be common among them?

In addition to our other pieces of good fortune, we were enabled to
profit by a very kind invitation from the gentleman to whom the islands
belong, to stay with him at his house, built on the site of an ancient
abbey, and surrounded by gardens of the most exquisite beauty.

To the firm and benevolent rule of the present proprietor of Scilly, the
islanders are indebted for the prosperity which they now enjoy. It was
not the least pleasant part of a very delightful visit, to observe for
ourselves, under our host's guidance, all that he had done, and was
doing, for the welfare and the happiness of the people committed to his
charge. From what we had heard, and from what we had previously observed
for ourselves, we had formed the most agreeable impressions of the
social condition of the islanders; and we now found the best of these
impressions more than confirmed. When the present proprietor first came
among his tenantry he found them living miserably and ignorantly. He has
succoured, reformed, and taught them; and there is now, probably, no
place in England where the direr hardships of poverty are so little
known as in the Scilly Islands.

I might write more particularly on this topic; but I am unwilling to run
the risk of saying more on the subject of these good deeds than the
good-doer himself would sanction. And besides, I must remember that the
object of this narrative is to record a holiday-cruise, and not to enter
into details on the subject of Scilly; details which have already been
put into print by previous travellers. Let me only add then, that our
sojourn in the islands terminated with the close of our stay in the
house of our kind entertainer. It had been blowing a gale of wind for
two days before our departure; and we put to sea with a doubled-reefed
mainsail, and with more doubts than we liked to confess to each other,
about the prospects of the return voyage.

* * * * *

However, lucky we had been hitherto, and lucky we were to continue to
the end. Before we had been long at sea, the wind began to get
capricious; then to diminish almost to a calm; then, towards evening, to
blow again, steadily and strongly, from the very quarter of all others
most favourable to our return voyage. "If this holds," was the sentiment
of the Brothers Dobbs, as we were making things snug for the night, "we
shall be back again at Mangerton before we have had time to get h