我為啥收藏那麼多英國徒步旅行老地圖？|威廉

原標題：我為啥收藏那麼多英國徒步旅行老地圖？|威廉

英國人聲稱徒步旅行（hiking）是由他們最早開啟的。在英語世界裡，根據你所在的國家不同，對這種旅行的提法也不一樣，有的國家叫trekking, 有的稱之rambling ，還有的說成tramping。

徒步給予了一些英國著名作家以創作靈感。威廉.華茲華斯（1770-1850）就成為英國湖區「湖畔詩人」，他的詩句「像白雲一般遊走」流芳百世。他與寫有讚美忽必烈上都的詩人塞繆爾.柯勒律治結伴而行，他們甚至笑迎風雪攀登斯諾頓山（威爾士最高的山）。之前，一般英國老百姓覺得戶外活動是農民、牧民和漁民的事，而那些作家和思想家們登山流汗、冒雨受寒，但回到家裡卻精神煥發，思緒敏捷。

在一戰之後二戰以前，徒步旅行快速普及開來。它從貴族階層的專利，變為新興中產階級的甚至工人階層的遊樂場。

經過戰爭的人們慶幸自己還活著，這都要感謝上帝。有真心相愛的人和情同手足的朋友為伴，就一定要花時間與他們一起享受生活。到了上世紀20年代，英國整個國家已經工業化150年。城鎮又臟又暗，空氣烏煙瘴氣，河水臭味熏天。英國人因開啟了工業革命，也受到環境污染的懲罰，同時成了第一個想逃離污染，解決污染問題的國家。

隨著人們逃離都市，走入鄉村，地圖的需求開始增加；英國測繪局製作出精美的地圖。一戰爆發時地圖在國內僅賣幾千冊，但是到了1918年地圖的銷售量已經一舉衝天。

英國測繪局開始為新的市場印製新的地圖。他們不但考慮製作地圖，更要考慮為誰製作地圖。他們著手為摩托車手、單車手和徒步旅行者製作專門的地圖。

地圖封面設計的改善，也是地圖業發展的有趣現象。

單色的封面不再受歡迎。測繪局開始花錢請藝術家來為地圖設計封面。那些繪有山峰的精美地圖封面，怎能不吸引像在曼徹斯特這樣的工業城市居住的人呢？有些地圖封面上還畫上了遊人，吸引購買者期待著像封面上的人一樣出去旅行。

到了上世紀20年代，英國人開始走遍本土城市和鄉村的各個角落。如果說15世紀和16世紀英國探險家和商人發現了世界新大陸，那麼上世紀20-30年代，英國民眾手持地圖探索發現了他們自己的國家。

作為一個地理學者和地圖收藏愛好者，我收集並使用英國國家測繪局的各種地圖。這些地圖即詳細又精確，而且專門為像我這樣的徒步者和單車手量身定做。

1990年我從英國回到中國時，帶回來三張由英國國家測繪局製作的地圖，也是我最珍視的。這三張地圖分別是：湖區地圖、斯諾頓山地圖和利物浦地圖。每一張地圖的封面即使現在看來都是非常精彩的設計。

最近幾年，我慢慢地又收藏了一些類似的繪畫封面的地圖。這些地圖曾經在這一個世紀中，帶領英國人走遍了英國最俊美、最有意思的地區。

經過幾年的收藏，我意識到我收藏的地圖已經有40多張，把它們像馬賽克一樣能鋪滿整個「不列顛島」！

Maps and The British Invention of Hiking

The British claim to discovered the activity that is now known as hiking, which is also known as trekking, rambling or tramping, depending on which part of the English-speaking world one might live.

It began as an inspiration to some of Britain』s most famous writers. William Wordsworth who famously 『wandered as a cloud』 became ardent walker in the Lake

District. He teamed up with Samuel Coleridge, who famously dreamt of Kubulai Khan』s palace in his poem 『In Xanadu』, to climb Snowdon (the highest mountain in Wales) in a blizzard. Before thinkers walked for pleasure, uphill, sweating, getting wet, feeling cold, and coming back with sore muscles but an invigorated mind, the British thought the outdoors was for farmers, herders and fishermen.

But the enormous leap from the hills being the secret of Britain』s outdoor aristocracy to it being the playground of the emerging middle classes and eventually working classes happened during the interbellum, after the Great War And before the Second World War.

People felt glad to be alive. People felt thankful to have a loved one, friends, to enjoy, to spend time with. By the 1920s, Britain』s green and pleasant land wasn』t quite as described. The country has been industrialized for almost 150 years. Twons and cities were dirty and dark, places where gods were produced and pollution discolored the air and where sewage made the rivers stink. By inventing industry, Britain invented industrial pollution, and by necessity, invented the pastime of first trying to walk away from it, and then solving it.

And as they walked away the mapping authority of Britain responded to their needs in showing the Way. The country had become the most well mapped pice if land on the planet by the Ordnance Survey. By the time the Great War erupted in Europe on 1914 the Ordnance Survey sold just a few thousand maps nationwide. But post 1918 their sales were set to skyrocket.

The Ordnance Survey began to engage in something fairly new for businesses at the time: marketing. The map makers began to think less about making maps and more about who needed them. They began to target motorists, cyclists and recreational walkers.

An interesting development at this time was the actual design of the maps put on sale.

No longer were plain covers acceptable. The Ordnance Survey commissioned artists to design and paint attractive pictorial covers. How could people not be attracted to a map adored with a mountain peak if they lived in industrial Manchester? Some maps even had the person they were designed to be used by on the cover.

By the 1920s all sorts of British people began reaching parts of the country, or more precisely the countryside, than ever before. If British explorers and merchants discovered much of the world in the 1600 and 1700s creating the Empire, it was in the 1920s and 1930s that the British discovered their own country — with maps in hand.

As a geographer and map collector I』ve always had and used Ordnance Survey maps. They were published at such a detailed scale that they were suited for use by walkers and cyclists.

When I came back to China in 1990 I carried three of my most treasured Ordnance Survey maps with me. These were maps of the Lake District and Snowdonia and Liverpool. All had the by-now iconic painted covers.

Within a few years I was conscious that they were nearing to be 100 years old I decided to frame them.

In recent years I have slowly collected similar pictorial-cover maps that once guided the British of a century ago to the most beautiful and interesting areas of the country.

After a few years of collecting I realized that my collection totally more than 40 maps. Laid out on the floor of my home they piece together a mosaic of the British Isles, a snapshot of two decades in time when the door of the great outdoors was opened to the ordinary people of Britain.

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