Country life; London (England) -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Outdoor books
lace tight and "go in" for the tip of the fashion, yet they bloom and
flourish as green bay trees, and do not find their skirts any obstacle
in walking or tennis. The horse-riding that goes on is a thing to be
chronicled; they are always on horseback, and you may depend upon it
that it is better for them than all the gymnastic exercises ever
invented. The liability to strain, and even serious internal injury,
which is incurred in gymnastic exercises, ought to induce sensible
people to be extremely careful how they permit their daughters to
sacrifice themselves on this scientific altar. Buy them horses to ride,
if you want them to enjoy good health and sound constitutions. Nothing
like horses for women. Send the professors to Suakim, and put the girls
on horseback. Whether Brighton grows handsome girls, or whether they
flock there drawn by instinct, or become lovely by staying there, is an
inquiry too difficult to pursue.
There they are, one at least in every group, and you have to walk, as
the Spaniards say, with your beard over your shoulder, continually
looking back at those who have passed. The only antidote known is to
get married before you visit the place, and doubts have been expressed
as to its efficacy. In the south-coast Seville there is nothing done
but heart-breaking; it is so common it is like hammering flints for
road mending; nobody cares if your heart is in pieces. They break
hearts on horseback, and while walking, playing tennis,
shopping--actually at shopping, not to mention parties of every kind.
No one knows where the next danger will be encountered--at the very
next corner perhaps. Feminine garments have an irresistible flutter in
the sea-breeze; feathers have a beckoning motion. No one can be
altogether good in Brighton, and that is the great charm of it. The
language of the eyes is cultivated to a marvellous degree; as we say of
dogs, they quite talk with their eyes. Even when you do not chance to
meet an exceptional beauty, still the plainer women are not plain like
the plain women in other places. The average is higher among them, and
they are not so irredeemably uninteresting. The flash of an eye, the
shape of a shoulder, the colour of the hair--something or other
pleases. Women without a single good feature are often good-looking in
New Seville because of an indescribable style or manner. They catch the
charm of the good-looking by living among them, so that if any young
lady desires to acquire the art of attraction she has only to take
train and join them. Delighted with our protectorate of Paphos, Venus
has lately decided to reside on these shores, Every morning the girls'
schools go for their constitutional walks; there seem no end of these
schools--the place has a garrison of girls, and the same thing is
noticeable in their ranks. Too young to have developed actual
loveliness, some in each band distinctly promise future success. After
long residence the people become accustomed to good looks, and do not
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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