THE STEAM EXCUllSlON. 3 



" Pray go on." 



" Mr. Edkins is gone," cried somebody. 



" I beg your pardon, Sir," said the steward, running up to Mr. 

 Percy Noakes, " I beg your pardon, Sir, but the gentleman as just 

 went on deck him with the green spectacles is uncommon bad to 

 be sure ; and the young man as played the wiolin says, that unless 

 he has some brandy he can't answer for the consequences. He says 

 he has a wife and two children, whose werry subsistence depends on 

 his breaking a wessle, and that he expects to do so every moment. 

 The flageolet's been werry ill, but he's better, only he's in such a 

 dreadful prusperation." 



All disguise was now useless ; the company staggered on deck ; 

 the gentlemen tried to see nothing but the clouds ; and the ladies, 

 muffled up in such shawls aud cloaks as they had brought with them, 

 laid about on the seats and under the seats, in the most wretched 

 condition. Never was such a blowing, and raining, and pitching, 

 and tossing endured by a pleasure party before. Several remon- 

 strances were sent down below on the subject of Master Fleetwood, 

 but they were totally unheeded in consequence of the indisposition of 

 his natural protectors. That interesting child screamed at the very top 

 of his voice, until he had no voice left to scream with, and then Miss 

 Wakefield began, and screamed for the remainder of the passage. 



Mr. Hardy was observed some hours afterwards in an attitude 

 which induced his friends to suppose that he was busily engaged in 

 contemplating the beauties of the deep ; they only regretted that his 

 taste for the picturesque should lead him to remain so long in a posi- 

 tion, very injurious at all times, but especially so to an individual 

 labouring under a tendency of blood to the head. Having been for 

 some months past subject to indigestio*h, and loss of appetite, he was 

 recently persuaded to try a keener air and a more northern climate 

 for the removal of the one, and the improvement of the other. We 

 are credibly informed that he was present at the Edinburgh dinner, 

 and, moreover, that he is the individual to whose eager appetite on 

 that occasion we find allusion made in The Morning Chronicle of a few 

 days since. 



The party arrived off the Custom-house at about two o'clock on the 

 Thursday morning dispirited and worn out. The Tauntons were 

 too ill to quarrel with the Briggs's, and the Briggs's were too wretched 

 to annoy the Tauntons. One of the guitar cases was lost on its pas- 

 sage to a hackney coach, and Mrs. Briggs has not scrupled to state 

 that the Tauntons bribed a porter to throw it down an area. Mr. 

 Alexander Briggs opposes vote by ballot he says from personal ex- 

 perience of its inefficacy ; and Mr. Samuel Briggs, whenever he is 

 asked to express his sentiments on the point, says that he has no 

 opinion on that or any other subject. 



Mr. Edkins the young gentleman in the green spectacles makes 

 a speech on every occasion on which a speech can possibly be made, 

 the eloquence of which can only be equalled by its length. In the 

 event of his not being previously appointed to a judgeship, it is most 

 probable that he will practise as a barrister in the New Central 

 Criminal Court. 



