said, "Their lordships don't seem to brush their hair." Another
clever traveller, from the same land of our cousins, was asked what he
noticed of our manners in London, and he replied, "I observe it is the
fashion here, when a gentleman sees his friend on the other side of Pall
Mall, he shakes his umbrella at him and calls out, 'D'ye do, old
fellow?'"

{188} The Rob Roy came there again next summer, up the Thames, and by
the canal, and the river Wey and the Arun, and so to Southsea, with
fifteen canoes, five dogs and a cockatoo--such fun.

{192} After so much experience of the yawl, tried in all points in all
kinds of wind and weather, it may well be supposed that numerous
improvements had been noted in my book as desirable. These, however, we
need not here particularise, as the various descriptions given at
intervals through this book shew what the Rob Roy is in her latest and
best arrangements.

{195a} The fall of each halyard was coiled and put under the taut part.
A small coil looks neatest, but the fall of it is sure to kink if coiled
close, being wet and dry ten times in a day. Before nearing harbour, or
in preparation to lower sail "handsomely," I found it well to cast the
coil loose on the hatch, else a kink would catch in the leading sheave.

{195b} This was forthwith invented and used and shewn to hundreds of
people. After some time the very identical thing was patented, and it is
now used by thousands. Most of our canoes have these "tumbling cleats,"
and they are used for the cords of blinds, &c., in many houses, including
my own.

{197} This is shewn in the sketch on the preceding page; the bar
presented a very smooth surface for the bottom of the dingey to run over
when it was shipped under the hatch, or hauled out in a hurry. Moreover,
the wood was convenient to stride across in getting from the well to the
cabin, and it was far more pleasant and _warmer_ than metal to hold on by
during violent lurches of the sea.

{206} A foreign sailor, examined as to a shipwreck case in Court, was
asked, "How did you know it was the coast of England?" He said, "Because
a lifeboat came out to us." Rule Britannia!

{208} Three hundredweight of ballast was thrown off at Cowes, besides
what we took out at Dover, and still the yawl was stiff.

{211} Other inventors, knowing the experimental turn of my crew, had
sent me several instruments and things of various sorts to try in
practice, and to report