offensively disproportionate piece of machinery--sole master and
proprietor of that Midshipman, and proud of him too, an elderly
gentleman in a Welsh wig had paid house-rent, taxes, rates, and dues,
for more years than many a full-grown midshipman of flesh and blood has
numbered in his life; and midshipmen who have attained a pretty green
old age, have not been wanting in the English Navy.

The stock-in-trade of this old gentleman comprised chronometers,
barometers, telescopes, compasses, charts, maps, sextants, quadrants,
and specimens of every kind of instrument used in the working of a
ship's course, or the keeping of a ship's reckoning, or the prosecuting
of a ship's discoveries. Objects in brass and glass were in his drawers
and on his shelves, which none but the initiated could have found the
top of, or guessed the use of, or having once examined, could have ever
got back again into their mahogany nests without assistance. Everything
was jammed into the tightest cases, fitted into the narrowest corners,
fenced up behind the most impertinent cushions, and screwed into the
acutest angles, to prevent its philosophical composure from being
disturbed by the rolling of the sea. Such extraordinary precautions were
taken in every instance to save room, and keep the thing compact; and
so much practical navigation was fitted, and cushioned, and screwed into
every box (whether the box was a mere slab, as some were, or something
between a cocked hat and a star-fish, as others were, and those quite
mild and modest boxes as compared with others); that the shop itself,
partaking of the general infection, seemed almost to become a snug,
sea-going, ship-shape concern, wanting only good sea-room, in the event
of an unexpected launch, to work its way securely to any desert island
in the world.

Many minor incidents in the household life of the Ships'

Instrument-maker who was proud of his little Midshipman, assisted and
bore out this fancy. His acquaintance lying chiefly among ship-chandlers
and so forth, he had always plenty of the veritable ships' biscuit on
his table. It was familiar with dried meats and tongues, possessing an
extraordinary flavour of rope yarn. Pickles were produced upon it, in
great wholesale jars, with 'dealer in all kinds of Ships' Provisions' on
the label; spirits were set forth in case bottles with no throats. Old
prints of ships with alphabetical references to their various mysteries,
hung in frames up