The Peculiar
Step To Which I Allude Is To Be Seen Often On The Boulevards In
Paris.
It is to be seen more often in second-rate French towns,
and among fourth-rate French women.
Of all signs in women
betokening vulgarity, bad taste, and aptitude to bad morals, it is
the surest. And this is the gait of going which American mothers -
some American mothers I should say - love to teach their daughters!
As a comedy at a hotel it is very delightful, but in private life I
should object to it.
To me Newport could never be a place charming by reason of its own
charms. That it is a very pleasant place when it is full of people
and the people are in spirits and happy, I do not doubt. But then
the visitors would bring, as far as I am concerned, the
pleasantness with them. The coast is not fine. To those who know
the best portions of the coast of Wales or Cornwall - or better
still, the western coast of Ireland, of Clare and Kerry for
instance - it would not be in any way remarkable. It is by no means
equal to Dieppe or Biarritz, and not to be talked of in the same
breath with Spezzia. The hotels, too, are all built away from the
sea; so that one cannot sit and watch the play of the waves from
one's windows. Nor are there pleasant rambling paths down among
the rocks, and from one short strand to another. There is
excellent bathing for those who like bathing on shelving sand. I
don't. The spot is about half a mile from the hotels, and to this
the bathers are carried in omnibuses. Till one o'clock ladies
bathe, which operation, however, does not at all militate against
the bathing of men, but rather necessitates it as regards those men
who have ladies with them. For here ladies and gentlemen bathe in
decorous dresses, and are very polite to each other. I must say
that I think the ladies have the best of it. My idea of sea
bathing, for my own gratification, is not compatible with a full
suit of clothing. I own that my tastes are vulgar, and perhaps
indecent; but I love to jump into the deep, clear sea from off a
rock, and I love to be hampered by no outward impediments as I do
so. For ordinary bathers, for all ladies, and for men less savage
in their instincts than I am, the bathing at Newport is very good.
The private houses - villa residences as they would be termed by an
auctioneer in England - are excellent. Many of them are, in fact,
large mansions, and are surrounded with grounds which, as the
shrubs grow up, will be very beautiful. Some have large, well-kept
lawns, stretching down to the rocks, and these, to my taste, give
the charm to Newport. They extend about two miles along the coast.
Should my lot have made me a citizen of the United States, I should
have had no objection to become the possessor of one of these
"villa residences;" but I do not think that I should have "gone in"
for hotel life at Newport.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 23 of 277
Words from 11330 to 11869
of 143277
