City and Suburban
By JOHN BETJEMAN LTHOUGH I am employed by the Daily Telegraph I cannot stifle an affection for The Times—its obitu- aries, for instance, those dim peers and dimmer baronets whose deaths are cabled across from British Columbia often too late to be really hot news. But chiefly I enjoy these obitu- aries for their reticent assessment of architects, artists and writers, dons and social figures. I have often wondered who the man is who edits them and whether I shall qualify for a Times obituary, and if so how long it will be. Only the top-rankers can aspire to a photograph. I see myself as about fourth under a deceased magistrate, but perhaps this is boasting. I have great hopes that 'A Friend' will write correcting some rather catty impression. I write like this because I have just had 'flu.' But The Times sometimes nods, and three distinguished men who should have been recorded there died lately. They are Geoffrey Taylor the Irish poet, critic and natural historian, probably the only man in Ireland to steer clear of all literary squabbles there and yet to retain the affection of all who knew him and benefited from his kind and forthright advice; Mr. Charles Wade, the architect and artist, of Snowshill Manor, Gloucestershire, whose life's work was the collection of examples of country craftsmanship, carriages, dresses, furni- ture and models, which he gave, with the Manor, to the National Trust in 1951; Major M. E. Conolly, CMG, who devoted decades of his life to preserving his fabulously beauti- ful eighteenth-century house Castletown, Co. Kildare.
TRAVELLING IN STATE
On Monday morning the Great Western put on a saloon carriage to the train I take to London. It was a well-sprung, splendidly upholstered drawing-room of pre-grouping days, with seats along the side and a wooden table down the middle for the directors to play baccarat and drink champagne. We of the Welfare State looked out of place in it, but I realise how very much pleasanter long train journeys would be if there were more carriages of this type, with seats at the sides giving a view of the moving landscape more expansive and slow- passing than that from the usual cramped compartment.
ALL STAR PROGRAMME
A correspondent sends me this catalogue of the best cities and 'towns in England, under the star system.
*****Cambridge, Oxford.
****Bath, Bristol, York.
***Brighton (and Hove), Canterbury, Cheltenham, Chester, Chichester, Durham, Exeter, King's Lynn, Lewes, Norwich, Salisbury, Shrewsbury, Stamford, Winchester, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Bury St. Edmunds, Rochester (the last rather a neglected jewel in a dirty case).
He gives only two regions and these are they : **Soirrn-WEST (of Gloucester-Oxford) : Abingdon, Blandford, Bridgwater, Bridport, Chippenham, Ciren- cester, Devizes, Dorchester, Lymington, Marlborough, Newbury, Sherborne, Tiverton, Totnes, Wells, Bradford- on-Avon.
SOUTH-EAST (of London-Cambridge): Farnham, Faver- sham, Guildford, Henley, Hitchin, Lavenham, Maldon, Richmond, Rye, Saffron Walden, St. Albans, Sandwich.
I would add Hull, Liverpool, Huddersfield, Birkenhead, Louth and Manchester to three-star, and upgrade Stamford to four. Places which are famous for their beauty like Ludlow and Stratford-on-Avon are consciously omitted because they are presumably protected from destruction by local councils.
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