As the real abstract and brief chronicler of our time, Mr. Punch has mirrored in little the social history of the last sixty-five years, and apart from the genuine entertainment which this book presents, it is scarcely less instructive as a pictorial history of British manners during this period. One may here follow in the vivid sketches of the master-draughtsmen of the age the ceaseless and bewildering changes of fashion--the passing of the crinoline, the coming and going of the bustle, the chignon, and similar vanities, and the evolution of the present-day styles of dress both of men and women. It is also curious to notice how little seaside customs, amusements, troubles and delights, have varied in the last half-century. Landladies are at the end what they were at the beginning; the same old type of bathing-machine is still in use; our forefathers and their womenfolk in the days when Mr. Punch was young behaved themselves by "the silver sea" just as their children's children do to-day. Nothing has changed, except that the most select of seaside places is no longer so select as it was in the pre-railway days, and that the wealthier classes, preferring the attractions of Continental resorts, are less in evidence at our own watering-places. The motto of this little work, as of all those in the series to which it belongs, is "Our true intent is all for your delight", but if the book carry with it some measure of instruction, we trust that may not be the less to its credit. MR. PUNCH AT THE SEASIDE _Mrs. Dorset_ (_of "Dorset's Sugar and Butter Stores", Mile End Road_). "Why on earth can't we go to a more _dressy_ place than this, 'Enery? I'm sick of this dreary 'ole, year after year. It's nothing but sand and water, sand and water!" _Mr. Dorset._ "If it wasn't for sand and water, you wouldn't get no 'olerday." * * * * * [Illustration: A FASHIONABLE WATERING PLACE] * * * * * SEASIDE MEM.--The Society recently started to abolish Tied-houses will not include Bathing Machines within the scope of its operations. * * * * * "WHERE'S RAMSGATE?" [Illustration: BIDDY-FORD] [_Mr. Justice Hawkins._ Where is Ramsgate? _Mr. Dickens._ It is in Thanet, your lordship. _Report of Twyman v. Bligh._] "Where's Ramsgate?" Justice Hawkins cried. "Where on our earthly planet?" The learned Dickens straight replied, "'Tis in the Isle of Thanet. "Ramsgate is where the purest air Will make your head or leg well, Will jaded appetite repair, With the shrimp cure of Pegwell. "Where's Ramsgate? It is near the place Where Julius Cæsar waded, And nearer still to where his Grace Augustine come one day did. "All barristers should Ramsgate know: I speak of it with pleasure", Quoth Dickens. "There I often go When wanting a refresher.