[Illustration: ON THE BEACH, SCHEVENINGEN]
It might be Brighton or Margate, and, except for the swarm of hooded
beach chairs, it might be Coney Island, this popular seaside resort of
Holland. Most of the features familiar to those who frequent the sea
coast resorts of other lands are to be found at Scheveningen. There is
the wide, gradually shelving beach, ceaselessly washed by the rolling
surf, crowded with people of all ages and stations, bobbing in the
water, frolicking on the beach, or sedately seated in the shaded chairs.
Back on the beach runs the long line of hotels and cottages that we find
at all great ocean resorts. The pleasure of playing on the seashore is
much the same wherever humanity is found, and no matter what the
locality may be the pleasure in all places finds pretty much the same
forms of expression.
Scheveningen (shay´-ven-ing-en) began its life as a fishing village away
back in 1400. It is situated about three miles from The Hague, and has
been a bathing resort since 1815, growing in popularity and population
until now the annual number of visitors is about 40,000, chiefly Dutch
and German, but including also many Britons and Americans. The season
runs from the first of June to the end of September, and, just as in the
case of other summer resorts, its activities are at their height about
the first of August.
Aside from its many attractions as a summer resort, Scheveningen has
some historic interest. It was from there that Charles II set sail when
he returned to England to assume the crown at the time of the
Restoration. This was in 1660. Thirteen years later that sturdy naval
hero Admiral de Ruyter engaged in a sea battle off Scheveningen, and
there defeated the combined forces of France and England.