THE GENTLE ART OF TRAMPING

This ode to the sweet life of walking the open road is the work of Stephen Graham, who tramped across America, Russia and from London to Jerusalem. First published in 1926, it is rich with advice on how to hike – and live – that is still an inspiration today, like these five gems on....

...going slow

“I listen with pained reluctance to those who claim to have walked 50 miles a day. But it is a pleasure to meet the man who has learned the art of going slowly... to listen, to watch, to exist. Life is like a road; you hurry and the end of it is grave. There is no grand crescendo from hour to hour, day to day, year to year; life’s quality is in moments, not in distance run.”

...friends

“On the road, the weak and strong points of character are revealed. There are those who complain, making each mile seem like three; there are those who have untapped reserves of cheerfulness, who sing their companions through the tired hours... The road shows sturdiness, resourcefulness, patience, energy, vitality, or per contra, the lack of those things.”

...nature

“You stretch out arms for hidden gifts, you yearn toward the moonbeams and the stars, you listen with new ears to birdsong and the murmur of trees and streams. If ever you were proud or quarrelsome or restless, the inflammation goes down, fanned by the coolness of humility and simplicity.”

...the little things

“I have seldom gone on a long vagabondage without seeing things that made the heart ache with their beauty of pathos, and other things that set the mind a-tingle with curiosity.

...coffee

“...sun, moon, forest, river, road – these pass, but the coffee pot remains. It is so in life generally, and the tramp, however much a poet he may be is a mortal like the rest of is. The moon may be hidden by a cloud, but that is not nearly so calamitous as having left the coffee pot at the last camping place.”

New edition with foreword by Alastair Humphreys published on 4th April by Bloomsbury (£12.99, www.bloomsbury.com/tramping)