• . . • . Wheel . d W ing EvEnY year
the exodus of holiday makers increases. By train and car and bOat,'We leave our work and our homes in thousands and ntillions, at this season. One day, perhaps soon, all the world will be a-wing ; already the Light Aeroplane clubs report a great increase of membership, and the price of a "Moth" .has -been deereased. by a- hundred pounds, •so
that it now costa only E650.. , * * As an instance of aerial enterprise, I may cite the instance.
of Mr. Van Lear Black, the well-known publisher Of the Balti- more Sun, who has flown 70,000 miles and visited thirty-five countries during the last six months. When I met him last year, he was contemplating a visit to the Dutch West Indies. Since then he has been to Java and back. His machine is chartered from the Dutch K.L.M. Company,. and he has two pilots and a mechanic -always- at his call:— During the recent snow-storm he Was yzng .from COPenhagen to Berlin.. Pie- quently he pops over to Paris for -lunch; To-morrow he is going to Bordeaux, and then on to Seville. As soon as he returns from this Spanish trip he leaves' for South Africa and intends to come back via Kenya -and Cairo.. At Cain; the machine will- be . overhauled and prepared for a, flight to China ! By. the time,he returns to the United States,. not even Colonel Lindbergh Will have more air mileage to
_ his credit. _ We have not all the leisure, nor,"_ be it said,. the courage to
emulate Mr. Black, but a decade hence the: example he is setting will be widely followed. Meanwhile, less fortunate mortals must be content with their cars. How many of them will be on the roads no one knows,, but already the arterial roads to London carry a-ceaseless, and by no means noiseless or scentless, stream of vehicles during the week-ends. To avoid it we must choose the less travelled paths. Congestion is terrific ; and coming back by the Great West Road last Sunday night I saw several signs of the disasters which attend negligent driving. The Hog's Rack or Ashridg•e on a Saturday afternoon -reminds one of Hampstead Heath, but there are still- by-paths' and woods within an hour's run of London where the motorist may be free from the crowd. To find such places for oneself is, however, half the fun of an excursion, and no words of mine shall reveal these sanc- tuaries. The smaller and lighter the car the more easily will it take the bridle paths that led to 'peace, and to the haunts where anemones bloom and primroses cluster beneath the hedgerows. My little Austin Seven is probably the hest car in the world for such London picnics, for it Will go any- where and do anything a car can do, It has served me faithfully for a year ; I have run it five.. thouiand
drained- the crankcase once, decarbonized it once aiid oiled It not more than ,half . .doz_en times, Which is mUch_too little. Yet it is running as well as ever, with a cruising speed of 42 "mph, * * *
Any motoring questions our readers- hie to ask will be dealt with bythe Motoring or Travel Editors at 18 York Street,
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