Bournemouth

Bournemouth, a town in Hampshire, a favourite health resort, on Poole Bay, 37 miles SW. of Southampton, and 116 of London. It is included within the parliamentary borough of Christchurch, from which it is 4 miles distant. Its rise has been rapid; until 1838 it consisted of but a few fishermen's huts and a coastguard station. It is situated for the most part in the pine-clad valley of the Bourne Brook, the banks of which are laid out as public gardens. The sands extend for about 3 miles from east to west. The climate is fine, the air soft without being relaxing, and the country around is beautiful. Two piers, one 800, the other 840 feet long, were erected in 1861 and 1879. Of several churches the finest is St Peter's (1864), by Street, with memorial windows to Keble, and the graves, in its churchyard, of Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Mary Shelley. Other buildings are a town-hall, a national sanatorium (1866), the Herbert Home for consumptives (1867), besides a home for incurables, a hip hospital, an aquarium and winter-garden, golf-course (1894), &c. Pop. (1861) 1940; (1871) 5906; (1881) 16,858; (1891) 37,650. The town was made a municipal borough in 1890. See works by Dobell (2d ed. 1886), Morgan (1889), and Bright (new ed. 1891).