When the Englishman Richard Ford published A Handbook for Travellers in Spain (1845), he claimed that, ‘No Spaniard . . . ever took a regular walk on his own two feet – a walk for the sake of mere health’.1 In this, he not only pinpointed cultural differences between the two nations with respect to attitudes towards walking, but also the long-held British belief that walking was beneficial to physical and mental health. As early as the second half of the sixteenth century, there had been a renaissance in the acknowledgement of the health benefits of walking: following classical examples, it was thought to encourage the ability to think, as well as to encourage better physical health. This chapter investigates how a renewed interest in walking affected the design of landscapes, both private and public. Until the eighteenth century, the idea of a walk as a recreational activity in the countryside was somewhat of an enigma, and the main venue for such exercise was the garden. The reason was the condition of roads, dusty in summer and dirty in winter. To provide a firm surface for carriage wheels, good roads were ‘metalled’ with crushed stone or gravel to form hard surfaces. But, whatever the efforts, road surfaces remained a problem, as described by Robert Phillips in his 1736–7 Dissertation on the topic:
Now between wet and dry (for Example, when a Day or two of Rain there succeeds a Week or a Fortnight of dry Weather) the Sun, by drying, makes hard dry Ridges between the Rutts before it can evaporate all the Water in the Rutts, which every Shower of Rain fills again, tho’ it cannot soften the hard Ridges; but then it softens the Bottoms of the Rutts, so that Carriages sink still deeper into them. When the Weather becomes warmer, and the Days longer, as the Rutts begin to grow dry, they grow so stiff and heavy that they make a great difference in the Draught, at least that of one Horse in five. The Wheels go so hard, that when the Rutts are at the deepest, it is so dangerous and difficult to go out of a Track, that Carriages can hardly pass by one another without overturning.2
It is clear that this was a potent mixture, even without the horse and farm-animal excrement that was inevitably mixed in with it. Despite the fact that there was a tradition of leaving space for pedestrians along the sides of high roads, these were frequently soiled also (Figure 2.2.1). The state of the roads inhibited any pedestrian activity that was not necessary for transport or work related and, therefore, associated with the working classes (Figure 2.2.2). The activity of walking for the upper classes, therefore, took place where dry and smooth surfaces could be assured with gravel walks. Gravel originating from the Kensington and Blackheath areas became famous for the construction of London walks that were primarily found in gardens in the south of the country.
Figure 2.2.1 Standard road section
Source: J.C. Loudon, Encyclopaedia of Agriculture, 1835, London, p. 568
Figure 2.2.2 This patten was tied underneath shoes to prevent them becoming spoiled
Source: Sheffield Museum Services
Peripatetic walks
Some of the earliest surviving gardens of the mediaeval period were in monasteries, as cloisters surrounding courtyards, which, like ambulacrums in academic institutions, must have been intended for contemplation and philosophising. This kind of peripatetic walking – up and down, or round and round – was inspired by reports of Aristotle’s lyceum, where members met in the peripatoi, the covered walkway or colonnade. An ambulacrum was incorporated into the north side of the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, which, though without doors, had glazed windows, to provide some comfort and protection from the elements. The openings provided direct access to the garden, so that, presumably with better weather, the walk could continue outside. Here, the pathways were shared with those approaching the plants in order to study them (Figure 2.2.3).
Figure 2.2.3 Cloisters surrounding courtyards, like those of the ambulacrums in academic institutions, were intended for contemplation and philosophising; examples at Colégio do Espírito Santo, Évora, built 1574–90
Source: Photograph by Jan Woudstra
Constitutional walks
By the time they were being rediscovered in the second half of the sixteenth century, English spa towns provided another reason for walking. Besides taking the water and the dietary requirements, there was a ritual for walking, sometimes at the beginning of the day or at the end. In 1626, evening walks at Knaresborough were taken ‘into the fields, or Castle-yard’, and provision was generally increased, special walks being created for the purpose. The new walk followed the River Nidd and included the famous Dropping Well, where, according to legend, Mother Shipton, an English prophetess, was born. Such destinations must have contributed substantially to the pleasure of walking.
Walking was considered conducive to health; in his essay ‘Of regiment of health’, Francis Bacon (1561–1626) emphasises the importance of exercise, which included walking in ‘Alleys, enough for foure to walke abreast’. Between 1597 and 1599, Bacon laid out Gray’s Inn Fields, London, for this purpose. It consisted of a series of parallel walks lined with elm trees, with one central, wide avenue and narrower ones to either side. These walks on the edge of the city, with good views northwards, became a popular destination, particularly after the ravages of the plague at various intervals during the seventeenth century, as good air could be appreciated there.3
The issue of walking was also addressed in the redesign of St James Park by Charles II after the Restoration in the 1660s, when he instituted so-called constitutional walks, probably intended as a pun on the Constitution, but meant for his constitution (and that of the Court) instead. The name Constitution Hill, the avenue between the present-day Buckingham Palace and Green Park, is a reminder of these daily walks.4 The Mall, laid out as a double avenue as part of these changes, also became and long remained a popular destination for promenading. The central avenue was dedicated to the game of pall mall, or paille maille, played with wooden hammers on long sticks. Promenading took place in the narrower avenues on either side of the track, which was fenced off with low boarding.
Figure 2.2.4 John Worlidge produced two theoretical models for gardens: the circular one (a) was designed so as to enable continuous walking, without the need to turn corners, but the disadvantage over the square garden (b) was that one was more likely to step into the borders
Source: John Worlidge, Systema horti-culturae, 1677, London
By this time, walking had become so much part of a healthy Puritan life that it was gener -ally incorporated. John Worlidge’s Systema horti-culturae (1677) included two hypothetical designs for walled gardens including walks as the predominant element. One scheme was a circular garden based on foreign models, where the walk that, ‘circundates that Garden is not unpleasant, for that you may walk as long as you please in it always forward without any short turning’. He believed nevertheless that, ‘The Square is the most perfect and pleasant form that you can lay your Garden into’, because this form of garden, with straight walks, was much easier to navigate as a pedestrian (see Figures 2.2.4a and 2.2.4b):
The delight you take in walking in it being much the more as you are less careful: for when you walk in a round or circle, you are more subject to trespass on the borders, without continual thoughts and observations of your Ground.5