H.E. Bates Companion

A reflection on the annual summer flight of harried urbanites to crowded seaside resorts, on "bullet-like coaches" that leave little opportunity to appreciate the intervening countryside. After remembering a boyhood trip to the seashore, Bates considers the fear of being alone as it may relate to holidays under the "protection of the herd" and guided tours. He concludes with a celebration of simple country joys --"of planting see in earth, of cutting grass to dry in the sun, of threshing seed from ripened stalks, of gathering fruit and berry, of enjoining the skill of human hands to the miraculous forces of earth's fertility...[that] appear to me to be the sources of much that is deepest, most pleasant or most satisfying on earth." In Illustrated (August 12, 1950, pp. 9-11, 35).