The English "Bay of Naples" is a wonderful place, and its resemblance to its Italian prototype is admirably sustained through the liberality of the Local Board in encouraging the importation of Italian penny-ice men! I really think this wholesale importation of foreigners is being carried to excess, and has already created a feeling that England is no place for the English! And then the concerts you can hear for nothing!--that is, if you harden your heart when the man comes round with the tin pail!--everyone has a spade or a pail at the seaside--all the latest London successes, from TOSTI to "_Ta-ra-ra_," accompanied by a strong contingent of the Salvation Army Brass Band!--and there is a lot of "brass" about the Army still unaccounted for! What an enervating part of the world this is! One quite realises what "lotus-eating" means, even though there are no lotuses about!--(I wonder if that's the correct plural?--or is it "_Loti_"? which looks like French, only wants "PIERRE" as Christian name. Or if additional "_t_" introduced, it would be "Lotti," suggestive of COLLINS' Ode to _Boom_, &c.; but I am wandering)--and it requires enormous energy to do anything more than loll about and bathe; even on the Island of Portland, where the air is rather more invigorating, I am told there are numbers of people who express a strong disinclination to perform any hard labour whatever, in spite of the fact of a short residence there having been recommended as calculated to improve their general "tone"! I only wish the aforesaid Salvation Army Band would go there on a lengthy visit, as its "tone" leaves much to be desired at present. I hear that the Brighton Meeting was a great success both in weather and racing; and the present "Horse of the Century," _Buccaneer_, fully maintained his reputation, winning his race in what they call "gallant style," and beating _Lady Rosebery_--not, perhaps, a gallant thing to do, but Buccaneers have always been notoriously rough to the sex! I am afraid thousands of my readers must be getting impatient for more of my excellent prophecies, but I really cannot run the risk of ruining my health by reading the papers when in the country; and, as patience is an admirable virtue, I feel I am doing my duty in encouraging it as much as possible. So, for yet another cycle of time (poetic, and usefully vague), I am, Yours, in idleness, LADY GAY. ODE TO BUCCANEER. Sing hey for the life of a Convict Bold! Sing ho for his healthy life! Sing hey for his peaceful days when old, Secluded from care and strife! * * * * * [Illustration: A SYMPATHISER. MASTER TOMMY NEVER MISSES THE AMERICAN NEWS NOW, AS HE IS MUCH INTERESTED IN _THE CASE OF PRIVATE JAMS!!!_ (_Vide Daily Papers._)] * * * * * THE DIARY OF AN EXPLORER A LA RUSSE.