Join a crowd: a conjuror--good, I am fond of conjuring. Conjuror now going to introduce his "celebrated and favourite Shell-trick." Crowd very obligingly make way for me--capital place in front row. Conjuror takes a large Nautilus shell. I have never seen this trick--it looks a good one.... It appears this is his way of making a collection--he comes to me first. He is sure, he says (he is an impudent dog), that I shall feel hurt if he passes _me_ over. No change. He begs me not to get flurried--sooner than deprive me of the pleasure of patronising him, _he_ will give me change--he does. This is the end of the performance. Singular how depressed I feel by this petty incident. Blazers in great force on the sands. Teasing half-offended nursemaids, playing penny "nap" on newspapers, or lying in pits scooped out of sand, with their heads on the laps of their fair ones, or pursuing the fair ones, and putting sand down their backs. [Illustration: Charing-Cross.] Most flourishing institution on the Beach is certainly Phrenology. No less than three little platforms, each with a Consulting Chair, a table, on which stands a meek bust, and a canvas awning overhead, and row of garden-seats (free) in front. Have long wished to gain insight into this Science. Think there certainly is something in it. As a Blazer near me remarks, "Why, you'd say Cocoa-nuts looked all alike, till you come to see there's differences--and it's the same with 'eds." Cockney tone about this. To find his proper station, I should have to go, I fancy, to Charing Cross, Cannon Street, or Waterloo. [Illustration: Canon's Treat.] Find a Lady-Professor on first platform giving a "delineation" of a live subject--a turnip-headed little boy of three, who sits with his tongue out, under the impression he is at the Doctor's. "His self-will is strong," she is announcing in Sibylline accents to his proud parents, "and I should say you would find him very strong-willed. I should check it by curbing his will. Conjugality large, and therefore we may say that he will be fond of his wife and of his home. Self-esteem only moderate. It will be useless to bring up this little boy to any trade or business of a mechanical kind, unless he developes an after-taste for it, which I do not say he may not--far from it. But he has a brain which will fit him for great success in some artistic profession. Give him colours and a brush, and you will see he will immediately commence to paint--likewise draw. Or he has an organ with which he can be a great Composer, if you care to develope him that way. Or he would write books or poetry--that would come very easy to him, he would have no difficulty in doing it at all. I think that is all with this subject." [Illustration: Water-loo.]