the scenery has always been much admired by strangers; and the cockney who, during the summer, stops short at Gravesend, in his excursion down the Thames, and is in ecstasies at that commonplace sort of retreat, can form no idea of the beauties he would enjoy were he to extend his steaming trip down the river as far as Southend, and stop on the north instead of the south bank.

As the traveller has wound his way through many fantastic girations, along a richly-cultivated plain, after leaving Prittlewell, he little expects to find his carriage halting at a good-looking inn, "THE KING'S ARMS," upon the brow of the cliff overlooking the Thames below it, and enjoying a full view of the sea, which breaks suddenly upon him. From this spot the carriage then descends a pretty steep hill down to the margin of the water, along which is displayed the oldest part of the town, or Old Southend. The first house of entertainment in this part is the Hope Hotel, small but comfortable; the next, and farther east, is the Ship, with an open space before it, and bespeaking by its exterior the excellent accommodation it possesses within. The strand in front here is not quite level with high water, but two or three feet above it, and at low water, the shelving shore is uncovered for nearly a mile out. The wooden jetty at present in existence, and the only convenient place people have to land upon, extends only to about half a mile, and is always left dry at low tides. It is then followed out by a line of shingle, projecting perhaps a quarter of a mile farther, and called the HARD. Then follows a space of clear water, even at low tide, which divides the termination of the Hard and a cluster of piles in the sea called the Mount, on which a hut is built of two rooms, inhabited by people deputed to take care of a pharo-light for the safety of vessels at night. To this mount, when it is low water, the Gravesend and Southend steamers land their passengers in the summer, who are then boated over to the Hard, and thence walk to the jetty. At high water,

and when the weather is not boisterous, the steamers land their passengers at the jetty itself.

The question of the extension of the latter has engaged the various clashing interests in the place for the last ten years, and there is as little probability as ever that this much-desired continuation will ever be accomplished; without which accommodation, however, it will be in vain to hope that the company at Southend should increase; for as to the land journey, even with the advantage of rail-conveyance as far as Brentwood, it is so fatiguing and inconvenient, compared with the facility and rapidity of a down course by steamers on the Thames, that to expect people will prefer that line of communication is absurd.

The aspect of this metropolitan sea-bathing settlement, as I might call it, along the left bank, and at the embouchure of the river, taken in its slightly curved sweep, is south inclined to the east in many points, and has Sheerness in front bearing south-south-west. The scene before it is one of bustle and life on the water. The horizon is perpetually filled with every species of vessels and small craft, sailing, rowing, and steaming upon the wide bosom of old father Thames. The strand is partly sand and partly gravel, but not very clean or inviting at low water. The descent is not imperceptible, and at high water, or even half tide, there would be too much water, even at a short distance from the shore, to feel your footing. Bathing-machines, large and commodious in every way, stand in front of the Ship Hotel.

The parade and the library are upon this level, and constitute the centre of Old Southend. To the north-west of it, the Cliff houses, constituting a part of New Southend, stand nearly sixty feet above the level strand. There are about twenty of them arrayed in a row, along a broad gravel terrace facing the south-south-west, with all the open sea on the left, and the jetty nearly under them, and the sloping ground from the terrace to the strand, arranged in gardens and zig

zag walks. At the head of this terrace is the crack hotel of the new town, called the Royal Hotel. At this house, the situation of which is certainly the best in the place, and during the summer unquestionably to be preferred, a gentleman may lodge for 2s. 6d. for his bed-room, 3s. 6d. for a sitting-room, and 5s. for his dinner. If you add, for breakfast, tea in the evening, and servants, 5s. more, you have here, as everywhere almost in this blessed country of dear inns, a weekly expenditure of not less than five guineas to live like a gentleman. So no matter whether you be among the fishingsmacks of Southend or the dons of Brighton, there is no getting decent food and lodging for less than your hundred shillings a-week!

Now it is not so at the HOPE, where I stopped, and where one has the advantage of an exceedingly civil and comely landlady, with pretty daughters, all anxious to give satisfaction; for here you may board, have an excellent bedroom, and a nice sitting-room facing the sea, for just half the money before mentioned. I looked at some of the private lodgings, a few of which are really desirable for such as choose to keep house. At the first house on the left, formerly the Marine Library, immediately at the entrance of Old Southend, and facing the pier or jetty, a very neat and large drawing-room, with a good bedroom at the back, is let for twenty-five shillings a week in June and July, and for thirty in August and September-the two latter being the best months at this wateringplace, which I am inclined, on the whole, to consider as deserving the patronage bestowed upon it by my clever and shrewd friend, the physician alluded to in the beginning of this account of Southend.

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CHAPTER XV.

TUNBRIDGE WELLS.

TUNBRIDGE as a Spa-Its slender Claims-Chalybeates of England— Tunbridge frequented as a Residence-Great Extension of the PlaceDETACHED VILLAS-Great Feature of Tunbridge Wells-Its Popularity The COMMON-Mount Ephraim The London Road, Sion Mount, and Mount Pleasaut-The CALVERLY Estate-Calverly Terrace and Parade-The PARK and its Villas-The PROMENADE and Baths-Architecture of Modern Tunbridge-Splendid Opportunity for the Display of Taste-The New Churches-TRINIT Yand CHRIST CHURCH-Taxation-Window Duty the Bane of Architects-House Rents Distances - ASSININE Equitation-Walking-The MINERAL SPRING Situation-Reservoir, and Mode of Drinking the WaterThe "DIPPERS"-Temperature, Appearance, and Taste of the Water -Not much drank now-Immediate Effect on the Stomach-Subsequent Effect-The Pro-bono-publico Basin-Neglected, and not much cared for-TUNBRIDGE Water wants Carbonic Acid-Might be added, and Renew the Fame of the Water-The BATHS-Their Forlorn Condition-Worse Prospect-What should be done-CHEMICAL. Composition of the Water-Complaints benefited by it-The Author's Experience The SUSSEX HOTEL-Advantages and Disadvantages-The CALVERLY and the EPHRAIM Hotels-The Gloucester Family Boarding House-PROVISIONS--Supply of Water-The CLIMATEFair and Foul Weather-CONCLUSION.

TUNBRIDGE has risen into importance, and will retain it, because of its locality, its beautiful environs, the salubrity of its air, and the judicious manner in which people have availed

themselves of all these advantages to erect houses and accommodation for strangers. Hence Tunbridge Wells will always be a place of great resort for occasional visiters, and may and soon will become one of winter residence also, though the reputation of its mineral waters, which first made the reputation of the place, be nearly gone, and will soon pass away altogether.

No Spa ever had a more slender claim than this insignificant chalybeate to a high-sounding fame. Of such springs there are fifty in the north as well as the south of England. In Yorkshire alone, of chalybeates as good, there is one at every turnpike almost; and in the south we have hardly a town of importance that is not near one of them. But most of the chalybeates of England are cold, heavy, flat, indigestible waters, and lack that which makes medicinal steel water admissible, cheering, easily digested, and exhilarating; they lack, in fine, plenty of carbonic acid; they lack effervescence. Had this very steel stream of Tunbridge Wells possessed an excess of that gaseous ingredient, its effects would have been wonderful and lasting. It is, even now, not too late to impart to it, by easy and effective means, during the hour when invalids and other sojourners in the place usually apply for the water, that all-essential requisite which alone can revive the Spa from its approaching extinction.

It is the unanimous opinion of the best-informed persons residing on the spot, and even of the "dippers" themselves, as the female attendants at the Wells are called,—and I saw the fact vouched by the "dippers'" own registers,—that if Tunbridge Wells be crowded (and I rejoiced to hear it had been so during the preceding summer), it is not with people who come on account of the chalybeate, for few, very few, indeed, had drank of that salutary spring. No: it is the séjour that attracted them, and the beauty of that cannot be subject to the caprice of fashion. Nay, in proportion, as buildings of a better and superior class rise in eligible