British Highways And Byways From A Motor Car | Page 5

what one desires to see and to gain a general
idea of the road from the maps. Another valuable adjunct will be a
membership in the A.C.A. or a letter from the American motor
associations, with an introduction to the Secretary of the Motor Union
of Great Britain and Ireland. In this manner can be secured much
valuable information as to the main traveled routes; but after all, if the
tourist is going to get the most out of his trip, he will have to come
down to a careful study of the country and depend partly on the
guide-books but more upon his own knowledge of the historical and
literary landmarks throughout the Kingdom.

II
IN AND ABOUT LONDON
London occurs to the average tourist as the center from which his
travels in the Kingdom will radiate, and this idea, from many points of
view, is logically correct. Around the city cluster innumerable literary
and historic associations, and the points of special interest lying within

easy reach will outnumber those in any section of similar extent in the
entire country. If one purposes to make the tour by rail, London is
pre-eminently the center from which to start and to which one will
return at various times in his travels. All the principal railways lead to
the metropolis. The number of trains arriving and departing each day
greatly exceeds that of any other city in the world, and the longest
through journey in the island may be compassed between sunrise and
sunset.
The motorist, however, finds a different problem confronting him in
making London his center. I had in mind the plan of visiting the famous
places of the city and immediate suburbs with the aid of my car, but it
was speedily abandoned when I found myself confronted by the actual
conditions. One attempt at carrying out this plan settled the matter for
me. The trip which I undertook would probably be one of the first to
occur to almost anybody--the drive to Hampton Court Palace, about
twelve or fifteen miles from the central part of the city. It looked easy
to start about two or three o'clock, spend a couple of hours at Hampton
Court and get back to our hotel by six. After trying out my car--which
had reached London some time ahead of me--a few times in localities
where traffic was not the heaviest, I essayed the trip without any further
knowledge of the streets than I had gained from the maps. I was
accompanied by a nervous friend from Iowa who confessed that he had
been in an automobile but once before. He had ridden with a relative
through a retired section of his native state, traversed for the first time
by an automobile, and he had quit trying to remember how many
run-aways and smash-ups were caused by the fractious horses they met
on the short journey. Visions of damage suits haunted him for months
thereafter. In our meanderings through the London streets, the fears for
the other fellow which had harassed him during his former experience,
were speedily transferred to himself. To his excited imagination, we
time and again escaped complete wreck and annihilation by a mere
hair's breadth. The route which we had taken, I learned afterwards, was
one of the worst for motoring in all London. The streets were narrow
and crooked and were packed with traffic of all kinds. Tram cars often
ran along the middle of the street, with barely room for a vehicle to
pass on either side. The huge motor busses came tearing towards us in a

manner most trying to novices, and it seemed, time after time, that the
dexterity of the drivers of these big machines was all that saved our car
from being wrecked. We obtained only the merest glimpse of Hampton
Palace, and the time which we had consumed made it apparent that if
we expected to reach our hotel that night, we must immediately retrace
our way through the wild confusion we had just passed. It began to rain,
and added to the numerous other dangers that seemed to confront us
was that of "skidding" on the slippery streets. When we finally reached
our garage, I found that in covering less than twenty-five miles, we had
consumed about four hours and we had been moving all the time. The
nervous strain was a severe one and I forthwith abandoned any plan
that I had of attempting to do London by motor car. With more
knowledge and experience I would have done better, but a local
motorist, thoroughly acquainted with London, told me that he wouldn't
care to undertake the Hampton Court trip by the route which we had
traveled.
On Saturday afternoons and Sundays, the motorist may practically have
freedom of the