Walking for enjoyment is the most favourite leisure pastime in The British Isles by a large extent. According to data from the British government 16% of individuals do it every single week, compared with 11% who frequent the fitness center. Maybe living and being in the rural landscape is connected with money and the “upper classes” who, based on stories in literature, would own large country residences. Successful Victorian entrepreneurs purchased a countryside estate to show off their prosperity and enhanced social standing. Perhaps the claustrophobia triggered by living in the most densely populated large country in Europe drives Britons to look for open spaces when at leisure. It was in fact in the Victorian era that recreational rambling first became popular as it was a low cost way for factory workers to escape from the satanic mills and it grew to become thought of as a healthy almost puritanical life style.
Why is it then that rambling stays so popular?
The delights of rambling have for a long time inspired poets and novelists. Some have spoken of the experience of freedom that can come from leaving the town behind; and of the great variety of landscapes and inspiring vistas that the English countryside can offer us. In the “Song of the Open Road”, Walt Whitman penned
“Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.”
Rambling appears to set the mind free for thought. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said that “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.” The Welsh author Lloyd Jones, who was motivated to produce his first book by a 1,000-mile trek round Wales, pronounced that “The moving landscape provides an absorbing diversion which frees the mind and gives us a fresh viewpoint, and we™re most at ease with the world when we walk because everything is happening at a manageable pace.”
Some politicians really like the opportunity to consider the great challenges of government as they meander. William Gladstone, the Victorian prime minister and moralist, was an keen daily walker, pioneering a way up Mt Snowdon at the age of eighty three. When involved in the europe™s economic woes in 2011, Angela Merkel, the German prime minister, decided to pass her summer break walking in the south Tyrol (nonetheless the holiday didn™t produce any immediate solutions to the issues)
Who could doubt that the English Composer Vaughan Williams was inspired by the British country side when he wrote possibly his most famous piece “The Lark Ascending”. Vaughan Williams, as were quite a few other English composers, was renowned for his common countryside walks not only to discover folk songs but also to be motivated by the rolling English Landscape.
Possibly we should leave the final words to John Muir, the Scottish-born American naturalist.
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like falling leaves.”
“I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out until sundown:
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