19 AUGUST 1876, Page 3

A correspondent of the Times describes a religious watering- place

which has been founded at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, Apparently as a commercial speculation. The place stands on the sea, and the proprietors own territory stretching about three miles and a half inland, within which limit they prohibit the sale of alco- hol and tobacco, card-playing for money, and billiards, encourage :camp meetings, and maintain almost perpetual religious services. The principal secular amusement appears to be bathing, which is pursued by both sexes in common, after the Continental fashion, and without bathing machines ; but the place has proved so attrac-

tive that the visitors, originally only 300, now number 15,000. This success is due in part to the exceptional loveliness of the scenery, but chiefly to a real desire for a watering-place without the excessive dissipation of resorts like Saratoga. A " retreat " of the kind might, we should imagine, be tried in England with success, if any one owns enough of a pretty shore.