The benches that I've passed today and yesterday, have all been put in places I don't want to stop. All of them seemed like a slightly military bark to stop there and look at Nature - 'It'll do you good'. I can't help associate them with the notion of the improving landscape that has its route in the period I'm interested in thinking about, the period of the construction of the modern idea of landscape and what to do in it. The thoughts that perhaps propelled those teenagers into the 'fresh air'. Thoughts I can't help thinking were not theirs, but their parents, perhaps now enjoying a few moments of quiet at home.
Not one of these benches had shelter over them, like the structure I fantasised I would find, a sort of bus shelter half way up a mountain. The strangest for me was the one I saw yesterday, by the side of a moderately busy road, placed up a bank, and overlooking a singularly unnoteworthy view of the blank heather hill opposite. It was dedicated to 'a local walker' but I can't help thinking he'd be a bit disappointed at its placement.
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