CHAPTER I.

ALGIERS AS A WINTER RESIDENCE.

"All the world is cheered by the sun."

HE cry is still-they go.

THE

Richard III. i. 2.

"Have you then a climate so detestable that in your land no one can venture to remain during the months of winter ?" asks the ingenuous Frenchman, who knows so little of the world beyond his own immediate surroundings. Truth as well as patriotism leads us loudly to proclaim that this is not so; that, in spite of the multitudes who quit it, the mother-country is not at any time altogether desolate and deserted that a few remain behind. Yet it is certain, that year after year, vast and ever-increasing numbers of Englishmen and Englishwomen are to be found, at the first blast of chill October, or the first clinging mist of drear November, turning their backs upon their native land; making the best of their way southward, in search either of health or pleasure; content to sacrifice, for the sake of the sunny skies they hope to find, the traditional. but somewhat doubtful comforts of an English winter.

They pass like a wave over Southern Europe, this migratory horde, possessing themselves of express trains by right

B