tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post7836172681106597431..comments2024-02-05T09:17:53.322-08:00Comments on Adrian Barlow's blog: In the HighlandsAdrian Barlowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04526714501872493961noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post-12209112518083994482015-04-21T12:39:39.785-07:002015-04-21T12:39:39.785-07:00I'm at my desk in south London but my imaginat...I'm at my desk in south London but my imagination is there, where I've walked many times in the Highlands and the Hebrides. The most beautiful walk of all, I think, was on Harris, going to Rhenigidale before there was a road; although Quinag in Sutherland runs it close. I was lost on the mountains once - my own fault, a long story - and had to sleep out in the heather and walk many miles the next morning to find a road. As I tramped along, to stop 'the evils of dereliction rush[ing] upon the thoughts', I recited poems to myself out loud, and tested myself on cricket records. The well-stocked mind - or a version of it - kept me going and drove panic away. <br /><br />I shall read this piece again with pleasure.tomdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03766237341387024779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873009918100574338.post-45864042569476612142015-04-18T02:15:47.773-07:002015-04-18T02:15:47.773-07:00Adrian, I had never thought to question Johnson’s ...Adrian, I had never thought to question Johnson’s desire to visit Scotland, but as your quotation demonstrates he had a very intelligent reason for doing so. I have never seen countryside as beautiful as that of the Highlands: even the mountains of Switzerland lack the sheer variety and minutiae of flora and rock type. In my mind is a quotation from a writer whose name I cannot remember. So, from memory – and slightly scrambled, I’m afraid: “We call the beautiful that the bare apprehension of which pleases.<br /><br />I do not call myself a railway enthusiast, but prefer travel by train to all other types of transport, and my bête noir is long distance travel by coach on motorways! <br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07119180758113013415noreply@blogger.com