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LETTERS FROM A CONTINENTAL TOURIST. 



WE sailed from Southampton for Jersey, by the Lady de Saumarez, at 

 six o'clock, on Saturday, the Gthof August. The opposition, which has 

 reduced the prices, has very much increased the number of passengers, 

 so that the only or at least the best birth vacant was over the paddle- 

 wheel, and that was worse than none at all ; for the vibration of the 

 engine, the slapping of the paddle-boards on the surface of the wa- 

 ter, and the odour of the molten cart-grease were all together utterly 

 insupportable. However, the night was fine, and I found a tolerably 

 comfortable corner on deck, where I lay down, and slept soundly, 

 with the sky for a coverlid and the stars for night-lamps. 



Before the moon rose the lights at Hurst Castle and the Needles 

 had faded from our view, and we were alone on the deep dark sea. 

 There is something indescribably agreeable in the sensation produced 

 by first losing sight of land. The feeling of solitude, however irk- 

 some when continued for any length of time, is the reverse of painful 

 when one knows it will last only for a few hours. After indulging for a 

 time my thoughts I retired to my bed as before described, and laid 

 my head on the hard boards to enjoy a slumber, which was as sweet 

 and as sound as though it had been on a bed of down. One of the 

 advantages of a couch at fresco, on the open deck, was the early wak- 

 ing, which enabled me to see the sun rise. We were off the island of 

 Aurigny, or Alderney, when I first shook the night dews from my 

 hair, where they had gathered somewhat abundantly, and looked out 

 on the broad red belt which skirted the eastern horizon. That part 

 of the heavens nearest the water was free from clouds, but they had 

 clustered rather thickly above, and, as the hour of sun- rise more nearly 

 approached, the far reaching beams of the sun kindled the opaque, 

 and it glowed with a brightness almost too intense for the eye to bear, 

 till at length the ruddy god peeped over the bounding line and 

 showed his broad disc on the face of the waters. 



Not long after we arrived at Guernsey, and had no sooner brought 

 to, than half a score of boatmen from the island leaped on board to make 

 prize of such passengers as were thither bound. They are a fine 

 hardy, healthy-looking race, and their appearance agrees exactly 

 with the character they bear that of inveterate and daring smug- 

 glers. At ten o'clock we reached St. Heliers, in Jersey, and shortly 

 after were safely landed. 



I had expected to see something of a French character in the peo- 

 ple or the houses ; or both, but this is by no means the case. The 

 town, which is said to contain about 30,000 inhabitants, much resem- 

 bles an English country-town of the same size, both as regards clean- 

 liness and the mode of building and laying out. The people in dress 

 and manners entirely resemble the English, the only mark of their 

 foreign descent being the recitative, if I may so call it, of their 

 language, which is French. Indeed, the intonation is precisely that 

 of a Frenchman speaking English perfectly well, though of course 

 the idiom is purer than a foreigner can possibly acquire. Of their 



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