CHARM OF ENGLAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21580, 26 August 1933, Page 9 (Supplement)

CHARM OF ENGLAND

AUTHOR'S SUCCESSFUL QUEST Allured by the quest of charm as he confesses himself to be, Mr. Vachell recently set out to capture in words for all who may read something of the spirit of England as she was and, in some measure, is. How well he has done his task the reader of "This Was England" will learn. He tells in a preliminary chapter that a friend once said to him: " Why don't you collect material for a book of months dealing with our feasts and festivals, with legends of the countryside you know well, with the less familiar proverbs, with some of the myths about birds and flowers, and, incidentally, with the charm of tlii3 England that was?" He jumped at the suggestion, he says, and upon these broad lines he applied himself with a sincerity that he has enhanced by refusing to take himself too seriously, .t It is a wonderful mixture that Mr. Vachell has compounded, but an harmonious one. Its components aro as diverse as necessarily they must be in a work of the kind. Superstition, history (just a dash of it), gossip, comment and even recipes—for wassail, cake, pot-pourri, and punch—go to make up a book that is a constant delight. Gardeners will find in it much that will arouse a friendly envy. Nature lovers of every sort will find keen pleasure in its pages. And all lovers of England who read it will return to it again and again. "This "Was farmland," by Horace Annesley Vachell. (Hodder and Stoughton.)