English Inns. By Thomas Burke. (Collins. 45. 6d.) WILLIAM SHENSTONE
wrote about English inns before Thomas. Burke. His verdict, it will be remembered, was that
Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome at an inn.
Mr. Burke, from his encyclopaedic knowledge of English inns, would agree. His book, one of the best in this admirable series, deals with the English inn from every angle—its • history, its architecture, its individual features, literary associations (and how they crowd in: the Tabard, the Bell at Edmonton, "0 plump head-waiter at the Cock," "and at the Hoop alighted, famous inn "), its evqlution through the centuries. Everything that should be here is here ; Mr. Burke is probably the only writer who could have done the thing so well.
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