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The freckly face and pert pigtails of Anne of Green Gables are emblazoned on much of PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND 's publicity material, and her creator, local-born novelist Lucy Maud Montgomery, was the island's most gushing propagandist, depicting the place floating "on the waves of the blue gulf, a green seclusion and haunt of ancient peace ? invested with a kind of fairy grace and charm". Radical William Cobbett, who soldiered here in the 1780s, was not so dewy-eyed, and saw instead "a rascally heap of sand, rock and swamp ? a lump of worthlessness [that] bears nothing but potatoes". Each had a point. The economy may not be quite as uniform as Cobbett suggested, but PEI does remain thoroughly agricultural - Million-Acre Farm, as it's sometimes called. On the other hand, the country's smallest province - a crescent-shaped slice of land separated from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick by the Northumberland Strait - can be beguiling. The island's long and complicated shoreline is banded by sandy beaches in the north and serrated by dozens of bays and estuaries, where the ruddy soils and grassy tones of the rolling countryside are set beautifully against the blue of the sea. Charlottetown , the capital and only significant settlement, sits on the south coast beside one of these inlets, the tree-lined streets of the older part of town occupying a chunky headland that juts out into a wide and sheltered harbour. With its graceful air, wide range of accommodation, and good restaurants, this is easily the best base for exploring the island, especially as almost all of PEI's villages are formless affairs whose dwellings ribbon the island's roads. One exception is Victoria , a tiny old seaport southwest of Charlottetown, which makes a peaceful overnight stay. Otherwise, Orwell Corner Historic Village , just to the east of the capital, is an agreeable attempt to re-create an island village as of 1890; Cavendish , on the north coast, boasts the house that Montgomery used as the setting for her books; and, close by, Prince Edward Island National Park , the island's busiest tourist attraction, has kilometres of magnificent sandy beach. Further east is the rough-and-ready township of Souris , ferry port for the Iles-de-la-Madeleine (Magdalen Islands ) and located just down the coast from the beach and fishery museum of Basin Head . In the west, the chief interest is social: descendants of PEI's Acadian settlers - once the majority of the population - today constitute some fifteen percent of the island's inhabitants and many of them live on the wedge of land that runs down from the village of Wellington to Cap-Egmont. PEI is a major holiday spot, so there's plenty of accommodation to choose from with B&Bs, inns, cottages and campsites liberally sprinkled across the whole of the island - though it's still a good idea to make advance reservations during July and August. Note, also, that although it's easy to reach Charlottetown by bus the rest of PEI has hardly any public transport . On a culinary note, PEI has a reputation for the excellence of its lobsters , which are trapped on the west side of the island during August and September and in the east from June to July. A number of restaurants specialize in lobster dishes, but keep a look out for local posters advertising lobster suppers, inexpensive buffet meals served in some church and community halls during the summer.
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