AMERICANS IN ENGLAND.
American Shrines on English Soil. By J. F. Muirhoad., (Borland Agency. 10s. net.) IN days before the motor was invented, the American tourist looked at Great Britain and hurried to the Continent. He landed at Liverpool, proceeded by way of Chester and Stratford- on-Avon to Oxford, spent a week or ten days in London, and we saw no more of him. But now many thousands of Americans have fallen into the spell of our countryside and in the last fifteen years have discovered England. If our climate happens to be reasonably kind there are few more delightful holidays. The excellence of British roads and the civility of the people are sufficient lure for the tourist, quite apart from his sentimental and historical interests. Let us hope, however, that the British innkeeper will become more conscious of his duties and provide our visitors with those comforts to which they are accustomed. We should endeavour to remove the reproach of monotony in the menu we offer to the wayfarer. Unfriendly critics assert that there is nothing to eat at British inns but bacon and eggs for breakfast and chop or roe...A beef with water-logged potatoes and cabbage for lunch or dinner.
No book for the American traveller has been planned as comprehensively as Dr. Muirhead's new book, .4 mcrican Shrines on English Sail. As the English editor of Baedeker's guide-books for many years, he has a unique knowledge of
British and American topography and of the historical links between the two countries. Even an Englishman could read the book to advantage. Our knowledge of our own country is often deplorably weak. It was not till a professor of an American University came among us two years ago to try to obtain permission to remove the remains of General Oglethorpe that we hastily turned up our reference books and discovered that Cranham in Essex deserved to be con- sidered notable.
Nowadays, with Dr. Muirhead for guide, the tourist will probably land at Southampton and head for the Hardy country with its associations of. Motley and Endicott. In Devonshire he may stop at Budleigh Salterton, which is the birthplace of Sir Walter Ralegh ; his furthest western goal will undoubtedly be Plymouth, the final starting place of the ' Mayflower,' where Carlyle's words will come to his mind :—
"Hail to thee, poor little ship 'Mayflower,' of Delft-Haven ; poor common-looking ship hired by common charter party for coined dollars ; caulked with mere oakum and tar ; provisioned with vulgarest biscuit and bacon ; yet what ship Argo, or miraculous epic ship built by the Sea Gods, was other than a foolish bum-barge in comparison."
But he will find American associations in almost every district in England. Certainly there has never been so successful an attempt to classify and describe them, and we hope that Dr. Muirhead will extend his work and prepare similar volumes on Scotland and Ireland.
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