The rambler’s search for the sensuous

Abstract

By examining the habits and experiences of walking in the countryside, moors, and mountains a deeply sensual public connection to nature is found in this chapter. Listening is part of this, but so too are touching and other sensory encounters. While rambling on one hand was an escape from the trials of urban and working life, it is argued that the weekend excursions that so many Britons participated in are better thought of as an exchange and balancing out of different sensations available in different places. Having said that, it was encounters with heather, streams, and rock formations that set the pulse racing. Rambling was by no means simply a search for peace and quiet, or for hilltop contemplation, rather walkers relished the accentuation of body rhythms and the stimulation that came from direct interaction with the natural environment.