard of a surly nobleman near Lon- 

 don who took it into his head to close a foot-path that 

 passed through his estate near his house, and open 

 another one a little further off. The pedestrians ob- 

 jected i the matter got into the courts, and after pro- 

 tracted litigation the aristocrat was beaten. The path 

 could not be closed or moved. The memory of man 



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