CURRENT LITERATURE.
POUR ON A TOUR.
The energy of the American tourist is always a source of wonder to the Englishman, for whom leisureliness is often one of the attractions of a holiday. Mr. and Mrs. Shackleton in their Four on. a Tour (Duckworth and Co., 7s. 6d. net) will leave their readers panting in their chairs, but will delight any one who really enjoys naivete of description and is interested by the American language. For the writers enjoyed their tour hugely and say so unashamedly. They compliment us by Baying that "England is so rich in the worth-while." It is a book for a laughing philosopher, for a serious critic would rage or melt or burn at tourists who " glance at" one cathedral, whom another "did not detain," and who find few epithets more discriminating than " old-time" and " tremendous." Seventy-five miles a day for six weeks of seven days each take one's breath away ; but theirs was, at any rate, a well-chosen route for, say, a six months' motor tour : from Lancashire to Cornwall, through Wales and the West of England; along the South Coast to Canterbury; through London to Oxford, Stratford, and "old Peterborough " ; through Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, and Scotland as far north as Killiecrankie, and back to Liverpool through the Lakes and " Dukeries." The ten abbeys and twenty-two cathedrals visited would alone prove the skill with which they picked out " the worth-while " as plainly as the inadequacy of the six weeks. The likeableness of the book and its writers comes out in the evident success they had with all human beings that they met, except some upon whom they tried unexpected humour. They very properly believed all they were told, even the tale of St. Thomas of Canterbury's Saracen mother. We heartily respect their uncomplaining persistence in passing the nights at small English inns, and here and there one finds a fair attempt at neat oritieiszn—for example; "Most Americans love the old, but they want facilities and conveniences also, whereas most of the people of England do not love the old, yet bold obstinately to all its inconveniences." Where there is no more bitterness than that we cannot complain, and unfor- tunately we have no right to resent remarks upon Saturday- night drunkenness in large towns. There is a map and a profusion of capital photographs.
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