MixedThe Washington PostStewart shows self-deprecating humor throughout, and his prose is always cool and lucid. But there is a lot of it. Just as I suspect that no reader has ever wished that Wordsworth had written more, so here too even the most loyal followers may limp in a little footsore by the end of the day ... The problem with The Marches is that, having crossed England coast to coast along Hadrian’s Wall — more than enough for most travel writers — Stewart then embarks on a series of further walks for some 1,000 miles. The accompanying map looks like a spider’s web. Much of what he later encounters is fascinating but not particularly germane ... Still, like Wordsworth, Stewart brings a humane empathy to his encounters with people and landscape.
