Roving East and Roving West — Reading Companion

Silent Footfalls and Inert Bodies

Lucas's first chapter, 'Noiseless Feet,' establishes a motif of quiet movement and static repose. He observes that Indians walk constantly but without sound, and that they rest 'at full length wherever the need for sleep takes them.' The only exception is when they break into a run—at funerals, or while carrying heavy loads like pianos. Lucas wryly admits he cannot explain the prevalence of piano-carrying in Calcutta, but the image of 'six or eight merry, half-naked fellows, trotting along, laughing and jesting under their burden' lingers. This blend of precise observation and gentle humor characterizes his approach throughout the book.

America's Simplicity and Roads

In the American section, Lucas shifts from India's languid pace to a brisk, evaluative tone. He argues that Americans are simpler than Europeans assume, and that this simplicity is 'the keynote of the American character.' His evidence is concrete: in San Francisco, he praises 'miles and miles of perfect tarmac roads fringed with burning eschscholtzias,' while elsewhere he finds roads so poor that motoring becomes 'to experience all the alleged benefits of horseback.' The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Highway earns his admiration, and he hopes it 'will never be allowed to fall into disrepair.' These judgments are grounded in personal experience, not hearsay.

Youthful Intimacy at Berkeley

Lucas's visit to the University of California, Berkeley, prompts a reflection on coeducation. Watching students crowd into the Hearst Amphitheatre, he envies their 'sensible, frank intimacy' compared to English segregation, which he believes 'tends to retard if not destroy the natural understanding' between sexes. He asks a professor about marriages made at Berkeley, receiving only the anecdote that Herbert and Lou Hoover met as students at Stanford. Lucas's tone is speculative but grounded in direct observation, and he avoids claiming more than the evidence supports. The passage exemplifies his method: a personal impression, a cultural comparison, and a wry conclusion.

Readers should approach Roving East and Roving West as a series of discrete impressions rather than a systematic survey. Lucas's voice is consistent—urbane, amused, and alert to incongruity—but his pace varies markedly between the meditative Indian chapters and the more brisk American ones. The book rewards attention to his offhand comparisons and self-deprecating asides, which often reveal more than his explicit conclusions.

I keep returning to that passage in Roving East and Roving West where Lucas notices how much quieter India feels underfoot, and it makes me think of my old copy of First impressions of the New World on two travellers from the Old, in the autumn of 1858 — Edition Insights — such a different century, yet they share that same patient wonder at how a place makes itself known slowly, through small, honest observations.