iation on a single theme
such artistic restraint is achieved? It is clear, I think, that before
they send in their manuscripts the hotel-managers must meet somewhere
and agree together the exact terms of their contributions to the book.
"The George" agrees that for the coming year "The Crown" shall have
the "finest cuisine in England," provided "The George" may have "the
most charming situation imaginable," and so on. I should like to be at
one of those meetings.

This is the only theory which accounts for the curious phrases we
find so frequently in the text:--"_Acknowledged_ to be the finest";
"_Admittedly_ in the best position." Who is it that acknowledges or
admits these things? It must be the other managers at these annual
meetings. Yes, the restraint of the collaborators is wonderful, and in
one point only has it broken down. There are no fewer than seventeen
hotels with an Unrivalled Situation, and two of these are at
Harrogate. For a small place like the British Isles it seems to me
that this is too many.

For the rest, what imagery, what exaltation we find in this Appendix!
Dazed with imagined beauty we pass from one splendid haunt to another.
One of them has _three_ golf-courses of its own; several are _replete_
with every comfort (and is not "replete" the perfect epithet?). Here
is a seductive one "on the sea-edge," and another whose principal
glory is its sanitary certificate. Another stands on the spot where
TENNYSON received his inspiration for the _Idylls of the King_, and
leaves it at that. In such a spot even "cuisine" is negligible.

On the whole, from a literary point of view, the hydros come out
better than the mere hotels. But of course they have unequalled
advantages. With such material as Dowsing Radiant Heat, D'Arsonval
High Frequency and Fango Mud Treatment almost any writer could be
sensational. What is High Frequency, I wonder? It is clear, at any
rate, that it would be madness to have a hydro without it.

Well, I have selected my hotel--on purely literary grounds. Or rather
I have selected two. One is the place where they have the Famous
Whirlpool Baths. I shall go there at once.

The manager of the other is a great artist; alone among the
collaborators he understands simplicity. His contribution occupies
a whole page; but there is practically nothing in it, nothing about
cuisine or sanitation, or elegance or comfort. Only, in the middle, he
writes quite simply THE MOST PERFECT HOTEL IN