of the Sprudel, they would not permit one of the same sort, equally objectionable, in the " Montpellier walk,"-respecting which the good honest Germans might justly retort upon me for my reproval of them with a "look at home." Indeed the indecency here is even more glaring, as the entrance to the objectionable retreats is close to the top of the public walk, and no bibber of mineral water detaching himself from the throng of promenaders of both sexes, to dart down the trellised footpath leading to those retreats, can fail to have the eyes of every one upon him. This demands instant reform. Cheltenham has the reputation of having become of late a tolerably dull place. My information, obtained from patients and residents of every class, is of a most contradictory character; some pretending that there is too much "sober seriousness" in the place, while others exclaim against its frivolities. To see the eagerness with which every occasion, either of the anniversary of a charitable society, or of an ordinary festival, or even of a political rejoicing, is made use of as a peg to hang a ball, a concert, or an assembly upon, one would not imagine Cheltenham to be either dull or ascetic. There are winter, and spring, and summer-season subscription. balls every Monday, for which healthful and desirable exercise at a watering-place, Cheltenham possesses one of the most elegant and highly decorated assembly-rooms, erected sixteen years ago, at the enormous expense of fifty thousand pounds. There is a vacation ball, which comes on at Christmas, and is distinguished by merry faces and Christmas cakes. Then in behalf of some "orphan asylum," the Cheltenhamites have a ball; and a ball they will have again when the master of the ceremonies appeals to their kindly feelings for a suitable return for his polite attention to them and their visiters. This last-mentioned ball, by the bye, is said to be, generally, one of the most brilliant affairs of the season, as the gentleman who happens to fill at present the honourable post of master of the ceremonies (an officer in the army) is universally and deservedly esteemed. On such occasions, seldom less than eight hundred persons assemble to honour him with their presence, as the families of nearly all the most influential and fashionable of the residents, as well as of a great number of those who live even at some considerable distance from Cheltenham, make it a point to join in the festivity.' Nor is Cheltenham behind-hand in love for the sister art-music, both vocal and instrumental. There are chamber quartetts, philarmonic meetings, and concerts without number. But the musical promenades which take place in the evening, four times a week during the summer, either in the pump-room and promenade-walk of the Montpellier, which are brilliantly lighted up for the occasion, or in the adjoining gardens, are the greatest favourites. The drama on the contrary has always been a so-so affair, except when the stars from the metropolitan firmament used to shoot down from their spheres into the vale of Gloucester; and now the edifice itself having been destroyed by a recent fire, little or no chance is offered in the place for histrionic display. For out-of-door amusement, the Cheltenham stag-hounds, and the Cheltenham races, on one of the loftiest race-grounds in England, offer the most conspicuous opportunities. The pack is kept up by subscription, and hunting throughout the winter season is secured to the residents and visiters at an annual expense of something like six hundred pounds. But these subscriptions do sometimes lag behind, and the concern then gets to leeward. A meeting, however, is soon called together, a few speeches are made, the debts are presently liquidated, and then goes on as merily as ever this neck-breaking, life-jeopardizing, inspiriting and manly sport of the English. But have the people at Cheltenham a climate suited to all these out-of-door amusements? What says Mr. Moss of High-street, who has for so many years taken notes of the weather and all its phases? With regard to winds, yes; with regard to rain, no. Our meteorologist, who by the bye is deserving of every praise for his untiring observations in this respect, makes it out that they have at Cheltenham 243 days when the wind blows from the South-east, South, South-west and West; and only 122 days from the opposite or northern and eastern quarters. And such must in fact be the case; for the range of the Cotteswold hills, which rises at least eleven hundred feet above the bed of the Severn, cuts off those winds from Cheltenham, while its open situation to the south and west, courts as it were, the blowing in of the winds from these latter quarters. The effect of this natural arrangement as to temperature has generally been that on an average the thermometer, for a period of seven years previous to 1837, had seldom been lower than 213 of Fahrenheit; while the highest average in the summer has been 65°. 10 But then this advantage has been more than counterbalanced by the too frequent occurrence of rain, necessarily occasioned by exposure to the Atlantic gales of the south-west, coming heavily charged with moisture, which instead of passing over the town on its wingy clouds, scudding before the gale, is arrested in its progress by the said hilly barrier of the Cotteswold, and discharged in heavy and constant showers. Accordingly I find it admitted by Mr. Moss, that not less than two feet nine inches of rain has been the average quantity which has fallen every year. Now, this quantity of rain. falling upon a soil which, below an insignificant deposit of alluvial detritus from the adjoining rocks previously described, presents many feet of blue or brown clay, must tend to keep the atmosphere over and about Cheltenham in an almost perpetual condition of humidity; and so it is that we find it when we reside any time in the place; and so I found it more or less on every day of my three visits to that Spa. A warm and at the same time humid atmosphere, however, is good for something; and accordingly we find asthmatic people, and such as have delicate lungs, comforted by simply breathing the Cheltenham air. Another class of patients who find the inhaling of such an atmosphere advantageous, are those who suffer from acute organic disease of the liver, occasioned by long residence in tropical climates. But I must declare it to be against my long experience in the observation of atmospherical influence on disease, that such a warm and moist, and consequently relaxing air, can be of service to he more ordinary disorders of the digestive organs, as stated by some of the advocates of the Cheltenham climate. |