their word in all things. Ample arrangements would be made to shelter the donkeys during the voyage, and we paid our fare. At the station on our return we found a civil porter waiting for us, and having paid the stout stableman 1s. for each donkey, the gipsies took them on board about one or two o'clock in the day.

Much curiosity was created when the gipsies came on deck. The steward of the vessel said, they seemed to have lately come from a warm country.

The Albion steamer had small, but comfortable secondclass accommodation. No meal could be had until seven o'clock; but the second steward managed to get the gipsies some sandwiches and ale. They had been fed en route in the morning, and were quite satisfied, with the refreshments so provided.

During the previous wet night, they had camped some distance from the starting point, and had ridden the donkeys through the rain to the railway station. Noah and Zacharia had no great-coats, but Esmeralda was dressed in her long Alpine cloak, and treble necklace of blue, and white beads. Her straw hat was surmounted by a small plume of feathers, dyed blue, by one of her brothers. She did not wear earrings, and had no other ornament.

We had left the steamer to obtain some methylated spirit for our Russian lamp, and to call at Messrs. Wilson and Co.'s, when we remembered, that we had forgotten our watch-keys. A watchmaker's shop was soon found. The watchmaker was a merry-looking man. The watch had always been provided with one key to wind it up, and another to regulate the hands. We had always been assured, that two different keys, were re

quired. "Ha! ha!! ha!!!" laughed the watchmaker, who was apparently a German, "I will give you one key which will do the same thing-ha! ha!! ha!!!”

It was a beautifully formed key, nor had we ever met with one like it before.

The watchmaker appeared to us as a second Jean Batiste Schwilgué of Strasbourg.* "Ha! ha!! ha!!!" laughed the merry little man, "all is mystery. We eat and drink, but we comprehend nothing. Ah! we often end in believing nothing." We remarked that no one who contemplated with attention the works of Nature could overlook the design of a great Creator. The watchmaker went to an inner door. A pretty girl probably his daughter, changed a shilling for him. "Ah!" continued he, "you see by travel; you take in through the eyes; they are the great vehicles of human life. I laugh at them, ha! ha!! ha!!!" and he bowed as I left the shop.

แ

We were now nearly ready for the voyage; as we passed from the gates of the railway station an interesting-looking boy, pleaded hard to black our boots. It is an honest way of making a livelihood. In this instance. we stepped aside-one boot was just finished, when he suddenly bolted. Although he did not wait for his money, he did not forget the paraphernalia of his business. Another boy explained, that he was not allowed to black boots so near the station, and a policeman in the distance had caused his hasty disappearance.

The boy again met us soon after, and completed his work; we were glad to have the chance of paying him.

* Jean Batiste Schwilgué was born at Strasbourg, 18th Dec., 1776, and completed the celebrated clock in the Strasbourg Cathedral.

When we went on board the steamer, all was confusion. On the wharf, we had 1s. wharfage, to pay for each animal. The total expenses of our party to join the steamer amounted to 107. 9s. 6d. including 6s. 11d. for hay, supplied to the donkeys for the voyage.

The evening was damp and gloomy. An old weatherbeaten Norwegian pilot wandered about the deck. Men in oilskin coats, smelling strongly of tar and tobaccoquid, hustle and bustle, against everything. Very comfortable accommodation, had been erected specially for the animals near the engines, in the waist of the steamer. Esmeralda was feeding them with hay.

When the gipsies were afterwards looking over the side of the vessel, they formed an interesting group. Then came the active steward, of the second cabin, who promised us to take care of them. The second steward was a small, but firmly-knit, active young fellow, who said he had been wrecked twice, in the old coat he was then wearing, and for which, therefore, he had a strong affection; after saying he should go next winter to California, he left us to look after his many arrangements.

We were informed that Sir Charles Mordaunt and also Lord Muncaster, who had so narrowly escaped the

*

It may be that the noble descendant of the Penningtons owed his almost miraculous escape, to his possession of the curiously-wrought enamelled glass cup, given by King Henry the VIth after the battle of Hexham, 1463, to his ancestor, Sir John de Pennington, knt., with a prayer that the family should ever prosper, and never want a male heir, as long as the cup remained unbroken. The cup is called the "Luck of Muncaster," and Muncaster Castle, and its long broad winding terrace, commanding magnificent views over the valley of Eskdale, is one of those enchanted spots which we meet with in the picturesque county of Cumberland. It is singular that another family in Cumberland also possess a similar talisman, to which is attached a rare value, "The Luck of Edenhall," belonging to

THE LUCK OF MUNCASTER.

25

Athenian brigands, had left Hull in the special steamer for Throndhjem on the previous evening.

the ancient family of Musgrave. It is an old enamelled drinking glass, said to have been seized in olden time by a Butler of Eden Hall from some fairies he surprised dancing near St. Cuthbert's well in the Park. The glass had been left by the fairies near the brink of the well, and the fairies, failing to recover it, vanished with the words

"If that glass either break or fall,

Farewell the Luck of Edenhall."

An interesting account is given of the "Luck of Edenhall" in Roby's interesting "Tales and Traditions of Lancashire."

ENGLAND'S FAREWELL-SUMMER TOURISTS-THE CHEVALIER-SEAFARING -A GIPSY RECEPTION-CHANGE OF PLANS-NORWEGIAN PILOT-THE BIRMINGHAM BAGMAN-INDUCEMENT TO AUTHORSHIP-STRANGE WILLS -A SAILOR'S PHILOSOPHY-ICELANDIC LANGUAGE-PROGNOSTICATIONS.

THE steamer's saloon was elegantly fitted up. Bouquets of flowers shed their fragrance on each table; books, pens, and ink had been supplied for the use of the voyagers. One passenger soon entered, carrying a long sword; another-a French gentleman-followed, and expressed a wish to be in the same cabin with his wife. We have pleasure in saying that we found the captain very agreeable, and courteous.

The Albion steamer left the Hull docks at eight o'clock the same evening, being towed out by a steam-tug. The under-steward, went to meet some passengers, whose arrival was expected by a late train, but returned without having found them. The gipsies and ourself, as we stood looking over the bulwarks of the steamer, took our last view of the fading shore, and the steamer was soon fairly