20 AUGUST 1927, Page 12

OUR LOVELIEST VILLAGE ?

We-are just returning to Australia,- but should like to set' before we go some of the most characteriStic English villages: Which. would you select ? ". Comparisons, we know, are " odorous " ; but in spite of Dogberry and the_ .rejected claimants to the honour, such a question must be considered. I would put very high in the list Bradford-on-Avon. Burford-, I suppose, would appear high in most liSts ; and every visitor to England should see a group of villages along the valley from Hurstbourne Priors on the Test. But what a rosary one would have to finger, if one once began to count the beads that

are lovely English villages.! •

W. BEACH THOMAS.