was impossible to scold him; and even the landlady was so civil, and so sorry for the delay, that nobody could blame her. “What an uncomfortable breakfast!” cried Agnes, when they rose from table. “And yet every thing was good of its kind,” said Mrs. Merton. “But something must have been wrong,” said Agnes; “for I never saw so much trouble in getting a breakfast before; and yet we had nothing different to what we have in general. What can have been wanting?” “Management and arrangement,” said Mrs. Merton. “When I ordered breakfast, the waiter ought to have told me that there was neither milk nor butter in the house; and we should then have waited till all was ready, before we sat down, and our coffee would have been kept near the fire till it was wanted. Remember, Agnes, if ever you should have to act as a housekeeper, that you can never make a family comfortable unless you exercise your forethought and judgment, so as to provide every thing that is likely to be wanted beforehand. I do not mean to recommend you to have a profusion of anything; for it is a common fault with young housekeepers to provide too abundantly; but I hope you will always take care to have a sufficient quantity of the common articles of food ready in the house; as nothing can more decidedly show bad management than to have to send out for anything required for a meal after that meal is served.” The carriage being now ready, they drove along the road which led to the Undercliffe; and soon lost sight of the horrible Black Gang Chine. This remarkable part of the Island has been formed by a landslip,—or, rather, a succession of landslips; from the effects of which, a considerable portion of land has slipped or settled down from the lofty cliffs called St. Catherine’s Down, so as to form a sort of intermediate cliff between the down and the sea. The summit of the Undercliffe forms a fine terrace about six or eight miles long, and from a quarter of a mile to a mile broad, along which the road is carried, with St. Catherine’s Cliffs frowning above, and the remains, into which it was partly shattered by its fall, lying between it and the sea, and assuming a thousand fantastic shapes. The terrace is bordered with villas, shaded by trees, which grow with the greatest luxuriance and beauty; in some cases even down to the water’s edge. Many of the cliffs, however, which face the sea rise from sixty to a hundred feet above it, and these are crowned by the road; but, in other cases, the road is thrown to some distance back, and villas are erected among the broken rocks between it and the sea. During the whole length of the terrace, it is sheltered from the north by a bold line of rocks, rising from two hundred to three hundred feet above it; which, in some places, form a kind of wall composed of horizontal beds of sandstone, and, in others, a less abrupt slope covered with green sward. Agnes was very much interested in this singular region, and began conversing with