And on that way I intend to keep until I have
no more strength to climb over fences and force my way through
hedges, but like a blind and worn-out old badger must take to
my earth and die.
I found the Exe easy to follow at first. Further on
exceedingly difficult in places; but I was determined to keep
near it, to have it behind me and before me and at my side,
following, leading, a beautiful silvery serpent that was my
friend and companion. For I was following not the Exe only,
but a dream as well, and a memory. Before I knew it the Exe
was a beloved stream. Many rivers had I seen in my
wanderings, but never one to compare with this visionary
river, which yet existed, and would be found and followed at
last. My forefathers had dwelt for generations beside it,
listening all their lives long to its music, and when they
left it they still loved it in exile, and died at last with
its music in their ears. Nor did the connection end there;
their children and children's children doubtless had some
inherited memory of it; or how came I to have this feeling,
which made it sacred, and drew me to it? We inherit not from
our ancestors only, but, through them, something, too, from
the earth and place that knew them.
I sought for and found it where it takes its rise on open
Exmoor; a simple moorland stream, not wild and foaming and
leaping over rocks, but flowing gently between low peaty
banks, where the little lambs leap over it from side to side
in play.
Pages:
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268