Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECTION II. The Character and Business of the Town. THE prominent characteristic of Ryde, is that of a beautiful watering place. The fine expanse of sea, which opens before the town, sheltered by the land on each side, gives it all the advantage of bathing on an open coast; while at the same time it precludes that swelling and rolling of the ocean, which is felt so powerfully and frequently on those shores, which open directly to the boundless sea. Here there is the beautiful combination of seabathing, with all the placidity of river scenery. It must however be confessed, that the flatness of the shore, and the amazing distance to which the tide ebbs, detract considerably from its excellence. The place is well furnished with machines for bathing, and there is no difficulty of enjoying this luxury at any time of the tide. The only inconvenience is, that at low water, persons wishing to bathe, have either to walk to the end of the Pier, and there enter the machine, or else be driven a considerable distance over the sands. The town is well supplied with hot and shower baths. The business carried on in this place is of a very limited nature. It has not received in any way RYDE. 33 the impression of a commercial character. Destitute of docks, wharfs, manufactures, and warehouses, it has no pretensions whatever to any rank or distinction among the trading towns of the kingdom. The greater part of its business is confined to local inhabitants and summer visitors. Diiring the war, when our fleets lay in the adjacent waters, and our armies were often encamped in the surrounding fields, Ryde looked up, with the probability of being a place of some importance in the commercial .world; but since peace has blessed the nations of the earth with its benign influence, this littl...