Note 16 — A SEA DIRGE[16]

One is impelled to suspect that the satire in these verses is intended wholly for effect, and was not at all representative of the author’s feelings. Most of his summer holidays were spent by the sea, and his letters contain complimentary references to Whitby, Sandown, Margate, Eastbourne, and other seaside resorts. His particular favourite was Eastbourne, where he seems to have spent most of his summer vacations during the last thirty years of his life.