Xll PREFACE. 



lable violence, and to such an extent as will require the 

 pen of a Darwin to explain. 



Turning now for a moment to south-western France, it 

 will be enough to show that very much the same rapid 

 growth has characterised the places resorted to by the 

 English during winter in that district. Twenty years 

 ago, it is not too much to say that the very name of the 

 little fishing village of Biarritz was quite unknown in this 

 country. When I first saw it in 1861, it was beginning to 

 be recognised as a winter resort for the English, as well as 

 a summer residence for the Imperial family, and hotels 

 and pensions expressly prepared for the habits of our 

 countrymen, were in course of erection. But when I 

 visited it lately, though aware of its immense increase, 

 I was astonished to find so large a town and suburb, ex- 

 tending over so great an area, and frequented by the 

 English in such numbers that it was little else than a 

 British colony ; and the same continuous increase, though 

 hardly perhaps to the same extent, is said to be observed 

 at Pau and other sheltered spots beneath the Pyrenees. 



Now, one of the natural results of this flocking of the 

 English to certain favoured localities is the very rapid 

 increase of prices, which (I am told) have more than 

 doubled within the last five years, both on the Cornice and 

 at Biarritz. That of itself is one considerable disadvan- 

 tage, which repels many from the districts thus Anglicised ; 

 but again, I for one (and there are many others of my 

 mind) do not desire, when we go abroad, to plant ourselves 

 in an English colony, where everything that strikes the 

 ear and the eye reminds one of St. John's Wood or the 

 suburbs of Cheltenham, or Bath, or Brighton ; but with 

 every feeling of respect and all due appreciation for the 



