shopping in its fine new streets. Its large harbor seemed empty after
that of Fraserburgh. Many fishing-boats were at sea; many had gone
altogether. The fishing season here was really well over. We walked to
the old town after dinner. In it there is not much to be seen but the
university tower with the famous crown atop, and the cathedral, which
looked massive and impressive in the twilight. We saw much more of
Aberdeen; but we are quite of the same mind as Dr. Johnson, that to
write of such well-known cities "with the solemnity of geographical
description, as if we had been cast upon a newly discovered coast, has
the appearance of a very frivolous ostentation."
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE HARBOR AT MONTROSE.]
From Aberdeen to Edinburgh we trained it by easy stages. We stopped
often; once at
MONTROSE,
where, like Dr. Johnson, and for that matter, every one else who comes
here, we looked to the Grampian Hills in the distance. The town itself
was not picturesque. The guide-book calls it neat and Flemish, probably
because it has fewer houses with high gables turned towards the street
than can be seen, as a rule, in any Scotch town. But the harbor, of
which the guide-book says less, was fine. We spent hours near the mouth
of the river, looking over to the fishermen's houses on the opposite
shore. There were constant showers as we sat there; every few minutes
the sun came out from the clouds, and the wet roofs glistened and
glittered through the smoke hanging above them. In the morning, women,
packed like herrings in the huge ferry-boats, crossed over to the
curing-houses. Now and then a fishing-boat sailed slowly in.
One sees little from the cars. Of the country through which we passed I
remember only occasional glimpses of the sea and of fishing villages and
of red castles, which made us wish we were still on the road. Now and
then, as we sat comfortably in the railway-carriage, we determined to
walk back to see them, or to get a tricycle at Edinburgh and "do" the
whole east coast over again; but we always left our determinations with
the carriage. Of all the places at which we stopped, I remember best
ARBROATH,
the sight of which seemed worth his whole journey to Dr. Johnson. Little
is left of the abbey save the broken walls and towers. A street runs
through the old gate-house. The public park and children's play-ground
lie to one side of the ruined church. A few old tombs and tablets and
bits of ornament have been gathered together in the sacristy, which is
in better preservation than the rest of the building. We found them less
interesting than the guide who explained them. He gave a poetical touch
to the usual verger recitation, and indeed to all his talk, of which
there was plenty. 'Twas better to have loved and lost, than never to
have loved at all, was his manner of expressing regret for the loss of
an old engraving of the abbey. There were many hard things in this
world, but grass was soft; why, then, should I choose the hard things?
was his way of inviting me to walk on the grass instead of the gravel.
But it was not until he showed us the original copy, full of blots and
corrections, of one of Burns's poems that we found he too was a poet--a
successful poet, it seemed, for he had sold 14,000 copies of his volume
of poems--very few, he thought. If he were a member of the London
Society of Authors he would know better. He had given the last copy to
William Morris, when the latter was in the town. William Morris did not
wear gaudy clothes, not he. He looked like a sailor in his blue flannel
shirt, and there was a slit in his hat. And when he returned to London
he sent his "Jason" to his fellow-poet in Arbroath.
As we were leaving, he told us how, one day, two ladies had driven up to
the abbey, looked at nothing, but at once asked him to recite his "Abbey
Gate." He did so, and then, without a word, they slipped a guinea into
his hand, and there were tears on their cheeks. He never knew who they
were. After this, we felt our tribute to be very small; but he clasped
our hands warmly at parting. There was something out of the common in
our faces, he said.
We talked to no one else in Arbroath, except to a pessimistic stationer.
While we bought his paper he grumbled because farmers could not sell
their cattle and corn. Some people said the country needed protection;
"but, sir, what have we got to protect?"
Of the rest of the journey to Edinburgh my note-book says nothing, and
little remains in my memory. But I know that when we walked up from the
station to Waverley Bridge, and looked to the gray precipice of houses
of the Old Town, we realized that our long wanderings had not shown us
anything so fine.
And now our journey was at an end. Like Dr. Johnson's, it began and
finished in Edinburgh, but it resembled his in little else. From the
start, we continually took liberties with his route; we often forgot
that he was our guide. We went to places he had never seen; we turned
our backs upon many through which he and Boswell had travelled. But at
least he had helped us to form definite plans without weeks of hard
map-study which they otherwise must have cost us.
We had come back wiser in many ways. In the first place, we had learned
that for us walking on a tour of this kind, or indeed of any kind, is a
mistake. Had we never cycled, perhaps we might not have felt this so
keenly. Our powers of endurance are not, I think, below the average; but
the power to endure so many miles a day on foot is very different from
the capacity to enjoy them; and if on such a trip one proposes, as we
did, to work, without pleasure in the exercise, how can one hope for
good results? But for the two days' coaching on the west coast, the
necessary steaming among the islands, our utter collapse on the east
coast, I am sure we never should have worked at all. Day after day we
were dispirited, disheartened, and only happy when we were not walking.
We went to bed in the evening and got up in the morning wearied and
exhausted. The usual walking tours of which one hears mean a day's
climbing in the mountains, or a day's tramp with bag or knapsack sent
before by train or stage. Under these conditions we probably would not
be the first to give in. But to be as independent as if on a tricycle,
to have one's sketching traps when needed, one must carry a knapsack
one's self. J----'s weighed between twenty-five and thirty pounds; mine,
fifteen. Never before have I appreciated so well the true significance
of Christian's burden. But even worse than this constant strain on our
shoulders was the monotony of our pace. Whether the road was good or
bad, level or hilly, there was no change, no relief. In cycling, for one
hard day's work you know you will have two of pleasure. As for
short-cuts, they are, as a rule, out of the question. One does not know
the country through which one is passing; it is the exception to meet a
native. After cycling more thousands of miles than we have walked
hundreds, we know it to be not mere theorizing when we declare that no
comparison between the two methods of travelling is possible. One is
just enough work to make the pleasure greater; the other is all work.
[Illustration: RUINS AT ARBROATH.]
Our experience has taught us to be sceptical about the tramps of other
days who saw Europe afoot. We wonder if they told the whole story. Of
modern tramps, none has given such a delightful record as has Mr.
Stevenson of the walk he took with a donkey through the Cevennes. And
yet, even with him, if you read between his lines, or, for that matter,
the lines themselves, you realize that, charming as his story is for us,
the reality for him was wearisome, depressing, and often painful, and
that probably to it is to be referred much of his after physical
weakness. We have also had a new light thrown upon the life of tramps at
home, who are so often supposed to have chosen the better part. Theirs
is as much a life of toil as if they broke stones on the same roads over
which they journey. They are not to be envied, but pitied. The next time
one begs from you as he passes, give him something out of your charity;
he deserves it.
However, many drawbacks as there were to our walk, we do not regret it.
In no other way could we have come to know the country and the people
with the same friendly intimacy. For pure enjoyment, it would be best to
go over the greater part of our route in a yacht. From it is to be seen
much beauty and little misery. The coast-line can be followed,
excursions made inland. But a yacht is a luxury for the rich. Besides,
on it one lives one's own life, not that of the country one has come to
visit. On foot, with knapsacks on our backs, we often passed for
peddlers. Certainly we were never mistaken to be tourists of means or
sportsmen. Therefore the people met us as equals and talked to us
freely.
We were able to correct the vague and false impressions with which we
had started. If we did not master the geography of all Scotland, I
think--at least on the two coasts as far north as the Caledonian
Canal--we could now pass an examination with credit. We learned that
haggis and oatmeal figure more extensively in books than on hotel
tables; the first we saw not at all, the second but twice, and then it
was not offered to us.
Above all, we learned the burden of Scotland, whose Highlands have been
laid waste, their people brought to silence. But now the people
themselves have broken their long silence, and a cry has gone up from
them against their oppressors. If by telling exactly what we saw we can
in the least strengthen that cry, we shall feel that our journeying has
not been in vain.
THE END.
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