Some knowledge of the homes and haunts of English authors is necessary for an understanding of their work.  We feel in much closer touch with Shakespeare after merely reading about Stratford-on-Avon; but we seem to share his experiences when we actually walk from Stratford-on-Avon to Shottery and Warwick.  The scenery and life of the Lake Country are reflected in Wordsworth’s poetry.  Ayr and the surrounding country throw a flood of light on the work of Burns.  The streets of London are a commentary on the novels of Dickens.  A journey to Canterbury aids us in recreating the life of Chaucer’s Pilgrims.

Much may be learned from a study of literary England.  Whether one does or does not travel, such study is necessary.  Those who hope at some time to visit England should acquire in advance as much knowledge as possible about the literary associations of the places to be visited; for when the opportunity for the trip finally comes, there is usually insufficient time for such preparation as will enable the traveler to derive the greatest enjoyment from a visit to the literary centers in which Great Britain abounds.

Whenever an author is studied, his birthplace should be located on the literary map.  Baedeker’s Great Britain will be indispensable in making an itinerary.  The Reference List for Literary England is sufficiently comprehensive to enable any one to plan an enjoyable literary pilgrimage through Great Britain and to learn the most important facts about the places connected with English authors.

The following suggestions from the author’s experience are intended to serve merely as an illustration of how to begin an itinerary.  The majority of east-bound steamships call at Plymouth, a good place to disembark for a literary trip.  From Plymouth, the traveler may go to Exeter (a quaint old town with a fine cathedral, the home of Exeter Book,) thence by rail to Camelford in Cornwall and by coach four miles to the fascinating Tintagel (King Arthur), where, as Tennyson says in his Idylls of the King:—­

  “All down the thundering shores of Bude and Bos,
  There came a day as still as heaven, and then
  They found a naked child upon the sands
  Of dark Tintagil by the Cornish sea,
  And that was Arthur.”

Next, the traveler may go by coach to Bude (of which Tennyson remarked, “I hear that there are larger waves at Bude than at any other place.  I must go thither and be alone with God”) and to unique Clovelly and Bideford (Kingsley), by rail to Ilfracombe, by coach to Lynton (Lorna Doone), and the adjacent Lynmouth (where Shelley passed some of his happiest days and alarmed the authorities by setting afloat bottles containing his Declaration of Rights), by coach to Minehead, by rail to Watchet, driving past Alfoxden (Wordsworth) to Nether-Stowey (Coleridge) and the Quantock Hills, by motor and rail to Glastonbury (Isle of Avalon, burial place of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere), by rail to Wells (cathedral), to Bath (many literary associations), to Bristol (Chatterton, Southey), to Gloucester (fine cathedral, tomb of Edward II), and to Ross, the starting point for a remarkable all day’s row down the river Wye to Tintern Abbey (Wordsworth), stopping for dinner at Monmouth (Geoffrey of Monmouth).