The Marches Quotes

“Steep curving stone stairs led to a square library on the floor above. The 4,000 books in the library were mostly collected between 1710 and 1730. ... For a moment I was tempted to ask to be locked in. If I could skim ten books a day for a year, I would be able to get a sense of most of what David Hume might have read in 1730 -- an age when it still might just have been possible to read everything.”
― Rory Stewart, The Marches: A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland – A Profound Father-Son Memoir of Historical Reflection and Heritage

“As we walked past a quad bike chained to a farm gate, he remarked "It's such a pity how times have changed. You can't leave a piece of machinery out on the road any more." He seemed to have forgotten that he had just been describing a time when you couldn't leave you cattle out.”
― Rory Stewart, The Marches: A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland – A Profound Father-Son Memoir of Historical Reflection and Heritage