THE CARE AND FEEDING OF A PLACE IN THE COUNTRY

Perhaps Dale Warren intended this to be the book to end all books on the subject of country living. If so he failed in his purpose, for the book lends itself to argument and amendment, to discussion and comparison. In fact, he has supplied the incurable country house addict with a springboard for marginal notes, ad infinitum, and with texts, ad . Definitely a book for converts and incurables. No city dweller, even with a yen for country living, would know what it was all about. Here is no program, no outline, no scheme of life. It is a collection of oddities and entities about a country house, a garden, about the possessions and the points of view thereof. Except for rather casual classification, there is no organization of material. It gives the impression of random notes, loosely collected, sorted, numbered, and published. I wanted to hurry through it -- then go back for deeper digging later. I didn't. I read every one of the 500 items. I made some notes for future reference. And when I get a copy of the book, there are things I'll reread for the fun of it, and others -- perhaps -- for their practical value. And I'll fill in some of the memorandum pages to follow each section with notes of mine to discuss with Dale Warren (Houghton, Mifflin, in case you don't know) next time I see him. Some people may find the tone a bit flippant. Others may object to a tendency to categorical marshalling of words and phrases. But most country livers will like it. And it ought to be the perfect table book.