my lockers."
"Avast there! master Horace," said our master at the helm, who was an
old Cowes pilot, and as bluff as a Deal sea-boat; "the Pearl is a noble
sailer; but a bird can't fly without wings, nor a ship run thirteen
knots an hour without a good stiff breeze. If the light winds prevail,
the Arrow will have the advantage, particularly now she's cutter rigged,
and has got the marquis's old mainsail up to take the wind out of his
eye." "Ay, ay," said Horace, "you must tell that story to the marines,
old boy; it will never do for the sailors." "Mayhap, your honours
running right a-head with the Pearl, and betting your blunt all one
way; but, take an old seaman's advice; may I get no more rest than a
dog-vane, or want a good _grego_{1} in a winter's watch, if I don't
think you had better keep a good look-out for the wind's changing aft;
and be ready to haul in your weather-braces, and bear the
back-stays abreast the top-br'im, ere the boatswain's mate pipes the
starboard-watch a-hoy." "Tush, tush, old fellow," said Horace, with whom
I found Lord Anglesey's cutter stood a one at Lloyd's. "May my mother
sell vinegar, and I stay at home to bottle it off, if I would give a
farthing per cent, to be ensured for my whole risk upon the grand match!
Mind your weather roll, master--belay every inch of that. There now;
look out a-head; there's the Liberty giving chase to the Julia, and
the Jack-o'lantern weathering the Swallow upon every tack. His Grace of
Norfolk won't like that; but a pleasure hack must not be expected to run
against a thorough-bred racer. There is but one yawl in the club, and
that is the little Eliza, that can sail alongside a cutter; but then Sir
George Thomas is a tar for all weathers--a true blue jacket--every thing
so snug--cawsand rig--no topmasts--all so square and trim, that nothing
of his bulk can

1 A watch-coat.

~152~~beat him." In this way my friend Eglantine very soon perfected me
in nautical affairs, or, to use his expression, succeeded in putting a
"timber head in the ship;" and the first use I made of my newly acquired
information was to pen a _jeu d'esprit_, in the way of a circular in
rhyme, inviting the members of the Royal Yacht Club to assemble in
Cowes-roads. The whim was handed about in MS., and pleased more from
its novelty than merit; but as it contains a correct list of the club at
this period, and as the object of the English Spy is to perpetuate the
recollections of his own