~305~~The next morning early I proceeded to the beach to enjoy the delightful and invigorating pleasure of sea-bathing. The clean pebble shore extending, as it does here, for a long distance beneath the east cliff, is a great advantage to those who, from indisposition or luxury, seek a dip in the ocean. One practice struck me as being a little objectionable, namely, the machines of the males and females being placed not only within sight of each other, but actually close alongside; by which circumstance, the sportive nymphs sometimes display more of nature's charms to the eager gaze of her wanton sons than befits me to tell, or decency to dwell on. I could not, however, with all the purity of my ethics, help envying a robust fellow who was assisting in clucking the dear unencumbered creatures under the rising wave.{1} 1 Some of the female bathers are very adventurous, and from the great drawback of water many accidents have occurred. I was much amused one morning with three sisters, in the machine adjoining mine, continually crying out to a male attendant "to push on, and not be afraid of the consequences; we can all swim well," said one of the Miss B----'s (well known as the _marine graces_). "But my machine a'n't water-tight," replied the bathing-man, "and if I trust it any farther in, I shall never be able to get it out again." A Frenchman who came down to bathe with his wife and sister insisted upon using the same machine with the ladies; the bathing-women remonstrated, but _monsieur_ retorted very fairly thus--"_Mon dieu I vat is dat vat you tell me about decence. Tromperie_--shall I no dip _mon femme a sour_ myself vith quite as much _bienseance_ as dat vulgar brute vat I see ducking de ladies yondere?"