Stiff clay soils are cold and damp from the accumulation of water on the surface, and the evaporation of the greatest part. Chalk, sand, and gravels, on the contrary, by absorbing most of the rainfall, leave less to evaporate, and are warmer and drier, provided they are deep enough, or, by the inequalities of the surface, allow the water to run off and collect in rivers. Shallow, lowlying gravels, especially near rivers, may, however, be water-logged, and in such situations a house standing on clay may be drier than one on gravel. Indeed, Pettenkofer has wittily, but truly, said that "change of air means change of soil."1

In choosing a site for a dwelling all these considerations may be taken into account, as well as the obvious ones of exposure to the sun, to the east and north winds, or the reverse, but there are a few other special points that deserve to be mentioned.

Hollows, whether on high or low land, should be avoided, as well as the bottom of a valley between hills rising on each side, and too close proximity to the foot of a hill. Again, when a house is built on a hillside the ground should not be dug out so that a cliff rises immediately behind. In such a position the excavated soil should be used to form a terrace, leaving an interval in the rear of the building, and the soil around be drained. When a hill is composed of gravel overlying clay, it not infrequently happens that springs are found at the outcrop or line of junction, and a house built at that particular level will be damp, while those above on the gravel, or below on the clay, are dry.

Trees may afford valuable shelter, not only from cold winds but from fogs, but it is not generally advisable to have them close around a dwelling, at least in large numbers, since they impede the free circulation of the surrounding air.2

The same nature that in animals and birds instructs the creature to build its own nest, or its own abode, is very strong in man, and there are very few who at some portion of their lives have not the mania for building a house. Possibly this is a wise provision of nature, but as a rule instinct does not teach the man as well what to do as it does the animal, and the house is sometimes built under circumstances that do not give the occupant the health or the pleasure that he desires. There are, of course, many reasons for this. The climate inay not be suitable, the locality may not be suitable. It may not have possibilities for mental or physical recreation, two things cssential to continued health, if a busy man gives up his 'This may be witty, but is only half a truism. Hygiene. By Edwd. F. Willoughby, M.D,

business or profession at middle age for the ease he has possibly earned by his intellect or industry.

"Of the three requisites of a healthy house the construction is most completely in one's power. In the country one may choose the site, and in towns one may improve one naturally bad by drainage and by waterproof foundations; but as regards aspect we have mostly to take it as we find it, and the opposite sides of a street can scarcely enjoy the same advantages. In the country a house may be sheltered from the cold east or north-east winds by trees, if not already protected by rising ground, but otherwise the more open the situation the better. Exposure of each side of a house in succession to the rays of the sun tends to keep the outer wall dry, to warm it in winter and to aid the ventilation by the variations it induces between the internal and the external pressure of the air. The north wall may be made with advantage a dead one, and then drain, ventilating pipes and soil pipes may safely be carried up it. But chimneys on this aspect are warmed with difficulty, and are apt to smoke; if any must be carried up a north wall they should not project but be built inside the house. The north or north-east aspect is the best for larders which must be kept cool, and for libraries, laboratories, and workshops where a diffused light is desirable. Streets running north and south are preferable to those running east and west, since the latter do not receive the sun's rays through their whole length for more than six months in the year. In laying the plan of a town the greatest amount of sunshine would be enjoyed by the greatest possible number of houses if the streets ran obliquely, i.e. north-east and south-west and north-west and south-east. 'Cul-desacs' or streets with closed ends are objectionable, and courts with narrow openings still more so. Streets should be wider than the houses are high, twice as wide when possible, and frequently broken by cross streets opposite to one another. Squares in like manner should be perfectly open at the corners. If the price of land necessitates the use of basement rooms, it should only be by day, and even then the sill of the window ought not to be below the ground level. Attics, too, with slanting ceilings and dormer windows are cold in winter and intolerably hot in summer, and if without chimneys are most unhealthy.

"In conclusion, two general rules may be given which should never be neglected by those who propose making their permanent abode in a new locality, and to take or build a house: To visit the proposed site in the evening, when the conditions are most favourable to the production of common or radiation fogs; and, except where the

soil and configuration of the site are such as to allow of frequent natural drainage, always to drain the subsoil before building. To which we may add a piece of advice to dwellers in towns. If the site be advertised as gravelly, be sure that the gravel has not been dug out and sold, and the hole filled up with so-called 'made soil' -in other words, the emptying of all the dust-bins in the district."

Having said so much of the coast as a permanent residential district for those who are happy enough to be able to choose where to live, one may naturally ask what part furnishes in the greatest measure these requirements, that is, where is "Hygiea," a City of Health, to be found? At Bexhill-on-Sea.

In conclusion, it is no uncommon thing to find a man who works with his brains living on the food that he should use if he worked with his hands, and on the other hand the man who does physical work living on the food that he should use if he worked with his brains. The result is very apparent when the health breaks down, as it must sooner or later, and he has to seek the advice of the expert. To such a man a climate such as Bexhill-on-Sea means recovery to health as far as climate can assist to this end.

This article is not so much written to teach people how they should live as to teach them, under certain conditions of health, where they should live, and perhaps this digression may be considered a little out of place here.

I think I have shown that for the purposes of health and pleasure and long life there are localities in our own country, such as Bexhillon-Sea, more suitable even in the winter than those abroad, if the suggestions I have offered were carried out. The winter season fills the Riviera, from end to end, with thousands of English men and women, either as votaries of pleasure or pilgrims in search of health, 'neath the sunny skies and balmy breezes that ripple the blue waves of the Mediterranean. Can one not say in the words of Naaman the Syrian, when speaking of his country, "Are not the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?" are there not health resorts in the "Riviera" of England equal to those of Cannes, Mentone, or San Remo, that have climate alone to recommend them, and this for the few winter months only? If the waves that beat on the southern coast of England are not as blue as those of the Mediterranean, they at least beat on the shores of a land that Englishmen are proud of. Have we not at home healing waters at Cheltenham, at Harrogate, at Bath, and at Buxton equal to those of Homburg, or Carlsbad, or Marienbad? Are there not hills and valleys in Scotland and in Wales as picturesque as those of Switzerland or Norway? Are there

not historic houses, in every English county, as interesting as the palaces of the Doges, and castles and cathedrals with legendary lore as famous as those of Milan and Genoa? The pilgrim may muse amid the ruins of Glastonbury, the cradle of Christianity in England, as well as amid the ruins of ancient Rome or 'neath the shades of the Vatican; and, if his tastes are military, reflect as he walks from Bexhill to Battle Abbey, along quiet lanes, through dells and valleys, that he is on the track of the mail-clad warriors of the Conqueror, and on hillsides that ran with rivers of Saxon blood on that memorable day eight hundred odd years ago.

N. E. YORKE-DAVIES.

SLR CLOUDESLEY SHOVEL.

THE

HE life of Sir Cloudesley Shovel is especially interesting just now, from the fact that it brings out the strong and weak points of our Navy two centuries ago, its superiority in open battle and its inefficiency in protecting our mercantile marine. Soon after his birth, in 1650, the Navy began its rough course of training at the hands of the Dutch, and for more than half his life it was engaged in active service, "battered by the shocks of doom to shape and use." At nine years of age the little shoemaker's apprentice went to sea; as "admiral's boy" he swam with the despatches in his mouth through the fire of the Barbary pirates; as lieutenant he burnt the Corsairs' fleet almost under the guns of their town; as captain he had desperate fights with the pirate ships Half Moon and Flower-pot, which he burnt, and stoutly repulsed the pirate armies from the illfated Tangiers, when he was badly wounded. A sturdy Protestant, he detested King James's religion as much as he admired him otherwise, for Shovel had a liking for men of his profession; but that monarch knew that he could trust to his sense of honour, and appointed him captain of the Dover. He was knighted by William for a gallant attempt to retrieve the fortunes of the day in an engagement with a much larger French fleet outside Bantry Bay, one of Herbert's wretched blunders. When the proud Frenchmen were hurried into James's presence with the news that they had beaten an English fleet, they only elicited the sarcastic remark-"It is then the first time." Sir Cloudesley transported his new master's army to Ireland with such dexterity that he was made an admiral; and he continued to distress his old master by capturing the provisions destined for his army and burning his one remaining frigate in Dublin Bay. By a stratagem he nearly succeeded in decoying a French convoy of thirty vessels into his hands at the mouth of Brest Harbour. Knowing that the French had intelligence that a small squadron of their fleet had made prizes of several English merchantmen, he ordered part of his command to put out French colours; but his intended victims quickly saw through the mask, and all but