Daily Kennebec journal., 1881-08-31
NO. 2O5.
Brighton.

The "biggest thing" in English watering
places is Brighton, which is sometimes called
London -hy -the-Sea. and which in size and
solidity corresponds with the great metropolis,
and is worthy and appropriate "annex'' TO
it. 1t is practically no farther from Bel
gravia than Coney Island is from Madison
Square. The fast trains whirl down to it in
little more than an hour, at cost to the
passengers of from eight shillings, second
class, TO twelve shillings, first class. busi-
ness man NAV leave his Office in the City at a
late hour in the afternoon, and have time for
dinner and a walk on the pier or drive
along the Kings Road before dark. 1t is
London repeated ON small scale, without
the smoke and the sums. and with purer
atmosphere, though with scarcely less OF
crowd. The shops are London shops, the
actors at the theatre belong 10 London COM
panies, the faces and dresses have become
familiar in the Strand and Piccadiliy, and
the Cockney dialect with it's soft drawl and
misused aspiratcs, is heard of,ener than any
other. Like London, too, its social life is
sustained by many classes circulating in
general current. but never affiliating; and
while in one quarter coronets are no rarity,
and a prince leads society. in another the en-
cursionist of a day, or the tradesman spend
ing a two-weeks' holiday. smokes his briery
the disparity, and without realizing that
Brighton was not made especially for the de
lectation of his own class.
But, though practically Incorporated with
it, Brighton is fifty miles away from the City,
and living between the two are undulating
English landscapes, with many shady lanes
and ancient villages, through which the train
flies when it is once beyond the spacious
limits of London. Under the Box Hill Tun-
mel. which is the scene of a story by Charles
Reade, and has often done service in tic-
tion; over the lofty spans of the Seven
Bridges, through deep and friablc cuttings of
chalk ard limestone-this is the way to Lon
don by -the-Sea; and as we come nearer to it
the land is hitler. the foliage less abundant.
and focks of sheep are seen fattening on the
nutritious grasses of the breezy South
Downs. =
1t is to be remembered that with the excep-'
ton of the crescents and squares and inter
secting streets. there is no break in the three
miles of buildings which abut on the sea; the
houses. shops, baths and hotels are set to-
gether without any unoccupied lots between
them. But to fully comprehend the extent OF
Brighton, one should go out on the pier, and
then the place may be seen in its complex
and substantial entirety. Compared to it,
the most crowded American watering place
Coney Island, Atlantic City, or Long Branch
is nothing more than camy. 1t is veri-
tably and not in any fancifulness of nomen-
clatnre, city by the sea-a city modelled on
London, and having the structural perma-
nency of the metropolis. 1t is not built on
the banks of river, nor at the head of
gulf, nor in the shelter of bay. 1t is i'm
| mediately on the coast the chalk cliffs, with
their grassy SUBMITS are at either side of 1t,
and the water is never more than few yards
from the esplanade. The solidity and com
pactness of the frontage of buildings, and the
heights covered with houses, are things which
must excite the wonder of any one who sees
them for the first time.
Brighton is not busy for a few summer
months only. and then left to the gales, the
fishermen and the coast guard. Though the
| fashionable season does not begin until late
IN September or early in October. the excur-
sionists crowd it from the early summer until
late in the year. From August to December
the climate is most salubrious-warm. elas-
tic and bracing. An east wind keeps visitors
away in the first months OF the year, and the
place is then deserted except by a mere hand
tul of pcople-about one hundred and four
thousand who constitute the resident popu
iation.-J II. Rideing, IN Horper's Maya
zine for September.