Of modern works there are no end. There, the irresistible charms of that “Wizard of the North,” the late Sir Walter Scott, with his “Jenny Deans;” his high-minded “Flora McIvor;” his unfortunate “Bride of Lammermoor,” and all his other “gentle dames” and “lordly knights,” are displayed before the enraptured reader. There Marryat amuses with his _naïveté_, and those stirring incidents of a sailor’s life, he knows so well to picture. There, “Boz” carries you perforce from the hut to the castle, and makes you weep or laugh in each. There are Bulwer and Ainsworth, who draw their gentlemen-ruffians in such a guise as to lead one to admire even a housebreaker or highwayman; Cooper, who makes us long to lead the life of a backwood’s-man; James, with his darling peeps at “by-gone days;” the dear Miss Mitford and Mary Howitt, whose simple annals and sylvan scenes almost bring before us the lovely fields and sweet flowers of England; Mrs. Gore, with all her pageantries; Mrs. Trollope, with her playful but keen sarcasms; the Countess of Blessington, with her elegant diction and pure imagery, as lovely as her own sweet form; with many other authors of note, are equally at the command of the subscribers to this Antiguan bibliotheca. This society has been established for many years, but it was not incorporated by an act of the legislature until 1839, during the government of Sir Wm. Colebrooke. The members are elected by ballot, and after subscribing for ten years, they become free of the library, retaining all the privileges without being called upon for payment. The library is kept in the upper part of a large house, well adapted for the purpose, consisting as it does of two good sized apartments, with library tables, covered with respectable green cloth, and pamphlets of all sorts and sizes; the sides of the room are lined with bookcases. Altogether it is an admirable society, and I strenuously advise all inhabitants of Antigua, whose ideas are not absolutely tied down to “profit and loss,” to become members; they cannot spend their spare money more agreeably, nor while away their leisure to better purpose. CHAPTER XXII. Early rising and “Jamie Thomson”—Journey to English Harbour— Windmills and Don Quixote—Groups of negroes and their equipages —All Saints’ chapel of ease—The “Hamlet”—Village of Liberta— Grace Hill—Patterson’s and Prince William—English Harbour market—Streets and dwellings—Commissariat’s store and government tank—Dockyard—The superintendent—Stores and storehouses—Engineer’s workshop—Blacksmith’s shop and blowing machine—Limes and roses—Recollections of England—Lieutenant Peterson and Lord Camelford—His lordship’s pranks—The ordnance— Clarence House and Dows Hill—The Ridge and “Shirley heights”— Fort Charlotte and Fort Berkeley—Bats Cave—The Savannah and its tombs—Indian Creek—Return to town.