Juneathon 2011 Day : Back to the Canal

2011 Streak 154/365: Run - 6.53 miles, Time 1hr 2min, Weather - hot and sunny

The rubble of Nash mills

Part 1

As an aside in my last post I said that Dr Johnson had a good quote for just about everything but I didn’t really expect him to have much to say about exercise. After all my image of him is of a gouty man at home in an ale house. My instinct was that if he ever thought about exercise he would be dismissive but I was wrong as he was able to see right to the heart of the matter:

The necessity of action is not only demonstrable from the fabric of the body, but evident from observation of the universal practice of mankind, who for the preservation of health in those whose rank or wealth exempts them from the necessity of lucrative labour, have invented sports and diversions, though not of equal use to the world with manual trades, yet of equal fatigue to those who practice them, and differing only from the drudgery of the husbandman or manufacturer, as they are acts of choice, and therefore performed without the painful sense of compulsion. The huntsman rises early, pursues his game through all the dangers and obstructions of the chase, swims rivers, and scales precipices, till he returns home no less harassed than the soldier, and has perhaps sometimes incurred as great hazard or wounds or death: yet he has no motive to incite his ardour; he is neither subject to the commands of a general, nor dreads any penalties for neglect and disobedience; he has neither profit nor honour to expect from his perils and his conquests; but toils without the hope of mural or civic garlands, and must content himself with the praise of his tenants and companions."

Johnson: Rambler #85 (January 8, 1751)

Apart from the acute observation the phrase which struck me was ‘lucrative labour’ and the neat divide between the wealthy and those who work was physically hard. In two and a half centuries  things have changed. A middle has developed and grown so that a majority of us are now sedentary, which means that we fall into the wealthy category of having to invent exercise.

I must admit that I do not feel like a landowner or Eighteenth Century gentleman but for that short time I am out on my run I have joined their ranks.

Part 2

The today’s run was something of a landmark - I was back to my home run; back to the canal. Since returning all my runs have been round the park, which has been perfectly fine but I find it psychologically difficult to run many laps. If I want to run further I have to have a route that goes there and back or is a bigger loop.

This morning I planned 6 miles and rather pathetically was quite excited by the idea going back to the towpath I like to claim as my own. Gosh! Looking forward to something is always worrying because I assume I will be disappointed but this was not the case. As soon as I reached the canal and felt the cooling of the the trees and water and saw the beauty of the stillness I just said to myself “welcome back”.

Part 3

The picture shows all that is left of what once was a very significant paper mill. It was John Dickinson's second mill and dated from 1811. Now it has been demolished for housing and all the stone and brick has been ground up into a fine rubble.