UNTRODDEN
ENGLISH WAYS
BY
HENRY
C. SHELLEY
 ASHORE
FOR REPAIRS, ST. IVES
AUTHOR
OF "LITERARY BY - PATHS IN OLD ENGLAND,""JOHN
HARVARD AND HIS TIMES," ETC.
 CATFIELD
STAITHE With
Four Full-Page Plates in Colour,and Illustrations from
Drawings
by H. C. Colbyand
from Photographs by the Author
BOSTONLITTLE,
BROWN, AND COMPANYCopyright, 1908,BY LITTLE, BROWN,
AND
COMPANY.
COLONIAL
PRESSElectrotyped
and Printed by
C. H. Simonds & Co.Boston,
U. S. A.
TO
WILLIAM
E. HASKELL
IN
SINCERE APPRECIATION OF CONFIDENCE AND FRIENDSHIP
PREFACE
IN
selecting a collective title for the following chapters it has been
found impossible, at any rate by the author, to search out a
collocation of words more comprehensive than the one which stands on
the title page. That it is open to an objection is frankly admitted.
By no license can Poets' Corner be described as "untrodden,"
and that adjective may also be inappropriate in one or two additional
instances.
Nevertheless,
and apart altogether from the plea which might be based on the fact
that few books conform faithfully to their titles, it may be claimed
that "Untrodden English Ways" accurately describes
nine-tenths of the volume's contents. The best test of this will be
for the reader to consider what measure of acquaintance he has with
the various places described. He will know more of England than the
average Englishman, and greatly exceed the knowledge of the most
zealous tourist, if he can claim to have trodden many of these ways.
When
a country has so ancient a history as England, it is inevitable that
even its most neglected corners shall enshrine much of human
interest. To the author those byways have always possessed a subtler
charm than the highways of common knowledge. Hence the seeking out of
the unusual attempted in these pages, a departure from convention
which may, it is hoped, be justified by the results.
Perhaps
it will be of service to the tourist to point out that the chapters
are arranged in a geographical order, and that by starting at St.
Ives in Cornwall it will be possible to follow these untrodden ways
in easy sequence.
H.
C. S.
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