The Four Men

In the autumn of 1902 Hilaire Belloc set out to walk across his native Sussex, and turned the four-day tramp into this affectionate farrago of prose, song, and verse. His companions, Grizzlebeard, the Sailor, and the Poet, are really facets of himself, and their talk ranges over wine, faith, old friendships, and the passing of everything a man loves. Beneath the roadside inns and ridge-top views runs a deep ache for home and a dread of ever leaving it. Written when Belloc already mourned a vanishing rural England, the book ends on one of his most quoted poems of farewell. The complete text is available as a free PDF and EPUB edition.