The
Old Ways – A Journey On Foot by Robert MacFarlane
It
is quite rare that I read a book that immediately goes into my top-ten list of
favourite non-fiction.
I
came to Robert MacFarlane’s book after watching a TV documentary that he wrote
about Nan Shepherd, the Patron Saint of the Cairngorms. I immediately read ‘The
Living Mountain’ by Shepherd, and then by chance found a copy, brand new, of ‘The
Old Ways’ in a charity shop. Being a romantic I liked the strange chance that
led me to picking it up, and the many worlds that it opened up for me.
It’s
as if Robert MacFarlane knows all the interesting, quirky and windswept
landscapes that I love so much, has already visited them all, and tied it all
up in one book.
This
book is also a field guide for all the influences that can shape a person and
their view of the world into one of affection, wisdom, and the love of walking.
Whitman is here, Emerson, John Masefield, Dorothy Wordsworth, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, and George Borrow. There are many side-roads that can be explored. An
example is George Borrow. As a student I passed George Borrow Road in Norwich,
and never gave it a second thought. In these pages the author describes Borrow,
his life, and who he influenced.
Throughout,
I kept thinking about the inheritance of great thinkers from one generation to
the next, a little like the line of descent of eastern wisdom. At the end of
Robert MacFarlane’s line of inheritance is Edward Thomas, the walker, writer,
poet and soldier who died at Arras in 1917.
But
to describe The Old Ways as a book about people doesn’t even get close to why
it is magnificent. It is primarily a book about landscapes. MacFarlane senses
that our long link to the earth beneath our feet is metaphorically and
literally being eroded, and when the link is broken we stand to lose so much.
He writes with beauty and care about how the ancient people of The British
Isles tended their landscape, took care over the paths that run through it and
over it, and how their lives contributed to it and it to them. From Neolithic times,
when people first made an impression on the landscape through barrows, chalk
cuts, pathways and stones, we have shaped the landscape and it has shaped us.
With hundreds of carefully crafted examples, the author leads the reader
through a series of landscapes and reminds him or her what is special and
distinct. It is a major piece of great writing, and had me reaching for other
books to learn more. We are connected by our footfall, and it is this that is
the centre of Robert MacFarlane’s meditation.
The
message, perhaps, is that we understand our land through physical movement
across it. If we cut that link, how can we understand, and how can we think?
Pathways
do not just exist on land. I enjoyed the writing about the sea-ways that until
recent times were a very important part of the lives of so many people. There
are chapters about the far north, the lost people who lived around the sea instead
of around the land. We now look inwards to our road and rail networks – something
that people in previous centuries would not understand. Instead, they
considered the sea, and its relative ease of movement, to be at the centre of
things. We are an island people, after all.
This
book is primarily about the British Isles, but there are other adventures as
well. There is a chapter about Ramallah, and how walking there is becoming a
political act. There is also a section about the graceful and dangerous Minya
Konka in Tibet.
It
is when the writer returns to Britain and the land of Edward Thomas that the
book makes most of the link between person and place. It is clear that Thomas
is a hero. After reading this book, I felt compelled to add a little chapter of
my own by making a detour in Northern France. With significant difficulty I managed
to find Thomas’ grave at Agny, just south of Arras. As the book is so much
about being out in the landscape, I decided to follow the advice.
This
is a magnificent book. It takes some reflection and digestion. Read it, and
start following some paths of your own that you have been putting off for so
long. Leave the car at home.
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