next morning i paid two shillings and set out at six o’clock. so far as is known the icknield way, which certainly went through newmarket, is the central street and london road, and along this i mounted out of the town. the road was a straight and dusty one, accompanied by a great multitude of telegraph wires, on which corn buntings were singing their dreary song. on the right was the main stretch of newmarket heath, then a few gentle green slopes, with clusters of ricks and squares of corn, rising to a low wooded ridge far off. it was beginning to be hot, though it was windy and the deep blue of the sky was visible only through folds in the hood of grey clouds.
there were dusty tracks for exercising horses on both sides of the road. i like to see fine horses running at full speed. to see this sight, or hounds running on a good scent, or children dancing, is to me the same as music, and therefore, i suppose, as full of mortality and beauty. i sat down for some time watching the horses.
devil’s ditch.
beyond the second milestone, and just before the turning to the right for cambridge, the road passed through the devil’s ditch, a deep ditch with a high bank on the newmarket edge of it, stretching several miles on either side of the way from north-west to south-east in a straight line. at the gap made by the road stood what seemed to[106] be old turnpike houses. beyond the ditch the road was a hedged one, shaded by beeches on both sides, and having borders of deep, dusty grass, in which stood the telegraph posts. the long, narrow copse of beech on the right was not strictly closed, but remained unspoilt and tenanted by doves. yet it was not long before i began to look out for a cart to carry me over the next six miles of the straight road. such a road is tiring, because either the eye or the mind’s eye sees long, taunting, or menacing lengths before it, and is brought into conflict with sheer distance, and the mind is continually trying to carry the body over this distance with her own celerity, and being again and again defeated and more and more conscious of defeat, becomes irritated, if not happily numbed, by the importunate monotony.
this was country, moreover, which the unaided eye could easily explore. it lay open and without mystery. nothing had to be climbed or quested for. therefore still more did the legs resent doing what wheels or other legs could do far better. any wheeled vehicle, from a motor-car to a legless beggar’s trolley, would help a man through this country. in wiltshire or cardiganshire there is nothing so good as your own legs, even if they are bad. but in cambridgeshire i recommend elephant, camel, horse, mule, donkey, motor-car, waggon, or cart, anything except a covered cab or a pair of hobnailed shoes.
a fine region spread out upon the right as i was approaching six mile bottom—a sweep of arable,[107] mostly corn-covered, but with reddish, new-ploughed squares, and here and there a team at work, rising up to a copse or two on the low ridges—not a building visible but a windmill—and far beyond these, blue hills. a very simple country it was, that might have been moulded by a strong north wind when the land was docile as snow. over it hung a sky of perfect summer and a sun like a god that made me ashamed to crawl as habit and the necessity of writing a book compelled me to do. it was a country for clouds, but there was none. had there been, i should not have been so well acquainted with the hard, straight road, often slightly embanked, or having depressions on either side, and in the right-hand one several well-worn paths. by the turning to weston colville and west wratting it went level and straight as usual. on the left the corn was hedgeless; on the right a low hedge separated me from ploughland and the windmill on a mile-distant ridge; and the depression on the left was thrice the width of the road, and used as a cart track, with merely a white centre and ruts among the flowers of plantain and lady’s slipper. many larks were singing. i became a connoisseur in road-sides, and noticed each change, as that when the road was cut or embanked it usually lost its breadth of margin, and that now there was a hedge on both hands instead of one, and in them roses—the pink roses which have the pure, slender perfume connected by the middle-aged with youth.
fleam dyke.
past the eighth milestone the road went through[108] fleam dyke, which is shorter than the devil’s ditch, because the fen to which it stretches northward is nearer. the ditch is on the far side, a green farm track goes along the mound on the near or newmarket side. just before it i saw a green way, a parish boundary, branching up out of my road eastward between separate thorns and making over the highland to the valley of the stour. beyond the dyke was another fine open cornland northward, lines of trees down its slopes, woods on its ridges, and the tall chimneys of cambridge six miles away. on the other hand a beech plantation lined the road and shadowed[109] the grassy edge on which i walked. after the beeches there were wayside roses, and a low hedge and still a broad, grassy border, where the short-tailed young blackbirds hurried before me among the paper wrappers of sausages, etc., thrown out by motorists from cambridge.
on my right was an artificial wall of turf going in the same direction as the road. this might have been an ancient earthwork, if the map had not said “old railway.” a disused railway embankment gave me more pleasure than a prehistoric dyke. it was also charming in itself, and had thorns prettily growing on its green slopes. soon it was changed to a cutting, and, above it, a little round rise crowned by eight poor firs in a tragic group, a few hundred yards from the road. past the tenth milestone the main road reaches worsted lodge and crosses the straight line of a roman road from grantchester and godmanchester. the line of my road is continued by a lesser way to babraham and pampisford, but the road itself turns abruptly from a south-westerly almost to a southerly course, yet still straight. nearly all the roads hereabout were as straight as if roman, the low and even land offering no impediments. there was one, for example, parallel with the roman road and crossing the icknield way exactly at the tenth milestone, having come down from fulbourn valley farm alongside a regiment of beeches, and continuing, after an interruption by a kitchen garden, to gunner’s hall beyond. between this and the roman road, at the wayside, was a long, flint-tiled building[110] of respectable age, with a mansard roof, small latticed windows in three tiers, and a louvre on top like a small oast cone. the line of the old railway continued to be marked by a slight bank and thickets of thorns. my road had broad green borders which the copse of grange farm interrupted. there were now more copses, and the land was more broken up, though still mainly supporting corn and hurdled sheep. at bourn bridge, near the twelfth milestone, there was a ford through the granta, shaded by elms and poplars and occupied by cattle swishing their tails in silence. at the milestone the common road to royston branches off to the right with broad green borders, but my way lay straight on over the new railway by pampisford station and through brent ditch. after the thirteenth milestone the old railway had gathered quite a copse of ash and thorn and brier about it. near the fourteenth milestone i began to see a pleasant valley land below on the right, and groves marking the cam’s course by the spires of hinxton and ickleton, and beyond them gentle, bare hills with crowns of trees. at this milestone i saw myriads of a most delicate blue flax shuddering in the wind. here essex comes up to the road and pursues it to ickleton, even though at stump cross it turns sharp to the right out of the london road and becomes a lane to ickleton, a green lane with white ruts making for the church, and crossing an artificial embankment which turned out to be the old railway again. my road forded the[111] cam at ickleton. this was a quiet white and grey village, built partly about the road which encircles the church, but chiefly on both sides of a road leading west. the walls were of flint or of plaster, sometimes decorated with patterns in line, and there was abundant thatch. here and there the cottages were interrupted and a gateway opened into a farm-yard. the church, a flint one, was as cool as it was old, and full of christened sunlight and the chirping of sparrows. there were many tablets in it to the memory of people named hanchett—a name not in the dictionary of national biography. the most conspicuous thing[112] in the church was a circular frame over an arch, enclosing the inscription in large letters: “this church was repair’d 1820. henry chambers and john hill, churchwardens.” much smaller letters below said: “fear god and honour the king.”
ickleton.
leaving ickleton by its chief street, abbey street, i entered an open country rising on all sides. i took the south-westerly road towards elmdon, and then a right-hand turning out of that which went in a straight line to ickleton granges. this is probably a new country road, with hedges and only the narrowest of green strips beside it: it is not the icknield way. the old road possibly ran along the gently rising ploughland half-way up it, past rectory farm. there is still a footpath from near abbey farm and the priory remains to rectory farm, which may represent the course of the icknield way, continued by a broken line of thorns reaching almost to ickleton granges fifty or a hundred yards north-west of the present road. past the granges i turned sharp to the right along a drove coming through the corn from littlebury and saffron walden. at a turning on the left to redland’s hall this road became a county boundary, and i went uphill to the corner of a copse, where it made another bend westward. at the bend there was a triangle of turf upon the right, so that the right-hand bank, which lies beyond this turf, suggested a road coming from the east, that is to say from rectory farm and ickleton priory. the road was now well up above the land to its right, and i could see the straight ridge[113] near cambridge which carries the mare way. on the other hand were the gentle anthony hill and clay hill, and in front the high land above royston and its straight bars of wood. the road was making almost due west for royston. it went between corn, clover, or new-ploughed land; white bryony grew in its low hedges, and even sprawled over the dusty, rabbity mound by the wayside; and it had grass borders of its own width. at first it was rough, but hard and white. soon it became practically a green road, and then wholly so, but level and rideable. in one place it was lined by lime trees; in others all was elder flower, wild[114] rose, and lady’s slipper, and the chatter of young birds. beyond the road to dottrell hall and the lovely group of sycamore and hornbeams at the crossing, it was much worn again. it was a farm road used only by waggons and men between field and field, or at most between farm and farm. it might have seemed no more than a series, four miles long, of consecutive cart tracks, rarely with a hedge on both sides, between it and the cultivated land. it gave a sense of privacy and freedom combined. at a cottage, one of two that had once been a single farm, and still had a thatched shed and a weedy yard, i knocked to ask for water.
approaching royston.
a huge wheel and windlass and a seven-gallon tub stood above a well in the yard. a wild-looking cat bounded through the window of one of the cottages which seemed to be empty. the other might also have been empty, in spite of its dirty muslin curtain, for i knocked long and no one came. just as i was turning to get water for myself a human being with black hair and wild eyes looked out of an upper window and hailed me with a kind of scream. as she was not half dressed, i told her to leave me to look after myself. the well seemed bottomless, but i had the seven gallons of dark, bright water up on the edge by the time my hostess appeared with a dirty cup. she was a thin, hawk-faced woman, bare and brown to the breast, and with glittering blue eyes, and in her upper jaw three strong teeth. she was dressed in black rags. she shaded her eyes to look at me, as if i were half a mile away.
“you’re thin, boy,” she said, “like me.”
“yes.”
a pause.
“are you middling well off?”
“yes, middling. are you?”
“oh, middling; but times are hard.”
“they are.”
she looked extraordinarily sad, and i said:—
“still, we shall have a few years to wait for the workhouse.”
“have to wait a few years!” she repeated, very serious, though smiling. “have you come from royston?”
“no; newmarket.”
“newmarket. are you going far?”
“to odsey, between royston and baldock.”
“it’s a long way. you’re thin, boy.”
“food doesn’t nourish me. men cannot live on bread only, not even brown bread made at home.”
“no.”
“now in the moon, perhaps, i should get fat.”
“perhaps indeed, and i too. but look at the moon. you give me the horrors. you couldn’t live there.”
it was a thin three-quarters of a circle in a hot sky.
“but,” i said, “i should like to try.”
“would you?”
“yes, provided i were someone different. for, as for me, this is no doubt the best of all possible worlds.”
“better than the moon?”
“yes, better than the moon; and there is nothing better in it than your well water, missus. good afternoon.”
framed clearly against her solitary pink-washed cottage, she stared after me, shading her eyes.
two or three times along these four miles of road i saw a square of trees protecting a farm or “grange,” most of the villages having a grange out in the open country named after them, as duxford grange, ickleton grange, chrishall grange, heydon grange. but on the road itself there were no houses except noon’s folly and one called shapens, not even at the crossings of more important roads. for the most part it kept level: where it had to dip slightly after the turn to great chishall it was worn several feet deep, but this was exceptional. beyond that it was worn unevenly into two parallel tracks between hedges with beech trees and elders. to the right the pleasant tree-crowned rise of goffer’s knoll stood up on the other side of the main newmarket and royston road, now fast nearing my road. past noon’s folly farm the road had a narrow and embanked course, but parallel with it a depression seamed by paths and cart tracks. here and for some way past—from half-way between noon’s folly and the barley road—the way is a boundary between cambridgeshire and hertfordshire. i had not been out of cambridgeshire since i left suffolk at the kennett bridge.
icknield way, crossing ermine street.
half a mile west of noon’s folly the main road >[118] reached my road, and, turning west instead of south-west, made use of its course for the two miles into royston. for most of the two miles this piece of road, exactly continuing my old way, had broad green edges, and on the left hand, beeches. coming to a rise it was cut through the ridge and embanked again below. it went straight through the big village or little town of royston, where it crossed ermine street, and took the name of baldock street from the town ahead. as it was market day everyone was driving out of royston with his trap full of chickens and parcels of all kinds, not to speak of wife and children. this was my first real chance of a lift. for between ickleton and the royston road only farm waggons went, and they were all in the hayfields; and only motor-cars travelled the road from newmarket, all passing me as if i needed nothing but more dust to fill eyes, mouth, nose, ears, shoes, and spirit. i have never been offered a lift by a stranger in a motor-car, but friends of mine have told me they have heard of others who have. with the increase of dust and heat the likelihood of a merciful motorist becomes less, because dust and heat do not produce the appearance desirable in a motorist’s companion; in fact, by the end of the day, or of the week, especially if he has forgotten to shave, or has always arrived in a town after shop-shutting, the wayfarer runs the risk of being called “mate” by the baker’s man who refuses to let him ride. “mate” sounds like liberty, equality, and fraternity, but it can really be contemptuous pity. it is no better than[119] “my man” from a gentleman, or “unfortunate sister” from a lady, or “my friend” from a nonconformist minister. in london it may be different, and i should say that a navvy would use it in a friendly manner. but from the wallingford baker’s man on a country round it means “poor ——,” perhaps even “dirty ——.” by this time essays on walking and walking tours begin to wear very thin. you pitch stevenson at any rate over the hedge, and cannot find a place suitable for —— and ——. borrow is safe, but then, he got really tired, and did not regard walking as an amusement. i have no doubt that he had learned to stick out his under-lip at the end of some of his marches.
nevertheless, stumping along on a shoeful of blisters is not bad when you are out of royston and have pen hills upon your left; low, insignificant, restful stretches upon your right; and odsey before you in the cool of evening. for some distance there was no hedge on the left side of the road beyond the town, and the turf, marked for many yards with tracks made before metalling, rose up to considerable swells of chalk cloven sometimes gently and sometimes abruptly into coombes, some smooth as lawns, some beautiful with trees. tumuli were scattered over this smoothest sward, and down from the ridge of the high land came deep, curving trackways. at odsey beyond they have found with samian pottery the shin bones of men who ran instead of walking. people were walking for pleasure on the grass up above, and children were laughing somewhere near but out of sight.
it was one of those delicious cool ends to perfect days which give a man the feeling of having accomplished something, but by no means compel him to inquire what. the road still possessed the hills even when it was enclosed on both sides, for it kept broad margins, the hedges were low between it and the grass or corn land, and it mounted higher and higher. they were the gentlest of chalk hills crested with trees—thrift hill, gallows hill, crouch hill, pott’s hill, rain hill, wheat hill, windmill hill, and weston hills—and at their highest points there were villages, like therfield, kelshall, sandon, wallington, clothall, weston. i had still four or five miles to walk at the feet of these hills, through a silence undisturbed by the few market carts at long intervals. i am glad now that i walked them. it seems to me now that my purely physical discomfort intensified the taste of the evening’s beauty, as it certainly made sweeter the perfection of enjoyment which i imagine possible at such an hour and in such a place. the road was serpentining very little, but enough to conceal from me for a long time the chief wayside marks ahead, as well as my destination. i could always see about a quarter of a mile before me, and there the white ribbon disappeared among trees. and this quarter-mile was agreeable in itself, and always suggesting something better beyond, though itself a sufficient end, if need were. moreover, i was looking out for a house which i had never seen or heard described. a wood-pigeon came sloping down from the far sky with[121] fewer and fewer wing strokes and longer and longer glidings upon half-closed wings as it drew near its home tree. it disappeared; another flew in sight and slanted downward with the same “folding-in” motion; and then another. the air was silent and still, the road was empty. the birds coming home to the quiet earth seemed visitors from another world. they seemed to bring something out of the sky down to this world, and the house and garden where i stayed at last were full of this something. i heard rooks among the tall beeches of just such a house as i knew i ought to have been able to imagine, with the help of the long white road and the gentle hills, the tall trees, the rooks, and the evening. there were flowers and lawns, beeches and sycamores, belonging to three centuries, perhaps more, and stately but plain red brick of the same date, and likely to endure for a yet longer period, if not by its own soundness, then by its hold upon the fantasy of men who build nothing like it.
