THE ENGLISH GUIDE-BOOKS.
[TO TER EDITOR OF TEE "SPECTATOR.")
Sur,—In an interesting article published in your columns last Saturday, you make several most useful suggestions with refer- ence to the compilation of Guide-books; but if you will allow me to say so, I think you scarcely do justice to the series of "Home Handbooks" published by Mr. Murray. I have spent nearly the whole of this summer in going about various counties of England on foot, and I have been mach struck with the general accuracy and excellence of Murray's Guides. So far from good walks being neglected, I have found that a great deal of space is devoted to them, and the directions given are such that any man with a compass in his pocket, and a stout pair of legs, can follow them without the least difficulty. Take the district now being so plea- santly described in your columns by a correspondent,—Dartmoor. The advice given as to a walking tour over that region is nearly all that a traveller could desire. And as regards inns, without "puffing" one or other in a given place, I have always found the few hints given in Murray perfectly trustworthy. He has invari- ably landed me in good quarters for the night. Moreover, it is only just to remember that Mr. Murray is the originator of the modern Handbook, and that some of Biideker's are in large part translations of Murray's editions.
I doubt whether the English gtdde-books can always equal
kicker's in defining walks, because in this country, where you find a good -field-walk one year it will be closed the next, by cultivation or some other cause, and a walk which is open in autumn or winter is often closed during the time the grain crops are on the ground. There are some charming walks in this district, ior instance, which are not described ; but for the general tourist a large and good variety is given, and perhaps that is all that could be -accomplished. There is a spot about four miles from here so -quaint and picturesque, so fall of old-world associations and glimpses of lovely scenery, that I wonder no one has described
; but it is not even marked on the one-inch Ordnance map,—and there are many other omissions to be noticed in that map which -are far more remarkable than similar faults in the Guide-books. The place to which I refer is called Friday Street, and any of .your readers who are tired of the Friday Street of Cheapside, or other City haunts, cannot do better than make a pilgrimage to this sequestered region. They can take it on the way from Wotton to Leith Hill, and a more delightful excursion it would be hard to find within fifty miles of London.—I am, Sir, &a.,
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