The morning call., 1891-09-06
GREAT ENGLISH
SEASIDE RESORTS.
WaEGmal Visits Fair BOurlGm0uth-0l-
thG-SandS.
a Spot in England That Is Sought For for its
Healthful Properties-The Beautiful Isle
Of Purbeck-Corfe Castle.
Special to THE SUNDAY GAIL

so ; popular and yet dreamfully quiet The
omnipresent ATTY, 'Arriet and Tommy
Atkins" of every other known resort In
England are here unknown. And, more
noticeable than all else to the American
Ioiterer, it is IN England and vet glows with
newness and progress.
There is something in the very dash and
yigor of Bournemouth that lays hold of the
American heart, 1t gives One tiDgle and
glow to know that our hearty Western
word "boOm" is known and applied here
with pride To find anywhere in England
such radiant activities is feast of delight
in desert Of conversation, inertia and an
tiQuity They say that but a trifle over
fifty years ago the beautiful situation Of
Bournemouth was still undiscovered. al
though some years before George the Third
held his court at Weymouth, but a little
distance away. and the military band
played God Save the King when
ever his Majesty emerged from his
balhing-machine to indulge IN sea
bath. 1t was in 1886 that Sir G.. w.
Taps Gervis plunged in the pine forest
and made a clearing. He built house
here and there, leaving the pines with their
SaffTOn-cOlOred cones standing between.
The interlacng valleys lent themselves to
the formation Of roads, which were made
fir-fTinged and pine-plumed. Other builders
extended the settlement and dotted their
villas among the pines, until a grandly beau
tlful and widespread city OF nearly $4,000
inhabitants, the greater portion being men,
bers OF the English arlStOcracy and nObll-
ity, has been planted in pine forest, slOp-
ing down to the ''chiEeS," or tiny canyons,
which open out to the circling cliffs of sand
for the wash of the mighty sea.
Pages of rOmances and tragedies i'll the
marvellous increase of values in Bourne
mouth, though the city's history is a brief
one, could be related. The practical
side Of this development is also curious
and entertaining. The city has no streets"
All its thoroughfares are roads" ave
nues," "crescents and "quadrants .
They are ali winding, and there are no
squares" The splendid Improvements
have been almost exclusively made by
speculative architects and builders. As
values advanced, parcels or tracts were
appOrtiOned them by the agents OF various
estates, the latter providing improvements
in adjoining thOrOugnfareS. These sites
are all acre or half-acre lots, and with the
exception Of those of one estate they are
leaseholds Of ninety or ninety-nine years
duration, on annual ground rentals OF
from $50 to $500 per lot payable half
yearly, and with what is known here as
"peppercorn or free ground rent for
the first year, in Difference to tue builders
lrisk
The curious thing about B0urnemouth
residence property from first to last is that
no sooner Is any villa erected and ready for
occupancy, whatever its price, than it is
already sold to some London gentleman or
nableman. The struggle here is not to sell
houses already built but merely to force
building sites from the rich estates The
result must be that with unlimited outlying
piny tracts the city will become one of ire
mendOus area, and slways city of villas aud
garden-girdled, paiatial homes. Only one
estate sells freehold sites, and these are on
conditions which render the word a ride
ulous mlsnomer. An equity OF redemption IS
SecuTabe on thirty years purchase. 10
illustrate: If a building site is secured at
500 per year ground rental, after thirty
years and the payment altogether of S15 600,
II becomes freehold" subject to all man
ner OF restrictive covenants, such as that
the property be not used for business pur-
poses, that the building upon it shall not be
in any manner changed, that no additional
buildings shall be erected on the same site,
eic. Every such change imposes a new
agreement and additional fees. ] believe it
requires a license fee of S25 to merely
add a bow window to ones house. A few
rooms are being added to the Bourne Hall
hotel property on Poole road, and the license
fee for the change is $500. So that while
there are from 200 to 400 residences In
Bournem0uth, each one of which cost
$3.50 ana upward, and from twenty to
fifty which have each cost $4,000 aud up
ward, there are practically no people in
Bournemouth who absolutely own their
homes save the half dozen posseSsors of the
great estates
Nature and invalidism have made Bour-
nemOuth. The climate Of Great Britain Is
death yelled in humidity, ever leaving in
nearly every household ineradicable pull
mOnary disease. There are in the two
Islands enough aristocratic invaids, or
titled and untitled rich people who have
gI,afr Ton
TO build anywhere in England another
city, rich and great as London, in which
10 house them. The pines, the sands, the
sea and an almost semi-tropical climate are
found in this magical city of the English
Riviera" They altogether exist nowhere
else in Britain. This is solely why will
derness where heath covered, pine hid
sand dunes, worth half a century since less
than $50 an acre, has been transformed in to
a spot more beautiful than the royal gar
dens at Kew, where the same land in many
instances has a profit making value OF
more than 100000 per acre.
THREE HOURS FROM LONDON.
Bournemouth is less than three hours
time from London and is reached by the
London and Southwestern Railway. The
first scent of the sea is got at Poole. Three
miles more and you are at Bournemouth.
There are Bournemouth east and west sta
tiOns. These are set far out from the cres-
cent pine-embedded city, SO that thoSe who
come within the fairy place shall see no
railway smoke and CRIME and never be dis
turbed by the locomotives whistle. There
is no dirt nor poverty at Bournemouth. The
most startling noise is the swell of the great
orchestral bands. Birds sing here as in the
wildwood. The primeyal forest is still
standing and the threnodies Of the wind in
the pines so on and on when night has
stilled the birds.
Where the people have felled the pines
no pfanfad phaudfnna tba al
butus, the laurestina, myrtle and bay, and
a myriad of other shrubs and eyergreenS
instead. These grow on the south coast
in almost tropical luXuriance. The silYery
Bourne, springing among the heath at
KnsUn, scarcely more than blue thread
here, shows the sinuous valley depth, with
the WIDE fair city gently ascending to the
east and west Its journey is pathway
through a noble garden. just before II
reaches the city edge and the sea 1t VIM
pies through an ever green and ever shad-
ed arb0retum, sweet, solemn and still.
These gardens are interlaced walks. drives
and devious wooded hooks. Avenues Of
ancient pines are softly melodious here.
The sun steals through the Yaulted roof
in fecks and splinters of light. This is the
famous "Invalids' Walk"
The shore and sea cape at Bournemouth
are the most beautiful to be found in
Europe. The shore is perfect crescent,
facing the south, twelve miles IN length,
terminating On the east in the bold Christ
church head and on the west in the still
boldeT headland and stacks Of the Old Harry
Rocks. The foreshore. penetrated by one
of the handsemest piers in England, IS an
eighth of a mile in width, golden and level.
with no pebble upon it as large as pea.
Behind this. broken only where the Bourne
meets the sea and shows its sides terraced
with superb villas and almost palaces, Is a
continuous cliff of pure sand, here
and there indented with tiny
Chimes" The cliff is from 100 to 800
feet in height All the "ehines" are
merry burrows for children and lovers.
Lookout houses and shelters" line the edge
for miles above. By night the shore is
ablaze with light, the sea ablaze
with harbor and sailing lights. By night
or day the eye never rests upon the
sea without glimpses of hundreds of steam
ers and sails. Straight across the the Solent.
Needles foam-white at their feet. The
whole is a dream of majestic beauty and re-
pose. Bournemouth is ideal-for the rich;
The poor man can but look upon it and steal
Hfba r.vishinp pieture for distant striving