Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/174

140 compound, and there are no punkhas or other contrivances for making the house cool; so that at a temperature of 85° one feels as uncomfortable in London as he does at a temperature of 100° in Calcutta. The London season is over by the middle of July, and there is an annual flight of those who can afford it to country places or the sea-side, to Scotland, Switzerland or other countries.

I had thoroughly enjoyed my stay in sea-side places during my last sojourn in England, and so I wished to take my family to the sea-side. It was sometime however, before I could make up my choice, and it was the beginning of September before we actually left London. I had seen most of the finest sea side places in the south coast of England—from Hastings and Eastbourne and Brighton in Kent and Sussex to that lovely spot Torquey, situated on the blue Torbay, with its back-ground of those rich green glens which form the charm of Devonshire scenery. But I wanted to take my family to a quieter place than these, a place where my children would be more at home, strolling on the sands or on the green south downs of England.

At last we selected Littlehampton, partly because it is a very quiet place with a lovely sea beach and interesting country—towns like Arundel not far from it, and partly because we were specially recommended to a very respectable and comfortable boarding house there. And we did find the boarding house comfortable. Never did we pass a pleasanter time, or feel more at home, than during the three weeks that we passed there, strolling in