The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-07-16 00:00:00

Pp STOTTRTIPTIME orgrrtvrv.

ON TBE WING.

RESTLESSNESi, physical and mental, is
declared to be a distinctive characteristic of
the present age, and the age feels the im-
peachment without word of remonstrance or
murmur of complaint. Certain marked
social changes have taken place since the -
beginning of the Queen's reign, and one of
the noteworthy is the spread of the migta-
tory and touring
.spirit among classes who
were formerly content to stay at home all
the year rOandi or to make occasional inter
ehae„oes 'of friendly visits which seldom
aestelbeyeed a few days or weeks. This
.charigo is largely owing, of course, to int-
peeved mewls of locomotion on laecland water
eed to the wider ediffusion of .wealth, which,.
has lestieted the condition of every class.
except the Pariahs, who through the inscru-
table decrees or fate, are always doomed to
remain poor. But in the earlier decades of
the century, after the crowning triumph of
Waterloo had restored to long-troubled
Europe, the grand tour—which meant MM..
ing the Channel and following beaten tracks
on the Continent—was commonly considered,
in the upper circles of society, to be as
essential in the way of furnishing incontest-
able proof of caste as presentation at Court.
Visiting the battle-field which witnessed the
final overthrow of Napoleon was held to be
for a time an indispensable part of the Con-
tinental tour. The country families design-
ated gentry took up their quarters for a
month or two,. in summer or autumn, at Tun-
bridge Wells, Leamington, Cheltenham, and
other celebrated spas, whose 'mineral waters
were 'nelived. from their beneficial effects,
to give a new lease of life. But quite •
different state of things now prevails. Sea-,
side towns possessing beadles favourable for'
bathing have largely Surperseded the old in-
-land watering-places as favourite summer
resorts. Squatting by the seaside, however
delightful a thing to children and nurse-
maids and the female.members of households,
is .not lively enough for those, who have the
modern tourning spirit strongly developed
• within them,- and who like the holdidays at
their disposal to be diversified by frequent
changes- of scene. The energetic middle-
class, which has undergone great expansion,
and which is more composite in • character
than ever was before, contains many men of
wealth who are owners of handsomely.
equipped yachts,, and who can rival the heads
scions of titled families in making tours of
the
_world. Voyages by sea and travels by
land which would.have astonished the per.
formers of the so,calleg Grand Tour in other
days .are now regarded as coining within the.
kange of holiday recreations. New York'
end Montreal, Cape Town and Calcutta,
Sidney and Melbourne are visited as fre-
quently as the capitals of Europe were in
other days. Brown , Jones, and Robinson)
successful men of b usir ess, may he perioned
for showing signs of elation of feeling, though
their names are commonplace, when the trim
white-winged and elegant-shaped yachts of
which they are owners, carrying a- goodly
company of invited guests on board, create
quite a sensation On their arrival at remote
ports of the British Isles or foreign lands.
Some thirty years-have passed since Lord
Dufferin, just-before his entrance on public
life, anchored his yacht in the Bay of Reik•
iavik, where he entertained on board at a
ball the Rite of society in the quaint Icelandic
capital, and since that time yachting voyages
in the northern seas, which invariably in.
elude a visit-- to Vie wild and rugged Danish
Peteeas, have been of frequent occurrences
every year. For those who are not rich
enoagn to be the owners of yachts, bat who
can enjoy visiting foreign shoies on lewd,
ship in summer weather, the North of Scot-
land Steam Navigation Company, with com-
mendable enterprize, have provided the meare
of enabling acme knowledge to be gained
of the grand an striking scenery of Norway.
Early in June the steamer the St. Sanniva
commenced-to convey parties of excursion-
ist 3 from Leith and Aberdeen to the Nor-
wegian coast, but the -demand for tickets has
increased so ranch with the advance of the
season, and the continuance of glorious
weather, that the company has been under
the necessity of pitting another capita
steamer, the St. Rogiuvald, on the passage
across the North Sea.- One great advantage
of going to Norway in the months of Jane
and July ;s the circumatance. that the days
are then at their longest, and that charming
! seonical effects are produced by the midy
afterglowefollowing the late ' sunset whlch
lingers On thaw-thorn horizon till it mingles
with the equelly ruddy glow .of the early
sunrise. If t e tourists can cceed, by hcok
or by crook, in getting up to the vast ex-
panse of t;ibleland which forms, the broad
summit of the central Dovrefjeild chain of
mountains, and in seeing the mighty mass
of the pyramidialSchneehaseenbathed in tie
red light of the efterglow, be will behold a
splendid speetacle_ which memory cannot fail
to cherish all the rest of his days... Previous
to the starting of personally-cciiidneted tours
in foreign countries, which are now carried
on with much enterprise all the year round,
the greater portion of tourists contended
themselves with making excursions into
Wales, the Lake Districts of England and
Ireland, or the highlands of Scotland,
especially the romantic region of the Tress.
achs, over which the "glamour" oT al attract.
ive enchantment was cast by the genius of
Sir Walter Sett-. But many now avail
themselves of the convenience advantage
which the pereonally conducted system pre,
seats of visiting remote lands, and of seeing
with their own eyes Constantinople and the
Bosphorus, Cairo and the Pyramids, instead
of deriving all their knowledge of Oriental
life and scenes from the persual of books of
travel and adventure.