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model-farming and home-feeding was the rule then as now in a King’s ship; and it is related that, on board one of these vessels, the first lieutenant ordered the ship’s painter to give the feet and bills of the admiral’s geese that were stowed in coops upon the quarter-deck a coat of black once a week, so that the nautical eye might not be offended by any intrusion of colour not allowed in the service.

“The general absence of colour among real sea-fowl is very marked; and when, as it sometimes happened, a gay rooster escaped overboard after an exciting chase round the decks with Jemmy Ducks, and fluttered helplessly down upon the bosom of the sea, his glowing plumage looked strangely out of harmony with things as he sat drifting away upon the waste of waters.”

22. “BERKELEY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE,

“Oct. 29th, 1886.

“MY DEAR SIR,-I notice in the first chapter of Præterita¹ that you profess yourself unable to find out the derivation of the word ‘dickey’ as applied to the rumble of a carriage.

“At the risk of being the hundredth or so who has volunteered the information, I send you an extract from Dr. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:-

“’Dickey.-The rumble behind a carriage; also a leather apron, a child’s bib, and a false shirt or front. Dutch dekken, Germ. decken, Sax. thecan, Lat. tego, to cover.’

“I suppose that the word ‘deck’ has its derivation from the same source.

“Sincerely hoping that you may be speedily restored to health,

“I am, dear Sir,

“Yours very faithfully,

“HERBERT E. COOKE.”

23. The following extract from a letter written to his sister by a young surgeon on board the Victory, gives more interesting lights on Nelson’s character than I caught from all Southey’s Life of him:-

“On my coming on board I found that the recommendation which my former services in the Navy had procured for me from several friends, had conciliated towards me the good opinion of his lordship and his officers, and I immediately became one of the family. It may amuse you, my dear sister, to read the brief journal of a day such as we here pass it at sea in this fine climate and in these smooth seas, on board one of the largest ships in the Navy, as she mounts 110 guns, one of which, carrying a 24 lb. shot, occupies a very distinguished station in my apartment.

¹ [See above, p. 29 (§ 30).]

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