I Endeavoured To Merit His Confidence By Telling Him In My Turn Of
My Journey On Foot Through England; And By Relating To Him A Few Of
The Most Remarkable Of My Adventures.
He frankly told me he thought
it was venturing a great deal, yet he applauded the design of my
journey, and did not severely censure my plan.
On my asking him why
Englishmen, who were so remarkable for acting up to their own
notions and ideas, did not, now and then, merely to see life in
every point of view, travel on foot. "Oh," said he, "we are too
rich, too lazy, and too proud."
And most true it is, that the poorest Englishman one sees, is
prouder and better pleased to expose himself to the danger of having
his neck broken on the outside of a stage, than to walk any
considerable distance, though he might walk ever so much at his
ease. I own I was frightened and distressed when I saw the women,
where we occasionally stopped, get down from the top of the coach.
One of them was actually once in much danger of a terrible fall from
the roof, because, just as she was going to alight, the horses all
at once unexpectedly went on. From Oxford to Birmingham is sixty-
two miles; but all that was to be seen between the two places was
entirely lost to me, for I was again mewed up in a post-coach, and
driven along with such velocity from one place to another, that I
seemed to myself as doing nothing less than travelling.
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