England for Yankees

THE Mayor and gangsters of Chicago would not approve of this book if they ever chanced to read it. For Mrs. Hughes goes a long way towards making an American's heart grow warm for the island of his forefathers. Like reading "The Natural History of Selburne" this travel book is very apt to cause us to pause and wonder if, after all, the best things in life are indigenous only to the land of electric ice-boxes and the "New Humanism". It is not just that "America's England" is splashed with the bright colors and soft hues of a distant land that makes it appealing reading. Between the lines there is something more, very politely suggested, something that points to a difference in civilizations and a difference in living one's life.

Of course Mrs. Hughes' work is no pretentious study of English culture. It aims to be only a handy pocket size travel-guide book that attempts to pin between its pages a goodly share of the charm that makes England so dear to those who know it. To carry out her purpose the author gives the reader something of an understanding of the English and things English. In this sense it is, comparatively speaking, as broadening as an actual journey across the Atlantic, and it should be of no slight assistance to those planning such a voyage.

The way in which Mrs. Hughes has mapped out her book will not please all her readers. Her idea is to approach England as a background for American history and common Anglo-American traditions. Possibly this is a good scheme, but "America's England" is too obvious in intent. This reviewer would have preferred to have Mrs. Hughes write about England simply because it is England. Accordingly, such chapters as "Georgia and Oglethorpe" are annoying. Nevertheless, on the whole, "America's England" is uncommonly good reading because Mrs. Hughes knows the high roads and the by roads of her native land as few do, and she writes about them with a charming style that is as native as her subject matter.