one
too--Steam.

'Wonderful thing steam, sir.' 'Ah! (a deep-drawn sigh) it is indeed,
sir.' 'Great power, sir.' 'Immense--immense!' 'Great deal done by
steam, sir.' 'Ah! (another sigh at the immensity of the subject, and a
knowing shake of the head) you may say that, sir.' 'Still in its
infancy, they say, sir.' Novel remarks of this kind, are generally the
commencement of a conversation which is prolonged until the conclusion of
the trip, and, perhaps, lays the foundation of a speaking acquaintance
between half-a-dozen gentlemen, who, having their families at Gravesend,
take season tickets for the boat, and dine on board regularly every
afternoon.

CHAPTER XI--ASTLEY'S

We never see any very large, staring, black Roman capitals, in a book, or
shop-window, or placarded on a wall, without their immediately recalling
to our mind an indistinct and confused recollection of the time when we
were first initiated in the mysteries of the alphabet. We almost fancy
we see the pin's point following the letter, to impress its form more
strongly on our bewildered imagination; and wince involuntarily, as we
remember the hard knuckles with which the reverend old lady who instilled
into our mind the first principles of education for ninepence per week,
or ten and sixpence per quarter, was wont to poke our juvenile head
occasionally, by way of adjusting the confusion of ideas in which we were
generally involved. The same kind of feeling pursues us in many other
instances, but there is no place which recalls so strongly our
recollections of childhood as Astley's. It was not a 'Royal
Amphitheatre' in those days, nor had Ducrow arisen to shed the light of
classic taste and portable gas over the sawdust of the circus; but the
whole character of the place was the same, the pieces were the same, the
clown's jokes were the same, the riding-masters were equally grand, the
comic performers equally witty, the tragedians equally hoarse, and the
'highly-trained chargers' equally spirited. Astley's has altered for the
better--we have changed for the worse. Our histrionic taste is gone, and
with shame we confess, that we are far more delighted and amused with the
audience, than with the pageantry we once so highly appreciated.

We like to watch a regular Astley's party in the Easter or Midsummer
holidays--pa and ma, and nine or ten children, varying from five foot six
to two foot eleven: from fourteen years of age to four. We h