A Reflection of Old
England?
When the author Rudyard Kipling visited Victoria at the
turn of the century, he wrote;
"To realize Victoria you must take
all that the eye admires most in Bournemouth, Torquay, the Isle of Wight,
the Happy Valley of Hong Kong - the Doon, Sorrento, and Camps Bay; and
reminiscences of the Thousand Islands and arrange the whole around the bay
of Naples, with some Himalayas for the background."
"Real Estate
agents recommended it as a little piece of England. The Island on which it
stands is about the size of Great Britain, but no England is set in any
such seas or so fully charged with the mystery of the larger ocean beyond.
The high, still twilights along the beaches are out of the old East, just
under the curve of the world, and even in October the sun rises warm from
the first. Earth, sky and water wait outside every man's door, to drag him
out to play if he looks up from his work, and though some other cities in
the Dominion do not quite understand this immoral mood of nature, men who
have made their money in them go off to Victoria, and with the zeal of
converts, preach and preserve its beauties." |
