When I Was Some Little Way
Above The Town I Sat Down On A Low Wall And Rubbed My Knee Strongly
And Long With This Balm, And The Pain Instantly Disappeared.
Then,
with a heart renewed by this prodigy, I took the road again and began
walking very rapidly and high, swinging on to Rome.
The Moselle above fipinal takes a bend outwards, and it seemed to me
that a much shorter way to the next village (which is called
Archettes, or 'the very little arches', because there are no arches
there) would be right over the hill round which the river curved. This
error came from following private judgement and not heeding tradition,
here represented by the highroad which closely follows the river. For
though a straight tunnel to Archettes would have saved distance, yet a
climb over that high hill and through the pathless wood on its summit
was folly.
I went at first over wide, sloping fields, and some hundred feet above
the valley I crossed a little canal. It was made on a very good
system, and I recommend it to the riparian owners of the Upper Wye,
which needs it. They take the water from the Moselle (which is here
broad and torrential and falls in steps, running over a stony bed with
little swirls and rapids), and they lead it along at an even gradient,
averaging, as it were, the uneven descent of the river. In this way
they have a continuous stream running through fields that would
otherwise be bare and dry, but that are thus nourished into excellent
pastures.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 61 of 361
Words from 16429 to 16695
of 97758