to him. Indeed I lost an opportunity, which probably will never recur, of saying something very trite and very fine to the fair travellers; for having occasion to wait half an hour at the next small town, I strolled into the church-yard, as one generally does in a strange place, to make acquaintance with the dead, where one knows not a soul living, except by the sign-boards over shops and ale-houses, which are not half so interesting to look upon as grave-stones with their epitaphs; — when, lo! just as I had completed the circumambulation of the church, the two ladies, without their 'squire, had entered the yard, and were stepping from tomb to tomb in quest of such records as might be expected there, with the certainty of not being disappointed. Something came into my mind to address to them on- on on- - why every one knows what; but as it was not uttered, I cannot take upon me to say, whether it concerned this world or the next, though I have a confused notion that it referred to both. It is lost for ever, like many a good thought

of mine, for want of courage to speak it; and, by one of those unmannerly evasions, at which I have acquired a little dexterity, from being necessitated to practise them, when a certain constitutional shyness, inveterate and invincible, seizes me, and paralyzes my spirit itself, I neither presumed to accost nor even to notice them. And yet I should not wonder if they put me down for a proud piece of living affectation. How many opportunities of making myself agreeable or ridiculous, have I thus thrown away in the course of my life, by being blind, and deaf, and dumb, when, if I had had ten senses, I could have found exercise for them all to support the character which I have wished to hold in the eyes of others, whether friends or strangers, for one would not choose to be hated or despised by any body.

At two o'clock we arrived at Booth-Ferry. Here we dined, - but I can make nothing of the dinner in my journal, because it was a good one; had it been otherwise, I might have occupied a page with invective, for there

is no subject on which travellers are wont to be more eloquent than bad dinners. We afterwards crossed the river in the usual way. The boat contained, besides the two rowers, the following passengers and their baggage, — myself and my first companion, the aforementioned young gentleman, the two young ladies, and three outsides of our sex; but by far the most important personage on board,— in my eyes at least, was a stout coachhorse, which a groom held at the head, while our driver stood at his side, ready to lay hands on him, if he should attempt to plunge either on board or over-board. The poor animal behaved as well as could be expected, though I kept watching his heels very suspiciously, wishing most fervently, that if he made any improper use of them, it might be in my power to make a good use of mine; the prospect of the first, however, was much more probable than the latter, when, about the middle of the passage, he began to move uneasily, and turning his long intelligent face towards the group of passengers, I could see

his large eyes, shaded with the harnessblinds, sparkle and roll with jealous animation. "So, so," said the groom, while coachee patted his sleek shoulder; on which he several times stretched out his neck, and bowed his head, with dilated nostrils, to sip of the water, as it rapidly glid by. There was something so much like danger in this brief voyage, that I was glad to leap on shore, and feel the security of dry land. Cowards have quick ears, and I had overheard the groom say to Dobbin, just as he embarked, "This 'll be a bit on a treat to thee; thou's not been across here this mony a day, lad!”

On the eastern bank of the river two coaches in waiting divided our party; one going to Hull received the trio several times mentioned; the other took up my companion and myself with two outsides for Scarborough. The journey to the latter place was as barren of incident as the country is of variety, over the wolds, which from Howden to Driffield present scarcely any thing but a monotonous map of fields, in rude geometrical shapes,

VOL. II.

such as commissioners under inclosure-acts parcel out among freeholders of every size, from the lord of the manor and the rector, down to the forty-shilling yeoman, who claims a vote for the county. The phenomenon of a tree is rare indeed; the few stunted shrubs that are called such, being fantastically twisted by the winds, that sweep with uninterrupted freedom over an immense flat country, which looks like the bottom of the sea, and which the picturesque traveller would wish there, to have a few ranges of mountains, alternately barren, high-cultured or woody, in its place. This tract may have been beautiful when it was wild, but the plough, and the scythe, and quickset hedges, have so tamed its features, that one grows stupid to pore upon it mile after mile, where one mile is so much like another that they seem to be circulating decimals, -- and as endless, too, for you mark

no progress.

At Market Weighton, in the heart of this Boeotian district, there happened to be an auction in the inn-yard where we changed