the whole he finds us clean
and civil and fairly honest; and respond with the assurance that we are
always pleased to see him so long as he behaves himself. We, too, have
found him clean and fairly honest; and if we have anything left to desire,
it is only that he will realise, a little more constantly, the extent of
his knowledge of us, and the extent to which his position as a visitor
should qualify his bearing towards us. I address this hint particularly
to those who make copy out of their wanderings in our midst; and I believe
it has only to be suggested, and it will be at once recognised for true,
that the proper attitude for a visitor in a strange land is one of
modesty. He may be a person of quite considerable importance in his own
home, even if that home be London; but when he finds himself on strange
soil he may still have a deal to learn from the people who have lived on
that soil for generations, adapted themselves to its conditions and sown
it with memories in which he cannot have a share.

In truth, many of our visitors would seem to suffer from a confusion of
thought. Possibly the Visitors' Books at hotels and places of public
resort may have fostered this. Our guest makes a stay of a few weeks in
some spot to which he has been attracted by its natural beauty: he idles
and watches the inhabitants as they go about their daily business; and at
the end he deems it not unbecoming to record his opinion that they are
intelligent, civil, honest, and sober--or the reverse. He mistakes.
It is _he_ who has been on probation during these weeks--_his_
intelligence, _his_ civility, _his_ honesty, _his_ sobriety. For my
part, I look forward to a time when Visitors' Books shall record the
impressions which visitors leave behind them, rather than those which they
bear away. For an instance or two:--

(1) "The Rev. and Mrs. '--', of '--', arrived here in August, 1897,
and spent six weeks. We found them clean, and invariably sober and
polite. We hope they will come often."

(2) "Mr. X and his friend Y, from Z, came over here, attired in
flannels and the well-known blazer of the Tooting Bec Cricket Club.
They shot gulls in the harbour, and made themselves a public
nuisance by constant repetition of a tag from a music-hall song,
with an indecent sub-intention. Their behaviour towards the young
women of this town was offensive. Seen in juxtaposition with the
nat