Amongst the very few British residents is a Scottish lady who has lived hero for some considerable time, and in her charming Moorish house, with its Muezzin tower, we had tea only a short time ago.

As a peep at English life in Capri might interest the reader I shall take you with me to this hospitable homo. It is called “Discopoli.”

The house is set in a terraced garden, with shady walks under a pergola of roses and clematis. All the rooms are on the one floor. From the hall you enter a largo drawing-room on the right. Its French window leads to a veranda which overlooks the flower garden and the lemon and olivo groves. A Scotch tea in such surroundings is a soothing balm for home-sick foreigners. The man servant is Italian but the maid hails from Fifeshire.

One is glad to think that there was such enterprise amongst our uomo domestics.

Why should they not see the world, when such comfortable posts offer themselves?

From the drawing-room we cross the hall, and have a glimpse at the cosy dining-room whose table is laden with delicious fruit from the garden. Then we look down the Blue Corridor. The very sight is cooling. The effect is produced by admitting the light through blue-tinted windows. This passage leads to the guest chambers, and surely nothing could be more conducive to peaceful slumber than the soft colouring which refreshes the eyes.

In a Moorish alcove in the cortile we havo ices and enjoy a smoke while looking out on the beauty of Capri spread at our feet.

What is there for a British resident to do, you may ask.

Every morning this lady takes the famous Capri Funicular down to the Marina Grande, and has her swim in limpid waters rivalled only by those of Malta.

This is the great charm of Capri.

You can stay an hour in the sea and feel no chill. Far beneath you, as you plunge about, you see glimmering specks of blue and green, the patchwork of colour made by the sun on the bottom of the sea.

You have been transferred to fairyland, and one can well imagine that whatever is missed in the day, it is not the morning swim.

But Capri has its duties for the hospitably inclined.

There are many strangers to be entertained who are by no means all angels!

This little italian island is the most cosmopolitan place in the world. Edwin Cerio, the witty Italian writer, has analysed for us the types of visitors. As an ex-mayor of the place he ought to know. His description of the deluge of “intellectuals” pouring on Capri from all parts of the world is authoritative: Parnassians, ultra-futurist painters; Swedish apostles of sex-reform, psycho-analysts, theosophists, religious reformers, pure Buddhists, integral sarapputists, dhamaputists, and spherists. Such is his delightful catalogue of visitors. They cortainly do not lack in interest, even though they may give a crazy appearance to the island.

Cerio’s book is filled with amusing accounts of “eccentrics ” who foregather here, not even the nativo escaping his caustic wit. He tells of a Capri chemist who fills his shop windows with specifics, and when the doctor is about to write a proscription, points to all that stock and implores: “Spread yourself. I beg you.”

To see who is on the island you have only to step out of your hotel before dinner on to the little Piazza in the town of Capri.

For all the world the scene is like a cinema film.

Here flit in and out the dresses of all nations. On one’s ears fall the accents of many tongues. Perhaps the German predominates. For that nation was one of the first in modern times to rediscover the charms of Capri, just as it was a German who found the Blue Grotto. Hero one literally rubs shoulders with the ends of the earth. The space is restricted, hardly larger than a dancing hall; yet all promenade bareheaded in the soft evening air.

On approaching the balustrade with its picturesque columns, you look down on the amphitheatre of vineyards and villas to where, 400 foot below you, a row of lights marks the harbour and town of the Marina Grande. There is a serenity about the scene that the strumming of a mandoline only heightens.

Portofino World Site, a world apart.