MOTORING NOTES
TIPS FOR TOURISTS
I AM writing this looking out of the window of a well-known motoring hotel. Before my eyes stands a car which is a silent warning to all motoring tourists. One of its back tyres is flat, crunched into the shingle path like the cracked egg of Columbus. The disconsolate owner told me that it was his third puncture that day. He was now waiting for a new tyre to be sent from a neighbouring town.
He had committed the all-too-common mistake amongst new motor tourists of starting with worn tyres. The old motorist knows better, for probably he has graduated in the same university of experience. New tyres will have to be bought on the tour. Why not buy them to begin with, and use the old ones at home for short journeys ? It detracts so much from the pleasure of a tour if hours have to be spent in roadside tyre-repairing. And there is another item. One usually, starts on a tour with a certain amount of .money—a carefully worked out estimate of what the trip will cost. Tyres are expensive articles. To have to buy one or two on the journey means that one has to write for money or curtail the tour.
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What should one take in luggage ? An old friend always advises his lady friends to "put on twice as much as you think you will want and then double it." It is not bad advice for those touring in an open car. Screens only keep off part of the cold. For all I advise a stout leather coat. There is nothing to equal it. The feet need no covering beyond the usual boots or shoos in the summer. The cold is not caught there. It is the chest and shoulders that need protection. The coat, too, should have a big collar. "Back-draught' is one of the most frequent causes of chill. In a saloon car all one needs is protection against draughts, for saloon cars are the draughtiest things on earth. But no one will ever see the real scenery in a saloon car : the roof hides so much. You will never enjoy the Lake District, the Highlands, the Peak, North Wales or anywhere where mountains exist in a car which shuts off so much of your view. To enjoy a touring holiday it should be taken in an open car.
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As to pace or distance, no one can lay down a definite rule, but for the average man or woman one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty miles a day is enough for pleasure. The pace must be that at which the car runs most easily—usually anything from twenty-five to thirty miles an hour. To -rush through the country—means that little will be seen. Where to go is a never-ending question. I can only here lay down a few general- suggestions. I shall be only too pleased to reply to particular requests if enquirers will give me some idea of their tastes or preferences.- But here are -a few broad, general details: East Anglia is very beautiful so far as Norfolk, tire greater part of Suffolk and northern Essex are concerned. The roads arc good and never hilly ; therefore it is good country for a small-powered car. In the south;Keirt;Stirrey, and Sussex would be more popular if they did not suffer from familiarity due to their nearness to.1..;ondon. But the Weald offers scores of secluded scenes and sheltered nooks that are a joy to the city dweller. Hampshire and-Wiltshire are frequently too bleak, and the Isle of Wight, although a lovely garden, is too small for a car. Moreoyer, the ferry charges by Spithead or the Solent are prohibitive. The whole of the West is glorious, but in both Devonand Cornwall you need plenty of power for hills.
s Coming north are Shakespeare-land and lovely Warwickshire, while I can reconunend Herefordshir' e or Shropshire to those who seek forest scenery and good, easy roads. The Peak district of Derbyshire is a -glory, and the drive from Buxton to Castleton is one never to be forgotten. But until one gets north of York the ugly head of industrialism is always poking itself into the picture. Then come the Yorkshire dales, ever, beautiful, and the wild country that stretches across the moors to Whitby and Scarborough. West of -them lies the land of the poets. The Lake district, in spite -of Its perennial wetness,. is a _place every tourist ought to
visit. The western part of Durham and all Northumberland, excepting industrialized Tyneside, has a constant charm. In Scotland I am very fond of Galloway and all the counties that fringe the borders, and you can travel anywhere between Stirling and Strathpeffer and be sure of beauty. North and Czntral Wales provide wonderful mountain scenery. In Ireland the Antrim coast, the western coast of Mayo and Galway, the wild hills of Donegal, the sweet scenes of Wicklow, and the constantly changing charms of Kerry, will all give pleasure, but I must warn the tourist that the Irish hotels, with a few well-known exceptions, —are much below the English standard.
If readers of the Spectator send me their enquiries, I shall be only too happy to place my quarter-of-a-century experience at their command, for it is always a joy to send my cor- respondents to places I know and love.
E. T. BROWN.
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