ARCHITECTURAL' 'NOTES
MOTORING YET SIGHT-SEEING
DURING the last two months practically everyone with a shirt to his back has been, more or less frequently, driving about Great Britain in motor-cars. Those who have not done so probably say that it is a bad way of seeing the country and that they prefer a more leisurely method of transport. But the leisurely would be converted to the motor-car and the pleasures of the motorist would be increased if only the latter would—as far too few do—stop his car whenever his eye caught anything he wished to look at twice. This, of course, only applies to those who motor to see. Those who motor for motoring's own sake may be for our present purpose excluded altogether. Stopping your car frequently is a habit, and not a very easy one to cultivate. If you have only just passed a Lorry behind which your Klaxton has been shrieking for two miles, it requires a good deal of self-control to let it overtake you because you notice a church with a south porch which has, apparently, not been restored. But when you have done this once or twice the stopping habit will grow and a new and harmless pleasure will be added to life.
Now assuming you take out your car for an exploring drive— exploring is the best word in spite of its odious association with Mrs. Elton—with no fixed limits of time in a part of England you do not know well, what are the temptations which are likely to make you pull up ? Apart from certain well-known " beauty-spots," natural scenery can usually be as much appreciated when under way as when stationary, so we will, therefore, only consider the works of man which may lie near your route. Of these by far the most frequent will be cottages. As a general rule one does not have to stop much for cottages' Their rather formless charm is obvious and produces its maximum effect at the first glance. But every now and then you may pass a pair of cottages which are the remnant of a manor-house, in which case---particularly in East Anglia— there may be fine brick chimneys, or in the Cotswolds, interest- ing doorways and windows. Houses larger than cottages are not usually found close to country roads, but there is always hope. Naturally churches more than any other bits of architecture likely to be found close to the highway repay a visit, and a little practice will soon show whether they are "thoroughly restored" or not. If they are they are usually not worth looking at. The tracery is the best guide. If this is palpably new, accelerate. If not slow down and stop. Nowadays the chances are about three to one that the church will be open. Besides looking at its general aspect, examine the font, which is very often older than the rest. There may also he fragments of old glass, particularly in the top lights where the glass was more difficult to break. Complete windows of old stained glass are, unfortunately, very rare. In East Anglia or Devonshire there may well be a fine rood screen. If there is nobody about, draw aside the altar frontal and very likely you will find a Jacobean or Elizabethan Communion Table, though sometimes this has been relegated to the vestry. In the remote church of Wheatfield, Oxfordshire, there is a magnificent Chippendale Communion Table. Occasionally there are traces of the Laudian rearrangement of the chancels of churches, though this rarely survived the destructive rage of the mid-Victorian parson. At Deerhurst, near Tewkesbury, the seats against the East wall behind the Communion table may still be seen. The monuments are sometimes a history of England in little. But there is hardly any limit to the interest which can be squeezed out of a good country church, even for those who make no pretence at being able to date each part of the fabric. In addition to houses and churches, there are bridges. You can usually tell when you are crossing a mediae- val bridge, first by its narrowness—which is unfortunate, but should not be an excuse for its destruction, as, if the bridge is crossed slowly, it is not in itself dangerous—and secondly by the V shaped bays over the cut-waters which form, as they were intended, refuges for pedestrians. Once over the bridge and on a wide piece of road, stop your car and go back and look at the bridge, it is always worth it. There are also splendid 18th century bridges, particularly in Yorkshire. Iron girder bridges, like Hungerford bridge, are always ugly, and nothing can make them anything else, but many of the modern concrete bridges are magnificent. There is a very fine one being built at present near King's Lynn. In small country
towns the best plan is to leave your ear in the market square and do your exploring on foot. There may be a market cross or a classical tonpietto as at Swaffham in Norfolk, and Tickhill in Yorkshire, or a Guildhall on pillars or some Almshouses, And in such places there will almost certainly be entrancing little Georgian or Queen Anne houses standing back behind iron railings and gates. Moreover, it must not be imagined that there is nothing new to lock at. The "big five" an building much better banks than they used to. Post Office..! do not usually set the example they should do, but there is a good new one in Reading, infinitely better than an equally new one in Maidenhead. New concrete bridges have been men- tioned, and even housing Echemes are by no means to be despised.
Now there are many people who would be interested in all these things if they made an expedition specially to see them, and yet pass them by when they come on them unexpectedly, and it is to such that I would with all diffidence recommend the stopping habit. Only when you stop leave as much as possible of the read for other people, and never stop on a bend.
GF RALD WELLDSLEY.
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