Once Upon A Time In The North

I know you're dying for the next instalment of 'Dr Richdiet Says...' but I'm sticking with the Arsonists' Playground today. Reader Millicent has sent me this cutting from the Thanet Times dated 31st May 1901:

Margate, the sun of the East Coast, the healthiest place in the Universe, the children’s paradise, the Londoners’ pleasure resort, the invalids’ last hope. It rejuvenates the old, makes strong the weak, and invigorates the jaded. You buy a railway ticket and we do the rest. The air, which contains more health giving properties to the cubic inch than any other town in England, is laid direct on the North Sea. Nature’s marvellous panorama of sea, cliff, and sands may be viewed free of charge. Thousands can witness without payment, the glorious sunsets which are considered the biggest things of their kind in England. Margate, the paragon of watering-places. Come and try it and when you return to your homes restored in health and strength, recommend your friends to come too.

Stripe me pink! They don't write publicity material like that any more! Not about Margate anyway. There's a bit about the rest of the Ile too:

This beautiful Isle of Thanet, in addition to its being grandly rich in its historical associations, filling the soul with admiration and delight, gives life and vigour, health and strength to every visitor that honours it with their presence, and hold to declare that it is nothing less than a foretaste of the precious elixir of immortality.

The precious elixir of immortality, eh? I think they stock that down at Superdrug these days, don't they?