THE PREMIER’S HOLIDAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3115, 28 March 1883, Page 3

THE PREMIER’S HOLIDAY.

The following sketch of Mr Gladstone at Cannes by the correspondent of an English contemporary is worth reading : —Mr Gladstone enjoys thoroughly bis holiday. The aromas of the fir, parasol pine, and eucalyptus trees ; the sea air, the bright blue of sea and sky, and the warm sunshine have powerfully stimulated and braced up his nervous system. The furrows are not so deeply marked in his cheeks and forehead as they were i at the time of his arrival. Extreme pallor has given way to a fresher hue. The Chateau Scott is about a few hundred yards up the side of a mountain. The spur of a high hill shelters it from the mistral, or north-western blast. Each turn of the carriagedrive reveals bewilderingly beautiful varieties of sea and landscape. From the terrace verandah and balcony on which Mr Gladstone’s room opens there is a prospect which extends from the Gulf of Genoa to the He St. Marguerite. The hills above Nice being capped with snow have an Alpine appearance, which adds to their beauty, but in the evening very cold air presses down from them and the mountains of the Var into the warm nooks alongside the seaside. As the water of Golfe Jouan is calm as a lake there is no tidal restlessness where it touches the shore. At night, therefore, stillness reigns. Seven ships of war are at anchor in the bay. The atmosphere at Chateau Scott is kept fresh by springs which have been gathered into a single channel. They run brawling down the mountain side, and leap in silvery cascades through the grounds, A policeman from Paris is on duty before the gate lodge. The English detective is posted near the house, which is an edifice of rather fantastic design. It is in the middle a tower that might have been copied from a pseudn-Gothic country church in England. There are projections and balconies which amuse the eye, and a Venetian colonnade which runs along the whole of the facade. Mr Gladstone is frequently in the grounds. His letters are opened by Mrs and Miss Gladstone, and the host defends him from visitors whom it is not absolutely necessary for him to see. The Prince of Wales, the Comte de Paris, Sir Chales Dilke. and the Member for Rochdale are among the few persons whom he has received at Lord Wolvorton’s. Lady Wolverton is at Home on Thursdays. She is still an invalid, but the better for her sojourn at Villa Scott.