Now, these Joneses and Browns cordially detest each other in London, and are not even on speaking terms; yet such is the depressing effect of "perfect quiet" that, as soon as they meet at Shrimpington-super-Mare, they rush into each other's arms with a wild sense of relief!] * * * * * [Illustration: HEARTS OF OAK _Angelina_ (_who has never seen a revolving light before_). "How patient and persevering those sailors must be, Edwin! The wind has blown that light out six times since they first lit it, and they've lighted it again each time!"] * * * * * [Illustration: SHANKLIN] * * * * * [Illustration: SCILLY] * * * * * [Illustration: HAYLING ISLAND] * * * * * [Illustration: MUMBLES] * * * * * [Illustration: "Now, mind, if any of those nasty people with cameras come near, you're to send them away!"] * * * * * SEASIDE SOLITUDE HIGHBURYBARN-ON-SEA (_From our Special Commissioner_) [Illustration: A CUTTER ROUNDING THE BUOY] Dear Mr. Punch,--This is a spot, which, according to your instructions, I reached last evening. In these same instructions you described it as "a growing place." I fancy it must be of the asparagus order, that vegetable, as you are well aware, taking three years in which to develop itself to perfection. Highburybarn-on-Sea is, I regret to say, in the first stage--judged from an asparagus point of view. I cannot entertain the enthusiastic description of the candid correspondent (I refer to the cutting forwarded by you from an eminent daily paper under the heading, "By the Golden Ocean.") He describes it as "an oasis on the desert coast of Great Britain." Far be it from me to deny the desert--all I object to is the oasis. [Illustration: Limpets] I ask you, sir, if you ever, in the course of the travels in which you have out-rivalled Stanley, Cameron, Livingstone, Harry de Windt, and, may I add, De Rougemont, ever came across an oasis, consisting of two score villas, built with scarcely baked bricks, reposing on an arid waste amid a number of tumbled-down cottages, and surmounted by a mighty workhouse-like hotel looking down on a pre-Adamite beershop?