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tempted to stamp, upon the white sand beneath, which feels unnaturally firm, and level, and silent, whenever you suddenly leave your noisy and unsteady footing on the gravelly rampart which borders it ;-to revel hour after hour amidst the in-drawing breeze from the ocean, which has, for both the sensation and the imagination, something of elemental purity, and of renovating freshness in it, that is soberly luxurious-this, then, is the sort of seaside enjoyment which is the perfection of that kind of delight; and with all appliances and means to taste it, I had it, when, as a stripling, I sometimes staid at a little village in the immediate neighbouroood of Hordle Cliff. Let me now endeavour to live over again, one day at least, of that season of buoy ant spirits, and well-tuned nerves, and of ravenous but easily-fed curiosity; and if I should, perchance, combine as the occurrences of one day what were belike those of divers, I will not intentionally stray from substantial and intrinsic truth, however I may tread a little awry, where that which is merely formal and non-essential, comes in to the woof of my narrative. My wish is, to go again in a day-dream upon one of my old visits to Hurst Castle. The spot where it lies is a little world's end of its own, terminating a wearisome and narrow spot of heaped-up gravel of more than two miles in length; this only road-way to the Castle, has a limitless view of the main ocean on the right hand, while, on the left, the water touches it indeed when the tide is up; but, as it ebbs, a vast expanse of weedy ooze offers itself, spreading out towards the channel, which separates the Isle of Wight from Hampshire.

Well then, I am off for Hurst-a gloriously bright morning-my companions, two boys and a girl of my own age, with an elder sister of hers, of authority enough, from her farther advance towards womanhood, to keep us in check, without any suspicion on our part of her wishing to thwart us→→

"It seems a day, I speak of one from many singled out, One of those heavenly days that cannot die, When forth I sallied."

A boat conveyed us from the hamlet of Keyhaven, down the winding outlet of a nameless stream, which was joined, before we got to Hurst, by as

inconsiderable a one, which has the better fortune of having a name, being called the Start. We landed on the small barren peninsula, which furnishes a site for the fortress, and has an area bearing about as much proportion to the long contracted path, which fastens it on to the mainland, as the crook of a bishop's crosier does to the taper shaft; and, on the map of Hants, the ichnography of the whole bears no unapt resemblance to the shape of that emblem of prelatical_authority. We have landed on no valuable territory; it is a mere waste of brown pebbles, girdled with a belt of pale grey sand. The castle is a fortification of Harry the Eighth's days, though it has been remodelled in our times, and since the date of my visits, by having the centre turned into a martello tower.

It is chiefly remarkable as having been at one time the place of captivity of Charles the First-unluckily the alterations made it necessary to demolish the room he was confined in; so that now the call for local emotion is not so urgently made upon our sympathies. When I was there, however, the dark chamber was in being, and though the shores of the beautiful isle were before the eyes of the royal prisoner, yet was he within such precincts of actual barrenness and desolation, that it must have weighed heavy on his spirits. The rest of the habitable world here may be summed up in saying, there is a public-house, two light-houses (one a recent erection,) and they answer to the high one on the down at the Needles, for the jaws of our channel are of no safe approach

and there is here an anomalous structure or two besides, the relics, I believe, of an abandoned speculation in fish-curing. What then is there for such highly applauded amusement? some one may say. Never fearlet us work our way over the heaps of loosely-piled shingle, down to the "tip of ocean," and we shall find matters enough to hold us in some sort of occupation. Now look seaward-is not this capacious bay worth gazing upon, with the Needle Rocks for our Pillars of Hercules at the home extremity, and having the far-off, but still dazzling cliffs of Portland, at the other horn of the crescent? Often on this coast have I seen those exquisite lines of Southey verified, often borne wit ness that they are not extravagantthe marine picture has been as bright

before my eyes as it was before those of Madoc

"There was not on that day, a speck to stain

The azure heaven; the blessed sun alone, In unapproachable divinity

Careered, rejoicing in his fields of light. How beautiful, beneath the bright blue sky,

The billows heave! one glowing green ex

panse,

Save where along the bending line of shore Such hue is thrown, as when the peacock's neck

Assumes its proudest tint of amethyst,
Embathed in emerald glory."

If it so happens that the atmosphere does not favour you with all this-or if your fancy is oppressed by the extent and indefiniteness of the whole survey, take some particular object look, there is something on the horizon, doubtless, a vessel; watch her approach with the spy-glass, for that implement is to be found in every one's hand.

"A sail, a sail! a promised prize to hopeHer nation? flag? what says the telescope ?"

Much and boyishly did I use to marvel when my eye, by means of the optic tube, caught view of such a far-off object. Peep attentively, do you not now distinctly discern that it is a ship, shapeless as it is to the naked eye? Well now, if you be not a philosopher, or at least ingrained in nautical experience, you will wonder as I used to do for do you not see, ay, plainly see, that she is half immersed in the waves that heave and toss around her? Her topmasts and sails are alone visible, and were she a mere raft, so little of her lower parts could scarcely be presented to us; and yet she comes on as gallantly as if all were right-and so it is. Long was it, ere I could quite reconcile myself to this practical exemplification of the earth's rotundity ; and I used to think, with the self-congratulating shudder of conscious safety, such as comes over one at the warm fire-side, when sleety wind hisses and hurtles upon the window panes, that at all events I would rather sail in a vessel which might appear on the surface of the water, as well as really be upon it, for so I was gravely assured that very ship actually was, in spite of all that persuaded me to the contrary. But we will let our new discovered one arrive

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This was information indeed; and many little, bright eyes kept sharp look-out-many too were the questions upon the point which we put to our self-elected Cicerone, in his formal cut dark blue coat, edged with yellow lace, and whose grey-haired pate was surmounted with a knowing cocked hat, for the glory of that species of head-gear had not then departed, as it now seems to have done, irrecoverably and for ever. We learnt from him, that the porpoises would drive in nearer with the state of the tide; and truly, by and by, they came so much into the bay, as that we could discern their shining black gibbous backs, which rose and sunk as they rolled forward-much about with a curve, as I conjecture, like that which the hump of a dromedary must describe, when the animal is deliberately advancing in a long swinging gallop. These sea-swine studded the waves by twos and threes for a few moments, and then grovelled deeper. I sigh to say it, but it has been supposed by naturalists, that these are the dolphins of the ancients, which are always represented in an arched posture

and bad enough it is, if all our fine dreams about them are to end in surveying the swart chines of a shoal of porpoises. And yet there are worse competitors, at least as far as name goes; for some men of science aver, that the bottle-nosed whale is the veritable classic dolphin. Powers of tasteful association, what a blow is aimed at you, when we are tied down to think of Arion touching his lyre, as he squatted on the dorsal fin of a bottle-nosed whale! While, however, we have been watching the unwieldy gambols of these ravenous fish, the vessel has come better within view; and, as the channel is so narrow between the island and us, she must give us more and more opportunity of examining her. She turns out to be a King's ship, a small frigate and oh how

tempted to stamp, upon the white sand beneath, which feels unnaturally firm, and level, and silent, whenever you suddenly leave your noisy and unsteady footing on the gravelly rampart which borders it ;-to revel hour after hour amidst the in-drawing breeze from the ocean, which has, for both the sensation and the imagination, something of elemental purity, and of renovating freshness in it, that is soberly luxurious :-this, then, is the sort of seaside enjoyment which is the perfection of that kind of delight; and with all appliances and means to taste it, I had it, when, as a stripling, I sometimes staid at a little village in the immediate neighbouroood of Hordle Cliff. Let me now endeavour to live over again, one day at least, of that season of buoy ant spirits, and well-tuned nerves, and of ravenous but easily-fed curiosity; and if I should, perchance, combine as the occurrences of one day what were belike those of divers, I will not intentionally stray from substantial and intrinsic truth, however I may tread a little awry, where that which is merely formal and non-essential, comes in to the woof of my narrative. My wish is, to go again in a day-dream upon one of my old visits to Hurst Castle. The spot where it lies is a little world's end of its own, terminating a wearisome and narrow spot of heaped-up gravel of more than two miles in length; this only road-way to the Castle, has a limitless view of the main ocean on the right hand, while, on the left, the water touches it indeed when the tide is up; but, as it ebbs, a vast expanse of weedy ooze offers itself, spreading out towards the channel, which separates the Isle of Wight from Hampshire.

Well then, I am off for Hurst-a gloriously bright morning-my companions, two boys and a girl of my own age, with an elder sister of hers, of authority enough, from her farther advance towards womanhood, to keep us in check, without any suspicion on our part of her wishing to thwart us

"It seems a day,
I speak of one from many singled out,
One of those heavenly days that cannot die,
When forth I sallied."

A boat conveyed us from the hamlet of Keyhaven, down the winding outlet of a nameless stream, which was joined, before we got to Hurst, by as

inconsiderable a one, which has the better fortune of having a name, being called the Start. We landed on the small barren peninsula, which furnishes a site for the fortress, and has an area bearing about as much proportion to the long contracted path, which fastens it on to the mainland, as the crook of a bishop's crosier does to the taper shaft; and, on the map of Hants, the ichnography of the whole bears no unapt resemblance to the shape of that emblem of prelatical authority. We have landed on no valuable territory; it is a mere waste of brown pebbles, girdled with a belt of pale grey sand. The castle is a fortification of Harry the Eighth's days, though it has been remodelled in our times, and since the date of my visits, by having the centre turned into a martello tower.

It is chiefly remarkable as having been at one time the place of captivity of Charles the First-unluckily the alterations made it necessary to demolish the room he was confined in; so that now the call for local emotion is not so urgently made upon our sympathies. When I was there, however, the dark chamber was in being, and though the shores of the beautiful isle were before the eyes of the royal prisoner, yet was he within such precincts of actual barrenness and desolation, that it must have weighed heavy on his spirits. The rest of the habitable world here may be summed up in saying, there is a public-house, two light-houses (one a recent erection,) and they answer to the high one on the down at the Needles, for the jaws of our channel are of no safe approach

and there is here an anomalous structure or two besides, the relics, I believe, of an abandoned speculation in fish-curing. What then is there for such highly applauded amusement? some one may say. Never fearlet us work our way over the heaps of loosely-piled shingle, down to the "tip of ocean," and we shall find matters enough to hold us in some sort of occupation. Now look seaward-is not this capacious bay worth gazing upon, with the Needle Rocks for our Pillars of Hercules at the home extremity, and having the far-off, but still dazzling cliffs of Portland, at the other horn of the crescent? Often on this coast have I seen those exquisite lines of Southey verified, often borne witness that they are not extravagantthe marine picture has been as bright

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The azure heaven; the blessed sun alone,
In unapproachable divinity
Careered, rejoicing in his fields of light.
How beautiful, beneath the bright blue
sky,

The billows heave! one glowing green expanse,

Save where along the bending line of shore Such hue is thrown, as when the peacock's neck

Assumes its proudest tint of amethyst,
Embathed in emerald glory."

If it so happens that the atmosphere does not favour you with all this-or if your fancy is oppressed by the extent and indefiniteness of the whole survey, take some particular object look, there is something on the horizon, doubtless, a vessel; watch her approach with the spy-glass, for that implement is to be found in every one's hand.

"A sail, a sail! a promised prize to hopeHer nation? flag? what says the telescope ?"

Much and boyishly did I use to marvel when my eye, by means of the optic tube, caught view of such a far-off object. Peep attentively, do you not now distinctly discern that it is a ship, shapeless as it is to the naked eye? Well now, if you be not a philosopher, or at least ingrained in nautical experience, you will wonder as I used to do-for do you not see, ay, plainly see, that she is half immersed in the waves that heave and toss around her? Her topmasts and sails are alone visible, and were she a mere raft, so little of her lower parts could scarcely be presented to us; and yet she comes on as gallantly as if all were right-and so it is. Long was it, ere I could quite reconcile myself to this practical exemplification of the earth's rotundity ; and I used to think, with the self-congratulating shudder of conscious safety, such as comes over one at the warm fire-side, when sleety wind hisses and hurtles upon the window panes, that at all events I would rather sail in a vessel which might appear on the surface of the water, as well as really be upon it, for so I was gravely assured that very ship actually was, in spite of all that persuaded me to the contrary. But we will let our new discovered one arrive

[blocks in formation]

This was information indeed; and many little, bright eyes kept sharp look-out-many too were the questions upon the point which we put to our self-elected Cicerone, in his formal cut dark blue coat, edged with yellow lace, and whose grey-haired pate was surmounted with a knowing cocked hat, for the glory of that species of head-gear had not then departed, as it now seems to have done, irrecoverably and for ever. We learnt from him, that the porpoises would drive in nearer with the state of the tide; and truly, by and by, they came so much into the bay, as that we could discern their shining black gibbous backs, which rose and sunk as they rolled forward-much about with a curve, as I conjecture, like that which the hump of a dromedary must describe, when the animal is delibe rately advancing in a long swinging gallop. These sea-swine studded the waves by twos and threes for a few moments, and then grovelled deeper. I sigh to say it, but it has been supposed by naturalists, that these are the dolphins of the ancients, which are always represented in an arched posture

and bad enough it is, if all our fine dreams about them are to end in surveying the swart chines of a shoal of porpoises. And yet there are worse competitors, at least as far as name goes; for some men of science aver, that the bottle-nosed whale is the veritable classic dolphin. Powers of tasteful association, what a blow is aimed at you, when we are tied down to think of Arion touching his lyre, as be squatted on the dorsal fin of a bottle-nosed whale! While, however, we have been watching the unwieldy gambols of these ravenous fish, the vessel has come better within view; and, as the channel is so narrow between the island and us, she must give us more and more opportunity of examining her. She turns out to be a King's ship, a small frigate and oh how

steadily does she cut through the crowding surges every moment lets us see something more of her-at first, an hour or two ago, she was a speck on the verge of "the low wavering sky,"-then she assumed the appearance of a distant tower-the perspective glass annihilated much of the interspace, and we made out her sails slowly the hull loomed into view-and now, minute after minute makes each part of her more clear and evident even to the naked eye-we see how stiffly her sails are bent-we can count her port-holes on the hither side, and guess at her rate-we see her pendants and the broad union-some dark moveable spots above and below betray that they are the tars who people her-and anon, as she passes under the walls, we may catch glimpses of the privileged denizens of the quarter-deck, yea, perhaps, make out the commander himself, the dignified viceroy of this moving island. Passive admiration, however, will not do for children, if a long stretch of it be required-we had pockets and baskets which were destined to carry home trophies and proofs of our visit to Hurst. Now, there were two lines of discovery which such searchers for trifles as we youngsters were might profitably pursue. One lies high and dry, and is upon the gravel, where all those things are accumulated which the winter storms fling up out of the reach of the ordinary tides, and which the blast can toss no farther; for here the pebbles begin to be heaped into a series of natural terraces, and the treasures we came hunting for lie at the foot of not quite the lowermost of these. They were not exactly of the value of those which Clarence tells us

"Lie scattered at the bottom of the sea

Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,

Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels.”— No, ours were of that incidental value which excites no envy, and there were enough for all who thought it worth while to glean them. First, then, we secured some of the boat-shaped exuvia of the cuttle-fish, snowy white, and famous among school-boys for scraping into pounce;-next offered themselves, little purse-like things, of which, to this day, I know not whether they be of the animal or vegetable kingdom; their substance is like court sticking plaister; they are square, and bulging,

and hollow, with a string at each corner; and if you open one, you will find nothing good, bad, or indifferent within it; they were a puzzle to me then, and I am content that they should remain so now ;-then we gathered up balls of marine growth, exactly like the flowers of the guelder rose ; and no wonder we called them sea-foam, since Cowper, speaking of that shrub, says it throws up << into the gloom

Of neighbouring cypress, or more sober

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Other valuables here found, were feathers of aquatic fowl, foreign seeds, such as cashew and cocoa-nuts, corks, and all matters buoyant enough to support themselves through a world-wide voyage. The pieces of wood that lay here, had, from immersion in sea-water, and subsequent exposure to wind and sun, acquired an almost sattiny lustre. Shells, of course, were obvious enough, though none of value or great beauty-though, let me except the delicate coat-armour of the sea-urchin, too fragile almost to be found unbroken; and, as the dandies of the days of chivalry had their cuirasses embossed with precious stones, so does it seem as if the echini had theirs studded with pearls. The rest of the rubbish (as some would call it,) consisted of bits of cornelian, and pretty stones, and lucky stones, for such we young things accounted those which had a hole through them. But it is time to go beneath. Now to be a collector on the lower stratum, was a service of a more adventurous cast, for at all times on the margin of the open sea, there is surf. This day, however, the billows came landward most deliberately, and arrived ashore generally in one long line; there they were poured down in a graceful curve every minute, and the body of water was instantly shot forward over the flat sand, where it spread like a fine piece of gauze-work, and then hurried back to be in time for the next race; and the absorption on the sand was so quick, that all was instantaneously dry. This "land debateable" was our field of action, and it was needful to retreat pretty briskly, while the long-extended wave was hanging on the turn, or your ankles ran the risk of a cooling bath—a cala

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