2 AUGUST 1930, Page 20

Little Kno wn England

Little Known England. By Harold Donaldson liborloin. (Bats- ford. 12s. 6d.) UNLIKE other works of technical interest or archaeological research, it is doubtful whether, in the case of Mr. Eberlein's book—particularly if it enjoys the popularity it deserves— it is rendering any great service to its subject. Is little-known England likely to gain anything by being better known ? The contrary seems far more probable ; especially us the more sequestered corners of the country, here so pleasantly des- cribed—their beauty and variety and rural history—are what they still remain because the main stream of tourist traffic has so far passed them by ; because, up till now, they have largely escaped railway development and the consequent attention of modernisers and improvers, the blight of dormi- tory populations with their up-to-date stores, golf courses and cinemas, and such building activities as those which have so recently disfigured and defaced Oxford. For it must be sup- posed that Mr. Eberlein is addressing less the antiquarian than the motorist. And, despite the almost proverbial quality of most English inns, where there are motorists there are also petrol pumps, summer visitors, grown tired of Strat- ford-on-Avon and the University towns, or general exploita- tion and the forfeiture of that innate naiveté in the inhabitants which makes them still faithful to the traditions in which they have so long worked and lived. For, indeed, the countryside about which Mr. Eberlein writes still bears the print of genera- tion after generation of slow, loving, uninspired, traditional work. Generations of cottagers have trimmed the hedges, felled the trees and planted in their own way. Sheep-walks have stamped the face of the downs, pastures followed the streams, and hamlets arisen by the pastures : churches, barns, cottages, great houses, and the common utensils in them have grown up gently and appropriately in the course of time. And when such things come to receive the attention of all but the most loving curiosity, it is hardly to be expected that they should be left unspoiled and undisturbed, But perhaps such apprehensions are premature ; and it is; at any rate, precisely this quality of affectionate interest and understanding which Mr. Eberlein has brought to his explora- tions of Shropshire and Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Bucks, and East Anglia. He has roamed the Cotswold uplands, wandered from Shrewsbury to Hereford by the Valley of the Wye, from Worcester to Gloucester by the Severn, from the Vale of the White Horse to Dorchester and Bedford across the Thames, and so on, through the Eastern Counties, to Norwich and King's Lynn. And very little on the way—whether topographically or architecturally, whether concerning the people or their manner of life—has escaped his keen attention and scholarly comment.

His book, moreover, is admirably presented and produced, containing innumerable plates, some sketches and—most usefully—five maps. It combines, indeed, the doubly engaging qualities of a book to read for pleasure (and instruction), and