ion, to hear that we idly
delayed the day of departure from the pleasant fishing-town on the south
coast, which was now the place of our sojourn. The smiles of our fair
chambermaid and the cookery of our excellent hostess, addressed us in
Siren tones of allurement which we had not the virtue to resist. Then,
it was difficult to leave unexplored any of the numerous walks in the
neighbourhood--all delightfully varied in character, and each possessing
its own attractive point of view. Even when we had made our
determination and fixed our farewell day, a great boat-race and a great
tea-drinking, which everybody declared was something that everybody else
ought to see, interfered to detain us. We delayed yet once more, to
partake in the festivities, and found that they supplied us with all the
necessary resolution to quit Looe which we had hitherto wanted. We had
remained to take part in a social failure on a very large scale.

As, in addition to the boat-race, there was to be a bazaar on the beach;
and as fine weather was therefore an essential requisite on the
occasion, it is scarcely necessary to premise that we had an unusually
large quantity of rain. In the forenoon, however, the sun shone with
treacherous brilliancy; and all the women in the neighbourhood fluttered
out in his beams, gay as butterflies. What dazzling gowns, what flaring
parasols, what joyous cavalcades on cart-horses, did we see on the road
that led to the town! What a mixture of excitement, confusion, anxiety,
and importance, possessed everybody! What frolic and felicity attended
the popular gatherings on the beach, until the fatal moment when the gun
fired for the first race! Then, as if at that signal, the clouds began
to muster in ominous blackness; the deceitful sunlight disappeared; the
rain came down for the day--a steady, noiseless, malicious rain, that at
once forbade all hope of clear weather. Dire was the discomfiture of the
poor ladies of Looe. They ran hither and thither for shelter, in lank
wet muslin and under dripping parasols, displaying, in the lamentable
emergency of the moment, all sorts of interior contrivances for
expanding around them the exterior magnificence of their gowns, which we
never ought to have seen. Deserted were the stalls of the bazaar for the
parlours of the alehouses; unapplauded and unobserved, strained at the
oar the stout rowers in the boat-race. Everybody ran to cover, except
some seafaring men who cared nothing f