AMERICANS AS GUIDES TO LONDON.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3141, 30 October 1922, Page 8

AMERICANS AS GUIDES TO LONDON.

"What should they know of London who only London know?" Kipling's famous lino needs altering. There is only one person who knows hits London. lie is the American tourist. The exploration of London has been reduced to an exact science by the arniv ol Americans, now over on holiday. They Know beforehand ail the historic spots and the celebrities that Mono; to them. They contradict their guides at every turn : and the guide's are silent. A newspaper representative who went round London with a party of Americans found, when they came to Middle Temple Hall, that they wanted to is.ee the table from one ' of the Armada ships that Drake presented, and where Queen Elizabeth sat- when S ' U; saw Shakespeare "present" "Twelfth Night." "Now for Xo. 2. Brick-court." thev said, and when they had inspected Oliver Goldsmith's homo at this address they wanted to see the chambers of lilackstone. the famous lawyer, which were directly below Goldsmith's. 'I he story ol' Temple Bar. and the whole ceremonial and tradition of rova.l entrance to the City at this spot were as lamtliar to them as A B C. At St. Paul's they pointed out to the .mode the new lighting svstcfn presented by the late Mr .J. Pierpont Morgan. Several members of the party discussed whether Wren was right in denving thai a pagan temple of Diana occupied the site 01 iginally. There wa<s the same erudition at the lower. It was recalled that William IVini was born on Tower Hill, and christened at All Hallows. "Don't forget Otway. the poet." added one of the party. "CTeopatra.'s Needle." on the Embankment, is' a mystery to most Londoner.-, who do not know that it is not. a prehistoric medic and that it has nothing to do with Cleopatra, hut the Americans knew all about it. from the i'me il was made to the moment when a. German bomb chipped bits out of it. (hie girl in horn-rimmed 1 spectacles told the history of .the monolith, and its rescue I'iTjin the sea. She added: "There wevo three transported from Egypt. The largest is in Central Park. Xew York. The smallest is in the Place de la Concorde. Paris, and occupies the spot where the guillotine stood. This one is the second in sr/.e." The Americans go and see where the Kire of London began, and where it ended, where the Fleet prison and the liridewel! stood, where Dr Johnson lived, where he ate sieak pudding, and where Cbgers Hall .-till stands, and in Fleet street they say: "So this is where Praise God Barebones had his shant\."