Social Transformations of the Victorian Age: A Survey of Court and CountryEscott, T. H. S. (Thomas Hay Sweet)
History
Social Transformations of the Victorian Age: A Survey of Court and Country
Escott, T. H. S. (Thomas Hay Sweet)
Great Britain -- Civilization -- 19th century; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
Brighton has not yet very visibly changed its régime since the days when
George IV. lived at the Pavilion. Its newer rival, Eastbourne, has taken
advantage of a local conformation, and especially of a paved sea front to
present the stranger with various little reproductions of what is most
characteristic in the social exterior of French holiday life during the
bathing season. It is not only one or two families, mutually intimate,
which meet and pass together the greater portion of the day on the
esplanade that lies in the shadow of Beachy Head. The whole place
practically turns out, settles itself down for a day's occupation, if the
weather be fine enough, on the causeway above the pebbled shore. The
ladies produce knitting instruments or appliances for domestic needlework.
The men have their newspapers or books. The circle exactly after the
French fashion is formed, big enough in compass to admit all the polite
population of the place. When the luncheon hour approaches, there is a
move not from off the sea front, but to some of the covered shelters that
stud at intervals the esplanade. Improvised tables are covered with white
cloths. The company, that the French stranger at a glance recognizes as
belonging to the order of _bourgeoisie_, proves itself long to have
outgrown the dislike to public meals common to most English men and women
at the period of the Queen's accession. At night the boarding houses,
hotels, or private dwellings that in a long line rise just above the sea
terrace seem practically to amalgamate themselves into a single dancing
hall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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