Sunday Tramps

This walking group was started by Sir Frederick Pollock, George Croom Robertson, and the author and mountaineer Sir Leslie Stephen, in 1879. Each fortnight between October and June, Stephen organised walks of up to 25 miles long in the countryside surrounding London. Members from the world of literature, academia, philosophy, and economics, described by Stephen as 'precisely the kind of person who writes articles in newspapers', were invited to join the walks and lively conversations. Despite their disparate backgrounds, they were united by a late Victorian intellectual vigor, affiliated with many other clubs and groups of the age. While the act of strolling and engaging in intellectual dialogue was an accepted Victorian pursuit, walking past churches and cathedrals on a Sunday was a direct challenge to accepted behavior of the period. The group also took great delight in trespassing on private land, which became an important part of their Sunday excursions. Stephen's last walk with the group took place on 1894 and the group dispersed the following year.