A Tour of Wessex MR. DurroKs Wessex is rather oddly
defined. It comprises three entire counties, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset, parts of Berkshire and Somerset, and a corner of Devon. But it is a strange Wessex that excludes Athelney and Glastonbury. Mr. Dutton answers that his boundaries are geological rather than historical, and perhaps he may be allowed that plea, though it cannot really stand close examination. He should, for instance, follow the line of the Jurassic rocks consistently in the west and include a good deal more of south Somerset.
An account of this delightful region in 120 pages must necessarily be superficial. Mr. Dutton's book is cast in the form of a meander- ing tour, beginning and ending in Berkshire. He writes pleasantly, and his prejudices are frankly indicated ; whether you like or dislike his Wessex will depend largely on your agreement or disagreerhent with them. For my part I share his love of unrestored churches and " bombastic " eighteenth-century monuments, and his preferences in landscape are mine—for waters and deciduous trees rather than " the sour land of pine trees and gorse scrub." On the other hand, I protest strongly against his undiscriminating condemnation of the great nineteenth century and all its works. In that same matter of church-restoration, for instance, he should be rather more careful what he says. The church of Avington in Berkshire, he tells us, is " mercifully unrestored." In fact, it has been attended to four times in the past century, and the main restoration of 1848-53 was undertaken by William Butterfield, of whose work Mr. Dutton more than once expresses a lively horror.
A slip of this kind can easily be pardoned. But unhappily the book is full of errors. Far too many place-names are spelt wrongly (did anybody even glance at the proofs ?), and there are many more serious mistakes. The Vyne is not an Elizabethan house ; it dates from the reign. of Henry VIII. There are.ne Craven memorials in Hampstead Marshall church. Falkland had not "held many offices of state " when he died, but one only—nd that with great reluct- ance. Cobbett's rude epithets for Cricktade were not at all " oddly chosen " ; he was thinking of the unsavoury political character of the borough, exposed in a famous enquiry of 1782. These are just a few examples of the errors and misunderstandings in the book, which seriously detract from its value.
What about the illustrations ? The wrapper tells us that they " have been selected with exceptional care," and they do indeed marry well with the text. The choice of water-colours is good. The photographs are, as usual, a mixed bag. Those of Poole, Devizes and Marlborough are muddy and flat ; but the air-photographs in the first chapter are excellent and really informative. Even here, however, the sharpness is blurred by reproduction in the sickly sepia tone so much beloved by Messrs. Batsford—and by nobody
Previous page
