330 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER XLYIII. 



The Queen's Yacht Yachts of the R. Y. Club, their Build and Rig Com- 

 parison with American Yachts and Pilot-Boats Seamanship Cut of 

 Sails The Navy-Yard at Portsmouth Gun-Boats Steamers Eve- 

 ning at Portsea Curiosity About Boasting and some English Char- 

 acteristics Conversation with a Shopkeeper on the " Glory of England." 



TN crossing the Solent, on our return to Portsmouth, we saw 

 *- the Queen's yacht, and passed through a squadron of the Roy- 

 al Yacht-Club yachts. The former was a large, heavily ham- 

 pered, brig-rigged steamer, with great plate-glass ports, and a 

 large oak-colored house on deck, less seaman-like in appearance 

 and more in the American style than most English steam-vessels. 

 The yachts were as sweet craft as I can imagine, most of them 

 over two hundred tons in burden and schooner-rigged; but, 

 whether one or two-masted, spreading more canvas for the length 

 of their hulls than I ever saw before. They were all painted 

 black, and their ornaments and deck-arrangements struck me as 

 being more simple, snug and seaman-like than those of most of 

 our Union Clubs' yachts. The reverse is the case aloft. My 

 guess was that they would be more than a match for anything on 

 our side in light winds, but that in bad weather, particularly if 

 working to windward, they would do nothing against a New 

 York pilot-boat. Like all the English small craft, when going 



