e was flying off.

"`Over Poole bar with the next tide, please the pigs,' sang out the
skipper at the top of his voice, for fear those in the other craft
wouldn't otherwise hear him. Nothing would ever persuade him that he
hadn't been talking all the time with the skipper of some outward-bound
craft.

"That's all very well, and it is not a bad story, and may be true, or it
may not; but you Hampshire men are not all of you so very clever,"
answered Mr Bexley, our Poole friend, who had himself been skipper of a
merchantman. "Have none of you ever heard speak of Botley assizes, eh?"

I asked him what he meant.

"Why," he answered, "you know Botley isn't very far from Southampton.
Once upon a time a party of young chaps belonging to Botley were
returning from a merry-making of some sort, and as it happened, all of
them but one were more than three sheets in the wind. For some reason
or other, nothing would make this one touch a drop of liquor. As they
were walking along they began to jeer him, and at last they declared
that he had been guilty of a capital offence, because he had let the
glass pass by, and they agreed that they would try him. Well, they came
to a place near a wood, where there were a number of trees cut down, and
there they all sat round, and the accused was placed in the middle. The
most drunk of the party was chosen as judge, and the others were the
counsel, some to accuse and the others to defend him.

"The poor fellow tried to get away, but his friends would not let him.
He, of course, had nothing to say for himself, except that he did not
choose to drink, and the upshot of his trial was that he was condemned
to be hung.

"Unfortunately one of them had a rope with him, and without more ado
they ran up the culprit to the nearest tree. To be sure, they did
intend to put the rope round his waist, but they were too drunk to know
exactly what they were about, and by mistake slipped it, Jack Ketch
fashion, round his neck. Having done this wise trick, they all ran
away, shrieking with laughter at the cleverness of their joke.

"They were very much surprised to find, the next morning, that the poor
fellow was missing. At last they went out to look for him, and found
him hanging where they had left him, but as dead as a church door.

"So, gentlemen, you see that the people in those parts are very clever
chaps, and if you take them at their own value, there are none to be
found like them in all t