| | | | | It is by trifles that national character is most distinctly | shown. All the more elaborate and important | institutions of nations have a tendency to assimilate to | each other. The results of reasoning and reflection | will be the same in all countries; and the | arrangements which are the result of them cannot, in | the end, differ very much. But in the smaller matters | of life, the subjects of mere caprice and taste, a | nation's spontaneous tendencies make themselves | very plainly seen. Bathing ~~ a subject with which, | as actors or spectators, a considerable number of our | readers will be familiar just now ~~ curiously | illustrates the difference of the two nations which, in | more important matters, are gradually drawing more | close together. The two systems are much valued by | the two nations; and the plan of one is wholly | intolerable to the other. The Englishman cannot | endure the restraints of the French system, and the | Frenchman boldly sets down all our talk about | morality as humbug when our laws and customs | tolerate such outrages upon decency as are witnessed | at an English watering-place. To an Englishman the | charm of his system is its independence. His | bathing-machine is his castle. The little bit of sea it | encloses is his peculiar property. | No-one can encroach upon the few cubic feet of | water he has appropriated for the time. If he likes to | sally forth for a swim, he comes and goes regardless | of the existence of anyone | else. It is not necessary for him to take any | notice of his most intimate acquaintance who may be | bathing in the next machine. He adopts precisely that | amount of clothing or nudity which comports best | with his own idea of no regulations, and recognises | no public opinion in his proceedings. The sea and he | have it entirely to themselves. That mixture of | freedom and seclusion which constitutes an | Englishman's chief happiness finds its highest ideal in | an English bathing-machine. To carve out for the | time being a private property even in the sea, and to | have contrived a movable house for the enjoyment of | a luxury in which seclusion seemed impossible, is | quite a triumph of the national peculiarities. In | France, the whole spirit of the scene is changed. The | pastime ceases to be the isolated, surly, exclusive | affair which it is upon the English coast. But, at the | same time, it loses its characteristic freedom. Like | every other action in the life of a French citizen, it is | | tremendously regulated by the Government, and it is | as much made the opportunity for the display of a | Frenchman's gregarious tastes as any other part of the | day's employment. There is no period of the | twenty-four hours at which the beach looks so gay, so full, | so picturesque, as during the bathing time, and at the | place which a paternal Administration has selected as | the most suitable. Perhaps what makes it the liveliest | is the curious costume in which many of the figures | upon it appear. The Government has taken the | observance of decency under its own protection, and | prescribes with accuracy the apparel to be worn. It | looks a comical kind of decency to English eyes. The | men are dressed in a sort of trowsers and jersey all in | one, which differs from ordinary garments of that | description chiefly in being much too short in the legs | and arms. This arrangement seems to be a | compromise between the Government's appreciation | of decency and the natural human desire to be as | naked as possible in the water. But, to a stranger, it | looks as if all the male population of the place had | been seized with a sudden fancy for dressing in the | clothes of their little boys. But they are not the oddest | figures of the scene. The Government, having | ascertained the minimum of clothing that is | respectable for men, appears to have come, by a kind | of mechanical logic, to the conclusion that a similar | quantity is abundant for women. The result is, that | the beach is peopled with a number of | nondescript-looking figures, bearing very much | the appearance of short, ill-made men, scantily dressed in | chocolate-coloured serge ~~ a sort of forked radish turned | brown from keeping ~~ which it requires some effort | of reasoning, on the part of people who are not | habituated to this Paradisaical innocence of costume, | to believe may possibly be ladies. All these figures | wander about in the aimless dilatory way which | appears to be an integral portion of the amusement. | Some are approaching the water with lazy steps, | wondering whether it is not rather cold, and, in the | agonies of deliberation, displaying the beauties of | their costume to considerable advantage. Others, who | have had their dip, are picking their steps wearily | over the shingle, looking in vain for the | cabane where they may relieve | themselves of the dripping garments which cling to | their figures with a tenacity which gives rather a | statuesque effect. All this time, by way of contrast, | the beach is full of non-bathers ~~ women dressed as | only French women can dress ~~ who are come to | enjoy the spectacle. The contrast between the | well-distended cones of gorgeous drapery which sweep | along to and fro across the beach, and the poor brown, | dripping, bifurcated specters who are creeping over | the pebbles up to their cabanes, | may give a philosopher food for reflection upon | the distinction between accidents and substance. If | any anxious parents wish to provide a cure for some | love-stricken youth, let them take him to see the | mistress of his affections bathing at a French | sea-place. Romance itself could not survive the sight of | the fair one, associated in his mind with graceful | movements and flowing lines and harmonious | colouring, emerging from the water in the similitude | of a magnified brown rat on its hind legs, which has | narrowly escaped from drowning. Few who have not | witnessed it can imagine how much of feminine | beauty can be left behind by its owner in a | cabane. | But the scene in the water is stranger still to English | eyes. It looks like some mythological picture | representing the Tritons carrying off the Nereids, or | the Satyrs pursuing the Nymphs. The first thing that | meets the spectator's eye is several couples in the | water, holding each others' wrists, and to all | appearance struggling violently. One of each of these | couples is one of the brown rats we have described, | and whom, by this time, the spectator has learned to | speak of in the feminine gender. The other is a very | muscular broad-shouldered Frenchman in a sailor's | dress, who appears to look upon the brown rat as his | own peculiar property. Generally, he seems to be | shaking her violently by the wrists, and taking the | opportunity to each successive wave that passes to | duck her under its crest. Sometimes he is grasping | her round the waist; sometimes he is tugging at one | arm; sometimes she seems to have been just cast | ashore by a very violent wave close by him, and to be | lying in a suppliant attitude at his feet. At one end of | the cabane, for the better | display of manly and feminine forms, is erected a | spring board, from which these strangely clothed | beings, of either sex, are projected into the sea. | Sometimes they take "headers," sometimes they take | "footers;" but the fairer portion of creation, | unaccustomed to these athletic feats, is very apt to | take that compromise between the two to which | Etonians were in the habit of assigning an | uneuphonious name. It is fair to say that all these | pastimes are not invariably conducted under the rough | manipulation of the muscular French | baigneurs. Ladies who are | fastidious prefer that the male hand in whose | guardianship they struggle with the waves shall be | one with which they are not wholly unfamiliar. Such | an arrangement may be more correct, but it is not | nearly so comfortable. Uninitiated males are much | more apt to be upset by the waves themselves than to | be able to give much assistance in the critical moment | to their tottering charges. Husband and wife may | often be seen entering the water affectionately | hand-in-hand, and returning more speedily than they had | intended, clutching each other in an involuntary | embrace as they are tumbled over by some unusually | large wave. Brothers, or even casual friends, are put | to the same use by ladies who shrink from the | baigneur's sinewy arm; and it is | quite the proper thing for a lady to make an | appointment with her male friends for a swimming | party, always assuming that her accomplishments | enable her to bear her part in it. But experienced | bathers do not trust to such a frail support. It is no | consolation to the fair one who is let go at the critical | moment, and washed up by the surf in admired | disorder, that the arm which played her false was a | conjugal or fraternal limb. And after all, it is a pity, | when you have gone so far, to distress yourself with | any remnants of English decorum. When you have | once persuaded yourself to run the ordeal of walking | in the comical tights, into which your dress is | converted by the water, across a large open place, in | presence of crowds of well-dressed gentlemen and | ladies, any further display of fastidiousness is an | unnecessary injury to your comfort. | Englishmen, at least, will never be very partial to this | system of bathing. They gain nothing by it except the | very questionable privilege of being allowed to swim | about among their female friends, both parties | disguised, par ordre superieur, | in a dress of exquisite absurdity. Though all | opportunities in which the sexes are allowed to | mingle freely are of course valued by young men on | their promotion, still it can hardly be said that the | French plan of bathing adds anything to their | opportunities in that respect. It would hardly be | possible to commence an eligible acquaintance in the | sea, or to pursue a promising flirtation at the moment | that both parties were wading out dripping wet upon | the shingle. A neighbouring | cabane might give an opportunity for a Pyramus | and Thisbe adventure, if unfortunately the | cabanes of the two sexes were | not generally kept apart. On the other hand, it is an | utter destruction of the comfort of bathing. It is not | bathing ~~ it is only getting wet through in a rather | elaborate manner. Moreover, it requires more | courage than a good many English people of either | sex possess, to face an admiring assemblage of | well-dressed and scrutinizing spectators in such a costume. | But carefully arranged by the authorities as a model | of decency and decorum according to their ideas, may | teach us a lesson as to the conventional character of | those terms, and the danger of censuring an apparent | breach of them in the customs of other nations. It is | difficult for an Englishman to conceive a method of | proceeding less consistent with his ideas of strict | decorum: and yet it is adopted by a people who | unanimously agree to censure him for his outrageous | disregard of decency in respect to the same | subject-matter.