此书的第一篇，英国之门，Gateway to England，写的是他们英国之旅的第一站（或许应该是在伦敦下了飞机以后开始的文化之旅的第一站）坎特伯雷。特别吸引我的是开篇的段落，因为我现在看英文书，时不时在脑子里把所看的内容翻译成中文，似乎是弥补在美国看中文书的不足。这里的第一段，就以一个很普通的词展示了一个翻译的小难题：
The Englishmen’s castle is his home.” Yes, I found something very homely about Canterbury. This was the first town, or rather city ( for it has a cathedral), in which we made our home during our brief sojourn in England. The houses here are all very homely, and often very old – where they have escaped the bombing of Hitler. The people, too, have homely manner; and many of them are elderly, though surprisingly energetic for their age. Somehow, age and homeliness go together: the older the homes and their occupants, the homlier they are. And there are few cities in England older than Canterbury
随着作者的描述，我了解到坎特伯雷的古城墙还在，虽然不是像荆州或者平遥古城一样完整。一个景点，西门，已经是孤立的城门一座，跟前门楼子一样。在youtube 上看到，过去可以单向通车的西门楼，现在已经禁止任何车辆通过。作者去的时候，不但可以通车，也不阻拦行人，行人走的话，必得 at their own peril。这句话一看录像就明白了。原来那城门道路的宽度，只有一辆双层大巴的轮距。大巴通过的时候要慢慢开。门洞里有大巴的时候，车与墙壁的缝隙仅能容身。
As a whole, there is something very homely about the southern counties of England, no less than about the city of Canterbury.
Those near London are, in fact, dignified by the name of “home counties”—-though London itself, … is anything but homely.
不过作者对这些旧居的描写，倒是可以作为描述文写作的范文来读。
第一个故居是亨利-詹姆斯故居，可是作者当时并没有能够进去参观，因此寥寥数语便结束了对詹姆斯故居外部环境的描写。第二个故居是简·奥斯汀的家。第三个故居是托马斯-哈代的家。这两个地方他们都参观了。作者用详细的笔触进行了描写，此不赘述。在结尾，作者点出了如此安排三个故居的用意，就是从亨利-詹姆斯贵族风格的豪宅，到奥斯汀的资产阶级（或者说中产阶级，作者拒绝用“资产阶级”这个词，而是用domestic。 我想可以翻译成“殷实之家”）别墅，到哈代的乡村茅屋，是一个“下降”的过程，最后落脚在 “homeliness” 这个词上。这样，文章的结尾便回应了开头的话 ”As a whole, there is something very homely about the southern counties of England, no less than about the city of Canterbury.“。这里的一段话，恐怕又是一个翻译难点：
The rich, even the rich, are homely at heart, though they may have erected barriers between their homeliness and themselves. But it is in the simple houses of the poor, especially the country poor, that the true homeliness of the English character is to be found, as well as the friendliness that goes with homeliness.
结尾的一段也是一样富有挑战性：
Give me any day a simple cottage in the country, a cottage like Hardy’s, which is really human and humanizing! If only men could limit their desires to such a simple human scale, then (I think) we might have more peace and more happiness in this troubled world.
让生活简单一些，幸福也许就在简单之中。这是很多人的共识。就连网上找对象的大妈们都说 I am a simple person. I like simple life。
第三篇写的是访问莎士比亚故居和一个画家的故居。作者对莎士比亚故居的描写让我们想到现在中国的旅游业。作者开篇就说，英国人很喜欢乡村。所谓英国的腹地就是乡村。人们喜欢乡村的恬静生活。但是现在有了闲暇时间和私人汽车的城里人周末去乡村的活动却使得他们寻求的恬静不复存在。现在中国人不也是热衷于自驾游吗？作者指出，莎士比亚的故居斯特拉福镇过去还可以说是属于英国腹地的地方，生活安宁，风景优美，地势起伏，有高有低却不太高也不太低(作者这里创造性地使用英语介词：Situated just between the fatlands of the East and the hills of the West, it combines the beauty of both regions, with ups and downs that are neither too up nor too down.)。但是现在，那里的乡村风情早已经被所谓的莎士比亚工业破坏了。斯特拉福德街道热闹程度不亚于伦敦的牛津街。所有跟莎士比亚有关的本应该是有神圣色彩的地方，现在都是人头攒动，thronged with inquisitive sightseers。这句话让我想到国庆节的长城。
然而当作者找到那个心目中的教堂时，他却连呼三声失望。路是令人失望地直，墓碑是令人失望地整齐，墓地是令人失望地新鲜。正当他失望的时候，又看到了一个二道门，年代较老。过了这个门，才找回点老旧的味道。于是他们“充满信心地”继续前进，不久便 beheld （不知道怎么翻译。就连李白也是用“见”这个词）格雷诗中提到的老教堂，“一堆不规则的石头建筑，哥特式拱形窗户，陡峭的红色屋顶”。作者特别强调不规则，觉得这才是真正的古旧。所以每当看到整齐的地方，都大失所望。当他看到教堂的尖顶没有藤蔓覆盖，又觉得强差人意，但是也只好接受了。作者详细描写了教堂的外貌，也看到了诗人格雷的无志之墓，似乎应该尽兴了。然而下面笔锋一转，说，嗨，哥们，不对呀，我来此地不是冲着教堂来的，我是来看教堂院落的，在哪儿呢？作者穿过教堂入口的门洞，他的 eyes were outraged to see the path continuing with indecent straightness right up to the porch, in between a line of rose-trees likewise planted at indecently regular intervals. 他的 ears were no less outraged to hear lawn-mowers, not one but several at once, smoothing the grass which had grown up over the old graves。读到这里我不禁哑然失笑：这个场面太有讽刺意味了。笔直的道路，割草机的噪音，墓地里被修剪齐整的草，这一切都与葛雷的诗大相径庭。他的确看到一些古老的墓碑，但是这些墓碑都reared their astonished heads above the placid seas of well-cut grass。 这里的拟人修辞充分表达了作者看到这一切后感到的惊讶心情。
最后，作者在自然学家Gilbert White的墓地找到了格雷的诗意。这里教堂的尖塔还有青藤植物覆盖。他庆幸在this excessively hygienic age of ours 还有这样的教堂尖塔存在。教堂墓地并不是平整的。墓碑则是 higgledy-piggledy 地挤在一起的。这里的猫头鹰还会对月而鸣。这里的小径还是狭窄蜿蜒的。虽然怀特的故居也是旅游景点，但是这个教堂因为离故居还有点距离而逃离了旅游业的修整而得以保持了原始英国乡村的风貌。作者无限感叹地写道：It was a charming scene! Here was a real English country churchyard, next to a real village church, with a real “ivy-mantled tower”. I looked up, and yes! there were the “rugged elms”. I could almost hear the curfew tolling “the knell of parting day”, except that it was still afternoon。作者发议论道，如果格雷在世，他一定不会选择死后葬在他那个老家，而是跟怀特葬在一起。现在游人因为读了格雷的诗而上当受骗蜂拥到格雷的老家，而如果想真正领略英国乡村教堂院落的风光，他们应该到怀特故居来。在这个议论中，作者间接地赞扬了格雷的诗才：So great is the power of the pen, when wielded by the imagination of a great poet! 格雷老家的游人如织，正是反衬了诗人文字的魅力。
