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John F. Travis, The Rise of the Devon Seaside Resorts, 1750-1900 . Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1993. ix + 246pp. 8 plates. Maps. Tables. £30.00.

This book breaks invaluable new ground for urban and maritime historians alike. It is the first time that a comparative study of resort development within an English county has been produced, and a comprehensive one at that. As such it is to be greatly welcomed. The book effectively complements general major works contributing to the historiography of the country's holiday resorts, such as John Walton's The English Seaside Resort: A Social History, 1750-1914 (1983) which analysed the range of factors influencing the rise of seaside holidays, and James Walvin's Beside the Seaside: A Social History of The Popular Seaside Holiday (1978) which included sections on the origins of the seaside holiday and life at the resorts. Not only is Travis's book impressively researched, it is incisive, clearly and entertainingly written, as well as being cogently argued, using telling examples and often penetratingly witty anecdotes. Travis puts forward a compelling case for Devonian distinctiveness, compared with resorts in the rest of the country. He argues that throughout the nineteenth century Devon resorts displayed 'a remarkable homogeneity', in sharp contrast to the diversity of coastal watering places developing at this time in many other English coastal regions. On the north-west coast, Blackpool developed into a predominantly working-class resort, while nearby Southport became a bastion of 'select respectability'. The remarkable aspect about Devon resorts was that they all aimed to cultivate a reputation for being 'highly respectable'. Travis shows that this was even true of Ilfracombe, which, because it was accessible by Bristol Channel steamers, attracted perhaps more trippers than any other resort in the county. He quotes one visitor after a visit to Lynton and Lynmouth in 1863 as complaining: There is nothing to see here but respectability'. Yet Travis believes that this was precisely the quality that many visitors found so attractive. He holds that many serious-minded holiday-makers felt secure in Devon because they were protected from the vulgarity, noise and low social tone found at many more commercialized English seaside resorts. The county's seaside towns offered few man-made attractions, but Travis says instead they relied heavily on their relatively unspoilt natural environment to attract discriminating holiday-makers. In this respect, it is interesting to note that he lays emphasis on the importance of the fashionable mid-Victorian interest in marine natural history, which he says played an important part especially in Ilfracombe's growth, but produced a near ecological disaster in the county with the plundering of rock-pools by collectors and dealers. Travis believes that the underlying factors that made Devon resorts distinct from others was their remoteness from major centres of population, and the difficulty of access to them which resulted in their development becoming closely related to the high expectations of the privileged minority who, alone, could afford to travel to the county's coast. In the case of south Devon seaside resorts, it was fascinating to discover the importance of the role of the French Revolution in their development. Many 'delicate' people of rank or fortune, who had been in the habit of wintering in Mediterranean France, in the 1790s looked to south Devon as the nearest English equivalent to the south of France.