200 EARLY REMINISCENCES was disfigured by a hideous porch with " Liberte, egalite, fraternite " inscribed on it in colossal lettering. That has now disappeared, and the cathedral has been given two graceful spires, which it lacked previously. There are not many—if any— picturesque mediaeval houses in the town, but several of them have cellars with groined, vaulted roofs, and English coats of arms on the keystones, amongst others that of the Talbots. During the winter there arrived in the Adour a vessel from Topsham, near Exeter. My father at once went down to the harbour and invited the skipper to dine with us. He was a plain, homely Devonian, and it was to us a vast delight to hear the broad Devonshire dialect again spoken. He sang to us the sea song : " Loud roar'd the dreadful thunder, The rain a deluge show'rs, The clouds were rent asunder By lightning's vivid powers : The night both drear and dark, Our poor devoted bark, There she lay till the next day In the Bay of Biscay, O." We young folk shouted the last two lines as chorus, my mother's exquisite voice rising above ours like the notes of a lark, and Mr. Hadow grunting out a bass. Then my father sang that famous old hunting song : " A southerly wind and a cloudy sky Proclaim it a hunting morning. Before the sun rises away we fly, Dull sleep from our drowsy heads scorning. To horse, my brave boys, and away, The chase admitteth of no delay, Ta-ra-ta-ra ! Tara-tara ! " 1 I am not sure that the song of the Bay of Biscay appealed to us greatly; it brought up into our memories storm-basins and the peculiar odour that hung about all cabins in those days, but Mr. Hadow pretended to enjoy it, by rocking to and fro in his chair, and of course we vociferously applauded. Possibly the hunting 1 Published on a sheet, about 1780. Also in Dale's English Songs circa 1800. But my father had simplified both words and air.
