ural beauties of this coast, they helped one to realise how small
a thing (under certain conditions) is man."

(3) "Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so and family spent a fortnight here.
The lady complained that the town was dull, which we (who would have
the best reason to complain of such a defect) do not admit.
She announced her opinion in the street, at the top of her voice; and
expressed annoyance that there should be no band to play of an
evening. She should have brought one. Her husband carried about a
note-book and asked us questions about our private concerns.
He brought no letters of introduction, and we do not know his
business. The children behaved better."

(4) "Mr. Blank arrived here on a bicycle, and charmed us with the
geniality of his address. We hope to see him again, as he left
without discharging a number of small debts."

It is, I take it, because the Briton has grown accustomed to invading
other people's countries, that he expects, when travelling, to find a
polite consideration which he does not import. But the tourist pushes the
expectation altogether too far. When he arrives at a town which lays
itself out to attract visitors for the sake of the custom they bring, he
has a right to criticise, _if he feel quite sure he is a visitor of the
sort which the town desires_. This is important: for a town may seek to
attract visitors, and yet be exceedingly unwilling to attract some kinds
of visitors. But should he choose to plant himself upon a spot where the
inhabitants ask only to go about the ordinary occupations of life in
quietness, it is the height of impertinence to proclaim that the life of
the place does not satisfy his needs. Most intolerable of all is the
conduct of the uninvited stranger who settles for a year or two in some
quiet town--we suffer a deal from such persons along the south-western
littoral--and starts with the intention of "putting a little 'go' into
it," or, in another of his favourite phrases, of "putting the place to
rights." Men of this mind are not to be reasoned with; nor is it
necessary that they should be reasoned with. Only, when the inevitable
reaction is felt, and they begin to lose their temper, I would beg them
not to assume too hastily that the 'natives' have no sense of humour.
All localities have a sense of humour, but it works diversely with them.
A man may even go on for twenty years, despising h