stops at every station, and is never allowed to exceed a very moderate speed. This alone is sufficient to deter many invalids, to whom a prolonged railway journey is a very serious consideration. The peculiar charm of the place is, to our mind, that the town does not consist of a consumptive population, but has all kinds of interests. Just inside the harbour is the little steamer which will take you away forty miles to the Scilly Isles. Mr. Freeman once talked a great deal of the benevolent autocracy of the late Mr. Augustus Smith of the Scilly Isles; but I, who know them well, consider his rule was tyrannical, and I maintain that it did far more harm than good.

At Penzance we see the Italian vessels which are loading with barrels of pilchard for Genoa and other ports on the Italian seaboard. The trains are running every day to London with the broccoli. Land lets for thirty or forty pounds an acre, and sends many tons of early vegetables daily to London. Then there are two bits of scenery which draw visitors from all lands in all weathers; these, of course, are St. Michael's Mount and the Land's End. Then it is to be said for Penzance that it has the most delightful library in the western country; I say this with a grateful recollection of the libraries of Truro and Plymouth and Exeter. Then there is an unfailing source of interest, if you can only

understand their ways, in the mining and fishing population.

What are our invalids to do? Of course we are speaking of the more hopeful cases, which admit of patients getting out of doors. They do very much the same at all the southern watering-places. They watch eagerly for the transitory gleam of sunshine; then, well wrapped up, they go to the library, or they take a drive, or they walk along the esplanade. Sometimes they go to parties in the evening, in the closest of close carriages. A cheerful dinner-party is an admirable tonic for invalids. There is one cheerful minded doctor who has prescribed 'the Then there are

society of delightful young ladies.' the mild evening relaxations, which amuse without exciting. Then invalids have generally an entourage of friends and acquaintances who have always gaiety and society for themselves. At Torquay there are the daily drives and the evening balls. This is, of course, the case also with the large towns, such as Hastings, St. Leonards, and Bournemouth; but at such places as Ventnor, Salcombe, and Dawlish there seems to be a great dearth of healthy recreation. Invalids have always the comfort of comparing prescriptions and talking about their symptoms; and this is a much more serious matter than might be supposed. There is a thrill of happy congratulation when some poor tottering invalid has thrown away

stick and wraps, and is rather jauntily disporting himself on the sands. On the other hand, there is quite a thrill of regret when the whisper goes that the climate of such a place does not suit poor Jones, who must go to Algiers, or a longer journey still. Then there is a thrill of excitement because the great London physician has been called in specially to see some case, and it is odd if he has not got some kind wise word to say to some of his old patients whom he may encounter in their walk on the beach, which he is sure to take for his own behoof before he returns to town.

As we have spoken of our oldest watering-places, viz. Hastings and Penzance, we ought perhaps to say a word of one of the youngest-Bournemouth. The idea is that Bournemouth-so called from the little bourne or stream which prattles down to the beach -confers great benefit, like Arcachon, through the odour of its pine-groves. The prevailing presence of evergreens is both a mental and bodily refreshment, and some practitioners think that the resinous perfume has a distinct medical use. Socially speaking,

one very noticeable feature is the entire absence of lodging-houses. There are no rows of houses, as in nearly every other watering-place, facing the sea; but every house is detached, and in its own grounds, The result is that Bournemouth is of enormous extent for its population. Even business men are un

VOL. II.

N

business-like; the population in general is lazy, owing to the Madeira climate and temperature. Still the different Church parties are able to display an enlivening animosity, and, as at Tunbridge Wells, Low Church will not call on High Church.

Charles Kingsley: a Brief Monograph.'

IT

is more with Charles Kingsley than with Mrs. Kingsley's Life of Charles Kingsley that these few remarks will be concerned. The biography is in its way a very good one. It is replete with interest; there is hardly a page which one does not read with pleasure and instruction. It is enough to say that one-half of the entire work is Charles Kingsley's own composition, mainly in the many letters which, with wonderful fulness and vehemence, he would throw off to almost anyone who addressed an inquiry to him, when he thought the inquiry conceived in an honest spirit and to embrace an important issue. But the work, as is almost unavoidable, is beset with reticences. We should like, for instance, to have heard more about his brother and children. We may gradually gather up a portraiture of a great and good man, but the clearly-defined character is not at once set before us. In writing some few memorial words

1 Letters and Memoir of Charles Kingsley. By his Widow. Two vols.