obscure little town near the Bath Hotel, that now, in its maturity has hundreds of shops, some of them on a huge scale, and which is rapidly usurping to itself much of the custom of a wide area. The number of houses at Bournemouth in September 1880 was 2,245, with a rateable value of £113,651, while in September 1890 the houses numbered 4,976, and the rateable value stood at £245,973a marvellous increase.

The antiquities of the neighbourhood of Wimborne are far from exhausted, and, at the risk of being wearisome, I must deal with sti another-the parish church of Canford. Ancient in a sense that makes most ecclesiastical buildings of considerable antiquity modern in comparison, the foundation goes back to Saxon times; it is reverently and beautifully kept, and its freshness gives it an appearance of youth that puzzles the visitor. In the south-east part of the churc is a large room, once the Consistory Court, in which the vicar of the Royal Peculiar of Canford heard divorce suits-perhaps fancied himself among the greatest dignitaries on earth. The court-room remains, indeed it is an integral part of the ancient building, but it has not for a long time been used for such a purpose, and never will again. The Manor House is an enormous range of stately buildings, furnished and fitted up as only the country houses of the wealthier nobility can be. Some portions of older edifices remain, among them a vast gloomy kitchen with which the name of John of Gaunt is associated; it is curious and massive, and promises to last many another century. Some treasures brought from Nineveh by Sir Austin Henry Layard are kept in a special court, and the generous owner of Canford allows anyone to inspect them.

Canford, though so rich and beautiful in timber, is at the beginning of the sombre pine woods which stretch south, and in which Bournemouth lies concealed: another example of the singularly varied character of the country in the district of which Wimborne is the

centre.

Canford House or Manor has played a very momentous part in the fortunes of the Primrose League, and indeed, unless I am in error, I understood Lord Wimborne to say that it was here that this organisation was founded; Lady Wimborne has always worked untiringly on behalf of the League, and her graceful and winning manners and high principles eminently fit her to make it popular. Canford has also long been a great centre of Conservative politics. Rumour recently asserted that Lady Wimborne proposed attempting the revival, the formation rather, of a Salon, which should play a great part in national politics. The wealth of the family, their connections and influence, VOL. CCLXX. NO. 1924.

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and the fascinating manners of Lady Wimborne, would have made such a thing possible, and much might consequently have been done for the Conservative and the Liberal Unionist cause. But I am not

sure that, when dispassionately examined, the disadvantages do not outweigh the advantages; there is such a thing as being too great, and the excess of rank and wealth makes it peculiarly difficult to reach even the middle classes, how much more then the poor and uncultured? The great live so far above the common herd of middle class clergymen, retired officers, and other professional men, that in the presence of a duke's daughter, in whose veins flows the blood of John Churchill of Blenheim, freedom of intercourse is scarcely possible; the obsequious suppliant for favour and notice does not show himself in his true colours; he is tempted to say what he believes will give pleasure, and feels cruel satisfaction in giving a secret stab to some unlucky but less fortunate rival-in short he is selfishly intent on trying to ingratiate himself rather than in advancing the cause he is supposed to have at heart, so that the higher nobility, ignorant of the competition obtaining in the middle classes, are peculiarly liable to be imposed upon, and are easily deceived by the unblushing falsehoods addressed to them, and are unconsciously influenced by slanders levelled at the most innocent; these falsehoods and slanders any equal would in a moment detect and he would understand the motives actuating them. The first thing is to thoroughly know the people whom one would influence and lead, because the only leadership possible in these times has, unlike the authority of the master over the servant or the officer over the private soldier, no real power, to back it up-it must be a moral, an intellectual ascendency. Those who have this natural aptitude, who while belonging to the highest and most fortunate grades of society can yet on occasion forget themselves, obtain the ascendency fairly and fully where the keen play of wits is allowed free scope; persons such as these, I say, can make their influence felt far and wide, and can command the allegiance of thousands and do their cause yeoman service, but of these born leaders of mankind the number is very small.

Only the greatest knowledge of the world-the most brilliant faculty of reading at a glance character and judging of motives, in short an insight into human nature denied to all except a few of the most gifted, would make it possible to successfully attempt a task so difficult as forming and organising a large body of attached adhe rents, who would be faithful to their party, feeling all the while that treachery to one another or to their cause would certainly be detected by the keen, piercing eye of their chief. As for the opulent, they

are the unfortunate prey of all the world; they may give lavishly, generously, ungrudgingly, but they can never give enough; still more will always be expected, and the noble munificence of many of the greatest philanthropists in the land seems rather to increase jealousy and cause heartburnings than relieve that chronic poverty and destitution which never abound more than where most is attempted for their relief. The more lavish the charity, the greater often the poverty and the less sincere the gratitude. Truly it is hard to do good, hard to live wisely and well; but though the result may often be disappointing, the reward of well-doing and of good intentions can never be taken away.

Nevertheless it is much to be regretted that those who have leisure, high rank, boundless wealth, and a famous historical name do not more often make their influence felt for good in the counsels and government of the nation. Removed from the ignoble strife of moneygetting, with a position so well assured that they can approach the greatest and lose nothing by noticing the lowliest, they would seem to have opportunities not lightly to be disregarded of bringing the masses together and toning down the jealousies of ordinary society. But common men and women are not pleasant to work with--that cannot be denied ; and the frailties of human nature have been the despair of the poet and the sport of the cynic! Patriæ quis exsul se quoque fugit, sang pathetically the astute Roman, and it is only too true that the base outnumber the pure and upright.

A word more about Wimborne; then I shall return to Bournemouth. Matthew Prior once lived in the former, as I have mentioned above, while a few years ago Thomas Hardy, the accomplished author of the "Woodlanders," and "Far from the Madding Crowd," made it for a time his abode ; he is now living at Dorchester.

Although Bournemouth boasts of no ecclesiastical building like Wimborne, Canford, or Christchurch, a striking feature is its churches, and in their number it resembles Torquay and Brighton. The services are usually ornate and frequent. Only St. Peter's has any great architectural pretension, and it is one of the finest parish churches in the diocese; it is striking from its size, lofty and graceful spire, and abundant handsome ornament. A large Presbyterian Chapel has recently been built near it, and has a crowded congregation, not exclusively drawn from Dissenters, it is said.

Bournemouth is not easy to describe. With no great central railway station, with scarcely any centre like an inland town from which to start, and with few salient features, it does not easily lend itself to the descriptive writer. It somewhat lacks striking natural

and artificial advantages; for example, it has nothing like the Derwent Parade of Matlock, no splendid Promenade, Park, and Pittville Gardens like Cheltenham, no Jephson Gardens like Leamington, and no Pulteney Street and Royal Crescent like Bath. But it can do without these attractions, for it is a singularly handsome, clean, well-built place, with a light sandy soil, quickly drying after rain, many imposing shops, and hundreds of fine villas, to whose number constant additions are being made. Its pine woods have long been its special feature, for the soil being dry and sandy is not well adapted to carry deciduous timber of large size, but pines grow splendidly, and many of the streets, especially on the East Cliff, are well shaded and extremely pretty, and in places, where the builders have not been too energetically at work, glens and chines are found presenting a strikingly rural appearance, totally unlike anything else which I have ever seen in a town, so that practically the place is unique. The Talbot Woods are said to contain one million pine trees, and are among the glories of the district. The rhododendrons, too, in June are very fine, and the display of flowers magnificent. Branksome Chine is especially famous for its gorgeousness in that pleasant month, and so is Lord Malmesbury's park, near Herne Station, which then attracts crowds of visitors. Late in June the beauty and profusion of the rhododendrons would repay a special journey from Lancashire or Edinburgh. There is no more striking spectacle than to look from some spot higher than common over a vast extent of rhododendrons in full flower-countless millions of blossoms meet the eye, and from the broken character of the ground the effect is gorgeous, while overhead stretches a vast canopy of lofty pines, towering into the sunny sky. In another respect Bournemouth is remarkable: it is in its long, narrow, well-cared-for public gardens, stretching for a couple of miles on both banks of a little stream to the sea. These gardens are crossed by the main road not far from the Arcade, near the foot of Richmond Hill, and are exceedingly attractive. On summer evenings crowds of excursionists wander along them, making their way to the pier, to which they lead. From the foot of Richmond Hill the outlook is very beautiful, and visitors from the north cannot help being charmed, although they must not expect to find the sun always shining and the wind always still.

Hotels, lodging and boarding houses, and doctors abound-the last have descended upon the town like wolves on the fold. This year's issue of the Medical Directory gives over eighty doctors in practice among perhaps 30,000 people, a proportion equal to that

of Leamington, Cheltenham, and Scarborough. One might consequently fear that the district was unhealthy; but never was there a greater mistake, for there is considerably less sickness and the deathrate is far lower than in most places of equal population. One can only hope that when the town becomes a second Brighton, should more doctors not have in the meantime come to share in the spoil, the patient and long-tried medicoes, who survive the disappointments of years, will reap their reward. As I live in the immediate neighbourhood of Bournemouth and often have patients to see in the town, I can see that the local doctors form quite a little regiment— armed at all points against all medical outsiders; some, but not many, are busy enough, most have simply to wait for better times--that is, more population. The approaching meeting of the British Medical Association in July is expected to do great things for the town, and no doubt it will, and many more visitors and invalids will be sent down, and probably there will also, in consequence, be a further influx of doctors desperate for fees and not sorry to settle in a place so superior to any manufacturing or seaport town; but whether the doctors gain or not, the neighbourhood will profit by anything that makes it more widely known.

The opening of the new pier at Boscombe, on Monday, July 29, 1889, was a very important event in the history of the district. Boscombe is an extension of Bournemouth, half way between the latter and Southbourne-on-Sea. Sixteen years ago it consisted of a few huts and a couple of tiny shops-nothing besides; and now, like Washington, it is a city of magnificent distances, with miles of broad, handsome roads, hundreds of commodious houses, and building on a colossal scale: indeed, I was assured on good authority that the houses being put up at the time the pier was opened represented over £150,000. Many of the roads are not built up, but in ten years there will hardly be an unoccupied site, and the population will have quadrupled. The distance from the middle of Bournemouth was so considerable that it was thought desirable to build a pier and to make good approaches to it, and a wild but picturesque chine was selected. The pier has cost £12,000, and never was money more judiciously laid out, never was work better done; while the spot chosen has great natural and artificial advantages, and could hardly be matched by anything in the neighbourhood.

The committee of management having decided to invite some leading statesman to open the pier, they issued invitations to a hundred of the foremost people in the district. The Duke of Argyll consented to officiate, and never was choice happier. His Grace,