l combination of massive
tower and slender spire--the literary shrine of the English-speaking
world, the enchanted spot where Shakespeare sleeps. About it were
clustered the clean, tiled roofs of the charming town, set like a gem in
the Warwickshire landscape, famous as the most beautiful section of Old
England. Our car slowed to a stop, and only the subdued hum of the motor
broke the stillness as we saw Stratford-on-Avon from afar, conscious of
a beauty and sentiment that made our former visit seem commonplace
indeed.

But I am not going to write of Stratford-on-Avon. Thousands have done
this before me--some of them of immortal fame. I shall not attempt to
describe or give details concerning a town that is probably visited each
year by more people than any other place of the size in the world. I am
simply striving in a few words to give the different impressions made
upon the same party who visited the town twice in a comparatively short
period, the first time by railway train and the last by motor car. If I
have anything to say of Stratford, it will come in due sequence in my
story.

There are three ways in which a tourist may obtain a good idea of
Britain during a summer's vacation of three or four months. He may cover
most places of interest after the old manner, by railway train. This
will have to be supplemented by many and expensive carriage drives if he
wishes to see the most beautiful country and many of the most
interesting places. As Professor Goldwin Smith says, "Railways in
England do not follow the lines of beauty in very many cases," and the
opportunity afforded of really seeing England from a railway car window
is poor indeed. The tourist must keep a constant eye on the time-tables,
and in many of the more retired places he will have to spend a day when
an hour would suffice quite as well could he get away. If he travels
first-class, it is quite expensive, and the only advantage secured is
that he generally has a compartment to himself, the difference in
accommodations between first and third-class on the longer distance
trains being insignificant. But if he travels third-class, he very often
finds himself crowded into a small compartment with people in whom, to
say the least, he has nothing in common. One seldom gets the real
sentiment and beauty of a place in approaching it by railway. I am
speaking, of course, of the tourist who endeavors to crowd as much as he
can into a comparatively short time. T