WESTMINSTER;" AND "WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM AND HIS COLLEGES."

"If you will have a man to put his travel into a little room, and in a short time
to gather much, let him carry with him some card or book describing the
country where he travelleth, which will be a good key to his enquiry."

Lord Bacon.

LONDON:

EDWARD STANFORD, 6, CHARING CROSS.

M DCCC LIX.

PREFACE.

"IT is a shame," Linnæus observed, "for a man to inhabit and be ignorant of his native country." The present series of Handbooks, from the Reculvers to the Land's End, is designed to be an illustration of the South Coast of England. Our little volumes will not be too large for the traveller's pocket, as he mounts the hill, skirts the shore, studies the old or modern town, notes the scenery, and learns the topography of each district. Information has been provided for the student of pictures, the artist, the observer of nature, and the antiquarian.

We would hope, that our pages pointing out the objects of real interest, and recalling those events and men which have given life, and the modes of thought which have imparted a romance to places, may meet a welcome from the reader. It has been our endeavour to divest them of the wearisome minuteness of a local guide, and the tantalising meagreness and cross-references of the roadbook. We have presumed that the tourist will select at least a temporary place of residence, which he will make the centre or starting point of his excursions; and, therefore, have selected the chief towns of resort along the coast, adding a description of their immediate or more remote neighbourhood.

These pages will be found to contain, we hope, that amount of information which an intelligent host would communicate to his guest, or the visitor be glad to acquire, and retain embodied in a book, as a memorial of a time which we heartily desire may be enjoyed with good health, a light heart, and under a sunny sky. The time and the purse of the tourist have been duly cared for, for