More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
sea. I sat there for some time, a young man with more on his mind than in it.
To this day, I remain impressed by the ability of Britons of all ages and social backgrounds to get genuinely excited by the prospect of a hot beverage.
dog. It is an interesting experience to become acquainted with a country through the eyes of the insane, and, if I may say so, a particularly useful grounding for life in Britain.
I found a neatly turned-down bed complete with hot-water bottle and, after the most cursory of ablutions, crawled gratefully into it, wondering why it is that the beds in the houses of grandparents and in-laws are always so deliciously comfortable.
One of the charms of the British is that they have so little idea of their own virtues, and nowhere is this more true than with their happiness.
To an American the whole purpose of living, the one constant confirmation of continued existence, is to cram as much sensual pleasure as possible into one’s mouth more or less continuously. Gratification, instant and lavish, is a birthright. You might as well say “Oh, I shouldn’t really” if someone tells you to take a deep breath.
There is no doubt in my mind that Salisbury Cathedral is the single most beautiful structure in England and the close around it the most beautiful space. Every stone, every wall, every shrub, is just right. It is as if every person who has touched it for seven hundred years has only improved it.
The trick of successful walking, I always say, is knowing when to stop.
One thing I have learned over the years is that your impressions of a place are necessarily, and often unshakably, colored by the route you take into it.
Prolonged solitary travel, you see, affects people in different ways. It is an unnatural business to find yourself in a strange place with an underutilized brain and no particular reason for being there, and eventually it makes you go a little crazy.
I suppose we all have a piece of landscape somewhere that we find captivating beyond words