SOUTH OF THE THAMES.*
" THE UNDERGROUND " has issued its second guide-book, which, treating of the Londoner's country south of the
Thames, is a companion to the northward guide issued last year. By means of its clear maps, which have been specially drawn with an eye to the needs of those who go-on foot, the wayfarer may find his way to all the pleasant places that lie within the parallelogram—Windsor, Dartford, Sevenoaks, Guildford. The maps' alluring invitations (the draughtsman has a very pretty trick in the matter of conventional trees) arc reinforced by the photographer, whose art it is to show nothing that is not comely, even when he is set to make pictures of dismally villa-ridden places such as Caterham.
The note-writer is of the same charitable and romantic outlook, and describes Reigate as " On the Pilgrim Way, an old-world market-town at the foot of the ridge of the North Downs " [sic], and observes a discreet silence con- cerning the. Dorking road between Eastwiek and
no longer passable with any comfort owing to the blasting presence of a great colony of deplorable-looking bungalows scattered pell-mell over what, two years ago, was one of the most charming stretches of pastoral Surrey. There are, however, within this area, some extremely beautiful bits of country still preserved from " development " by the old proprietors or by the National Trust, and there are even a few old villages that have not yet been too barbarously mutilated by the ferry-builder and his clients.
• London's Country (South of the Thaw). London's Underground. 11*. net.]
If we have made most of Fast Surrey uninhabitable through our muddling stupidities it is no fault of " the Underground." It, indeed, invites us to pass beyond " the dismal zone " to fresh fields ; and these, it is to be hoped, will not still turn into backyards and chicken-runs at one dissolving touch !
There is a sort of half-hearted country to which even thorough-going Suburbia is preferable, and if the real thing is pushed too far away the despairing Londoner will give up the effort to reach it even on Bank Holidays and even on a motor-bus. Perhaps " the Underground " will consider the advisability of taking over and preserving what is left of the Home Counties as Thomas Cook takes over and administers Middle Europe in Mr. Knox's Memories of the Future. Certainly " Entirely New Management " would now seem to be the only hope for what is left of " London's Country."
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