Edward Thomas

The Icknield Way Edward Thomas

Much has been written of travel, far less of the road. Writers have treated the road as a passive means to an end, and honoured it most when it has been an obstacle; they leave the impression that a road is a connection between two points which only exists when the traveller is upon it. Though there is much travel in the Old Testament, "the way" is used chiefly as a metaphor. "Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south," says the historian, who would have used the same words had the patriarch employed wings. Yet to a nomadic people the road was as important as anything upon it. The earliest roads wandered like rivers through the land, having, like rivers, one necessity, to keep in motion. We still say that a road "goes" to London, as we "go" ourselves. We point out a white snake on a green hill-side, and tell a man: "That is going to Chichester." At our inn we think when recollecting the day: "That road must have gone to Strata Florida." We could not attribute more life to them if we had moving roads with platforms on the sidewalks. We may go or stay, but the road will go up over the mountains to Llandovery, and then up again over to Tregaron. It is a silent companion always ready for us, whether it is night or day, wet or fine, whether we are calm or desperate, well or sick. It is always going: it has never gone right away, and no man is too late. Only a humorist could doubt this, like the boy in a lane who was asked: "Where does this lane go to, boy?" and answered: "I have been living here these sixteen years and it has never moved to my knowledge." Some roads creep, some continue merely; some advance with majesty, some mount a hill in curves like a soaring sea-gull.