Another England

 Here's an image from another time – 1956, to be precise (which, as I remember it, was indeed another time, and England another place). It's an advertisement for visiting England, produced by the New York-based British Travel Association, and it shows the Swan in Lavenham, Suffolk, the picture-postcard village where, some years later, Michael Reeves's classic (and deeply disturbing) Witchfinder General was filmed. At the Swan, American visitors are assured, bed and a hearty breakfast – 'orange juice and steaming porridge, eggs and crisp bacon, buttered toast and jam and coffee' – are to be had for $2.40 a night (around £1 sterling). What's more, for $5 a day, gas and oil included, the visitor could hire a 'little English car', perhaps a quaint half-timbered Morris Minor. After that 'gargantuan' breakfast, the advert suggests taking to the road and visiting some other ancient English inns. The itinerary is daunting, taking in  Kent, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and London – and Paradise, the location given for the Adam and Eve pub, and not to be found in any gazetteer. Probably they mean the Adam and Eve in Norwich, which would involve a northward diversion. The British Travel Association, it seems to me, have somewhat underestimated the size of England, and overlooked the clogged state of the country's roads in the 1950s, when you'd be lucky to average much more than 20mph. Still, you could always stop at yet more pubs and sample the beer – described, not very enticingly, as 'interesting and plentiful'. 'The talk is good,' says the BTA optimistically, 'and it's in English. You'll be welcome to play darts and skittles and shove-halfpenny with the natives.' Well, it's a lovely idea of England, even if it bears little relation to reality, even in that far-off world of 1956.