IG SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



water that the prizes are found. The common Smooth 

 Anemone, and the Daisy indeed, may be had not far from 

 high-water-mark in many places ; and Anthea cereus may 

 also be found at some distance from low-water ; but for the 

 superb Crassicornis, or the lovelier "Gems" and "Trogs" 

 {GemmacecB and Troglodytes) — for Polypes and the rarer 

 molluscs, we must not be far from low-water-mark. The 

 morning is brilliant. A light breeze carries the large clouds 

 over the lazy blue, tempering the heat of the .sun ; and our 

 spirits are high, as we clatter through the tunnels on to the 

 shore. There are three of us ; and as we pass that young lady 

 seated on a ridge, sketching Hangman's Head, she eyes us 

 askance, and although politeness keeps in the secresy of her 

 own bosom the translation of that look, I know how it would 

 run in the veraacular : " Well ! how people can make them- 

 selves such guys ! " And she who says this is, I j^ledge you 

 my word, a guy of the first water. I know one when I see one, 

 though I can't describe female costume. Her complexion was 

 dubious, not to say spotty ; and from it stood a nose not 

 aquiline — to tell the truth, it was a tnrn-np, — and probably 

 some subtle sense of harmony made her turn up very much 

 the sides of her stone-coloured felt hat, which, with its float- 

 ing ribbons and feather, may be said, in painter's phrase, to 

 have " carried off" the nose. I also remember the three deep 

 flounces of her ]\Ianchester muslin, and a general appearance 

 of flying ribbons and miscellanies. If I allude to the personal 

 appearance of this future mother of good but not handsome 

 citizen.'*, it is because her criticism of us forced us to consider 

 from what pedestal of elegance we were regarded. Not that 



