466 The Ship-Clergyman. [Nov. 



leak, no man could have been mere efficient at the pumps than parson 



E . We think he inwardly pleased himself in the knowledge of this, 



yet deemed a public belief of his powers at variance with the meekness of 

 his calling. From hence resulted some laughable manoeuvres in his affecta- 

 tion of timidity. He would step into a boat with all the interesting terror 

 of a young lady ; and was inexpressibly perturbed at the prospect of a 



royal salute. Poor Mr. E ! he would have cut out a " three-decker," 



or sent a broadside of grape into her, with any lieutenant or gunner in his 

 Majesty's navy. His face truly shewed the man ! Winds from all points 

 had lacerated his visage, and good proof spirit had worked a cure; albeit, 

 it left some scars behind. Boreas and Bacchus had his cheeks between 

 them their powers had fiercely disputed every atom of ground ; although 

 we cannot but think Bacchus must have been the victor, he having, in 

 token of conquest, planted his round tower (a barnacle) on the reverend 

 gentleman's nose.* 



In the ward-room, Mr. E was an oracle. When in port, it was 



he who was intrusted with the important charge of visiting all the poul- 

 terers, the wine-merchants, the pickle-warehouses it was he who brought to 

 the mess, nearly " a pair of every living thing." Often have we marked 

 him nearing the ship the gig sunk to the very gunwale with the weight 

 of flesh and fowl the eye of our clergyman, as it were, slumbering exult- 

 ingly on a fat haunch, or gigantic turkey some three-hands breadth before 

 him in fact, his whole person dilated with the consciousness of self- 

 importance, and the anticipations of dinner. We must confess it in every 



point of cookery, &c. Mr. E was orthodox a very bigot even to 



the laying of the soft tommy. ,f 



The failings of Mr. E , if failings they be called vanished with 



the cloth. He was a good, and, perhaps but we never heard him dis- 

 course in Greek a learned man. Certain it is, he had a pleasantry, the 

 sure sign of a mind at ease at times, a joviality of manner, which, whilst 

 it fitted him for his companions, gave no licence to their looseness. He 

 and let not this be considered as his meanest virtue was the patron of the 

 poor child who had stepped from the nursery to the riot of the cock-pit : 

 he would take the ten-years old midshipman with him in his shore rambles 

 would feed him with cakes and good counsel and, as much as possible, 

 cleanse the mind of the infant from the moral mildew of a man-of-war! 



Mr. E was a bluff, a merry, a good ship clergyman. 



J. 



* We trust not to be understood as here falling into a vulgar cry. The truth is, although 

 a water-drinker may do in the Weald of Kent, he would be mightily inconvenienced in the 

 " chops of the channel.'' 



J- Nautical bread. 



