frequented raffle-rooms, 10_l._ a-day are subscribed, affording to the owner, besides his profit on his stock, 30_l._ a-week for gambling without risk. Raffling occupies the chief concern of the evening till about nine o’clock, when the various parties move either homewards, or to some appointment or assignation, according to their situation and dispositions. Such was the substance of Hamilton’s account of the general state and manners of Brighton: we shall now proceed to the particular incidents and occurrences which regarded him or his party. The Hamiltons found a commodious house at Russel-place, commanding a very extensive prospect, that comprehended Anchorfield, the cottage that now held Maria Mortimer. Having spent the morning after his arrival in surveying the place, Hamilton rode over to the seat of Captain Mortimer, who was prepossessed in his favour by the accounts of his brother and nephew, and insisted on his staying to dinner; an invitation which he most readily accepted. In the course of their conversation, his host said, he recollected that when he was midshipman aboard the Lion man of war, in 1759, there was a land-officer of his name, a very brave and handsome fellow, who, with a party of soldiers, was aboard their ship; and that the night proposed for ascending the heights of Abraham, he had charge of a boat, in which Hamilton was the first man that jumped ashore, and went up the precipice with Colonel Howe. “I am told,” he added, “he very much distinguished himself. I afterwards saw him once or twice, but never have heard of him since the peace.” Hamilton, pleased with these praises, informed him, that the Hamilton in question was his father. “By George, now I recollect it, you are extremely like one another, and a fine youth he was: I remember that after the town was taken, as he walked through the streets, the French girls used to admire him so. I can tell you a comical story upon that subject:”--but the entrance of a visitor interrupted the projected narrative. Hamilton, in the course of the day, made great progress in the good graces of the old naval hero. At the instance of William, strongly seconded by the younger Mortimer, and not opposed by Maria, the Captain agreed to spend a fortnight at Brighton, and the next day a house was found in the vicinity of Mr. Hamilton. CHAPTER XI.