Summer Rambles.—Down The Medway.

close to the banks ; others , again , up the muddy little creeks Avhich stretch inward along the flat shore . The smaller ones of the company in particular have taken the fancy of hiding themselves up these muddy creeks . They are , Ave learn , the representatives of that portion of her Majesty ' s

fleet in reserve called mortar vessels , sent into being- some ten years ag * o to knock down the Avails of Oronstacit , and teach humility to the Czar of All the Russias . They did not do ifc , the little ones , and for punishment have been exiled to this Medway shore , to contemplate the movement of the

tides and the growth of periwinkles . The British nation , Ave may be certain , is rich enough eA en to keep men-of-war for looking * after the periwinkles . The scene gradually changes as Ave are gliding further doAvn the Medway . Passing a large island called Bishop ' s Marsh , memento of the good old

times when all the lands far and wide stuck to the crosier , the river changes into a lake , surrounded by flat and dreary shores , overgrown with rank grass . Until the farthest horizon there is one immense plain , made up apparently of a close union of dark laud and darker Avater , overhung by a fleecy

canopy of grey mist , through which the sun ' s rays cleave their AA'ay at fitful intervals . There is only one object distinctly visible before us , aud that is more outlandish than any we have yet seen in this curious Medway river . It looks about as bi g as Rochester Cathedral , but is altogether of fantastic outline , ancl seems to have three or four steeples

instead of one . While ive are Avondermg- Avhether this , too , can be one of her Majesty ' s ships in reserve , the Avaves of luminous mist are driven away by a sudden gust of Avincl , and before us stands iu all her glory the Avorld-ronoAvned big ship , the Great Eastern . Even the Irish hop-pickers on

board the City of Rochester are stirred by the sight , aud for a moment leave off smoking and jabbering , g iving Avay to their emotion in beautiful flashes of silence . It is a grand sight indeed , that of the Leviathan of the Avaves , as she now lies there in toAveriug majesty , with her six masts ancl three

immense steam funnels , the noblest house ever built by man to SAvini on the Avide ocean . Though by no means inclined to worship mere bigness , Ave cannot suppress a feeling of real admiration for the colossal structure resting here on the placid waters of the Medway . There is something in her

proportions so absolutely noble and commanding that ifc makes the giant ship stand out at the first glance from among other vessels , as a splendid old oak from among the common shrubs of the field . At this moment the Or cat Eastern looks particularly venerable , returned as she is from a

bout of Herculean Avork , Avith all the signs of the travel-stained Avarrior about her . A rusty weatherbeaten coat , Avith a thick lining of seaAveed at the bottom , battered skylights , broken paddles , and fragments of chains which hang over the sides , are some of fche tokens Avhich show the hard Avork the Leviathan has gone through . Even that she has

failed to do the almost superhuman labour she Avas sent to accomplish , adds to the halo of renown hanging about the big ship . They look so tiny , the little wheels Avhich project both from , the prow and stern of the Great Eastern , that the mind is filled with Avonder however they could undertake

the task of tying together tAvo continents by a rope thousands of miles long , and , once broken , fishing the cable up again from the bottom of the sea , from a depth little less than the height of Mont Blanc . Were it not for the horrible loquacity of our dail" liners" who have been prating

y , about the Atlantic telegraph till the thing has become almost a nuisance , one might remember the recent voyage of the big ship as the very Odyssey of the age . Near the Great Eastern commences the station of the second division of her Majesty's fleet iu

reserve . The crowd is much more dense here than afc Chatham ; indeed in some places on the right bank ef the river , the men-of-Avar seem to swarm literally as thick as blackberries . We count fchirfcytwo of them betAveen Burntwick Island and Queenborough , a distance of little more than a mile . Oh

for British taxpayers to come this way , and see how the income-taxes of Avhole generations are rotting * aAvay ingloriously in the mud , good to none but the periwinkles ! " That's one of the things I could never understand , " says an old sailor , our neig hbour in the stern of the City of

Rochester , whom Ave interrogate on the subject . " Them millions spent in building all these heavy ships is sheer waste ; I could never understand ifc . " "Does anybody live on board ? " we ask . " Oh yes ; each ship has an officer , with about eig ht or ten men to wait upon him and keep the

place clean . " c : A comfortable berth , it seems ?" " Yes , I should think , if ever there was . The captain has nothing- on earth to do but to di * aw his pay , and alloAV himself to be Avaitecl upon . On fine days he has a sail up or doAvn tlie river , or goes a fishing , or shooting , along the banks . A

splendid residence , too , ancl no rent , nor rates and taxes to pay—entirely out ofthe parish , youknoAv . " The last Avords our sailor friend is grunting forth , with a kind , of savage chuckle . Poor man , we dare say he has got a cottage somewhere in Kent , wifch Avife and pickaninnies , and the parish tax-gatherer does not leave him alone .

While exchanging * notes about the mysteries ol English naval administration , our little steamer has brought us to the terminus of her voyage . We clamber up some fishy steps , full of the odour of shrimps and seaweed , ancl hastening along a tiresome Avooden pier , as slimy as the steps , find

ourselves at Sheerness , in the Isle of Sheppey . Like its brother higher up the river , Sheerness has sprung from the flying visit of Mynheer de Ruyter and his Dutchmen , Avho unfortunately found an old fort here , and knocked it to pieces . Though standing in the midst of an unwholesome SAvamp , and not worth the cost of its keep , the