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Cue (NZERS), Issue 34, 31 October 1945, Page 3

season for these two sports. Sport generally is booming in post-war London.

But great though the attractions of the capital may be, there will be many soldiers who will wish to travel further afield and learn something of the country and; its varied people; It would, of course, be impossible to make more than a passing acquaintance with both England and the English in fourteen days. Tom foreigner it would be difficult to become even remotely acquainted in as many weeks, but a New Zealander is not, and will not feel a foreigner. He will be visiting the land that gave birth to his grand-parents and his great grand-parents, and wherever he wanders he will feel at home. He will find a ready welcome, too, for New Zealanders generally rank high in the regard of the people of Britain.

There is no country quite like England and equally true, there are no people quite like the English. It is easier to get to know the former than the latter, but it is difficult to decide which is the more interesting and the more varied. The English combine the characteristics of many people in their make-up. There were the Early Britons with a civilization of their own that gave way to that of the Romans who, for 400 years, made their home in England. When they left, the Danes and the Saxons came, and later the Norman-French. They did not conquer England but rather did they become absorbed until they were part of the English race.

i Even so, throughout the length and breadth of the land, there are to be found today strong traces of the various races: in Cornwall the small dark descendants of the Iberians; in the south-east the stocky Roman type; in the east and north-east the tall, fair •Scandinavian; in other districts the sturdy Norman type.

And with these people came foreign culture, soon to be adapted by the English until it became the culture of

their land. From France, Italy and the Gothic North came its early architecture. Its fashions in dress came at different times from Italy, France, and Spain. Its literature, rich in English tradition and spirit, took its forms from many lands, —its early ballad from Provencal troubadors, the satire from ancient Rome, the sonnet from Italy, the essay from France, the novel from Spain. But the final products were essentially English.

Just as varied as the people is the English countryside. In fact, it is doubtful if any country, including New Zealand, can show a greater variety of scenery, urban and rural, than England. Within its shores are miniature Alps, miniature Danubes and Volgas, miniature fjords, miniature marshes, miniature steppes, miniature forests, and miniature lakes. There is a constant change in the landscape, and in

the space of a hundred miles is scenery similar to that to be found in most European countries. And with , its landscapes are magnificent cities, towns that are mediaeval in their

character, and villages whose beauty is that of the sixteenth century. The whole countryside, bathed in fresh green, is a perfect setting for the loveliness of England and the artistic endeavours of Englishmen.

■ A New Zealander, who is used to a land where almost everybody speaks the same language and where dialects are practically unknown, often finds it difficult to understand why Cockneys, Yorkshiremen, and laddies from Lancashire speak in such ’’foreign” and vastly different ways. In these days of quick and easy travel, of the telephone, the radio and the cinema, it is rather amazing that dialects have survived so strongly in such a small country as England. But survived they have, with the strange result that the peasant from Cornwall can hardly understand the peasant -from eastern England, and the shepherd from the Lake District thinks that the man from Sussex speaks a foreign tongue, while the poor Londoner finds it difficult to understand any of them.

But this difference is not confined to one of dialect among the folk of the

counties. They have marked dissimilarities in character, custom, and outlook. The people of the industrial north differ greatly from those of the pastoral .south. The northerners are more energetic, have simpler tastes, are blunt of speech and manner. The people of the south cultivate the graces of life and take things less seriously.

Even the people of neighbouring counties differ in a number of ways, and in this the weather and the landscape play an important part. The Fen country of Lincolnshire is melancholy and damp and so the people are not as cheerful as the people of the western counties where the rich soil and generous sunshine have produced men and women sunny of temperament and kindly of voice. Other counties produce other types, a state of affairs that is almost unheard of in New Zealand. And as they are, so do they live; some free-spending, others thrifty; some taciturn and cautious, others warm-hearted and hospitable. Strangely enough, these differences may be very marked in neighbouring counties, small though many of the counties are.

If time and resources permit the New Zealander on leave to visit Scotland and Wales, he will find these differences in character, speech and custom considerably greater, so much so that it will seem that he has entered an entirely new country and not one that is under the one Government and the one Crown. The poems of Bobbie Burns cannot be fully appreciated by a man from over the border, nor can an Englishman make much of a Welsh eisteddfod. It is in these contrasts and varying characteristics ami customs that lie much of the charm and interest of a holiday in Britain. « $ * 1 With one of the most efficient railway systems in the world, little time need be wasted in actual travel in Britain. For instance, if one should wish to- travel from London to Edinburgh or Glasgow the entire journey, occupies only a little over eight hours. Various interesting routes may be taken. The L.N.E. East Coast route, passing through Grantham, York, and Berwick, is 393 miles from King’s Cross to Edinburgh, and is covered in eight hours and a quarter. The same

time is occupied by the L.M.S. West Coast express leaving Euston for Glasgow or for Edinburgh, via Carlisle. The Midland route from St. Pancras to Edinburgh (409 miles) takes an hour longer as does the; trip to Glasgow (426 miles), via Trent, Leeds, and Carlisle.

An idea of other journeys may be gained from the approximate distances and times for trips from London to the following towns: —

Southampton, 79 miles, 14-2 hrs; Bath, 106 miles, 2 hrs. 15 min.; Bristol, 118 miles, 24 hrs.; Manchester, 188 miles, 4 hrs.; Derby 128 miles, 2 hrs. 45 min.; Liverpool, 34 hrs, and via Oxford, Shakespeare Country, Warwick, and Chester (North Wales), 5j hrs.; Rugby, 2 hrs; Sheffield, 34 hrs.; Cardiff, 3 hrs. ’ ,

But wherever the New Zealander wishes to go there will be fast, comfortable transport for him, and wherever he goes he will find much that is picturesque and historically interesting, and always there will be the people of Britain ready to extend hospitality and friendship to their kinfolk from the other end of the world.