t Cecil Place
forming the only exception. Despite his defects natural and acquired, he
had, however, managed to gain the good opinion of Burrell of Burrell,
who, though, frequently on the island, possessed only a small portion of
land within its boundary. Into his service he entered for the purpose of
accompanying the knight to London as travelling-groom; and he had
rendered himself so useful while sojourning in the metropolis, that
Burrell would fain have retained him in his employ--a project, however,
to which Robin strenuously objected, the moment it was communicated to
him. "Nature," he said, "had doubtless made him a bond-slave; but he
liked her fetters so little, that he never would be slave to any one or
any thing beside." He therefore returned to the "Gull's Nest" on the
night his late master arrived at Cecil Place, from which his mother's
home was distant about three miles.

Never was there a dwelling more appropriately named than the cottage of
Mother Hays. It stood on either a real or artificial eminence between
Sheerness and Warden, facing what is called "The Cant," and very near
the small village of East Church. The clay and shingle of which it was
composed would have ill encountered the whirlwind that in tempestuous
weather fiercely yelled around the cliffs, had it not been for the firm
support afforded to it by the remains of an ancient watchtower, against
which the "Gull's Nest" leaned. Perched on this remarkable spot, and
nestling close to the mouldering but still sturdy walls, the very stones
of which disputed with the blast, the hut formed no inappropriate
dwelling for withered age, and, if we may be allowed the term,
picturesque deformity. Robin could run up and down every cliff in the
neighbourhood like a monkey--could lie on the waters, and sport amid
the breakers, with the activity of a cub-seal--dive like an otter; and,
as nature generally makes up in some way or other for defects similar to
those so conspicuous in the widow's son, she had gifted him with so
sweet a voice, that the fishermen frequently rested on their oars
beneath "Gull's Nest" crag, to listen to Robin's wild and mournful
ballads, which full often mingled with the murmur of the small waves as
they rippled on the strand. But the manikin, Robin, had higher and
better qualities than those we have endeavoured to describe--qualities
which Hugh Dalton, with the ready wisdom that discovers at once what is
excellent, and then moulds that