AS I WALKED OUT ONE MIDSUMMER MORNING

In A Rose for Winter (1957) Mr. Lee brought his wifeminstrelling in Spain, but this is the tale of his first, solo, passionate response to the country in 1935-6. On a ""finebright morning in June,"" young Mr. Lee set off from ruralGloucestershire with violin, exhilarated but also a bitabashed by his freedom. After tramping, laboring and loiteringthrough parts of England, Spain seemed as good an answer asany to the question: ""So where should I go?"" His secondmorning in Vigo, Spain, was an affirmation: ""...to look out ona world for which I had no words, to start at the beginning, speechless and without plan."" Lee begins his year's pilgrimagefrom north to south, living rigorously (sometimes walkingtwenty miles a day) and content to play for his suppers.Travelling with a timeless receptivity to stark beauty andmuted pain, Lee reaches the end of his journey during the beginnings of civil upheaval. A splendid journey, lush andlovely, and not since Keats' St. Agnes Eve buffet have thepleasures of the senses received so eloquent atransubstantiation.