\paperw3360 \margr0\margl0\ATXph16380 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs22 During the 18th century, the wealthy completed their education with the grand tour, especially through France and Ita
ly. However, in the course of the late 1700s and early 1800s, holiday resorts in England itself began to attract increasing numbers of people. Initially such places, especially the seaside resorts, were the prerogative of the rich. But as industry mor
e sharply differentiated work from leisure and as transport facilities grew, the patronage of holiday resorts began to extend down the social scale. By the mid-1800s, the \b \cf4 \ATXht10901000 railways \b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 had transformed what had begun as
elegant watering places into day-trip resorts. In fact the 1851 Census commented on the expansion of seaside towns such as \ATXnt901 Brighton\ATXnt0 , Ramsgate, Margate, Lytham and Blackpool. Real earnings had been increasing for the past quarter of a
century, and with the introduction of Bank Holidays in 1871 the time was ripe for transforming such places into sites of mass recreation. The commercialisation of the seaside was thus under way, bringing with its entertainments in the shape of minstrel
