standing in gardens. There are very few stone buildings of any kind. The
hotel we are in is not the largest, but is considered the best, and in
the height of the season the place must be very gay.

The next, perhaps the greatest, feature here is the bathing. There are
three beaches formed round a succession of points, the whole forming a
lovely drive on dry hard sand; and such a sun as we gazed upon yesterday
setting over these distant sands passes description. On the first of
these beaches are ranged more than a hundred bathing machines at about a
hundred yards above high-water mark, looking like sentry boxes on a
large scale, with fine dry sand between them and the sea. We went down
on Saturday to see the bathing, which is here quite a public affair; and
having fixed our eyes on a machine about a dozen yards off, we saw two
damsels enter it, while a young gentleman, who accompanied them went
into an adjoining one. In a few minutes he came out attired in his
bathing dress and knocked at the ladies' door. As the damsels were
apparently not ready, he went into the water to wait their coming, and
in due time they sallied forth dressed in thick red baize trowsers and a
short dress of the same colour and material, drawn in at the waist by a
girdle. The gentleman's toilet was coloured trowsers and a tight flannel
jacket without sleeves. He wore no hat, but the ladies had on very
_piquante_ straw hats trimmed with velvet, very like the Nice ones, to
preserve them from a _coup de soleil_. They joined each other in the
water, where they amused themselves together for a long time; a
gentleman friend's presence on these occasions is essential, from the
Atlantic surf being sometimes very heavy; but the young gentleman in
question did not enact the part of Mr. Jacob, of Cromer, not being
professional. The number of bathers is generally very great, though now
the season being nearly over there are not many, but there were still
enough to let us judge of the fun that is said to go on.