Come English Settlement, I had it in my head that I didn't want to tour.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I have, I must admit, despised the English countryside for much of my life - despised it and avoided it for its want of danger and adventure.
I had almost forgotten to tell you that I have already been to the Parliament House; and yet this is of most importance. For, had I seen nothing else in England but this, I should have thought my journey thither amply rewarded.
In spite of holidays when I was free to visit London theatres and explore the countryside, I spent four very miserable years as a colonial at an English school.
Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn't any good reason to refer to it.
I discovered freedom for the first time in England.
I grew up in the countryside in the middle of nowhere in England and got out as soon as I could!
Often, before returning home, I would take a long and roundabout way and pass by the peaceful ramparts from where I had glimpses of other provinces, and a sight of the distant country.
Britain still has the most reliably beautiful countryside of anywhere in the world. I would hate to be part of the generation that allowed that to be lost.
I came to London. It had become the center of my world and I had worked hard to come to it. And I was lost.
I went to Cambridge and thought I would stay there. I thought I would quietly grow tweed in a corner somewhere and become a Don or something.