CURRENT LITERATURE
THE NATIONAL ROAD BOOK, VOL. II. By R. T. Lang'
On one page of Mr. Lang's most admirable and original guide to the roads and scenery of East Anglia (Methuen, r5s.), opened purely at ran- dom, are pictures of Tattershall Castle, " the finest example of mediaeval brick- work in England," and " The Fighting Cocks," at St. Albans, " the oldest inhabited house in England." And the letterpress tells all that is essential about either in the relevant geographical context. It is by that kind of treatment of his routes that Mr. Lang justifies the claim that his road-book (the first volume on the South of England appeared last year) is unlike any other. His purpose is not merely to get the motorist from point to point but to call his attention to everything worth seeing as he goes. It is not a book which he who drives may read ; nor is any other book, for no one should read as he drives. Consequently, as Mr. Lang observes in his preface, its full value depends on the acquisition of a companion to read it aloud in running commentary as the car plies. So employed the book, perhaps better than any other existing, makes motoring a means of seeing England instead of merely a means for seeing arterial roads.
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