The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 2Finden, W. (William)
History
The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 2
Finden, W. (William)
Coasts -- Great Britain -- Pictorial works; Great Britain -- Pictorial works
Of the many watering-places with which the requirements of fashion have
sprinkled our southern coasts, there are few which can boast of a more
delightful situation than the subject of our present engraving.
Protected on both sides by the surrounding hills, it is completely
sheltered from the severity of those winds which are frequently the bane
of some of our otherwise most eligible retreats; while its view of the
ocean is uninterrupted by any of those obstacles which add more to the
utility than the beauty of our older sea-bathing towns. The coast of
Devonshire offers peculiar advantages to the invalid; it has a southern
aspect; the winters are milder than in any other part of England, and
the north-east wind, with its concomitant evils, is less felt than in
the more exposed though more popular ports of the Isle of Thanet. In
addition to a genial climate, Devonshire is entitled to some preference
on the score of economy with that large class to whom the cost of even
an occasional residence at the coast is a serious consideration; and
although a temporary sojourn at any watering-place must necessarily be
more expensive than the same time spent in a rural district, the visiter
will find that in none can a greater share of the comforts and even
luxuries of life be obtained upon moderate terms than in
Budleigh-Salterton and its neighbouring towns of Exmouth and Sidmouth.
Another advantage which these smaller towns possess is the freedom from
restraint in which they allow their patrons to indulge. The almost
slavish deference which the higher classes of society are compelled to
pay to certain conventional rules of fashion and etiquette may be
quietly laid aside during a residence at such towns as the one now
before us, and this, too, without fear of forfeiting that claim to
exclusiveness which every grade is so anxious to maintain against the
one below it. Few persons will deny the gratification that they have
derived from an occasional relaxation of those social laws that restrict
our actions in everyday life; and not the least of the benefits which
they receive from their summer visits to the coast may be traced to the
opportunities which they afford for their becoming again, though but for
a few weeks, or even days, "children of a larger growth."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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