24 AUGUST 1929, Page 20

Mrs. Gretton has rewritten and improved her attractive Burford Past

and Present (Martin Seeker, 7s. 6d.), which is more than ever a model account of a little country town. She sketches its history, describes its old houses and recalls some of its inhabitants. She pays a happy tribute to the late Mr. C. E. Montague, who spent the last three years of his life in Burford. Mrs. Gretton reminds us that the town, which for a century was hard to reach because the railway had avoided it, now finds itself once again on the Cheltenham coach route, though the coaches are now driven by petrol engines and not drawn by horses. She is perhaps unduly anxious lest, in ceasing to be remote from the world, Burford should lose its individual charm.