359 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



CONCLUSION. 



The winter of 1864-65 passed over without any apparent change 

 for the worse in Dr. Harvey's health, but the cold winds of 

 spring, always so trying to invalids, and peculiarly felt in 

 Dublin, seemed to accelerate the progress of the disease. The 

 unfavourable symptoms increased, and his physicians again 

 recommended a warmer climate. Arcachon, on the south-west 

 coast of France, was the place decided upon, on account of the 

 supposed beneficial effect of the aroma of its pine forests. 



To Mr. T. 



Arcachon, Gironde, March 16th, 1865. 



We reached this place yesterday morning from Paris, 

 having travelled (chiefly by night) thirteen hours, and getting 

 here at ten a.m. We had a stoppage of an hour at Bordeaux 

 Station, and so we arrived tolerably fresh at our lodgings. We 

 were hardly arrived when Mrs. G. sent in her servant with a 

 hotpot of delicious English tea, and bread and butter, and she 

 has continued her kindness in every possible way. We are most 

 grateful to her, a perfect stranger to us save by her husband's in- 

 troduction. You will want to know about the place. Well, it 

 is in fine weather to all, and in all weathers to some, a most 

 charming place — very picturesque, much more varied in level 

 than I had anticipated, and the pines not at all sombre. They 

 are of all ages, but few large. There is a village where we, the 

 humble-minded, are housed ; and there are villas of all shapes 

 and sizes for the rich, here and there, through what is called the 

 forest — a very open one. The undergrowth is chiefly arbutus, 

 now in fruit. Houses painted all colours of the rainbow, and 

 many are of fantastic shapes. 



