one would expect to find that there was more than one. But no;
Bournemouth, exceptionally fortunate in having at once the most select
hotel on the South coast, the largest and best-appointed hotel on the
South coast and the largest and most up-to-date hotel on the South
coast, has positively only one which has the finest position on
the South coast. Indeed, there is only one of these in the whole of
England, though there are two which have the finest position on the
East coast.

How is it, we wonder, that with so much variation on a single theme
such artistic restraint is achieved? It is clear, I think, that before
they send in their manuscripts the hotel-managers must meet somewhere
and agree together the exact terms of their contributions to the book.
"The George" agrees that for the coming year "The Crown" shall have
the "finest cuisine in England," provided "The George" may have "the
most charming situation imaginable," and so on. I should like to be at
one of those meetings.

This is the only theory which accounts for the curious phrases we
find so frequently in the text:--"_Acknowledged_ to be the finest";
"_Admittedly_ in the best position." Who is it that acknowledges or
admits these things? It must be the other managers at these annual
meetings. Yes, the restraint of the collaborators is wonderful, and in
one point only has it broken down. There are no fewer than seventeen
hotels with an Unrivalled Situation, and two of these are at
Harrogate. For a small place like the British Isles it seems to me
that this is too many.

For the rest, what imagery, what exaltation we find in this Appendix!
Dazed with imagined beauty we pass from one splendid haunt to another.