James Henry Bennett

Bennet went to the small coastal village of Menton in the South of France, close to the Italian border in 1859, wanting to "...die in a quiet corner, like a wounded denizen of the forest".

[1]: 12– [3] Bennet's health greatly improved, and visited Italy the next year, but found the "unhygienic state of the large towns of that classical land undid the good previously obtained".

[3] His routine would be to spend Winter in Menton, and take a holiday in April and May, to study the Mediterranean climate and vegetation, traveling to Genoa, in Italy, before returning to England in the Summer.

[1]: 9–  The construction of a rail link in 1861 between Nice and Ventimiglia, in Italy, meant that the coastal road could be avoided, which had previously been subjected to dangerous mudslides.

[3] Enjoying a winter in mild weather provided a psychological boost for Bennet's patients, he wrote that they were "so charmed by the sun, the spectacle of nature and vegetation, they almost forgot their troubles.