Vanishing Roads and Other Essays

Roads disappearing into woods and beyond hills prompt Richard Le Gallienne to reflect on the meanings people find in nature. Published in 1915, this collection of English essays begins with a meditation on landscape, spiritual feeling and the old myths through which human beings have understood the natural world. A dedication to his friend Robert Hobart Davis gives the volume a personal opening, recalling years of companionship.

The range extends from gossip and literary life to gardens and the English countryside. In the countryside passage, ruined abbeys, manor houses and ancient remains become part of the scenery, while public footpaths allow walkers to share privately owned land. Le Gallienne values the slow pace of English lanes and considers how history and landholding have shaped their beauty. Readers interested in reflective nature writing and early twentieth-century essays will find landscape placed alongside friendship, memory and social observation.