"The doctor tries to laugh away my fears, but he owns that I am below par—meaningless phrase—talks of nervine decay, and suggests my going to St Moritz"

Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Chapter V. “Herself.” Annotated Text in Haunting Imperial (Non)Sense: What Cannot be Captured in the Victorian Ghost Story. 1894. https://editions.covecollective.org/edition/haunting-imperial-nonsense-w....

"Pekin" refers to modern-day Beijing, as it was formerly called "Peking" by Europeans. Portugal was the first European country to contact modern China, and the city was referred to as "Pequim" in Portuguese. This translates to English as "Pekin". This name changed to Beijing in the late 1900s. This means that Lota spent time with her father in China. A "consul" is a government-appointed individual assigned to live in a foreign city to protect and promote a foreign government's interests there, an instrument of imperialism.

 “‘A huge towny place,’ exclaimed Lota. ‘Gran’pa said it was not better than Brighton’. ‘Could anything be better than Brighton?’ asked I."

St. Oswald's Church is the parish church of Grasmere, Rydal, and Langdale in the Lake District, Cumbria, England.