Ask ye his deeds?—the envious share may rend
The sounding gallops of high Langton Wold,
Another name with racing memories blend,

And Whitewall's roof Oblivion's self enfold;

Yet shall his name, beyond the grasp of Time,
Still evergreen the thoughts of men engage,
Like ancient tower, rearing a front sublime,
Clasped by the ivy of a bygone age.

While classic heath, or undulating down,
Or echoing plain the sons of sport invites,
"The Wizard' claims an honour all his own,
And shares the glory of Olympian rites.
Now at the close of his victorious scroll

Is writ the last great winner's name of Death;
His sable curtain veils the darkened soul:-
Close the dim eyes, receive the parting breath:
Bearing his honours lightly as his years,

He sinks serenely to his rest away,
As some soft cloud, dissolving into tears,
Fades unperceived before the eye of day.
Oh! let no vain memorial o'er him rise,

Mocking that stern simplicity of heart,
That least such empty homage would devise,
But only crave unnoticed to depart.
Rather above his pilgrim-haunted tomb

Renew in spring the blue forget-me-not,
And on the stone, half hidden by its bloom,
Inscribe the simple epitaph, John Scott.'

Rest, honoured head, beneath the daisied sward
That claims at length its tributary dust,
While the freed spirit seeks its due reward,
Rapt to the habitations of the just.

AMPHION.

A CRUISE TO ST. LAURENCE-ON-SEA.

BY A VALETUDINARIAN.

PLEASURE, midst all its variety of form, is ever to be met with in 'those places where hot springs are to be found,' was the observation of that old sage Seneca, referring, doubtless, to the Thermæ of Roman antiquity; but the remark may be extended with equal propriety to several of the watering-places of the present day, for they are all more or less inexhaustible in inventions for dissipating ennui and killing time. Scarborough, for instance, presents an endless and

diversified succession of fashionable amusements, which very naturally attracts a constant influx of company. There the man about town, the gay Lothario, or the conventional Stiggins, may ply his calling to his own satisfaction; and all serve to amuse the shoals of fair dames who congregate at this great northern gathering-place to shake off the cobwebs on the brain, or indulge in the dolce far niente.

'To scenes of giddy mirth these oft repair,

To drive away those thoughts they cannot bear,
And to the haunts of dissipation run,

Some to undo, and some to be undone.

Such is the way of the world, as it was, and as it ever will be. As did the old Romans so do we. After the arduous labours of civilized existence during a harassing London season, our spirits require resuscitation, and our mortal frames renovation, which can only be attained by a thorough change of scene, and the enjoyment of a certain calm repose and quietude leavened with a little harmless dissipation. All the world cannot find room in Scarborough, and as for Brighton, it is but Regent Street by the sea, for the cut of every jib, and the turn of each ankle appears familiar; so it was resolved to meander in fresh pasturage and beat up Ramsgate. Before finally determining, I cogitated, and thus soliloquised:

'To be, or not to be? This is the question,

Whether 'tis better to proceed by rail

Or shape our course by sea.'

So far had I got in this sign of my decadence, when the door opened, and admitted a wight dubbed 'the Druid,' from his length of beard, who, after sundry imbibings, announced his intention of accompanying me; so a move was resolved upon instanter, and without entering into our expériences de voyage, I shall plunge at once in medias res, and it sufficeth to say that the same afternoon two wideawakes were seen rising above the level of Augusta Stairs at Ramsgate, and underneath them scrambled your correspondent and his pal. The breeze, savouring of the briny, came sweeping along, invigorating and bracing, and our spirits rose at the prospect before us; for the town looked very picturesque as the bright rays of the western sun lighted up the windows. Family groups and bevies of comely matrons and gushing demoiselles are scattered about in all directions, some reclining on the seats, and others strolling about the cliff. How they titter and chatter as, full of exuberant animation, they pass their remarks, and criticise the passers-by.

'Amusement's here for him who craves,

For all who are not churls;
At sea there are such curling waves,
On shore such waving curls?

My friend the Druid' is a fine stalwart specimen of humanity, towering high above most of his species, and his long flowing black beard was evidently a great object of admiration amongst the fair sex; for numerous were the comments we heard upon it.

One

jolly-looking girl, with dark eyes beaming with mischief, and suggestive of unutterable things, ventured to insinuate to her giggling companions-though audible enough for us to hear-that Moses ' had turned out of the bulrushes.' 'Right you are!' he exclaimed ; ' and you are Pharaoh's daughter, I presume, come to take care of me. 'Allow me to introduce my friend-one of the Magi.' 'You'll do ! you'll do!' was the rejoinder, as the whole party, screaming with laughter, turned into the grounds of the Granville of happy memory, which were being lighted up for promenade.

This was also our haven, so we followed suit, and engaged our quarters, into which we were ushered by a very prepossessing and cheerful-looking chambermaid, who evidently understood that it was a part of her business to make a fellow comfortable, for we found everything as it should be. Our rooms were all that could be desired, being spacious, thoroughly well furnished, clean as a new pin, and smacking more of home than an hostelry. But the grand pull of the Granville over any other seaside hotel are the baths, which form a part of the establishment, and are admirably arranged and conducted. Here the guest is at a loss to decide what indulgence to treat himself to first, as there is such a choice of luxury. First on the list, and deservedly so, is the ozone, where he can bask voluptuously in the warm ooze of iodine, reclining on a couch of the softest picked seaweed, that yields to his form, and gives him a delicious ethereal sensation, somewhat similar, we imagine, to a cherubim reposing upon a cloud. Then comes the hamâm, the delight of the Osmanli hareems, where a mortal racked with rheumatism, or with his liver, and digestive organs affected from a long residence in warm climates may rid himself of his ailments, and revel for two hours in ecstatic bliss. Again, there are hot and cold, fresh and marine, douche plunging and shower baths-all of which serve to invigorate the system, and acts as stimulants to promote the appetite, and give tone to the stomach, at the same time increasing the action of the blood vessels and the various secretions. An hour's repose immediately succeeding an ozone or vapour bath refreshes the system more than twelve hours' ordinary sleep; hence the great advantage of being able to retire at once from your bath into your own apartments.

There can be no doubt but that good provisions are a great addition to the pleasures of any place, especially when there are also skilled cooks to dress them. At the Granville the chef is a master in his profession, and the dinner proved as satisfactory as the greatest epicure could desire; the fish was boiled to a bubble, the saddle of Southdown roasted to a turn, and the liquor quite up to the mark. By a stroke of luck and a little diplomatic arrangement, I persuaded an habitué, who, knowing the ropes, was elected by common consent to be a kind of arbiter elegantiarum, or master of ceremonies, to give us a formal introduction to the dark-eyed nymph and her friends whom we encountered en route to the hotel; and after dinner, when a carpet dance was got up, it was a sight to see 'Moses's' beard wagging over the luxuriant tresses of Pharaoh's daughter, as they

wheeled round on the light fantastic. The fun was carried on to the short hours, and then came supper, when the salutary effects of pure air and sea-bathing became manifest from the manner in which the provisions vanished.

'With eyes so meek, such gentle smiles,

They gorge so every one,

A savage of the Sandwich Isles,

Would own himself outdone.'

After a very jolly evening, where everybody seemed to feel themselves
at home, we turned into most comfortable beds, the very appearance of
which invited sleep, and having slept the slumber of the righteous,
adjourned to the beach. Half a mile's swim in the sea, followed
up by a fresh-water shower-bath, effected wonders, and proved the
old adage
'The sea a nostrum in itself contains ;

The patient tries it, and no more complains.
Drowned in the waves rheumatic tortures cease,
The spirits brighten, and the soul's at ease;
The nerves relaxed, and limbs so weak before,
With vigour braced resume their native power;
Freed from the gloom of vapours or the spleen,
The dull grow lively, and the sad serene.'

After our dip, followed by a gentle flirtation with a group of mermaids, whose hair, hanging straight down their shoulders, showed that they too had been paying their oblations to Neptune, I fairly astonished myself at breakfast.

Moses and Pharaoh's daughter were deputed to get up a picnic, and then a general adjournment took place to the beach. The old codgers went to talk politics and spell over the morning papers, the matrons to shop, the young ones to indulge in incipient flirtations, and the little breeches' to ride on the donkeys and dig in the sand. Only one petticoat is in sight, an antiquated spinster, who has returned from the sands, and is fluttering about like an old hen who has lost her chick, as her niece is missing, whom I believe to be the merry-looking, blue-eyed girl, that I saw disappear with a brown-faced, nautically-dressed party behind one of those very convenient jutting rocks that are promiscuously interspersed along the beach, and offer natural facilities for flirtation. Such is life on the sands; and having described 'my diggings' and 'its doings,' you cannot do better than hasten your steps this way, as from certain coincidences I fancy I shall not see much of the Druid, and I want the company of a familiar spirit to preserve me from the wily snares of prowling grass-widows and Margate hoidens, who might take advantage of my constitutional weakness; for I admit that I have so little of Joseph's stoicism in my composition that I should have knuckled under to Potiphar's wife at the first time of asking if she had been anything like Pharaoh's daughter at the Granville.

If you are desirous of getting yourself into condition for the hunting season, and hope to distinguish yourself in the pigskin across country, this is the beau-idéal of comfortable training-quarters, VOL. XXI.—NO. 141.

D

and just the place I should select, if I were going to ride for the Grand National, and wanted to drop a score of pounds, or even two stone, without the désagréments of physicing or losing strength. Here you have a fresh, bracing, and pure air; fine country to walk over, the sea to swim in, and vapour baths to help to reduce the superfluous flesh, and refresh and invigorate the system after your twenty miles' tramp. Again, the Southdown mutton is all that can be desired, the XXX. unadulterated, and if you have only nerve enough to steer clear of 'strange craft' hailing from Margate, a month's recuperation at the Granville would enable you to run a mile in four minutes something, or give a cheeky bargee three stone and a beating.

A yachtsman staying here tells me the deep-sea fishing off Ramsgate is great fun; and if the local historian, Kilburne, is to be believed you might catch a whale, for he says that on the 9th of 'July, 1574, a monstrous fish shot himself on shore on a little sandC bank, now called "Fishness," where, for want of water, he died 'the next day, before which his roaring was heard above a mile. 'His length was twenty-two yards, one of his eyes was more than a cart and six horses could draw, and a man might creep into his ' nostrils.' Having swallowed this, pack up your traps and come. Only think how Frank Buckland would be eclipsed if you could hook such a queer fish!

Vale et Salute.

'NOSEVELAH,' one of the Magi.'

OUR VAN.'

THE INVOICE.-October Occupations.-Racing Reminiscences.
'Nodding o'er the yellow plain,'

Autumn certainly came jovial on this year. We English grumble at our bad weather, but are rarely grateful for our good, it is to be feared; and the highest note of thanksgiving we heard on the Rowley Mile, while basking in an atmosphere to which the longitude and latitude of Europe could offer no parallel, was, that it was an agreeable change from the preceding meeting. Was it indeed? There were some other changes, particularly towards the end of the First October, not so agreeable perhaps, and the red autumn sun went down on a few aching hearts-that is to say, if there are heartaches nowadays among that select coterie in which gambling is the highest good. There must have been an ugly fox gnawing at the vitals of some of our young warriors who, during that week, had gone on a fatal war-path, and had barely saved their scalps. Visions of bill-stamps and a Black Monday, of a mention of paper' falling due, and of a declining to renew the same, must have danced before some eyes when Hannah died away on entering the cords, and Helmet proved himself about the rankest of duffing' favourites that ever George Fordham rode. But these are sad thoughts, quite apart from that genial English theme, the weather, which was our keynote. What we meant to say, before that wicked First October led us astray, was, that the accusation brought against English people of perpetually talking about their weather only applies to March winds,