14 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
thing, on tlie last clay of any country fair, out of the ruck 
of those passed over by dealers, as deficient in size, fashion, 
condition, or even colour. Some time back, Louis Philippe 
bought up, at about £17 a-head, a large number of under¬ 
sized horses for his light cavalry. I saw them going otf. 
Twenty little nags, personal friends of mine, mostly above 
114 hands high, have been picked up at prices not far off 
£'10. All having distinguished themselves in their day. 
Dealers who buy for the army, country postmasters, and 
our friend “ cabby," buy up rather a taller, stronger, 
faster style of horse; but their price is not far off my limit. 
I always ask the price given for a fast horse whose perform¬ 
ances please me. 
If you have no market nearer than London, and can meet 
with an honest agent, and know a little about a horse, try 
this plan :—Pick up a slightly-battered, cheap, London cob, 
not too far gone, at the end of the season. All the best 
horses go to London, where they are mostly ruined, and get 
prematurely old. Country air, slow, constant work, a 
paddock, a loose box, shoes nailed on one side, plenty of 
oats, little enough hay, some bran, some carrots, cleanliness, 
“ dry shoes and stockings,” my system, will restore our 
debilitated courser; at least, you cannot lose by him, if 
judiciously selected at first; he will last till you get some¬ 
thing better. One of my friends buys an old poster every 
spring to plough with his own horse, and sells him in 
summer. 
I have spoken of the cottage gardener’s pony as a 
“ Maid of all work,” and like the Arabs, I prefer a mare; 
such will be easier to buy, and better to sell. She is not 
vicious, naturally; and with a certain amount of liberty, 
regular work, natural diet, and no stable tricks, will never 
become so. Homer's chariot race is won by a pair of mares. 
“ Eliadum palmas Epirus equArum,” says Virgil. I only 
speak of my pony as a horse to avoid singularity, and 
because I do not like to appear to degrade the sex by con¬ 
necting anything female with drudgery. Thus we say—my 
cook, my nurse, my servant; not cook-maid, nurse-maid, 
servant-maid. 
A horse is always he, in English, as a ship is always she. 
Only think how it would read, to talk of travelling with four 
post-mares. In Homer, or Virgil, or in Arabic, it might 
sound better. 
My calculation was “forty,” not “fifty” guineas, for 
keeping up a pony-chaise in the country. A sum not often 
greater than the difference in rent and taxes between a 
country house and a town house. I am often misprinted, 
but a consciousness that the printer’s mistakes are much 
more venial than my own, always deters me from correcting 
verbal errors.— Yibgyob, Rainbow Castle , in the county of 
Ayr. 
SEA WEEDS.—No. 10. 
{Continued from Vol. x., paye 409.) 
Before proceeding with the description of the other 
kinds of Polysiphonia, I feel disposed to turn aside a little, 
and direct the attention of my readers to the fine coast of 
Bamborough, in Northumberland, just opposite to the Fern 
Islands, whose rocks are so fatal to mariners. How the 
mighty ocean comes rolling-in upon that beautiful beach of 
white sand ! brimful, as if no barrier could stop its progress ! 
but there is One who has said, “ Hitherto shalt thou come, 
and no further.” “ The voice of the Lord is upon the 
waters ; the voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the 
Lord is full of majesty, and malceth the storm a calm. ’’ 
Bamborough Castle is seated upon a solitary rock, which 
seems to have been made for it, towering up above all the 
other parts of the village, and standing as if on guard 
between it and the sea. And what a view of the ocean it 
commands ! With the Fern Islands scattered at its feet, or 
seeming almost so, though at some distance ; Floly Island 
on the left, with the remains of its ancient church, whoso 
“ low columns and circular arches, with zig-zag mouldings 
in the Norman style, resemble those in the earlier parts of 
the Cathedral of Durham;” and at a short distance from 
Lindisfarn, is the rock called St. Cutlibert’s Isle, where, 
according to tradition, 
“ St Cuthbert sits, and toils to frame 
The sea-born beads that bear his name.” 
October G. 
Once I ascended the rock on which the Castle stands just as 
the sun had sunk beneath the horizon. How shall I describe 
the glory of the scene, bathed as it was in radiance ; for all 
around, upon the ocean, the sky, the earth, was shed that rich, 
soft tint of pink, which is seen upon some shell found in a 
warmer clime than ours. It was almost too lovely for a 
mortal's eye. 
“ If thus Thy glory decks the span 
Of ruined earth and fallen man, 
How glorious must the mansions be 
Where Thy reedem’d shall dwell with Thee.” 
Heber. 
Unwillingly I descended as the glowing tints gradually faded 
away. “ The manor and castle of Bamborough were pur¬ 
chased by Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, who died in 
1720, and left the property, as well as other estates, for 
charitable purposes; for the succour of shipwrecked seamen, 
the education of children; blocks, tackle, cables, Ac., are 
kept for the use of stranded vessels; apartments are ready 
for shipwrecked seamen; and, in stormy weather, two men 
patrol the coast, for eight miles, day and night, to look out 
for vessels in distress ; there is also a library at the castle, 
at which any one residing within ten miles may have books 
for life on payment of half-a-crown.” 
But let me say a few words about the Fern Islands. The 
great Fern has two lighthouses upon it; and who can read 
of these islands, and the lighthouses, without remembering 
the heroic Grace Darling? Who can visit the fine old 
church, and wander about its burial-ground, without pausing 
to look at the tomb erected to her memory. There she lies, 
as one weary with toil, and sleeping sweetly. And far below, 
the mighty ocean—so many of whose prey are buried in the 
same churchyard—with its bright, dancing waves looking so 
joyous and full of life; such a striking contrast to the 
stillness of the place, where the wicked cease from troubling, 
and the weary are at rest! AVhen the trumpet sounds they 
shall all awake ! and the sea shall give up her dead—some 
shall rise to everlasting life, and some to shame and ever : 
lasting contempt. Oh, reader! with which shall you be 
found ? 
These rocky islands are often the cause of shipwrecks 
in stormy weather. The channel between the mainland 
and the principal island is by no means safe. It is at 
one of the islands called the Long-stone, that the lighthouse 
is situated which Grace Darling has rendered so memorable. 
On .another, called the Staples, are rocks forty feet high, 
frequented by birds; and on these rocky islands grow many 
beautiful Algae, and to them I must hasten to return after 
this long digression. 
SUB-GENUS 2.—BOLYSIPHONIA. 
“ Primary tubes six or more.” 
15. Polysiphonia Biiodi.ei. —Named after Mr. Brodie; 
from six to fourteen inches long, with a robust stem and 
numerous alternate branohes ; colour a dark brown-purple. 
substance gelatinous, soon decomposing in fresh-water j 
