30 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



come to Ilfracombe with apparently no other object 

 than that of setting his mind seriously to these things : 

 he will array himself in a straw-hat with a pink rib- 

 bon, a coloured shirt, a shooting-jacket never meant to 

 shoot in, and thus arrayed he will show himself and 

 his telescope. The telescope is indispensable. He will 

 never use it, but he borrows from it a nautical air, 

 which is quite the right thing, you know. I wish I 

 were just enough acquainted with that young gentle- 

 man to bow to him — I would do it in sight of the 

 whole Parade. As we pass along, the staring excited 

 by our incongruous appearance of dirt, damp, and 

 utensils, suggests ludicrous reflections on the way we 

 all judge of each other ; and more serious reflections 

 on the utterly foolish disposal of time which the majo- 

 rity of sea- side visitors make. 



History proves that we English are a magnificent 

 race ; but I appeal to every one whether the concrete 

 Englishman he meets abroad, or at the sea-side, in the 

 least represents his idea of that magnificent race. I'm 

 afraid we are disao-reeable to the backbone. At the 

 coast we are all dismal as well as disagreeable. What 

 an air of weariness hangs over almost everybody ! 

 After the " visitors '' have had their first walk on the 

 beach, their first two or three hours' " sail,'' from which 

 they return looking very green — after they have seen 

 the sunset once, they relapse into utter novel-reading. 

 Not only do they here read more novels than at home, 

 but they are content to read the novels no one reads at 

 home. Look at that young gentleman who has brought 



