The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-09

The best guide book since Mark Twain S 'Tnnocents Abroad" Nobody should set sail for England without this book In the cabin bag. Everybody who cannot set
 sail should read this book and see clearly and wildly with another's eyes the sights denied their own. It will make a delight
 full three hours jaunt in the library. Here we are at the outset in London, that city that may not be done in lifetime But how much we see in a day
 under MT. Higinbotham' able guidance. He leads the artist to the houses once occupied by Gainsborough, Hogarth. Tur- ner and the others great with the brush. Any artist tourist will find for himself what MT. Higinbotham rightly takes for granted he will-the Turner room in the National gallery above Trafalgar Square
 where hang those pictures to the uniniti-
 ated like nothing so much as sunsets upside down! And off of this the Hogarth room, but a queer little closet full of the
 most delightful and quaint things that tell stories, which is a thing the initiated say pictures should not dol Let no tourist
 who goes for the first time neglect to go to Tate gallery, down close to the
 Thames. On some, of the houses anear
 the tourist, if he be a southerner will be sure to note and marvel at the fig trees trained like vines on the walls, Who ever has mooned over the live and works l of the Pre-Raphaelites will revel in the paintings that he finds In Tate gallery. Are you a student of history?' asks | Mir. Hignbotham. The tourist if never such before will become one now with even hesnewsboys that try to sell de pipers'' to tell one, as grimy finger points to the statute of 'Wellington:
 There's him that licked Bony!" To one
 such newsboy a typical American re-
 marked: Did you ever hear of Wash ington who did some licking himself
 onee?" "Yis, but you can't do it again l 'Why2" Because we've got Old Bobs nowr Lord Roberts is the hero whom
 even the lowliest English boy worships. 1 Lovers of the drama have many shrnes | to visit. Lovers of literature more. Many | of the small differences of the road the street and the shop are mentioned by l MT. Higinbotham. He happens not to mention the tops and bottoms" of
 streets in which directions to any given point are given. nor do the "tops" and s'bottoms" seem to indicate any points of the compass; it Is next to impossible l to the stranger to determine which Is
 the top of street. The author does men | ton the blessed absence of the newsboys' .'Wuxtrar' so howlngly narrowing in our 1 American cities. He does mention also 1 the mild voices, the ingra tiating and 1 "self -effacing manner of the sales per
 sons in the best shops. Also the way of l "crossing to the left" warranted to give | the American many an unconscious jump | in momentary fear of a collision. He | doesn't mention the very late hours of opening for all business houses, so sur prising to a southerner accustomed to l see shops open from a. m. to 12 p. m. l And the two half-holdays a week for the sales people, the shops closing at noon | for two days each week.
 | There is not line of the chapter Lon | don Sights" that does not set the reader l longing again to tread those streets, every inch of which teem with interest I and historic association. MT. Higinbotham l travels with his Dickens in his heart for | he looks as eagerly for the home of MT l Tulkinghorn," of Ruth Pinch and Tom' l of Little Nell" and "Quilp" as he does 1 at monuments and memorials of the folk | of history.
 | Next a chapter on Windsor. Let the | tourist who makes his first trip to Britain do what this traveller seems not | to have done-drive across the Thames through the lovely English lanes to Stoke Pogis and stop by Eton on the way.
 | Fascinating reading of Winchester, l Salisbury Bath, Oxford Then Ken1l- | worth, Stratford and Warwick It IS just as tempting to quote every line | of MT Higinbothams good and gay re- | cital Ot ms JOurHeylHBS dS IL ls to ioi | get all the rest of England and finger here in Shakespeare's country. Next we have Haddon Hall ChatSworth, York and the Lake country. MT. Higinbotham, as 1t happens, does not like the Lake l country or the Lake poets. Therefore | he is doubly glad to turn his face to Melrose and Abbotsford. His facility | for seeing and "oding" permit him to view Edinburg, the Trossachs, Glas- gow and Ayr.
 Then Ireland and back to America l from Liverpool. MT Higinbotham sums
 up thus: You can see a little of Lon
 don few cathedrals the districts
 hallowed by Shakespeare. Scott and | Burns the Rob Roy country, the Gaints | Causeway, Ireland at it's worst and l best, including the beautiful west coast, | the lakes of Killarney, and the cities of Cork and Dublin and rest a day or so in Chester before sailing home | Three weeks of pure delight. And, though the author does not mention it, all will consume less money than six weeks at small summer resort where dress and bridge make up all the de- | light of day and night.
 | Beside the vast amount of helpful in- 1 formation in this book there gleam in every paragraph wticisms, drolleries, whims and fancies that make the reader catch himself unconsciously smiling at every turn of the page. Take this book | for summer reading if you can travel no farther than the swing of your own ham
 mock on your own side gallery.
 | .oThrough Lands of Yesterday" by | Charles H. Curran. Chapple Publishing company, Boston.
 A book of travels in Egypt, the Holy