The model invalid

Puerto de la Cruz, 1910 The model invalid is on the house-top at daybreak, alternately spying over the sea for ships, sipping a cup of tea, and admiring the glorious sun, like a great wheel of white fire, gradually rising over Africa, transforming grey dawn to brilliant sunshine and azure, sprinkling the firmament and mountains with golden and crimson tints.

He breakfasts at nine, partakes of luncheon at one, unless engaged at a picnic. At four o'clock tea is dispensed by ladies in the drawing-room, and dinner commences at half past six; and between nine and ten o'clock he tears himself away from the evening amusements, and seeks the seclusion of his room.

The intervals between walking, talking, and sleeping depend, for their happiness or wretchedness, entirely upon the individual, and therein the patient must minister to himself. On Sundays he attends divine service at the British Consulate or elsewhere.

John Whitford, The Canary Islands as a Winter Resort (1890)