AMERICAN TOURISTS IN ENGLAND

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 52, 24 November 1928, Page 27

AMERICAN TOURISTS IN ENGLAND

Conducting American tourists round England is a business which requires great tact, affability and, above all, a sense of humour. American tourists can never fail to be entertaining to a guide with a sense of humour. They want to see strange things, and they ask the most surprising questions. The following stories have been told to a "Daily Mail” reporter by a guide who has just finished a busy season: — The two things in London which thrill Americans more than anything else are the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace and the mile long herbaceous border at Hampton Court Palace. 7 ■ t; ' • I have heard some quaint remarks during the ceremony of the Changing of the Guard. One animated young American woman took a photograph of a Guards officer, and then asked him jf she could have one, “with his hat off” I One elderly woman once asked

if it were true that the Guards were all sons of the English aristocrncy.

One vigorous, red-haired American in plus fours started at 6 o’clock in the morning and went on until midnight. While we' were sitting having a hasty meal he said, “You know you had one great man in England and that was Jack the Ripper.” I had a judge who wanted to see rhe English judicial machine at work. We spent part of the morning at Bow Street Police Court, then we went ou to the Law Courts. We heard a judgment at the House of Lords in the afternoon and stayed there at night to hear a debate.

Another man examined 17 City churches in one day and finished up at Westminster Cathedral at night: while an Irish-American from San Francisco, who was interested in horses, went in one day to all the racecourses round Loudon.