Shorter Notices
National Trust Guide : Buildings. By James Lees-Milne. (Botsford. 7s. 6d.)
Tins little book is a selection of Trust buildings " which deserve at the moment a special visit and can be made an object of hopeful pilgrimage." To ten of the hundred-odd buildings described there is, we learn, no admission as yet. Notable among these are Hughenden, Osterley, Ham House, Petworth and Eastbury Manor. Cliveden House will, we read, be open as soon as staff is available," Clumber Park " as soon as it is derequisitioned by the War Depart- ment " and Old Soar " as soon as the Ministry of Works shall have been able to recondition the buildings." Pilgrims must therefore remain hopeful. In order that they may have something more than hope to lead them one can make this generalisation of most of the other houses of any architectural merit listed here ; the usual fee is one shilling and the most usual times of opening are Wednes- day or Thursday afternoons between luncheon and high tea in the months from May to October. The selection is weighted in favour of mediaeval structures, however small, and the word "building" has been extended to include some earthworks. The weakness of this book is that it is neither one thing nor the other. Though the historical and architectural notes are informative and careful, a com- plete list of Trust buildings now open, with times and prices of admission and shorter notes and no pictures would have been welcome. So would a smaller selection with fuller notes and many illustrations. But this compromise, with its few neat and dull little line illustrations which seem to suffer from over-reduction, has more the air of a commercial publishing venture than a book worthy of the National Trust.
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