then, oh! then,-who can tear himself from the contemplation of a scene more sublimely interesting than all the calm loveliness of a summer prospect? To me its attractions were irresistible; and besides those of inanimate nature, I found other sources of interest in studying the character and habits of the almost amphibious dwellers on that coast. Generally speaking, there is something peculiarly interesting in the character of seafaring men, even of those whose voyages have extended little beyond their own shores. The fisherman's life indeed may be accounted one of the most constant peril. For daily bread, he must brave daily dangers. In that season when the tillers of the ground rest from their labours-when the artisan and mechanic are sheltered within their dwellingswhen the dormouse and the squirrel hide in their woolly nests, and the little birds find shelter in hollow banks and trees, or resort to milder regions, the poor fisherman must encounter all the fury of the combined elementsfor his children's bread is scattered on the waters. It is this perpetually enforced intercourse with danger that interests our feelings so powerfully in their behalf, together with its concomitant effects on their character- undaunted hardihood -insurmountable perseverance-almost heroic daring; and, generally speaking, a simplicity of heart, and a , tenderness of deportment towards the females and little ones of their families, finely contrasting their rugged exterior. But, unfortunately, it is not only in their ostensible calling of fishermen, that these men are forward in effronting peril. The temptation of contraband trade too often allures them from their honest and peaceable avocations, to brave the laws of their country, and encounter the most fearful risks, in pursuit of precarious, though sometimes considerable gains. Of late, this desperate trade had extended almost to an organized system; and, in spite of all the preventive measures adopted by government, it is too obvious that the numbers of these "free traders" are yearly increasing, and that their hazardous commerce is more daringly and vigorously carried on. Along the Hampshire coast, and more particularly in the Isle of Wight, almost every seafaring man is engaged in it, to a less or greater extent. For the most part, they are connected in secret associations, both for co-operation and defence; and there is a sort of freemasonry among them, the signs and tokens of which are soon apparent to an attentive observer. "The Custom-House sharks," as they term them, are not their most formidable foes, for they wage a more desperate warfare, (as recent circumstances have too fatally testified, with that part of our naval force employed by government on the preventive service. Some of the vessels on the station are perpetually hovering along on the coast; but in spite of their utmost vigilance, immense quantities of contraband goods are almost nightly landed, and no where with more daring frequency than in the Isle of Wight. In my rambles along its shores, the inhabitants of almost every cottage and fisherman's cabin, for many miles round, became known to me. I have always a peculiar pleasure in conversing with these people, in listening with familiar interest (to which they are never insensible) to the details of their feelings and opinions, and of their family concerns. With some of my new acquaintances I had ventured to expostulate on the iniquitous, as well as hazardous nature of their secret traffic, and many wives and mothers sanctioned, with approving looks and half-constrained expressions, my remonstrances to their husbands and sons. These heard for the most part in sullen downlooking silence, (not however expressive of ill-will towards me,) or sometime answered my arguments with the remark, that, Poor folks, must live;" that "half of them during the war, had earned an honest livelihood in other ways; but now they were turned adrift, and must do something to get bread for their little ones; and, after all, while the rich and great folks were pleased to encourage their trade, it was plain they could not think much harm of those who carried it on." This last was a stinging observation, one of those with which babes and sucklings so oft encon found the sophistry of worldly wisdom. Amongst these humble families there was one at whose cabin I stopped oftenest, and lingered longest, in my evening rambles. The little dwelling was wedged in a manner into a cleft of the grey rock, up which, on every slanting ledge, the hand of industry had accumulated garden mould, and fostered a beautiful vegetation; and immediately before it, a patch of the loveliest green sward sloped down to the edge of the sea-sand, enamelled with aromatic wild thyme, and dotted next the ocean, with tufts of thrift, centaury, and eringo, and with gold-coloured blossoms of the horn poppy. The peculiar neatness of the little cabin had early attracted my attention, which was further interested by the singular appearance of its owner. He was a large tall man, of about sixty, distinguished in his person by an air of uncommon dignity, and by a dress, the peculiarity of which, together with his commanding carriage, and countenance of bold daring, always suggested the buccaneer of romantic legends to my fancy. He wore large loose trowsers of shaggy dark-blue cloth, a sort of woollen vest, broadly striped with grey, for the most part open at the throat and bosom, and buckled in at the waist with a broad leathern belt, in which two pistols were commonly stuck, and not unfrequently an old cutlass; and over his shoulder was slung a second belt of broad white knitting, to which a powder-flask, a leathern-pouch, and often a thick short duck-gun, were suspended. A dark fur cap was the usual covering of his .head, and his thick black hair was not so much intermingled with grey, as streaked with locks of perfect whiteness. Notwithstanding this formidable equipment, the harmless avocation of a fisherman was his ostensible employment, though to all appearance, not very zealously pursued; for in the daytime he was oftener to be seen lying along the shore in the broad sun, or strolling by the water's edge, or cleaning the lock of his gun under the shadow of a projecting crag, than busied with a hook and line in his little boat, 13 ATHENBUM VOL. 11. or mending his nets by the cabin door. At almost all hours of the night, a light was seen burning at the cottage window, and the master of the family, with his son, was invariably absent, if (as was sometimes my custom) I looked in on them after dark, on my return from some distant spot towards my own habitation. At such an hour I was sure to find the female inmates, (the wife and widowed daughter of the man I have been describing,) in a state of visible perturbation, for which it was easy to assign a cause; but I had remonstrated in vain with the infatuated husband, and it was still more fruitless to argue with the helpless women. Richard Campbell was not a native of the Isle of Wight, nor one trained from his youth up to "go down to the sea in ships, and occupy his business in great waters." For many generations his family had owned and cultivated a small farm in the North of England; himself had been bred up a tiller of the ground, contrary to his own wishes, for they had pointed from his very cradle to a seafaring life; and all his hours of boyish pastime and youthful leisure, were spent in the briny element, close to which, at the head of a small bay, or inlet, stood his paternal farm. Just as he had attained his twentieth year, his father died, leaving him (an only child) the inheritor of all his little property, and at liberty to follow the bent of his own inclination.-Tumultuous wishes and powerful yearnings were busy in his heart; but he was "the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." He staid to comfort her old age, and to cultivate his little inheritance, partly influenced perhaps in his decision by his attachment to a pretty blue-eyed girl, whose sweeter smiles rewarded his filial piety, and whose hand was very shortly its richer recompense. The widowed mother continued to dwell under her son's roof, tended like Naomi, by a daughter-in-law as loving as Ruth, but happier than the Hebrew matron in the possession of both her children. Many children were born to the young couple, " as likely boys and girls as ever the sun shone upon," said the wife of Campbell, from whom, at different times, I gleaned "the simple annals" I am relating." But God was very good to them. He increased their store with their increasing family, and provided bread for the little mouths that were sent to claim it. She never grudged her labour, and a better nor a kinder husband than she was blessed with, never woman had. To be sure, he had his fancies and particular ways, and when he could steal a holiday, all his delight was to spend it on the bay that was near their farm, (the worse luck) for many an anxious hour had she known even then, when he was out in his little boat shooting wild-fowl in the dark winter's nights. But no harm ever came to him, only their dearest boy, their dear Maurice," (the mother never named him without a glistening eye) "took after his father's fancy for the sea, and set his heart on being a sailor." And the father called to mind his own youthful longings, and would not control those of his child, especially as he had another son, a fine promising lad, who took willingly to the business of the farm, and already lightened his father's labours. The mother grieved sore at parting with her firstborn, (what feelings are like those of a mother toward her first-born?) and the young Maurice was her most loving and dutiful child, and she had reared him with such anxious tenderness as only mothers feel, through the perilous years of a sickly infancy. But the father jested with her fears, and entered with the ardour of a boyish heart into his son's enterprizing hopes; and at last the youth won from her an unwilling consent. And when she shook her head mournfully to his promises of bringing rare and beautiful things from foreign parts for her and his little sister, coaxed a half smile into her looks, by concluding with, " And then I will stay quiet with you and father, and never want to leave you again."-"My Maurice left us," said the mother, "and from that time every thing went wrong. Before he had been gone a month, we buried my husband's mother; but God called her away in a good old age, so we had no right to take on heavily at her loss, though we felt it sorely." In addition to his own land, Campbell rented some acres of a neighbouring gentleman, whose disposition was restlessly litigious, and Campbell being unhappily fiery and impetuous, disputes arose between them, and proceeded to such lengths, that both parties finally referred their differences to legal arbitrement. After many tedious, and apparently frivolous delays, particularly irritating to Campbell's impatient spirit, the cause was given in favour of his opponent; and from that hour he adopted the firm persuasion that impartial justice was banished from the land of his fathers. This fatal prejudice turned all his thoughts to bitterness, haunted him like a phantom in his fields, by his cheerful hearth, in his once-peaceful bed, in the very embraces of his children, "who, were born," he would tell them, in the midst of their innocent caresses," slaves in the land where their fathers had been free men." The In this state of mind he eagerly listened to the speculative visions of a few agricultural adventurers, who had embarked their small capital on an American project, and were on the point of quitting their native country to seek wealth, liberty, and independence, in the back settlements of the United States. In an evil hour, Campbell was persuaded to embark his fortunes with those of the self-expatriated emigrants. tears and entreaties of his wife and children were unavailing to deter him from his rash purpose; and the unhappy mother was torn from the beloved home, where her heart lingered with a thousand tender reminiscences, and most tenaciously in the persuasion, that if her lost child was ever restored to his native country, to the once happy abode of his parents his first steps would be directed. The ships in which the Campbells were embarked, with their five remaining children, and all their worldly possessions, performed two-thirds of her course with prosper ous celerity; but as she approached her destined haven, the wind, which had hitherto favoured her, became contrary, and she lost sea-way for many days. At last, a storm which had been gathering with awfully gradual preparation, up burst over her with tremendous fury., Three days and nights she drove before it, but on the fourth her masts and rigging went overboard, and before the wreck could be cut away, a plank in the ship's side was stove in by the floating timbers. In the confusion which had assembled every soul on deck, the leak was not discovered till the water in the hold had gained to a depth of many feet; and though the pump was set to work immediately, and for a time kept going by the almost superhuman exertions of crew and passengers, all was unavailing; and to betake themselves to the boats was the last hurried and desperate resource. Campbell had succeeded in lowering his three youngest children into one of them,already crowded with their fellow-sharers in calamity, and was preparing to send down his eldest son and daughter, and to descend himself with their mother in his arms, when a woman pressing before him with despairing haste, leapt down into the crowded boat, which set in an instant, and the perishing cry of twenty drowning creatures mingled with the agonizing shriek of parents, husbands, and children, from the deck of the sinking ship. The other boat was yet alongside, and Campbell was at last seated in her with his two surviving children, and their unconscious mother, who sunk into a state of blessed insensibility, when the drowning screams of her lost little ones rung in her ears. Five-and-twenty persons were wedged in this frail bark, with a cask of water, and a small bag of biscuit. An old sail had been flung down with these scanty stores, which they contrived to hoist on the subsiding of the storm, toward the evening of their first day's commitment in that "forlorn hope," to the wide world of waters. Their compass had been lost in the large boat, and faint indeed were their hopes of ever reaching land, from whence they had no means of computing their distance. But the unsleeping eye of Providence watched over them, and on the fourth day of their melancholy progress, a sail making towards them was descried on the verge of the horizon. It neared, and the ship proved to be a homeward. bound West India trader, into which the perishing adventurers were received with prompt humanity; and on her reaching her appointed haven, (Portsmouth) Campbell, with his companions in misfortune, and the remnant of his once-flourishing family once more set foot on British earth. He had saved about his person a small part of his little property; but the whole residue was insufficient to equip them for a second attempt, had he even been so obstinately bent on the prosecution of his trans-Atlantic scheme as to persist in it against (what appeared to him) the declared will of the Almighty. Once, in his younger days, he had visited the Isle of Wight, and the remembrance of its stone cottages, and beautiful bays, was yet fresh in his mind. He crossed over with his family, and a few weeks put him in possession of a neat cabin and small fishing-boat; and for a time the little family was subsisted in frugal comfort by the united industry of the father and son. Soon after their settlement in the island, their daughter (matured to lovely womanhood) married a respectable and enterprizing young man, the owner of a pilot vessel. In the course of three years she brought her husband as many children, an' during that time all went well with them; but her William's occupation, a lucrative one in time of war, exposed him to frequent and fearful dangers, and one tempestuous winter's night, having ventured out to the assistance of a perishing vessel, his own little vessel foundered in the attempt, and the morning's tide floated her husband's corpse to the feet of his distracted wife, as she stood on the sea-beach watching every white sail that became visible through the haze of the grey-clouded dawn. The forlorn widow and her orphan babes found a refuge in the humble cabin of her father, and he and his son redoubled their laborious exertions for their support. But these were heavy claims, and the little family but just contrived to live, barely supplied with the coarsest necessaries. When temptation assails the poor man by holding out to his grasp the means of lessening the hardships and privations of those dear to him as his own soul, is it to be L wondered at that he so often fails, when others, without the same excuses to plead, set him the example of yielding? Campbell (having first been seduced into casual and inconsiderable ventures) was at last enrolled in the gang of smugglers, who carried on their perilous trade along the coast; and from that time though comparative plenty revisited his cottage, the careless smile of innocent security no longer beamed on the features of its inmates. Margaret struggled long with well-principled firmness against the infatuation of her husband; but, flushed with success, and emboldened by association with numbers, they resisted her anxious remonstrances; and at last, heartsick of fruitless opposition, and shrinking from the angry frown of him who had been for so many years the sharer of her joys and sorrows, she very passively acquiesced in their proceedings, and in the end was persuaded to contribute her share towards furthering them, by secretly disposing of the unlawfully obtained articles. tea-table, when a powdered footman entered, and spoke a few words in a mysterious half whisper to the elder lady, who smiled and replied, "Oh, tell her to come in; there is no one here of whom she need be apprehensive." The communication of which assurance quickly ushered into the room my new acquaintance Margaret Campbell. An old rusty black bonnet was drawn down lower than usual over her face, and her dingy red cloak (under which she carried some bulky parcel) was wrapped round a figure that seemed endeavouring to shrink itself into the least possible compass. At sight of me she half started, and dropt her eyes with a fearful curtsey. "Ah, Margaret!" I exclaimed, too well divining the object of her darkling embassy. But the lady of the house encouraged her to advance, laughingly saying, "Oh, never mind Mr., he will not inform against us, though he shakes his head so awfully-Well, have you brought the tea "" And the lace, and the silk scarfs ?" chimed in the During my abode in the Isle of Wight, younger ladies, with eager curiosity I had become acquainted with two or sparkling in their eyes, as they almost three families resident within a few dragged the important budget, with miles of the spot where I had taken up their own hands, from beneath the my habitation. With one of these poor woman's cloak. "Have you (consisting of a widow lady of rank and brought our scarfs at last? what a time her two grown-up daughters) I had we have been expecting them !”. been previously acquainted in Lon- "Yes, indeed," echoed Lady Mary; don, and at other places. They had" and, depending on your promise of been recommended by the medical adviser of the younger daughter, who was threatened with a pulmonary affection, to try the effects of a winter at the back of the island, and I was agreeably surprised to find them inhabitants of a beautiful villa, 66 a cottage of humility," about three miles from my own cabin at the Undercliff. They were agreeable and accomplished women; and a few hours spent in their company formed a pleasing and not unfrequent variety in my solitary life; and in the dearth of society incident to their insulated retreat, my fair friends condescended to tolerate, and even welcome the eccentric old bachelor with their most gracious smiles. One November evening my ramble had terminated at their abode, and I had just drawn my chair into the cheerful circle round the procuring me some, I have been quite distressed for tea-There is really no dependance on your word, Mrs. Campbell; and yet I have been at some pains to impress you with a just sense of your christian duties, amongst which you have often heard me remark, (and I am sure the tracts I have given you inculcate the same lesson,) that a strict attention to truth is one of the most essential-Well! where's the tea?"— "Oh! my lady," answered the poor woman with a humbly deprecating tone and look, "if you did but know what risks we run to get these things, and how uncertain our trade is, you would not wonder that we cannot always oblige our customers so punctually as we would wish-I have brought the silks and scarfs for the young ladies, but the tea- "What! no tea yet? Real |