92 
mal retracting the mantle, displayed the beautiful 
stripped shell and sank before they could capture it.’ 
(Appendix, vol. ii. p. 410.) 

When I was alad at a grammareschool in the 
north of England a young friend who had that plea- 
sant activity of mind which fitted him for everything 
that was smart, expert, and tasteful, amused the 
town with cleverly describing the effect produced oh 
- its jog-trot business people, by the coming of fox.- 
hounds into the neighbourhood. He depicted the 
sudden frenzy for the hunt onal! sorts and deserip- 
tions of people. His father’s boatmen had quitted 
their barges and taken the barge horses to the field. 
The urchins of the parish clerk had had sufficient in» 
fluence with the vicar to get the loan of his ponies: 
everybody had taken everything to join the pack 
and my friend’s well known trotter an incomparable. 
roadster, which had been sent to the smithy to be 
shod all round, was too irresistible a temptation to 
the Farrier, and he and the trotter when inquired 
after, were both accounted for, by the universal an- 
swer to all questions for everybody, ‘ gone a-hunt- 
ing, sir.” 
‘“« Most men,’ says White of Selborne, ‘ are sports: 
men by constitution, and there is such an inherent 
spirit for hunting in human nature, as scarce any in- 
hibitions can restrain.” The occurrence that stirs in- 
to activity such a hum-dram place as Port Royal, is — 
the intelligence that some of the naval, or some of — 
the artillery officers are off for a day’a sport with the — 

