How they did things in the past

[boatman]

A recent post on doing without stuff made me think of assorted people in the past who simply went for a walk, often a very long walk, with almost nothing that we would recognise as necessary for being in the great out doors.

The best book summing up literary figures and long walks is "Shank's Pony" by Morris Marples. From Romans to 1930s youth groups.
People like the Wordsworths and Coleridge who thought nothing of walking forty miles, Dorothy would walk eight miles out and back to collect the post when they lived in the Lake District.

Stephen Graham's "The Gentle Art of Tramping" and his other books can take you on walks around the Black Sea and even to Canada.

"The Icknield Way" by Edward Thomas takes us across Southern England through places literally untouched by time.

Etc. Etc.

What none of these people seemed to do was to burden themselves with much in the way of kit. But, most would have worn broadcloth or tweed so were already partially inured to the elementswith thick wool. For most a bit of bread and cheese in the pocket and they were set for the day or more, see the American John Muir who seems only to have had bread in his pocket, "A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf".

If you lug along a home from home on your poor protesting back have you really left home?

 

[John Fenna]

Different people have different needs of "comfort" and in the past folk accepted a lower standard of comfort and hygiene as "normal" - George Burrows took with him a clean shirt and some reading matter for his walk through Wild Wales. I bet he stank like a rotting polecat most of the time. A roman soldiers load was about the same as a modern soldiers and they had leather tents. One of the famous "roman postcards" is from a Roman soldier on Hadrians Wall asking his wife to send him more warm clothing. 1930s Scouts took hand carts (trek carts) to carry the gear they needed for a camp. Everyone likes a little comfort.

 

[boatman]

Most people smelt in the past and really up to the 1960's when the habit of daily baths or showers really came in. Think of the shirt with detached collars worn for a week.
The Scouts used trek carts of course to carry their bell tents, cooking pots etc but that does not invalidate the point that many simply faced the outdoors by walking out into it with what they normally wore.

How many people on here would care to keep up with George Borrow or the Wordsworths and all the rest?

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

If everyone smelt then there would be no problem !

I'm sure they knew what flowers etc to use and make scented oils etc.

 

[Huon]

Maybe much of the old attitude was due to a need to walk more in daily life anyway. For most of history public transport would not have been an option and I assume that horses were probably for the comparatively wealthy.

We don't run a car in the UK and I find that I also usually walk instead of taking public transport as I'd rather walk than wait. This means that I sometimes find myself doing quite lengthy unplanned walks without the equipment and clothing I'd take on a planned walk of the same distance. So far I haven't come adrift although a recent unplanned 25K (don't ask!) through a forest did result in sore feet due to new footwear. I'm sure tour walking forebears sometimes hit the same problem

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

I think your right and they were generally 'walk fitter' than us. Look at these kids 'walk to school'. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/p...-great-lengths-in-order-to-get-to-school.html

 

[Huon]

I think your right and they were generally 'walk fitter' than us. Look at these kids 'walk to school'. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/p...-great-lengths-in-order-to-get-to-school.html

Superb!

In the fifties my mother was the headmistress of a girls school in Papua New Guinea. It was a boarding school but to get there to board and study some of her students used to travel enormous distances. Apparently some walked almost 100 miles to get there. These were the best students my mother has ever had. They were all there because they really, really wanted to learn.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

The lower income kids in my area tend to walk to school, sometimes in rain with a just a hoody or sweater. They don't complain. They are so used to walking everywhere.

Anyway, the suns oot till dusk so I'm off for a walk..............

 

[Elen Sentier]

I find myself in tune with the OP for walking out but I do take pocketsfull of "stuff", most of which lives in the pockets all the time! I want the freedom of just going out spontaneously and am working on lightening my walking-and-camping load. I do feel people are both flabby and fear-ridden nowadays. The looks I get if I mention that I used to head for the wilds of Exmoor, with my pony and satchell of bread and cheese/ham at 8am and with an injunction to be home before it got dark, from the age of 11 on . I learned so much from this, kids nowadays seem to be wrapped in cottonwool and never have these sort of opportunities.

 

[rg598]

Keep in mind that a lot of what we read about the past is a myth. These men who did those things were legends even during their own time, and there were dime store novels written about their exploits. Most of it was just publicity. Going out for a day or two with just some food is not a problem. It wasn't a problem then, and it's not a problem now. However, those people did not do it in -30C, nor did they do it for weeks at a time. When they did, they brought proper equipment, just like we do. It's true, these days the average person is much more afraid to spend a night int he woods, but the task is no less doable.

 

[mrcharly]

have a read of 'A moment of war' and 'I walked out one midsummer morning'. He didn't carry much.

 

[sandbender]

"...If you lug along a home from home on your poor protesting back have you really left home?.."

I have found that I can travel with surprisingly little gear, I like a nice sleeping bag, but beyond that I find things as I go, I hate to carry too much stuff.

In the 1930's Patrick Leigh Fermor set off to walk from Holland to Constantinople, he took an old army greatcoat and a 'mountaineering' rucksack with a few clothes and some books. Most of which were lost in the first weeks of his journey.

I have not walked quite as far as he did, but it was reading his books that got me out into the less trodden paths of the world.

 

[brozier]

Funnily enough I'm reading "A tramps sketches" by Stephen Graham at the moment. It is very much at the philisophical rather than practical end of the Genre, but no less enjoyable for it.

He certainly has a Rucksack and Wool blanket. I think also Tinderbox / Flint etc for firelighting and he is not proud of begging for shelter when the weather gets grim.
He's also found sleeping under bridges which seems to be something that has endured to the present day....

He does bathe every day, in the sea where possible too so perhaps at the more fragrant end of the scale

Cheers
Bryan

 

[pastymuncher]

Have a read of Clear Waters Rising by Nicholas Crane, he of Coast fame, not only walked across Europe via the mountains but climbed the mountains as well, with next to no gear. Umbrella for a shelter, a loaf of bread and bit of cheese for food. The 3 sock rotation is genius.

 

[Tadpole]

Were I to have the time, I could walk from England to Scotland and across to Europe with just the contents of my pocket. The people in the OP's post are the same, but where as they carried a few gold sovereigns I'd just carry my debit card.

 

[Home Guard]

This is exactly my aproach on bushcraft. I don't like to be burdenned by bergens or hassled by hammocks.

All of my kit does the job and it isnt flashy or expensive, yet it'll do me for many nights out.

Carrying only the kit which will take care of your key needs, sleepin', eatin' and drinkin' is all you HAVE to worry about, anything else you add to your bag is a bonus.

My pack is a quarter the size of most bushcrafters and it makes a difference. Being able to comfortably walk further with your roof, larder and bed on your back gives me a great feeling of satisfaction.

I'm always open to new ideas, but this is how i've always done it since I started a few years ago. So I suppose it's simular to those stories mentioned from years ago, they didnt know any different from personal experience.

 

[dave53]

a really great post regards dave

 

[Joonsy]

there is a book caled ''Gentleman of the Road'' by Charles Ackerman Berry. At the age of 60 he chose to go tramping in the old-fashioned sense taking nothing whatsoever with him. In the 1960s/70s i used to see plenty of those old-fashioned ''gentlemen of the road'' walking between Hereford and Worcester, you don't see that type any more, i mean the type that 'chose' tramping as a way of life, it seems the old-fashioned gentleman of the road has dissapeared.

 

[rg598]

there is a book caled ''Gentleman of the Road'' by Charles Ackerman Berry. At the age of 60 he chose to go tramping in the old-fashioned sense taking nothing whatsoever with him. In the 1960s/70s i used to see plenty of those old-fashioned ''gentlemen of the road'' walking between Hereford and Worcester, you don't see that type any more, i mean the type that 'chose' tramping as a way of life, it seems the old-fashioned gentleman of the road has dissapeared.

We have a lot of them here in the US. I see them on the street all the time. They are usually younger people, much like the guy from Into The Wild. It's very sad to see.

 

[Tristar777]

Hi. These are all good stories but you dont read of all those that died on the road, either through exposure, accidents or being killed and robbed. In days gone by as now, walking the open road could result in death and injury. Many would choose to travel by boat and following the coastline rather than risk being caught by ambush. Im not knocking those that did this or those that do this now but as always the ones that survived are the ones written about, and they walked these distances as there were no other choices!