Then there were our boots, which of course were a matter of the first
importance, as they had to stand the strain and wear and tear of a long
journey, and must be easy fitting and comfortable, with thick soles to
protect our feet from the loose stones which were so plentiful on the
roads, and made so that they could be laced tightly to keep out the
water either when raining or when lying in pools on the roads, for there
were no steam-rollers on the roads in those days.

In buying our boots we did not both adopt the same plan. I made a
special journey to Manchester, and bought the strongest and most
expensive I could find there; while my brother gave his order to an old
cobbler, a particular friend of his, and a man of great experience, who
knew when he had hold of a good piece of leather, and to whom he had
explained his requirements. These boots were not nearly so smart looking
as mine and did not cost as much money, but when I went with him for the
boots, and heard the old gentleman say that he had fastened a piece of
leather on his last so as to provide a corresponding hole inside the
boot to receive the ball of the foot, I knew that my brother would have
more room for his feet to expand in his boots than I had in mine. We
were often asked afterwards, by people who did not walk much, how many
pairs of boots we had worn out during our long journey, and when we
replied only one each, they seemed rather incredulous until we explained
that it was the soles that wore out first, but I had to confess that my
boots were being soled the second time when my brother's were only being
soled the first time, and that I wore three soles out against his two.
Of course both pairs of boots were quite done at the conclusion of our
walk.

Changes of clothing we were obliged to have sent on to us to some
railway station, to be afterwards arranged, and soiled clothes were to
be returned in the same box. This seemed a very simple arrangement, but
it did not work satisfactorily, as railways were few and there was no
parcel-post in those days, and then we were always so far from our base
that we were obliged to fix ourselves to call at places we did not
particularly want to see and to miss others that we would much rather
have visited. Another objection was that we nearly always arrived at
these stations at inconvenient times for changing suits of clothes, and
as we were obliged to do this quickly, as we had no time to make a long
stay, we