London to John O' Groat's. 83 



that best represent and perpetuate the primeval charac- 

 teristics of a nation. These the American traveller will 

 find invested with all the old charm with which his 

 fancy clothed them. It will well repay him for a 

 month's walk to see and enjoy them thoroughly. 



In these days of sun-literature, whose letters are 

 human faces, and whose new volumes are numbered by 

 the million yearly, without a duplicate to one of them, 

 I am confident that a volume of these English village 

 inns of the olden school, in photographs, would com- 

 mand a ,large sale and admiration in America, merely 

 as specimens of unique and interesting architecture. A 

 thousand might be taken, every one as unlike the other 

 in distinctive form and feature, as every one of the same 

 number of men would be to the other. 



The diversification of names, being more difficult, is 

 still more remarkable. Although the spread eagle 

 figures largely as the patron genius of American hotels, 

 still nine-tenths of them bear the names of states, coun- 

 ties, towns, or national or local celebrities. But here 

 natural history comes out strong and wide. The 

 heraldry of sovereigns, aristocracy, gentry, commercial 

 and industrial interests, puts up its various arms upon 

 hundreds of inns in town and country. All occupations 

 and recreations are well represented. Thus no country 

 in the world approaches England in the wide scope and 

 G 2 



