Blank tablets of stone,
Where a traveler might groan,
And in one sentence
Grave all that is known
Which another might read,
In his extreme need.
I know one or two
Lines that would do,
Literature that might stand
All over the land
Which a man could remember
Till next December,
And read again in the spring,
After the thawing.
If with fancy unfurled
You leave your abode,
You may go round the world
By the Old Marlborough Road.

At present, in this vicinity, the best part of the land is not
private property; the landscape is not owned, and the walker
enjoys comparative freedom. But possibly the day will come when
it will be partitioned off into so-called pleasure-grounds, in
which a few will take a narrow and exclusive pleasure only--when
fences shall be multiplied, and man-traps and other engines
invented to confine men to the PUBLIC road, and walking over the
surface of God's earth shall be construed to mean trespassing on
some gentleman's grounds. To enjoy a thing exclusively is
commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it. Let
us improve our opportunities, then, before the evil days come.