418 

 f3r TO RICHMOND.* 



" Britannia rules the waves." THOMSON. 



" BY the bye, Twaddel," said Jones to me, in one of the fine days of 

 June, " you and I and our set have had all sorts of parties but a water- 

 party; what say you to one?" I hemmed and ha-ed a bit, and 

 replied, f( I have no disinclination to such a trip, certainly ; but can any 

 of our friends pull an oar, or even handle a skull ? " I can't," said 

 Jones, candidly, " nor, I believe, can Wilson, nor Smith, nor Tomlins ; 

 but what of that ? we can learn, I presume ? Rowing is easy enough." 

 f Except when it is hard," said I. Jones smiled and went on. 

 " Tchew ! what can be easier ? You have only to pull so" suiting the 

 action to the word, "and you row." "But with inexperienced per- 

 sons," I remarked, " there is at least some danger/' " Danger !" ex- 

 claimed Jones, pulling up his collar, and putting on a look of wonder 

 " what is that?" I was silenced by his superior daring, and said, 

 " Well, I'll be one. Who are the selected ?" " Wilson, Tomlins, Smith, 

 you and I." " And the indispensables the ladies ?" " Why, we will 

 say the two Miss Browns, Miss Simpson, and Fanny and Fatima 

 Smith." " Very good. When, where, and what time ?" " To-morrow 

 at nine, at Searle's, and Richmond our destination/' " Well, I will 

 undertake to get you there, if you will yield the entire command of the 

 expedition, as I may call it." " It will be, if we get there in half the 

 usual time," said Jones, chuckling over the jest ; (Jones is not, however, 

 by any means so dabbish at wit as he thinks he is) " You interrupted 

 me," I resumed ; 9 " but who is to arrange the preliminaries and acces- 

 sories the eatables and drinkables, and all that?" " Leave the all that 

 to me," said Jones. " Well, then, to-morrow at nine ;" and we shook 

 hands and parted. 



At nine the next day I was on the Lambeth side of Westminster- 

 bridge, and at a quarter past nine we were all mustered, the crew 

 gallantly, and I may say, nautically dressed in striped shirts, white 

 trowsers, white hats, and black neckcloths tied seaman's fashion ; our 

 boat (a shallop with a white awning) manned in no time; the ladies 

 safely got on board, and seated ; our provisions stowed away fore and 

 aft, and every thing ready for starting. Expectation ran high, and the 

 tide was about to do the same: we could not have had a finer morning ; 

 the ladies, though timorous on the one hand, relied on the other, upon 

 the courage and steadiness of the crew ; Mr. Searle considerately said, 

 " Now is the time, gentlemen, to start you could not have a finer 

 tide ;" I took my station at the helm, Jack-of-the- water pushed us off 

 the roads, and we were committed to the mighty deep. Some con- 

 fusion as to the duties of stroke-oar, &c. followed ; three of the four 

 wished to row on the larboard side, but that was impossible, as they 

 soon discovered ; and then Jones very awkwardly dropped his oar with 

 the blade flat in the water, which flung up a spray that wetted Miss 

 Simpson as thoroughly as if she had been in a shower-bath : but she 

 bore it with a partiality for Jones which nothing could diminish. 



* See the direction post at Kew Green. 



