"Strolling Through Scotland"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18596, 5 January 1935, Page 10

"Strolling Through Scotland"

IWJR. W. IS. Percy's book with this title raises some introductory questions. lias hot Scotland 'been described, aiiaiyj-vi!, asscssou' and praised sufficiently auring u:e last two ceatur.e.-.. And is there not a general impression that Air. 11. V. Morton's book lcit .i.;..ling more to lie said? " Wuat snail tne man do that cometh after the King; ' One therefore opens the book without high expectation, but his attention is arrested• by tne statement ti.ai the author is an artist whose \,o.i;s uavc been exhibited several iir.es in the uoyal Scottish Academy, in Edinburgh. Beginning at Edinburgh he takes the reader on a cheery, chatty pilgrimage through Fcrthshire, Dundee, Aberdeen, the border country, the scenes mad. 1 memorable by Carlylo, Scott and Bums and closes the record with a noble compliment to Glasgow and the Clyde. He is a courier more than usually well informed and liberally endowed with a flair for architecture and painting, a keen wit and a love of the romantic element in history. What will be an additional recommendation is that Air. Percy knows Australia and New Zealand at first hand, that he made acquaintance wlvli these southern lands as a member of the Pollards and later of J. O. Williamson comic opera companies as IcaUit.g comedian, ami that Five anecdotes' he retails are racy of the soil and surpassingly piquant. When in Adelaide he illustrated in a paper called the "Gadfly" a joke he heard there about a bee expert. Two swagmen

were looking at a man who had the appearance of a scholar and, perhaps, a professor. "What's thai bloke?" "-E'a a apiarist." "A w.hat?'" "A. bee expert." "But what in'." t ' Every old building, river, bridge, mountain, inscription, and institution brings to the author's mind another humorous story or a serious incident from history. One reads and learns something of value from these pages. The mention of Burns recalls '.ho monument in Dunndtn to Rev. Dr. Biirns, nephew' of the poet and' fust, minister of the Scottish settlement in Otngo, Mr. Percy's particular interest in theatres enables him to give specially vivid,accounts of early theatres in Scotland. Nothing escapes his eye, his pencil or his brush.