第32章 THE VOYAGE(20)

Some folks knows better than other some how to make their bills.

Candles!why yes,to be sure;why should not travelers pay for candles?I am sure I pays for my candles,and the chandler pays the king's majesty for them;and if he did not I must,so as it comes to the same thing in the end.To be sure I am out of sixteens at present,but these burn as white and as clear,though not quite so large.I expects my chandler here soon,or I would send to Portsmouth,if your honor was to stay any time longer.

But when folks stays only for a wind,you knows there can be no dependence on such!"Here she put on a little slyness of aspect,and seemed willing to submit to interruption.Iinterrupted her accordingly by throwing down half a guinea,and declared I had no more English money,which was indeed true;and,as she could not immediately change the thirty-six shilling pieces,it put a final end to the dispute.Mrs.Francis soon left the room,and we soon after left the house;nor would this good woman see us or wish us a good voyage.I must not,however,quit this place,where we had been so ill-treated,without doing it impartial justice,and recording what may,with the strictest truth,be said in its favor.

First,then,as to its situation,it is,I think,most delightful,and in the most pleasant spot in the whole island.

It is true it wants the advantage of that beautiful river which leads from Newport to Cowes;but the prospect here extending to the sea,and taking in Portsmouth,Spithead,and St.Helen's,would be more than a recompense for the loss of the Thames itself,even in the most delightful part of Berkshire or Buckinghamshire,though another Denham,or another Pope,should unite in celebrating it.For my own part,I confess myself so entirely fond of a sea prospect,that I think nothing on the land can equal it;and if it be set off with shipping,I desire to borrow no ornament from the terra firma.A fleet of ships is,in my opinion,the noblest object which the art of man hath ever produced;and far beyond the power of those architects who deal in brick,in stone,or in marble.

When the late Sir Robert Walpole,one of the best of men and of ministers,used to equip us a yearly fleet at Spithead,his enemies of taste must have allowed that he,at least,treated the nation with a fine sight for their money.A much finer,indeed,than the same expense in an encampment could have produced.For what indeed is the best idea which the prospect of a number of huts can furnish to the mind,but of a number of men forming themselves into a society before the art of building more substantial houses was known?This,perhaps,would be agreeable enough;but,in truth,there is a much worse idea ready to step in before it,and that is of a body of cut-throats,the supports of tyranny,the invaders of the just liberties and properties of mankind,the plunderers of the industrious,the ravishers of the chaste,the murderers of the innocent,and,in a word,the destroyers of the plenty,the peace,and the safety,of their fellow-creatures.

And what,it may be said,are these men-of-war which seem so delightful an object to our eyes?Are they not alike the support of tyranny and oppression of innocence,carrying with them desolation and ruin wherever their masters please to send them?

This is indeed too true;and however the ship of war may,in its bulk and equipment,exceed the honest merchantman,I heartily wish there was no necessity for it;for,though I must own the superior beauty of the object on one side,I am more pleased with the superior excellence of the idea which I can raise in my mind on the other,while I reflect on the art and industry of mankind engaged in the daily improvements of commerce to the mutual benefit of all countries,and to the establishment and happiness of social life.This pleasant village is situated on a gentle ascent from the water,whence it affords that charming prospect Ihave above described.Its soil is a gravel,which,assisted with its declivity,preserves it always so dry that immediately after the most violent rain a fine lady may walk without wetting her silken shoes.The fertility of the place is apparent from its extraordinary verdure,and it is so shaded with large and flourishing elms,that its narrow lanes are a natural grove or walk,which,in the regularity of its plantation,vies with the power of art,and in its wanton exuberancy greatly exceeds it.

In a field in the ascent of this hill,about a quarter of a mile from the sea,stands a neat little chapel.It is very small,but adequate to the number of inhabitants;for the parish doth not seem to contain above thirty houses.