The line of coast at Blackpool runs in a nearly straight direction for several miles; and the cliffs which form the sea boundary, mostly clay, rise to various heights—the greatest elevation above high-water mark being about twenty yards. The sea-bank is lined with houses at considerable intervals to the extent of a mile or more; not grouped together as in villages, but each occupying a position independent of its neighbour. Most of those houses intended for the accommodation of visitors have an aspect due west, so as to command an uninterrupted marine view, which at this point presents a field of interest of which the mind and the eye are never weary. The land, gradually rising as it recedes from the beach, acquires a degree of elevation which excludes the eastern landscape; but for this defect the other points of the compass make ample amends, and present landscapes so varied and extensive as can be rarely met with on the coast of Great Britain. To the southward, at the distance of fifty miles or more, and gradually stretching forward till lost in the horizon, the "Cambrian Alps" present a grand and imposing feature, connected with glimpses of Cheshire, Flint, Caernarvon, and the Isle of Anglesea. On the north, the promontory of Furness, the mountainous features of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and the craggy summits of Lancashire, give a bold transition to the picture; while in front the dimly-visioned Mona finishes the panorama, and conjures up many a slumbering image and recollection of the past.
The sea on this point of the coast retreats nearly half a mile at ebb-tide, so that an ample space of nearly twenty miles, on a bed of hard sand, is left for the enjoyment of pedestrian, horse, and carriage exercise. These, indeed, are the principal out-door resources during the fine season, and, with the additional luxury of a salubrious and bracing atmosphere, produce a highly invigorating effect upon the constitution of invalids,—particularly dyspeptics, who derive great and almost uniform benefit from this new and salutary mode of life. The air of Blackpool is proverbial for its salubrious quality; the best evidence of which is afforded by the patriarchal age of many of its inhabitants.
LYTHAM.
"All places that the eye of Heaven visits
Are to the wise man ports and happy havens."
Shakespeare.
Lytham is another of those delightful watering-places to which, in our brief survey of the Lancashire coast, we have so often had occasion to refer. There is not a bay, indeed, along the whole line of sand which forms our ocean frontier on the west, but offers some pleasing summer retreat, where the invalid may repair his constitution, and return with renovated strength to the active duties of life.