father's mode of doing it, it excites in me a smile at the "old school" fashion, and what slight notions of dandyism our naval predecessors of the by-gone days had, when compared with the modern foppery of the quarter-deck. Instead of going to a crack shop to order my uniforms, where, for ready money even, he would have paid at least three times the amount of what they were worth, he purchased all the necessary articles at the annual fair held at Plymouth, which is visited by Yorkshire clothiers of all sorts and descriptions, and hired an old tayloress for a sh lling a day to make my clothes,-this was agreeable to the custom of his forefathers, for not one jot of their manners had he departed from, in adding a stitch in time to an old pair of plush breeches, or converting the flaps of an old coat into the fronts of a modern waistcoat. "One thing you must be particular in doing," said my father to the old abigail, as she stood before him, her body forming an arc of 160 degrees, and her spectacles spanning a nose of a capacity to dispose of a pound of snuff. "As my son is growing, mind you allow for that, and make them large enough. " Oh, yes, your honour, be sure I'll do that." "And mind you double the thread, and take double stitches where necessary." Oh, la! Sir, I'll take up a stitch with any she in Plymouth." “And return all the clippings and odds and ends of the cloth, for that will come in for future repairs." "Sure Sir you're very hard upon a poor body." "No cabbage with me," responded my father, with emphasis, "I'm too old a stager for that fun." "Well Sir, if I must, I must, but as it's very cold weather I hope you'll give me a glass of grog to make the stitches reg'lar." If old Benbow had risen from the grave and stood before him, he could not have been more astonished; at first I thought he was going to serve her as he did me with respect to the Frenchman mentioned in my preceding chapter, but he contented himself with giving a look, and dd her impudence and eyes together; however the old woman stuck to her tether, and argued the point so effectually with him, that he capitulated on most favorable terms, and consented to allow her a glass of grog and bear, to, at dinner. 66 66 The next article of corporeal furniture to be supplied with was a cocked hat. Now how to get over so heavy an expense as that was a perplexing difficulty. No second-hand one could be procured, as every naval officer had a use for his own until it was no longer wearable, and then it was cast to the winds, and a new one was generally priced from 3 to 4 guineas; at last the puzzle was conquered. In passing by an obscure hatter's shop, in an obscure street, leading from an obscure lane, close round a very obscure corner, there stood in an extremely obscure shop window, to my father's un-obscure and admiring eyes, a Militia Officer's second-hand scraper, in full martial panoply, with a leather cockade attached to it, which would have done justice to the silver-bound topper of a London liveried footman. It was about the middle of the day when this discovery was made, but his pride would not suffer him to enter the shop in presence of the full-faced sun, and he hurried home with lengthened strides, and self-satisfaction, and as regardless of every object around him as Archimedes when he found out his knotty problem, and was ignorant of the burning rafters of the city by which he 66 66 go 66 was surrounded. "Youngster," he exclaimed, as he entered, "be prepared to go out with me when it becomes dark." "Heigho!" thought I, what tragedy is Roscius acting now. Aye, Aye, Sir," I replied, not daring to put an interrogatory as to its meaning, for he was of the true St. Vincent breed, never caring to give a reason until the fitting time came to explain. Accordingly, when all was enveloped in darkness, "And nought but the pale moon and stars shone conscious of the act, we departed. My mind was pretty easy on the score of personal safety, for I knew the days of Abraham-ic sacrifices were over, and such an expiatory offering now was likely to be visited by the police. At length, after threading several crooked lanes and alleys we made a land-fall in full front of our knight of the beaver's window. There," said he, " you see that hat?" Yes, Sir." "Well, I want you to in and ask its value; and while you are pretending to make a bargain, I'll pop in and beat his price down." With due obedience I entered and commenced negociations. Two guineas was demanded. I proffered one. No,-such an offer was inadmissible, when in strided my father, like an ambassador extraordinary, to complete a treaty which an ordinary diplomatist was unable to accomplish. After much discussion and pro's and cons, and having to fit it to my head, and rammed down over my face with the force of a pile-driver, and placed in every position and angle, until not a figure in Euclid had been left unrepresented, the old man of the shop consented to part with it for a guinea, in consideration that it was rather too small for me, and he could not expect a ready sale for it in any other quarter. To say truth, it was much too circumscribed in circumference and I felt as inconvenienced as the man with the iron mask, for, with difficulty, it barely covered the crown of my knowledge box, but it made up for the absence of that qualification in height, for, when I had it on, it would have puzzled a keen-eyed sharper to have betted which was the tallest of the two, the wearer or the entablature of his Corinthian Capital. On the 12th of April, 1813, all being ready for joining my vessel, I arrayed myself in my new livery, and departed with my father to go on board; we found she was alongside the dock-yard jetty, still under the hands of the shipwrights; but the officers and crew were lodged on board an old hulk pro tempore. I was introduced to the former, and had no reason to be evil prejudiced at first sight, at all events, with their appearance, as they were a good-looking dashing set of young men, with that happy mixture of carelessness and gaiety in their manner, so peculiar and natural to the roving denizen of the wide world, before care and sorrow have obtruded their unhallowed and gorgon-like appearance. After the usual formalities of introduction were over, almost the first salute I got from some of my future messmates, was, "well, my young sea officer, so you are for soaking your hide in salt water, eh?" "Yes Sir." "Ah! my boy, before long you'll be grinning like a Cheshire cat, eating cheese; you are like a young bear; you've all your sorrows to come; mind you must be smart on board here, for we've no more cats than can catch mice, or else you'll be made to answer for it sharply." Gracious powers! here was language to be accosted by-I that had just escaped from my mother's soothing care and attention, who would not allow "the winds of Heaven to visit my face too roughly," lest I should be blown to fritters! I stood panic-struck, uncertain whether to laugh or cry. "Ah! so you are a bit of a sea lawyer, are you? Wait, my boy, before long we'll make you prove how many blue beans make five." Such, and similar slang novelties, were the result of my first day's initiation in the new element into which I had launched my future destinies. We dined on board, and afterwards my father took me on shore to the dock-yard, in order, as he told the commander, to point out to me all the Government offices which my various duties would require me to know. It provokes my laughter at this time of day, when I recollect the persevering anxiety with which the old gentleman walked me over a space of 70 acres of ground, which includes the King's Arsenal at the above mentioned post, and pointed out to me the different departments, and their various uses. For any particular supply I must go there or come here, I must never pretend to be ignorant, and plead such to a superior officer," &c. &c. In fact, by his account, I was required to know, by intuition, what at least would take a pretty apt scholar some time to be made acquainted with. When this afternoon's drilling was over, I took my leave of him, and returned on board, with about as much remembrance of what he had been at so much pains to show me, as I have of the interior of India, which I have never seen. At this period the harbour of Hamoaze presented a most animated and heart-stirring appearance to a Briton: crowded with ships of war, of all sizes; some ready for sea, contrasted beautifully with others that had just arrived, and were stripped ready for a refit; and their dingy, rusty sides showed, that they had just returned from very active service; intermixed with them were old hulks for the reception of ships' companies, whose proper vessels had gone into dock; boats innumerable skimming over the surface of the water, while their many oars moved with a regularity which surprised me, at least, and the costume of the various grades of officers presented to the landsman's eye, where all was novelty, a panorama of electrical effect. On the eastern side of the harbour is situated the King's yard, with its large and massy storehouses, its many dry and wet docks, filled with ships building and others repairing, and, at this time, the busy hum of human voices, which showed that industry was paramount there. On the opposite side of the harbour, the country stretched far and wide in diversified landscape, and the many estuaries of the harbour breaking in upon and indenting the whole line of coast, gave a refreshing appearance to the high state of agriculture, and verdant beauty of the surrounding scenery. If any of my readers have ever visited Plymouth, they will recall to mind the beauties of Mount Edgecumbe, the delightful residence of the Earl of the same name :-it stands on the western shore, and at the embouchure of the harbour of Hamoaze. Who that has once seen it can forget its enchanting natural beauties, its amphitheatrical ascent from the level of the water, as if swelling its proud bosom to mingle with its kindred skies, its undulating hills covered with the velvet green of nature, and crowned by the noblest trees that ever wooed a southern sky. Through a long vista of venerable oak and elm, that look like the sylvan guardians of the scene, you have a pleasing perspective view of the romantic and castellated mansion of the noble proprietor, with its pointed spires ascending above the woodland scenery. Fancy might dwell with the poet's eye on these mingled beauties, and love to contemplate it as the fit abode of other beings, purer, and of more enlarged capacity for happiness than the toil-plodding mortals of this sphere. The tout-ensemble is brilliant and splendid, and associated with the surrounding objects-the Dock-yard, that depôt of a nation's greatnessthe river stretching far and wide, and studded with its magnificent ships of war, in different stages of preparation, and last, though not indeed the least, when you look seaward-as I heard Mr. Canning describe it, in a speech he made to the corporation of Plymouth, "that magnificent structure that gigantic barrier against the fury of the waves (the Breakwater) that roll into the harbour," form altogether an assemblage of natural and artificial beauties-some of the latter indeed being the triumph of art over nature—such perhaps as is not to be parallelled in the whole world. This is a bold assertion, but I cannot, in spirit, revisit my native place without partaking of and feeling that mysterious link of nature which draws tears from the hardy Swiss when he dwells on the memory of his native mountains, and maddens him into enthusiasm when the songs of his native valleys remind him of the deeds of his patriotic forefathers. In looking back to those early days of boyhood, when young hope associated itself with my ambitious aspirations, and wooed my every feeling in the golden colours of the rainbow; when sorrow was never thought of, nor care never felt, my heart sinks cold with the contemplation of the disappointments of life and the too frequent annihilation of the bright visions of our youth. We dream not, we think not, nor we feel not the too oft occurring strife of existence; and by an irrevocable fiat to which all the sons and daughters of Adam are doomed, we experience that "Sorrow is our element; Is an Eden kept afar from sight, Though sometimes with our visions blent. " We launch in the cross currents of life in the spring of existence, and expect a perennial sunshine, and an unruffled ocean to bear us smoothly on to the goal of our cherished wishes, but it is a wise dispensation of Providence that those hopes shall be frustrated, and, with a mildness proportionate to the capacity of our mental powers to sustain the defeat until the full maturity of our reason enables us, partially to see the wisdom of the design, and to admit the justice of the decision! The more I see of my fellow-men and study my own heart, the more decided is my conviction, that man should be taught by a greater than He, that he is but man, otherwise, in the pride and presumption of his heart, he would erect himself into the idol of his own worship, and constantly imitate the insane conduct of that Babylonian king of old, who conceived himself a deity, and whose deserved and fearful punishment should be constantly held as a mirror to the eyes of the proud and haughty. I may now resume my story,-I had at length entered into a new existence. Had I fell from the moon I could not have been a greater stranger. All was novelty, and, therefore, all was gilded; for though I had been brought up in a sea-port town, it was one thing to be a spectator of the mighty bustle, and another to be an active agent in it. Nothing came amiss to me; I was proud to be ordered to do duty; and to keep a night-watch, as the officer in charge, was such a compliment to my vanity, with the sergeant of marines, corporal, and sentries, making necessary reports, accompanied by the usual salute of touching the cap or carrying arms, that I scarcely knew whether I stood on my head or my heels. My messmates were not slow at perceiving this inclination of my mind, and determined to profit by my excess of zeal; accordingly, they would often saddle me with an extra night-watch, by pointing out the reputation I should acquire for diligence and attention to my duty. After having been a week on board they thought it was high time I should be initiated into the mysteries of a midshipman's life, and agreed that the sooner the performance of their Eleusinian rites began, the better for my morals, and the brighter youth I should make; for, said one of them, "'Tis education forms the youthful mind," "Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined." Agreeably to this decision, it was determined that that night they would be on the lookout to catch me napping, and gave directions to the quarter-masters of the watches to let them know if I laid down on deck to sleep. I kept the first watch from 8 to 12-this was very well; I walked it the whole time with cocked-hat and side-arms, or occasionally viewing and admiring the long and dark shadow of my dear-self reflected on the moon-lit water. I must observe, too, that I had been persuaded to mount guard during the night with those above-mentioned appendages, though, for the life of me, I could not conceive why the other officers did not the same; but I was told such were the rules of the service, and if they chose to depart from them and incur the chance of blame, it was not for me, at the commencement of my noviciate, to follow a bad example. Oh, this was reason enough; I adopted their advice; the reader will perceive that this was all a hum, but merely a part of the system of trick-playing so common with young mids. At midnight I descended to call my relief, who was a young scamp of an Irishman. I awoke him, and told him the news, I say Bond” he said, in pursuance of the plan concerted between him and the others, "I heard the commander ask the master to-day how you did your duty, and Mr. Speed gave you an excellent character, and said you were the smartest youngster at keeping a night-watch he had ever seen." "Did he?" I replied with exultation, "and what did the commander say?" "Oh, he seemed highly pleased, and said he would tell your father of it; now if you'll 66 |