Books Reviewed

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 559, 11 January 1929, Page 14

Books Reviewed

SONGS OF THE COUNTIES JF there is one man who can capture the atmosphere of rural England it is Mr. E. V. Lucas, whose songs of the English counties have been reprinted from the pages of “Punch,” in which they delighted thousands of readers, particularly those who love the English countryside but live in younger lands. Mr Lucas has written a set of verses, fragrant, elfin things for tli£ most! part, each of them capturing and encasing in thistledown a distilled drop of the atmosphere that clings so tenaciously to each of the counties of the Homeland. And what he has been unable to say in the short compass of his verses, Mr. Ernest H. Shepard has elaborated in the charming sketches that frame each poem. The description “radiant” has been applied to these drawings and fits them perfectly. There is a joyousness about the whole production that compels entire capitulation. Here is Mr. Lucas’s vignette of Cambridgeshire: The little Isle of Ely That once xcas all uxircst Is, in the reign of George the Fifth, An Island of the Blest. But William , called the Conqueror, Could nevex' conquer there Till Hex'eward the wakeful, Till Here ward the dreadful, Till Hereward the handfxil. Was hurled from his lair. . When youths stride out fx'oxn Cambridge A,id leave their dons and dens, They xnucJi prefer the open road That leads them to the Fens; • And when they coxxic to Ely town They settle down to eat A dish of eggs cxul bacon, A plate of toast and butter . Waahcd down with hops or tannin, And find tobacco sweet.