# On the Sambre Canalised: To Landrecies explained — Travel Essays

> Chapter companion for Travel Essays by Robert Louis Stevenson.

## What happens

The narrator and the Cigarette continue their canoe journey along the Sambre canal, enduring rain and locks. The narrator reflects on the beauty of the forest of Mormal, contrasting nature's majesty with human pettiness. He encounters a mocking old man who disparages their voyage, but is heartened by two young men who defend it. The chapter ends with their departure from Pont, observed by amazed locals.

## Themes in this chapter

### Nature and the Sublime

The narrator extols the forest of Mormal as a living, majestic entity, contrasting its beauty and permanence with human transience.

### Human Connection and Community

Interactions with the old man, the young men, and the innkeepers highlight the social dynamics of travel and the need for encouragement.

### Freedom vs. Confinement

The narrator's determination to continue despite the old man's mockery and the physical hardships of locks and rain reflects a struggle for autonomy.

## Character check-ins

### The Cigarette

Travels with the narrator; wears a mackintosh and dryly comments on the narrator's behavior.

### Madame Gilliard

Landlady at the inn who provides water for washing and brushes boots.

### M. Hector

Arranges goods for the day's campaign at the inn.

## Key lines

> What is a forest but a city of nature's own, full of hardy and innocuous living things, where there is nothing dead and nothing made with the hands, but the citizens themselves are the houses and public monuments?

A forest is like a natural city, alive and self-built, where trees serve as both inhabitants and architecture.

_The narrator personifies the forest as a living community._

> Get into a train, my little young man, and go you away home to your parents.

The old man dismissively advises the narrator to take the train and return home.

_The old man's mockery spurs the narrator's defiance._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/travel_essays_se/chapters/on-the-sambre-canalised-to-landrecies
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/travel_essays_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/travel_essays_se/chapters