An interesting period piece

Pandering to the interests and prejudices of those who had the time and resources to travel, a lot of the essays are far too romantic and backward-looking to be of much value.

History is told from the perspective of the great and good - usually the aristocracy - and, when ordinary people do enter, they are usually depicted as quaint, colourful characters. The reference to "our peasantry" is a particularly revealing case of this.

It's interesting to see how every generation regards its own immediate past as a golden age, never to be repeated.

Some of the writers, for example, attack the buildings of the late Victorian and Edwardian period, the very architecture that we now see as a vital part of our heritage.

On a more progressive note, several contributors draw attention to the devastation brought about by unbridled commercialism and land speculation.

It's nice too that, despite their shortcomings, the essays have a gentle quality to them. Visitors are expected to walk, cycle or use public transport to get to many of the places concerned and are treated with a degree of respect that assumes that visitors will be interested in history and culture and not just in mindless consumerism.

The quality of much of the writing about landscape and wildlife also struck me as a tradition that, unlike many of the others, might well be worth renewing.

STEVE ANDREW