have thought that "Letters from Cambridge," elucidating its present manners and customs would be interesting to you, and might be to others: at any rate I shall amuse myself, and with us, you know, amusement is a main object.

You will think a description of Water Parties," at this time of the year, a curious commencement of my correspondence; but the fact is, that, owing to the late extreme mildness of the weather, they have been more frequent during this last month than at any former period of my residence. Both from the pleasure I have formerly enjoyed in them with you, and from being well assured they are parties which give the most favourable idea of Cambridge character and Cambridge manners, I have resolved to commence with them. At breakfast parties, some men are not quite awake; with others, the thoughts of lectures intrude; at wine parties reserve is not always thrown off till the wine has begun to take effect; and at supper parties, "I must be in before twelve, or I shall be hauled up before the master,"—" I must go home to prepare for lectures"—" I'm d- -d sleepy;"-" Well, good night, old boy! I must get up early tomorrow to hunt ;"- -are continually grating upon our ears, and marring our comfort. But in Water Parties" there is no draw-back of this sort. The men who form it are in general well acquainted; have a day of comparative idleness before them, (in itself peculiarly pleasant by the by), and are previously resolved to be social and jolly; to blow care to the winds; to be happy; and, as far as they can, to make happy.

Under the influence of such feelings, a party of us, consisting of S-, K—, and G—, of Christ's College; H-, of Clare, B-, of Pembroke; C-, of Jesus; I-, of Trinity, and myself, sallied out on one of the finest days of last week, to man the Glory, a six-oared boat of Cross's. It was a most lovely morning,

The sun was in the heavens, and joy on earth.

Few of us, I believe, thought much about the sun, but the joy on earth' we felt-though, like Lambro, we were not philosophers enough to stop and inquire the reason. As we rowed in a leisurely way down the stream, this joy was manifested in various ways, by various characters. B- gave vent to his feelings in a poetical effusion :

Once more upon the waters-yet once more-
And the waves bound beneath me, like a steed
That knows its rider.

Lord Byron was now handed from one to the other in very fine style; from K-, G—, and I—, I remarked, among others, the following strains:

K-How gloriously her gallant course she goes!

*

*

*

She walks the waters like a thing of life,
And seems to dare the elements to strife.

Who would not brave the battle-fire-the wreck-
To move the monarch of her peopled deck?

G-Oh! who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried,
And danc'd in triumph o'er the waters wide *,
The exulting sense-the pulse's maddening play,
That thrills the wanderer of that trackless way?

We could see, by the shrewd mathematical face with which H-was regarding the blade of his oar, that any thing but poetry occupied his attention; he was, in fact, enumerating the number of strokes given in "t"; and the newly acquired velocity after each impulse. C was rather offended at his observing, he had found it, on calculation, pretty much the same whether C pulled

or not.

S-began to spout Virgil; but this was voted a bore, as there were one or two in the company who might not understand it. For my part-I moralized; but had got no farther than "Immortal man," when my meditations were interrupted by an "unhallowed sound" of singing, S-, determined not to be outdone in noise, had got hold of the poor Canadian boat-song, and was giving tongue most gloriously in conjunction with Cand therefore, lending them my assistance, we came the 'row' part both with arms and voices very gaily.

Loud was the laughter after each effusion, and numberless the jests which were passed; I should like to transcribe some of these for your edification, but unfortunately I am not quite sure they would have so good an appearance in print. Our feelings were then very uncritical. A bad pun may create a laugh; and a good one could do no more; however this must be the subject of a future paper, and lo! while I am tarrying with you, our boat has arrived at Chesterton locks.

"Here S-, you Christian son of a gun! Come and apply your fut carcase to this lock." "That's 66 sort." your T-, take care of that oar, and pull it out of the rullucks." "Here, give me the boathook, and keep off the side." "By jingo, here's F-" "Verily I'm astounded." "" Why, F-, my little minimum! What the plague can have brought you from your sines and cosines, to come rambling upon this wide, wide sea? You're reading hydrostatics, I suppose, and want to take a practical observation of the motions of

* Not over wide by the by.

+ You and others may complain, that in the dialogues or exclamations, here and elsewhere inserted, there is neither wit, delicacy, or elegance. To this I can only answer that a conversation, composed of these ingredients, would seem either pedantic, or inconsistent with the characters of Cambridgemen. As this is a most true account of the party, and I have inserted nothing which did not actually occur, neither would I put down an exclamation that was not actually made.

bodies in fluids!-well! Mind you don't make a practical illustration of it; for sometimes these said bodies will find the bottom, you know.' "You impudent thief! n'importe, il rit bien qui rit le dernier.' I prophesy you'll be heartily sick of your motions, at least those of the oar, before you get far; for if you look forward you will observe a party in the Stag, resting on their oars, and waiting, in order to give the benefit of a good sweating—so look to it." "The Devil they are! come, my boys, have a regard to your characters." "H-, give the stroke." "That will do." "Good-by, professor." "Go it." "Now we are even." "Incumbite remis."

you

Away we go, and what care we
For tumults, treasons, or for wars;
We are as calm in our delight,
As is the crescent moon so bright
Amid the scatter'd stars!

Not quite so calm though either! I must own, I soon began, as F predicted, to grow weary of these quick motions, and would rather have been meditating upon the fine effect with Lord Byron, than partaking in this calm and gentle exercise: By Heavens it is a splendid sight to see,

(For one who hath no part-no fagging there,)
The rival coats of mix'd embroidery,

The oars which glitter in the sun's bright glare;
How gallantly the boatsmen bend and rise,
And bend again, loud yelling in the race.
&c. &c.

Having kept together boat and boat for upwards of a mile, some fears came across me that we might go on ad infinitum,— and, feeling that my strength would not proceed in the same ratio, I thought proper to give a few small hints on the subject of dropping the contest. "I think we are great asses for thus fagging ourselves." No corresponding effect; the men determined to be asses. "It's a devilish ungentlemanly thing to sweat ourselves in this manner like bargemen?" All in vain. "Hang it T-, you've got no pluck; pull away, my hearty!" On we went at the rate of at least twenty miles an hour, all for glory, when, fortunately for me, just at this critical time, a poor wight in a canoe, who, I dare say, thought it every wit as ungentlemanly as I did to row so fast, unable to clear both boats in time, was very neatly run down by us. There were really many of our party who were so inhumane as to wish to leave him to sink or swim; but I very magnanimously prevailed upon them to row back to his assistance. It was a long time before we could persuade the poor fellow he was not drowned; and, when this was effected, he was so pleased, that he forgot to row us for upsetting him, but seemed half inclined to thank us for the honour we had done

him. I doubt not though, that, when he came to himself, he would begin to question the propriety of our conduct, and send a few blessings after us. Uninjured by these, we gallantly pursued our course, although the Stag was too much a-head to give us hopes of overtaking it. It was safe now to exclaim, " How very unfortunate! we were just beating them! blow our friend of the canoe!" Nor were any of us at all sparing of such exclamations. We could gain from the burden of our antagonist's song, that they modestly ascribed to their boat the honour of victory:

Merrily, merrily goes the bark!

Before the gale she bounds;

So bounds the dolphin from the shark,
'Or the deer before the hounds.

Now our boat had already glory enough. We, therefore, thought proper to assume the present merit to ourselves; and as the staggites did not seem inclined to raise the "io triumphè" of victory, we uplifted our voices in the famous boat-song from the Lady of the Lake:

Hark to the chief who in triumph advances,
Honour'd and blest be the evergreen pine.
&c. &c.

After "p" strokes (where p is very small) we bore down majestically upon Backsbite, and arrived "t" after our opponents. They of the Stag, having eyed us askance a bit, passed through the locks, while we remained stationary to feed.

The beauty of the river Cam at this point is of that species which is, in general, peculiar to the rivers of a flat country, in their departure from the haunts of men, and approach to the immeasurable main. Although Backsbite is only three miles and a-half distant from Cambridge, it is yet sufficiently remote to have lost its more civilized features, and to have approached to the wild and fenny beauty of sea-propinquity. For the last mile in approaching Backsbite, little more meets the eye than beds of osiers on one bank, and an almost interminable waste on the other, broken occasionally by willows which seem heartily tired of their situation; or by a village church in the distance, which does not inspire the same feeling, only because it is connected with better things; and which," as it points evermore with its silent finger to heaven," resembles a beacon-fire in a storm, or an ark in the waters. In spring, however, when this waste hath acquired a* yellow mantle, and the osier beds a green one, the scene is far from being devoid of attraction. I am very much inclined to think it was the striking appearance of these

The fens appear quite yellow in spring from the quantity of cowslips, buttercups, &c.. which spring up with the turf.

osiers at one point in the river, which first suggested Lord Byron's comparison in the " Bride of Abydos:"

As the stream late conceal'd

By the fringe of the willows,
When it rushes reveal'd

In the light of its billows;
As the bolt bursts on high

From the black cloud that bound it,
Flash'd the soul of that eye

Through the long lashes round it.

In front of a house of public entertainment which stands on Backsbite locks, is a small paddock where the snobs assemble to regale themselves in summer, and which, till the dinner we had brought with us was prepared, was destined to form the theatre of our gambols. It was not difficult to find an amusement for men determined to be amused; in a moment we were all engaged in exhibiting our agility at leap-frog or in leaping the bar; and soon after in a game of quoits for the damage of the party.

There are some who might perhaps smile with contempt at the idea of a party of young men amusing themselves by playing at leap-frog, but there are also others, who would consider this very circumstance as a natural exemplification of joyful feelings that would not be controlled. Those would merely look to the agility of limb; these to "the freshness of the heart!"

I fancy that you are at this place about exclaiming with Sir P. Teazle, "Oh damn your sentiment." And my companions indeed, having just concluded their game, are making such a confounded noise, that if I wish any dinner, I must lay this aside at present and attend them.

"Huzza-Regular case of floor!"

"I say B-, how are you off for dinner? damn the expense!" "Holloa you chap! is dinner ready?" " Yes, sir."

"Then Devil take the hindmost."

I should protract this letter to a most unconscionable length, were I to relate how much we ate, laughed and talked. I will thank you therefore to imagine whatever you please, (so that it be good,) and to suppose us once more reimbarking in the Glory.

"Now then!-off she goes," " Go your rigs, my boys." And as, with a cigar in my mouth, I had just quietly taken my place at the helm, I was no longer backward in exhortations and reprobations of their laziness; but roared out," Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast," till their ears or at least my lungs, were heartily tired. In our progress up the stream, our boat, to a spectator from the bank, must have had a remarkably fine effect. Owing, I suppose, to the wine and malt (whose potency was so visible upon some, that G and S invariably missed the water,) the crabs and backslidings were so infinite, that it must have been confidently imagined we were impelled by a small steam