The banks of the Solway are much frequented during the summer months by families from the interior, who resort thither for the benefit of sea-bathing, to which great importance is attached as a preventive, no less than a curative, process in the economy of health. Among the various localities selected for this enjoyment, Allonby bears a long-established reputation, and is annually resorted to by many families of distinction and respectability, from both sides of the Channel, who seek, in the invigorating air of the sea, the pleasures of social intercourse, and in the delicious walks and drives with which the coast abounds, the restoration of health or temporary relaxation from business. Several of the distinguished public characters of the day have here spent the recesses of Parliament, and found in the tranquillising atmosphere of Allonby a safe remedy for the enervating influence of the capital, and the cares and irritations of public life. It was long a favourite resort of the Scottish gentry, and still maintains a degree of pre-eminence as an attractive watering-place. The accommodation at the hotels is excellent, and they are furnished with every convenience for hot-baths. Allonby is only five miles from Maryport, and ten from Wigton, and is flanked by a fine undulating country, celebrated as a field for rural sports, and industriously cultivated by a numerous and thriving population. The village itself is small, its permanent inhabitants being considerably under a thousand, most of whom depend upon the annual visitors, and a share in the herring-fishery, for the means of life. The latter, however, has become much less productive than formerly; the herrings are very capricious in their visits, and, according to Hutchinson, after continuing the same annual track for ten years, change their route, and only resume their visit after an interval of ten years. In this respect, says our authority, they are as regular as the tides or the vicissitudes of the seasons: but, as annual "customers" for the net, these savoury visitors are not to be depended upon; and although, like Owen Glendower, the anxious fisherman may call up "spirits from the vasty deep," the question is, will they come?