-

More beer score Clarke
for my the his
do trust pay sent
I I must has
shall if you maltster
what for and the

These parallel columns can be deciphered by beginning at the last word,
"the," on the right hand, and reading up. With rude and sometimes grim
humour our forefathers seem to have been delighted. The teapots of our
great grandmothers are even more amusingly inscribed and illustrated. At
Gretna Green the blacksmith is performing a "Red-Hot Marriage," using
his anvil for the altar.

"Oh! Mr. Blacksmith, ease our pains,
And tie us fast in wedlock's chains."

The china decorated with vessels and alluding to naval matters shows how
popular was the navy, and how deeply everything concerning Nelson's men
had sunk into the minds of the people. Some of the line of battleships
here represented are most cleverly executed--every sail and rope and gun
brought out with a clearness which the best draughtsman could hardly
excel. It is a little hard, however, to preserve the time-honoured
imputation upon Jack's constancy in this way on a jug:--

"A sailor's life's a pleasant life,
He freely roams from shore to shore;
In every port he finds a wife--
What can a sailor wish for more?"

Some enamoured potter having produced a masterpiece as a present to his
lady destroyed the design, so that the service he gave her might be
unique. After gazing at these curious old pieces, with dates of 1754,
1728, and so forth, the mind becomes attuned to such times, and the jug
with the inscription, "Claret, 1652," seems quite an easy and natural
transition.

From the Brighton of to-day it is centuries back to 1754; but from 1754
to 1652 is but a year or two. And after studying these shelves, and
getting, as it were, so deep down in the past, it is with a kind of Rip
Van Winkle feeling that you enter again into the sunshine of the day.
The fair upon the beach does not seem quite real for a few minutes.

Before the autumn is too far advanced and the skies are uncertain, a few
hours should be given to that massive Down which fronts the traveller
from London, Ditchling Beacon, the highest above the sea-level. It is
easy of access, the train carries you to Hassock's Gate--the station is
almost in a copse--and an omnibus runs from it to a comfo