neighbourhood, to go out shooting in a boat, and
it was his custom,on such occasions to land at a
particular spot where there was a recess in the
rock, with a convenient tract of sand in front of
it, and there to partake of the refreshment of
luncheon; and so the recess in question came
to be called Lord Holmes's "Parlour," and
another, close by, his "Kitchen." A name bestowed
altogether at random, and without the shadow
of a reason to justify its adoption, the cave never
having been used by this excellent gentleman for
any purpose whatsoever, culinary or otherwise.

But the crowning take-in of the whole collection
was that particular phenomenon which, as
set forth in the "Abstract," had appeared the
most likely to repay me for the effort which I
had resolved to make in undertaking this
ill-starred cruise. Signally as the "beauties and
curiosities" to which I had been already introduced
had disappointed me, I had still, through
all, entertained a lingering hope that the "Lady
sitting in the Cliff" would turn out well, and
that something very startling indeed awaited me
so soon as this especial phenomenon should be
brought within our range of vision. I
frequently asked the mariners who had me in
charge whether we were nearing the spot from
which a view might be obtained of this figure,
but was always met with the same answer.
"You'll come upon her directly," the first boatman
would say, with a sort of smack of the
lips, suggestive of some great intellectual pleasure
at hand. "She ain't far off." The second
boatman did not speak. I thought he was not
wholly destitute of a sense of shame.

"If you lean over a bit this way, sir, and look
straight up where that edge of the cliff cuts agin
the sky, you'll see her," said the first and most
shameless boatman, speaking just at the moment
when my curiosity had reached its climax.

There was at the particular place to which
my attention was then called a little round nob
of earth, or rock, or whatever it might be, sticking
out from the cliff, and underneath this a
long spouty projection ending abruptly in a sort
of notch.

"Ah! nobody ain't done nothing to it," said
the shameless boatman, mistaking my expression
of disappointment for one of surprise and delight.
"It's all natur."

The thing was too outrageous to be treated
seriously. "Is it possible?" I exclaimed.
"And who found it out?"

"A lady, sir," replied the man, "coasting
round in a boat, just as you might be doing now.
She come upon it all of a sudden, and
'Robinson,' she cried, for I was rowing of her
myself, 'Robinson,' says she, 'for gracious sake,
what's that?' You should ha' seen her turn
pale, and stare up at it."

"It's like the figure-head of a ship, sir, ain't
it?" said the other boatman, whom, up to this
time, I had accredited with a conscience.

I stared with, I should think, as much intensity
of astonishment as was exhibited by the
original discoverer of this marvellous phenomenon.
I asked myself whether it was possible
that I was looking In the right direction.

"That little round nob, then," I said,
interrogatively, "is the head, I suppose ?"

"Yes, sir," said both the men in eager chorus.

"And that sort of sweeping projection underneath
is the outline of the dress?"

"That's it," cried the men. "Extraordinary
resemblance, sir, ain't it ?"

"Let us go on to the next phenomenon," I
said, faintly.

It was a very curious thing, but it is nevertheless
true, that from the moment of my introduction
to the "Lady sitting in the Cliff" I became
sea-sick. I was exceedingly sick while we danced
up and down in front of Frenchman's Hole—
another drain, with no legend; the crew of a
French ship said to have taken refuge there—
quite impossible — after having been wrecked on
the rocks close by. Sick and indifferent I
remained, as we dipped and rose alternately for about
half an hour under the influence of a ground-swell;
and the information conveyed to me as to
the heights and depths of the different rocks and
holes which we passed from time to time was, as
far as I was concerned, entirely thrown away.

Whether it was in consequence of our having
got into smooth water, or because, at last, there
really was something to see, I cannot say; but
certain it is that when, on rounding a particular
corner of the cliff, we drifted suddenly and
unexpectedly into Scratchell's Bay, my health,
which, as I have acknowledged, had recently been
so seriously affected, was restored as if by magic.
Scratchell's Bay was worth seeing. If the
compilers of that celebrated "Abstract " had
confined themselves to stating that at a particular
part of the coast there existed a remarkable and
beautiful bay — that it was only accessible by
water— that the rock which enclosed it was
marked with diagonal stripes of black and
white, alternating with the most extraordinary
regularity, the white stripes being formed of
chalk, and the black of flint — that the whole
cliff thus curiously marked overhung the sea
like an enormous alcove, so that when you got
underneath it and looked up, your first impulse
was to entreat your boatmen to row you out of
the dangerous place with all possible speed — if
the card had simply contained a statement of
this sort, with nothing about parlours or
kitchens, no allusions to Frenchmen's holes or
ladies sitting in cliffs, then, indeed, the lover of
the marvellous would have had nothing to
complain of, and this protest against the delusive
hopes held out by the Freshwater "Abstract"
would never have been written.

As we paddled round by the Needles — of
which I say nothing, because everybody knows,
from photographs and other sources, all about
them, and how elaborately unlike needles they
are — as we rowed round to Alum Bay, where I
was to land, I had leisure, being now in smooth
water, to reflect on one especial characteristic
which was exhibited, in a very marked degree,
by both my boatmen. They both seemed bent
upon convincing me, now that it was too late
for repentance, that I had chosen the wrong
season of the year, and the wrong kind of day,
for making acquaintance with the "beauties