'_Honi soit qui mal y pense_,' when English ladies join the party, and
write home that 'it is delightful, that there is a refreshing disregard
for what people may think at French watering-places, and a charming
absence of self-consciousness that disarms criticism'! What does quiet
paterfamilias think about his mermaid daughter, and of that touch about
the 'absence of self-consciousness;' and would anything induce _him_ to
clothe himself in a light-green skin, to put on a pair of 'human fins,'
or to perch himself on the rocks before a crowd of ladies on the beach,
within a few yards of him? Yes, it _is_ delightful--the prettiest sight
and the brightest life imaginable; but is it quite the thing, we may
ask, for English girls to take their tone (ever so little) from the
Casino, and from the '_Guides Conty;_' which they do as surely, as the
caterpillar takes its colour from the leaf on which it feeds?
But the system of bathing in France is so sensible and good compared
with our own; the facilities for learning to swim, the accommodation for
bathers, and the accessories, are so superior to anything we know of in
England, that we hardly like to hint at any drawbacks. We need not all
go to Trouville (some of us cannot afford it), but we may live at most
of these bathing places at less cost, and with more comfort and
amusement than at home.
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