118 Notes and Reflections during a Tour : — 



Spence, has just sent us (p. 1 25.) on the subject of general 

 amusements, Great Britain might indeed, as he observes, 

 become such a paradise as, at least, has not appeared on the 

 eartii since the deluge. 



The road to Brighton being new, and through a new coun- 

 try, is the reason why it is bordered by so few distinguished 

 country seats. Near Croydon is Beddington Pai'k, celebrated 

 for having been the first place in England in which orange 

 trees were grown, though we cannot but think it very likely 

 that they may have been long before introduced by the Italian 

 monks, who in all ages have been attached to gardening, fond 

 of fruits, and skilled in their culture. Near Crawley is Holm 

 Bush Lodge, for a number of years the property and residence 

 of the celebrated Lord Erskine, where he planted extensively, 

 and where some fine large specimens of American shrubs re- 

 main to attest his success. This place has lately been pur- 

 chased by the son of an eminent tradesman, who, in his time, 

 was as celebrated as Lord Erskine. 



This gentleman has built a handsome baronial castle in a 

 commanding situation, and very properly ; because in this 

 country there is something higher for commercial men to aim 

 at than wealth and abundance, that of ranking themselves with 

 the aristocracy. To live in the style of a gentleman in a baro- 

 nial castle, creates a resemblance to the desired rank even in 

 a retired tradesman, and for the sons of his son the thing is 

 done. The consolation for those who are not so fortunate in 

 trade is, that in two generations the manners and intelligence 

 of the different ranks of society will be nearly the same, at all 

 events much moi*e so than at present. Where there is less 

 difference between the different ranks in point of knowledge 

 and manners, there will be less of exclusive privilege and 

 less in point of happiness, and, consequently, less ambition to 

 rise from one rank into another. The means, in such a state 

 of things, we may hope, will be less likely to be mistaken for 

 the end ; a tradesman born, educated, and living like a gentle- 

 man, of whom there are some even in our days of ignorance 

 and ambition, would be very well content to die in the rank 

 in which he had lived, and to leave his children in that rank. 



Brighton.^ August 30. — Brighton is one of those towns that 

 could be produced only in England. With reference to the 

 ordinary causes which create a town, its situation is unnatural, 

 without a harbour, and with less advantages in point of sea- 

 bathing than many other situations on the coast. It is no 

 doubt a boarding and landing place for travellers going to or 

 coming from Dieppe ; but that can have little effect on its in- 

 crease, which, like that of Bath some years ago, was begun by 



