we should prefer a new eighteen-penny wideawake, and the coarsest Welsh stuff skirt, to the finest second-hand beaver or best cloth habit; but tastes differ.

One morning, when we were enjoying a real sea-side breakfast-boiled soles, mackerel, and prawns-a placard was placed upon our table.

"Why, what have we here?" said my companion, taking it up. A gathering for the people-an entertainment for the humbler classes. That ought to be encouraged. As a matter of course you will go."

"As yet you have not informed me to what you allude," I responded.

"Read this," he replied. "The spirited entrepreneurs deserve our warmest thanks.”

The bill ran as follows:

"Grand Gipsy Fête, and Rural Dance.-E. Holmes and J. Wilson beg respectfully to inform their friends and the public generally, that they intend, weather permitting, to hold the above in a field adjoining the West Hill, opposite the Plough Inn. The Royal Victoria Dancing Saloon is engaged for the occasion, and will be brilliantly illuminated. A superior band for quadrilles and country dances is retained, and will be in attendance at 4 o'clock. As caterers to the public on many occasions, E. H. and J. W. pledge themselves to carry out the intended amusements in a manner to ensure general satisfaction. Marquées for the ladies, and ample accommodation for rural sports, will be provided. Tea

at half-past five. Admission, including hot water and milk, sixpence each. Parties to bring their own refreshments."

"Hot water provided!" continued Westerham. "That reminds me of a story they told against old Mullins of 'ours.' When quartered in Dublin, he was devoted to the fair sex, and had grown grey in their service. One day, seeing a handsome young Irish girl filling her teapot at the pump, he exclaimed, 'How I should like to go home and drink tea with you.' 'Fait, yer honour, we should do very well together,' replied the laughing daughter of Erin. 'If you'd furnish the taa, I'd keep you in hot water the rest of your life.""

Business having detained me at home, the colonel proceeded alone to the scene of the rural festival. In a meadow, on a rising eminence near the castle hill, where a splendid panoramic view of sea and land might be seen, a space, about the size of a cricket-ground, had been enclosed with booths, and within its canvas walls the green sward, and the celebrated Victoria dancing saloon, were prepared for the rustic merrymakers. According to Westerham's description, nothing could exceed the admirable manner in which the fête was conducted; sobriety and decorum prevailed. The lads and lasses of the neighbouring

hamlets; the toilworn mechanic of the borough; the seafaring man, with his sweetheart or wife, assembled in social intercourse to enjoy a meeting such as Sir Roger de Coverley would have delighted in. The band was very efficient, and played the country dances with a spirit that showed their hearts were enlisted in the service. Of the hot water and milk deponent did not speak; but he bore testimony to the excellence of some refreshments which he procured from The Plough, and administered to some of the rural party.

The following week a fête champêtre was held at Hastings Lodge, the seat of F. North, Esq., M.P., in aid of the funds of the Mechanics' Institution. Herr Grimm's German band attended, and the proceedings terminated with a grand display of fireworks, consisting of red, blue, purple, emerald, ruby, and green pyramids; rockets, with brilliant, variegated coloured stars; mines of saucissons, crackers, serpents, and snakes; flights of tourbillons, jets of brilliant fire, rainbows, triangular and double triangular wheels, polyluminary designs, pyramidical devices, diamond lights, golden rain, revolving suns, Roman candles, gerbes, shells, mine bags, bouquets, colash pieces, and other wonders of the pyrotechnic art, as elaborately laid forth in the programme. Inde

VOL. II.

E

pendent of the above, there were occasional entertainments at the Tivoli Gardens, St. Leonards. On the gala nights the bills announced "a splendid display of fireworks, representing the siege of Sevastopol, and the taking of the Malakhoff by the French; the ascent of two balloons amidst the brilliant and variegated sparks from a thousand rockets; a grand ball, with two bands-'one for quadrilles, and the other for single dances;' superb illuminations, Chinese games, bowls, skittles, swings, &c."

CHAPTER III.

Close of the London Season-Purchasing a Yacht-Unexpected Expenses-A Ship on the Gridiron-Necessary Repairs Amateur Steering, and its Consequences-A Squall off the Needles-Misfortunes in the Tidal Basin of Dieppe-The Meeting of the Emperor Napoleon and Prince Albert at Boulogne-The Old Proverb Verified, "Misfortunes Never Come Single"-The Difference between Selling and being Sold.

"The sea! the sea!"

BARRY CORNWALL.

THE London season, as it is called par excellence, was about to be brought to a close-the fashionable arrangements of the week, as chronicled in the Morning Post, had dwindled down to a few dinner-parties and balls-the foreign nightingales were preparing to take their flight from the dense atmosphere of Covent Garden and Drury Lane,