31 JANUARY 1941, Page 23

nglish Lakeland. By Doreen Wallace. (Botsford. 8s. 6d.)

liss DOREEN WALLACE knows the Lakes thoroughly, both as a onle and as a holiday-place, and she is a sound guide to the ,umryside and to its basic activities, such as sheep-farming and fling, which are often overlooked by the patron of the Eleven akes Tour. But she has a Way of implying that only the stupid r the wicked could possibly disagree with her straight-from-the- houlder assertions about tree-planting, trippers, the just rate of terest, and the ways of the Lake poets. She forgets that PP.=rs, for example, have made remarkably little impression in e d:strict ; that it is not their fault if Keswick was mainly uilt in a period of mediocre architecture, and that they are the eading public for books like her's. On the whole, the book is II up to Messo. Batsford's standard. -There are good photo- aPils of mountains, lakes, houses and people, and among them by Fox Photos, Ltd., are specially noticeable: an why must all guide-books follow Wordsworth in running down Great Mel! Fell? It is a graceful peak, and provides the best ski-ing in the district.