lly think the sea ought to be done away with, or
flattened out by some means!--there's a fortune for the man who
invents the machine which will do it!)--I should prefer it done away
with myself, as then there would be no mackerel-fishing!

I have no personal animosity against the humble but lovely-looking
mackerel; but I was weak enough to accept an invitation to go
fishing for them, and you may imagine my horror at being "roused
out,"--(yachting expression, _very_ significant)--at _three_ in the
morning to go and capture them!--or at least to _try_--for as a matter
of fact, we didn't get a single one--and my temper was "roused out"
before we'd finished, for no well-conducted woman cares to be balked
in her efforts to "hook a big fish,"--and all I could catch were a
few small "Pollock" and "Pout." By the way, who on earth christens
the fish, I wonder?--and why on earth--or rather in sea--are there so
many varieties which you must either remember or submit to nave your
ignorance jeered at by the practised fisherman, who has probably
acquired his information concerning them only the day before?

The English "Bay of Naples" is a wonderful place, and its resemblance
to its Italian prototype is admirably sustained through the liberality
of the Local Board in encouraging the importation of Italian penny-ice
men! I really think this wholesale importation of foreigners is being
carried to excess, and has already created a feeling that England
is no place for the English! And then the concerts you can hear for
nothing!--that is, if you harden your heart when the man comes round
with the tin pail!--everyone has a spade or a pail at the seaside--all
the latest London successes, from TOSTI to "_Ta-ra-ra_," accompanied
by a strong contingent of the Salvation Army Brass Band!--and there
is a lot of "brass" about the Army still unaccounted for! What
an enervating part of the world this is! One quite realises what
"lotus-eating" means, even though there are no lotuses about!--(I
wonder if that's the correct plural?--or is it "_Loti_"? which looks
like French, only wants "PIERRE" as Christian name. Or if additional
"_t_" introduced, it would be "Lotti," suggestive of COLLINS' Ode to
_Boom_, &c.; but I am wandering)--and it requires enormous energy
to do anything more than loll about and bathe; even on the Island of
Portland, where the air is rather more invigorating, I am told there
are numbers of people who express a strong disinclina