Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-20
THE WHITE CLIFFS
SOME ALLUREMENTs OF AN ENG
LIsH HOLIDAY.
Complaint That People Of Albion Know
More Of Other Lands Than
Of England.

Fran the London Chronicle.
Back to the land" Is cry for your
summer tourist as well as for your toiier
Back to England might be shouted at all
tourists by some patriot out of employ
This island is not narrow Ithaca. and
wisdom does not always lie in far-hung
travel. Here, too. are many men and
cities:'' and 1t is amazing how little we
most of US know about them outside our
own beat. Southern England. in especial.
Is crammed with history-from the flint
weapons that careless Stone men have left
strewed about on the Sussex downs to the
many footsteps of mutitudinous invaders
1esar's camps, Norman abbeys, the Gothic
cioisters Of French workmen. You can
stand in the very trenches whence the
Roman legions watched the channel and
in the very steps down which Charles
Stuart went to meet Henrietta Maria
What do they know of England who only
Europe know?
Good luck therefore, is theirs whose fate
1t Is to pause for a Few days of spring on
the English shore. before the nigger-min-
strels have begun. and watch the great
tourist tide go past to Europe. all oblivious
of what they leave behind They look very
busy ana de termined as they pass from
train to boat. those travellers. But it is a
small thing. my masters to leave behind
the English spring-the coppice blue with
wild hyacinths. the lambs sporting in the
meadows. the snowy white of the haw-
thorn, the tender green of the beech and
oak, the great white blossoms of the chest
nut? Is it not something to stay in land
where the lark can still trill out it's song,
dizzily poised. without fear of the valiant
'chasseur'-where the gold-billed black
bird ard the impudent speckied thrush will
fearlessiy sing to you songs that you can
not hear at La Scala or the Paris Opera
House? Yesterday, far up on the downs
1,aht tod E1li L.
stall. while a wise thrush. often repeating
the first fine careless rapture" practiced
a descent into the minor. and tuned his
throat for the perfect song of early June.
He rocked not of audience; like the true
artist, he aimed to please only himself.
But what are human beings after such?
From Folkestone to Dover.
When you have had your fill of such gid
dy diversions do not sit on benches and
grumbie at the dizziness of English seaside
places. No seaside place is ever really dull,
not even Brighton. where man has done his
best and worst to make it There is
always the sea, and outside the town limits
the worst must eI-d-there is ever the cliff
walk. The cliff is the true glory of the
southern English seas de. hidden to those
who drive or motor, revealed only to the
walker. And nowhere is the clifwalk finer
than in the six-mile stretch between Folke-
stone and Dover.
East of Folkestone the cliff stretches in
gigantic amphithe:ter. floored with the de-
bris of hundred landslides. through which
the railway cuts its almost hidden course.
You mount from the domestic East Cliff
that warren where you are allowed to
wander under the shadow of the notice
boards that remind you that Engishman
is but tenant-at-will of England--up by
narrow path to the main ridge some 200
feet high. From that point. for the next
four miles, you have an almost level walk
on ridge between sea and land-dropping
sheer to the sea on your right and gently
on your left, with the fall of long. sweeping
downs, to the smiling garden OF Kent.
You front France, but-heaven avert the
omen!-to see her is to scent bad weather.
Haze closes the distance: but the beautiful
thing is the great mpersona sea, Seen from
this great height it has a beauty hidden
from those who see it only from shore, pier
or shipboard. 1t is Homer's sea-foor- often
too, wine dark" under shadow.ng cloud
sometimes the dazzling mirror of clear
shining sun. or like crisping silk under
light breeze. But always the note that
stands forth is the variety of it's moods
the perpetual changefulness OF hues and
tones That great expanse Is freckled with
light and shade, crossed with long stretches
of bright emerald changing suddenly to
sapphire blue and then, as the eye ranges
shcreward. to a deep brown where the sea-
weed lies thick beneath. Do not hurry. but
stand and watch.
From A II Tho Sorop Sane