Walking

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understoodthe art of Walking, that is, of taking walks-who had a genius, so to speak, forsauntering, which word is beautifully derived "from idle people who roved about thecountry, in the Middle Ages, and asked charity, under pretense of going à la SainteTerre," to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, "There goes a Sainte-Terrer," aSaunterer, a Holy-Lander. They who never go to the Holy Land in their walks, as theypretend, are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds; but they who do go there aresaunterers in the good sense, such as I mean. Some, however, would derive the wordfrom sans terre without land or a home, which, therefore, in the good sense, will mean, having no particular home, but equally at home everywhere. For this is the secret ofsuccessful sauntering. He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatestvagrant of all; but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than themeandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to thesea. But I prefer the first, which, indeed, is the most probable derivation. For everywalk is a sort of crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forth andreconquer this Holy Land from the hands of the Infidels.