The Fellow That Goes Alone: An Essay On Walking
The Fellow That Goes Alone: An Essay On Walking
A Peculiar Parish Edition by Kenneth Grahame
“The best sort of walk is the one on which it doesn’t matter twopence whether you get anywhere at all.”
Five years after the publication of The Wind in the Willows, author Kenneth Grahame penned a succinct essay for his old school magazine at Saint Edward’s in Oxford. In it, he celebrates the profound and simple joy to be found in walking, and why a companion isn’t necessarily a benefit on the journey.
Earthy and transcendent, as is all of Grahame’s best work, The Fellow That Goes Alone conjures creative escape and a feeling of wholeness for anyone able and willing to wander out-of-doors, no matter the responsibilities awaiting them at the end of the road.
24 pages, with one full-color and three black-and-white illustrations
Size: 4.5 x 6 inches
Published 1913
Fiddler’s Green Peculiar Parish Magazine was born of a languid afternoon of conversation on a sunny tavern lawn. Taking its name from the pleasant afterlife dreamed into being by sailors, cavalrymen, and other adventurous spirits, Fiddler’s Green gathers friends, good cheer, and a bit of magic to create a better world not someday, but now.
In ecclesiastical terms, the word “peculiar” refers to a district outside the jurisdiction of the church. It’s also a good word for describing my own view of reality, and likely yours as well. And so here is a “peculiar parish magazine” for anyone who doesn’t feel the need to have their inner life directed by others. If it is peculiar that we wish to govern our bodies and souls ourselves, then let us be peculiar.
The conversation continues, and there is room for you in it. Each of us is on our own journey, both in this world and whatever lies beyond it. Sometimes the path is well lit; at other times it is obscured. Your wanderings have brought you here, and I hope you’ll stray for a while with me and the other souls gathered at Fiddler’s Green.
Clint Marsh
