The little dapper-looking man in the white hat
yonder is the liberal, good-tempered Duke of Norfolk; and the dashing
_roue_ by his side, the legitimate heir to his title, is the Earl of
Surrey, whose son, the young Baron of Mowbray, follows hand in hand
with Captain Wollaston, an old man-of-war's man, who sails the Swallow
cutter. The female group assembled in front of the King's-house are the
minor constellations from East Cowes, and the congregated mixture of
oddities who grace the balconies of the Pavilion boarding-house
comprise every grade of society from the Oxford invalid to the retired
shopkeeper, the Messieurs _Newcomes_ of the island." "A rich subject for
a more extended notice," said I, "when on some future occasion I visit
Margate or Brighton, where the diversity of character will be more
numerous, varied, and eccentric than in this sequestered spot." As the
evening advanced, the blue-eyed maid of heaven spread forth her silvery
light across the glassy surface of the deep, yielding a magic power to
the soul-inspiring scene, and, by reflection, doubling the objects on
the sea, whose translucent bosom scarcely heaved a sigh, or murmured
forth a ripple on the ear; and now, amid the stillness of the night,
we were suddenly amused with the deep-sounding notes of the key-bugle
reverberating over the blue waters with most harmonious effect.
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