There is in this aspect of land from the sea I know not what of continual discovery and adventure, and therefore of youth, or, if you prefer a more mystical term, of resurrection. That which you thought you knew so well is quite transformed, and as you gaze you begin to think of the poeple inhabiting the firm earth beyond that line of sand as some unknown and happy people, or, if you remember their arrangements of wealth and poverty and their ambitious follies, they seem not tragic but comic to you, thus isolated as you are on the waters and free from it all. You think of landsmen as on a stage. And, again, the majesty of the Land itself takes its true place and properly lessens the mere interest in one's fellows. Nowhere does England take on personality so strongly as from the sea.
- Hilaire Belloc, "Off Exmouth"
I'm reading Jonathan Raban's Coasting: A Private Journey - a story about his sailing in a small boat around his native England.
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