1936 On the Continent

riding schools at a cost of 5s. or 6s. per hour.
    Oarsmen with modest requirements may row in Regent’s Park or Hyde Park, but those with more exacting requirements must go to one of the many places along the Thames. There are some fine resorts between London and Oxford, at all of which boats can be had for hire. Punting is a typical English variety of this sport.
Swimming
    Swimming is the one sport for which there are few facilities in London, though in recent years the position has improved by the creation of new swimming pools. Of the municipal swimming baths we mention those in Marshall Street, near Oxford Circus, Porchester Hall, near Paddington, and the Baths near Victoria station. The largest swimming pool is at Wembley Stadium. This, as well as the swimming pool at Richmond, is in winter converted into an ice rink.
    Open-air swimming baths will also be found in places near London, like the beautiful Surbiton Lagoon. A recent development are the pools at the so-called roadhouses, some of which are luxurious wayside hotels. Roadhouses will be found on every road leading out of London. Some have swimming pools with artificially heated water. Most road houses are open all night. The largest of them include those of the Ace of Spades Petrol Company on the Great West Road and on the Kingston by-pass.
    Although the Thames, beyond London, where bathing is possible, is not very wide, there are some charming spots, as at Shepperton, where you can bathe and sun-bathe in peace.
    But the Londoner’s real “bathing pool” is the sea, which can be reached in about an hour at Southend, Brighton, and many other attractive places.

    SHOPPING IN LONDON
By H. PEARL ADAM
    I T is a mistake to suppose that it was Napoleon who first said, if indeed he ever said, that the English were a nation of shopkeepers. The history of the phrase can be traced; for many years before Napoleon could possibly have known anything about England it was used by Englishmen about the English, and by no means always in an opprobrious sense.
The Interest of Shopping
    As shopkeepers the English have behind them more varied resources than perhaps any other nation has yet been able to claim. One cannot even except ancient Rome, or the wonderful bazaars of the East, the romantic argosies laden with strange products, of which we read in the Arabian Nights. All the adventures of Sindbad, all the discoveries of Columbus, and the whole range of progress in science, which has made easier the transport of goods, the manufacture of goods, the discovery of raw material and the methods of bringing it within the use of man, have tended to make shopping one of the interesting occupations of the world. Economic stress has sharpened the tastes of the shopper, no less than of the producers and the salesman; so that now the thing is a fine art, an instrument which will answer to the right touch.
London as Shopping Centre
    London is a splendid centre in which to exercise this talent. It presents to the visitor, at first sight, the countenance worn by almost any foreign city. That is to say, it displays along the thoroughfares certain to be traversed by visitors all the wares it thinks those visitors will like. These are not necessarily those which appeal to people of individual taste, but they are perfectly sound wares forthe week-ender, or the ten-day visitor, who has but little time to explore the enchanting avenues which open on every side to the shopper who has more time in which to make purchases.
    The first thing to do, for those who wish to buy to the best effect in London, is to realise how much history and romance lie behind all the merchandise displayed. Neither Baghdad nor Damascus did better. Even the situation of a retail shop to-day has some significance.
Grouping of Firms
    There is a tendency for sellers of one particular thing to gather together in one spot. This has always been the case. It is not any native relationship between the workers which has put tea in Mincing Lane, drapery in Hounds-ditch, herbalists in Bucklersbury, and Jewish firms in Lothbury; it is the convenience of grouping. You might think that one draper would want to keep away from another draper; but the direct opposite is the case.
    Wholesale merchants in old days gathered together because of the ease with which delivery could be made on the one hand, and buyers could collect on the other. Nowadays the same thing is seen in the retail trade. Transport has become easy. Any firm worth