16 THE SEA-SIDE AND AQUARIUM. 



ignorant of the wonders of the shore. Like Words- 

 worth's Peter Bell 



" A primrose by the river's brim, 



A yellow primrose was to him, 



And it was nothing more." 



So was the sea-side to me. But my indifference 

 was soon exchanged for positive delight, upon dis- 

 covering all of a sudden, that the rocks were profusely 

 studded with a kind of shell-fish to which most 

 Londoners, during early life at least, are extremely 

 partial. Thousands of Periwinkles lay before my 

 astonished eyes. Immediately fashioning my hand- 

 kerchief into a bag, I set about filling it with the 

 dainty mollusc, and having done so, set off rejoicing 

 on my way homewards. 



On arriving at my lodgings, I forthwith displayed 

 my Periwinkles to my kind-hearted landlady, with a 

 request that she should cook some of them for tea : 

 "Pen Penniwinkles," said she, smiling, "Is that what 

 ye ca' them ? We Scotch folk aye ca' them Buckies ! 

 But," she gravely continued, " ye're shurely nae ga'en 

 to ate thae Snails ? " 



"Yes, indeed I am,'* I replied. Whereupon my 

 landlady observed in a quaintly humorous style 

 shaking her head, and holding up her hand, as she 

 moved to the door with the despised Buckies " Weel, 

 weel ! ye English folk wud just eat onything ava !" 



The good woman's expression of disgust not a 

 little amused me, conveyed as it was in the broadest 

 of Scotch. I found, upon inquiry, that her antipathy 



