rst of temper, in the form
of an east wind, soon repented of and as soon forgotten. Thus it is that
a large number of holiday visitors are tempted to make their stay a long
one, and every winter brings an increasingly greater number of
new-comers to fill the places of the summer absentees, so that, taking
the year through, Bournemouth is always full.

Contrast is one of the charms of the place; contrast between the shade
and quietude of the pine-woods, and the whirl and movement of modern
life and luxury in its most splendid and pronounced development.

It is a town whose charm and whose reproach alike is its newness; but
unlike many an ancient town, it has no unlovely past to rise up and
shame it. The dazzle and glitter of the luxury which has descended upon
her wooded shores does not frighten Bournemouth, since she was born in
splendour, and the very brightness of her short life is compensation
enough for the lack of an historical, and perhaps a melancholy past.

With the exception of the soil on which she stands, and the growths of
that soil, everything in Bournemouth is modern--churches, houses, and
shops--but all are as beautiful as modern architects and an unlimited
supply of money can make them. There are hundreds of costly houses,
charming both within and without; their gardens always attractive in the
freshness of their flowers, and in the trimness of their tree-lined
lawns. On every side there is evidence of a universal love and culture
of flowers, due, no doubt, to the wonderful climate. Nowhere are
geraniums larger or redder, roses fairer or sweeter, or foliage beds
more magnificently laid out; while in few other parts of the country can
one find so many large houses, representative of the various schools of
modern architectural art, as in Bournemouth and her tree-clad parks.

Another factor that has played a large part in the rapid development of
the town is the excellence of the railway services from all parts of the
country, and particularly from London. During the summer months several
trains run daily from Waterloo to Bournemouth without a stop, doing the
journey in two hours; so that if the London and South Western Railway
Company are fortunate in having a monopoly of this traffic, the town is
equally fortunate in being served by a railway company which has made it
almost a marine suburb of London.

Bournemouth West Railway Station, situated on Poole Hill, was completed
and the line opened in the s