THE OTSTEE. 55 



lad clean white hands — for, boy as I was, I could not 

 lave endured a baronet's hand to open oysters for me ; 



" The damsel's knife the gaping shell commands, 

 While the salt liquor streams between her hands." 



N'ever have I eaten finer oysters than those, fresh 

 ilmost within a few hours from the placid Solent, upon 

 ivhich now the palace of Osborne looks down, and calls 

 brth the heartfelt prayer of ''God bless the Queen," 

 is we pass beneath the grass-covered slopes, remind- 

 ng every "Wykehamist of the founder's motto, "Man- 

 lers maketh Hen;" for Her Majesty is the tenant of 

 W^ykeham's College, and his arms and motto are carved 

 ipou the gates of the Queen's royal residence of 

 3sborne. 



Yes, '' Manners maketh Men" no less than Honor es 

 nutant Mores, as the punster told the great Sir Thomas 

 More, when he stood so high in favour with Henry YIII., 

 md was just appointed Treasurer of the Exchequer. It 

 s not riches that make man, any more than they need 

 ihange him ; and if there is any good gift of Providence 

 nore than another which teaches equality, it will not 

 DC far from the mark to say it is the Oyster. You can- 

 lot eat the oyster in greater perfection than at a 

 treet-stall, because, as the capital of the owner is 

 small, so, too, is the stock ; and, to be siu-e of a rapid 

 ale, it must also be well and carefully selected, and 

 herefore does not need the announcement we read in 

 nany a by-way one passes along, where ''the tale of a 

 Tub " would seem to contradict it : " Oysters fresh every 



