ENGLISH LAKES NOT COMPARABLE TO NEW ZEALAND’S.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17890, 5 July 1926, Page 15

ENGLISH LAKES NOT COMPARABLE TO NEW ZEALAND’S.

MR M. S. BROWN TELLS OF MOTOR TRIP IN BRITAIN AND EUROPE

11 The English lakes, Grasmere and Windermere, cannot compare in beauty with Wanaka and Wakatipu,” said Mr M. S. Brown in the course of a travel chat to the members of the Canterbury Automobile Association on Saturday evening. “ A background of mountains adds to the New Zealand lakes a beauty and grandeur lacking at Grasmere and Windermere, alongside which the Cashmere Hills would appear mountains in comparison with the low English country/’ Mr Brown left for an English and Continental motoring tour in February, 1925. A fine boat trip brought the party past Pitcairn Island and on to the Suez Canal, where, he said, the working of the locks was a marvel. The only point of interest on the railway journey from Southampton to London was the Brooklands track, made famous by feats of motoring speed. After studying the marvels of London, the party motored through the South of England, passing through Hastings, Eastbourne, Beachy Head, Brighton. Christchurch, Plymouth, Penzance. Bristol, Salisbury and back to London. Beachy Head gave a fine view of the Channel, and there was a drop of 500 ft or 600 ft to the rocks below. The head was noted for suicides. like the notorious Gap in Sydney. At Cloverley cuckoos were heard. The landscape was the finest in England, with bluebells, violets and primroses in abundance.

The Continental trip, continued Mr Brown, involved the issuing of many passports. The trip to Geneva took them through Ypres, Brussels, Mons and Rheims. The destruction wrought by the war was most marked in Rheims, and gave one an idea under what terrible conditions the residents must have lived in the war period. There was plenty of music on the approach to Geneva, for every cow, goat and sheep had a bell to ring. Lake Geneva was wonderful, and Lake Lucerne, where almost every article of crockery played a tune when handled, impressed the tourists. A heavy fall of snow in the St Gothard Pass prevented the travellers from going through it. They went on to Milan, meeting a tremendous heat wave. Italian roads were bad, the only good piece being near Milan. It was like polished marble. At Genoa hundreds of thousands of pilgrims going to Rome were encountered. A different note was struck at extravagant Mone Carlo, where the arrangements for pleasure were lavish. Over the top of the French Alps let the party through to Lyons and Paris. Petrol in the French capital was about 50 per cent dearer than outside, and motorists had to pay a tax on the amount in the car's tank. Passing through Rouen and Calais to London, the party stayed at the same hotel as did Suzanne Lenglen.

The third trip took them to the Isle of Man, through the beautiful Wye Valley in Wales, up to Edinburgh and Glasgow, and back through the English lakes country. The Isle of Man was a pretty spot, and a great tourist resort. Sir Walter Scott’s “ Lady of Perth’s ” house in Perth was discovered by the travellers in a narrow byway. Loch Lomond afforded fine scenery, both hills and water. In Robert Burns's cottage in Ayr, the dining-room, bedroom and cow-baJ were under one roof, with no partitions separating them. Coming down to Shakespeare's house at Stratford-on-Avon, the speaker said the e were many points of resemblance' between the Avons of Stratford and of our own Christchurch. In theatres, England was not ahead of the Dominion. One building had given the speaker the impression of being able from the circle to shake hands with the actors: it was all so cramped. There was a fair attendance at the social gathering, which was the first of the association's winter series. Mr H. C. Harley presided. Mr Brown was accorded a vote of thanks for his address. A trio, comprising Mesdames R. Twyneham and W. R. Carey and Mr Arthur Bate, rendered a trio by Schytte and three small numbers by Cyril Scott, Schumann and Schubert respectively.