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unless the wind and the tide be uncommonly high, is seldom annoyed by the turbulency of the waves.

The Assembly-room is spacious, and a good object, standing in the centre of the town. The theatre is a royal one, well concerted in respect to size, and proportioned to the place. It is remarkably neat, and seems to be well conducted; the performers are better, in point of competition in the gross, than at most watering places, but are not always so well attended as they sometimes deserve to be. This may proceed from the multiplicity of diceboxes which are generally rattling at theatrical hours; for at the raffle-board every one is an actor; and, as the spirit of gambling infuses itself into the hearts and minds of men with a

much

much stronger and more interested propensity than the lines of Shakespeare or the notes of Handel, it is not to be wondered at, when you see the theatre so often empty, or a deserving actor, with all his ability and best exertions, neglected.

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There is a tolerable market, but it is not so well supplied as might be wished; and, if you are desirous to furnish table with the necessary comforts of the day, you must get up by six o'clock in the morning, and scramble for them, otherwise you may chance to go without your dinner.

The Pier is a lounging place for many people every evening, but of a Sunday it is a general promenade, where you will see a greater diversity

of

of object, a more heterogeneous group than at any place in England; which often enables the ingenious artist, when he is disposed to make use of his pencil, to treat the world with a whimsical caricature or two. The Libraries are uncommonly elegant; particularly the upper one, which was built by Mr. Hall.

Dandelion, about a mile and a half from Margate, is as pleasant and rural a retreat as can be found any where; possessing a grove, an extensive and well-levelled bowling-green, encircled with a voluptuous and variegated shrubbery of the rarest plants and flowers, intersected with seats of accommodation, like to those at Bagnigge-Wells or White-Conduit House. The dwelling from whence the place

takes

takes its name is ancient, formerly belonged to a family of that name, who refided there, and, by the stately gateway which is now standing, they must have been people of great respect, being adorned with battlements, as if it had been a place of some defence. The house is now licensed as a tavern, so that the visitor has an opportunity of refreshing himself, if he pleases, while dancing on the green, which is a general practice during the season at a public breakfast, every Wednesday, about twelve o'clock.

There is no proper inlet to the town of Margate from any direction whatever; and what they call the Highstreet is a close contracted thoroughfare; many parts of it filthy, with scarcely a decent habitation, and

only

The

only serves in the present instance to shew us what their now-flourishing town was in its original state. street is too narrow for one carriage to pass another in the day, but in the night it is dangerous indeed! being of considerable length, commencing from the London road down to the old Parade, which is nearly the extent of the town. What the old Parade might have been is no easy matter to tell, but, in its present state, and in this improving age, it has little to boast of in respect to elegance, or even cleanliness, and in rainy weather it is a mere swamp; the greatest part of it lies between a noisy stable-yard, well furnished with manure, and the common sewer of the contiguous market-place, as well as all the lower part of the old town, which frequent

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