Excerpt from Mr. Punch at the Seaside: As Pictured by Charles Keene, John Leech, George Du Maurier, Phil May, L. Raven-Hill, J. Bernard Partridge, Gordon Browne, E. T. Reed, and Others; With 200 Illustrations As the real abstract and brief Chronicler of our time, Mr. Punch has mirrored in little the social history of the last sixty-five years, and apart from the genuine entertainment which this book presents, it is scarcely less instructive as a pictorial history of British manners during this period. One may here follow in the vivid sketches of the master-draughtsmen of the age the ceaseless and bewildering changes of fashion - the passing Of the crinoline, the coming and going of the bustle, the chignon, and similar vanities, and the evolution of the present-day styles of dress both of men and women. It is also curious to notice how little seaside customs, amuse ments, troubles and delights, have varied in the last half-century. Landladies are at the end what they were at the beginning the same Old type of bathing-machine is still in use; our forefathers and their womenfolk in the days when Mr. Punch was young behaved themselves by the silver sea just as their children's children do to-day. Nothing has changed, except that the most select of seaside places is no longer so select as it was in the pre-railway days, and that the wealthier Classes, preferring the attractions of Continental resorts, are less in evidence at our own watering-places. The motto of this little work, as of all those in the series to which it belongs, is Our true intent is all for your delight, but if the book carry with it some measure of instruction, we trust that may not be the less to its credit. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.