Sunny Brighton 



the fashion to stop carriages in the road and listen to 

 it. Frequently there were carriages four deep, while 

 the gale blew the music out to sea and no one heard 

 a note. Still they sat content. 



There are more handsome women in Brighton 

 than anywhere else in the world. They are so 

 common that gradually the standard of taste in the 

 mind rises, and good-looking women who would be 

 admired in other places pass by without notice. 

 Where all the flowers are roses, you do not see a rose. 

 They are all plump, not to say fat, which would be 

 rude; very plump, and have the glow and bloom of 

 youth upon the cheeks. They do not suffer from 

 " pernicious anaemia/' that evil bloodlessness which 

 London physicians are not unfrequently called upon 

 to cure, when the cheeks are white as paper and have 

 to be rosied with minute doses of arsenic. They 

 extract their arsenic from the air. The way they 

 step and the carriage of the form show how full they 

 are of life and spirits. Sarah Bernhardt will not come 

 to Brighton if she can help it, lest she should lose that 

 high art angularity and slipperiness of shape which 

 suits her rdle. Dresses seem always to fit well, because 

 people somehow expand to them. It is pleasant to 

 see the girls walk, because the limbs do not drag, the 

 feet are lifted gaily and with ease. Horse-exercise 

 adds a deeper glow to the face; they ride up on the 

 Downs first, out of pure cunning, for the air there is 

 certain to impart a freshness to the features like dew 

 on a flower, and then return and walk their horses to 

 and fro the King's Road, certain of admiration. 

 However often these tricks are played, they are 

 always successful. Those philanthropic folk who 

 want to reform women's dress, and call upon the 

 world to observe how the present style contracts the 



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