The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-12
FASCINATING COwES.

floors, and great. easy chairs and set
! tees are scattered about.
FASCINATING COwES.
Getting up on the coach once more,
we soon rolled into Cowes where the
great day of the regatta was ''on," as
| they say. Cowes week. they told me.
was distinctly quiet one compared
| with past years. Yet 1 found 1t quite
bewildering enough. for l have never
been to yachting resort before, not to
mention its being the greatest one in
| all the world. Swelldom was there in
all the effulgent glory of wonderful
yachting costumes for boat wear, and
| radiant afternoon toilettes for the
Royal Yacht Squadron club house
lawn fetes and l feasted my eyes on
the yachts and their fortunate owners
until 1 had seen enough to make me
decidedly envious, to say the least.
| The fleet of royal and admiralty yachts
| were scampering about the Solent. and
skipping to and from Portsmouth
opposite Cowes-with all the vivacity
of first-rate harlequins. The Princess
| of Wales, bright particular star of the
Cowes water festivities, was visible
only four days of the week, however,
and had only one daughter at her side,
| Victoria.
BY q curious coincidence, whereas
the German kaiser was the observed
of all observers last year, this year the
| figure that excited most interest was
that of the Empress Eugene. Her
| yacht, the Thistle, lay at anchor in the
bay, and Her Majesty made her home
on board, though passing great deal
of time on the club house lawn. The
| famous widow of Napoleon III, once
the arbiter of fashion over the whole
civilized world, and the woman whom
our mothers and grandmothers have
to thank for innicting on them the
| hideous crinoine years ago, was
dressed very quietly in black coat and
skirt and picture hat of black chiffon
not very dazzling toilette-but must
| say that this get-up suited her white
hair and still stately carriage very we'll
| indeed. She and her two ladies in
| waiting made a distinguished trio, and
| as they passed along the narrow
| crowded streets many curious eyes
turned to follow their progress, among
, which were mine, as curious as any
ones else | am sure, for was much in
terested in seeing her. Other royalties
and nobilities We're there, though not
| in such great numbers as is usual, 1
am told. one afternoon, when the
lawn was particularly gay picked out
| her grace, the Duchess of Sutherland,
Lady Beatrice Parlyns, Lady Come
mara, Lady Harrington and a few
L., 40, .,f .;At, ,,.ln fnn
| knew, but these were all, except the
great royalties, that l could identify.
At Cowes heIH, there is no beach
whatever, the Solent being deep, deep
er, deepest, right up to both the Eng
lish and Wight sides. Here there can
be no bathing of any account, all con-
dltions having combined to make this
little bay one of the finest play
| grounds and harbor for ships, large
and small. in all the world. Cowes bay
could not have been better designed"
| by the best naval engineer in the
world. The naval supremacy of old
England is not to be wondered at when
one contemplates this magnificent drill
water which the Solent forms and has
formed for ages, for the "navvies" and
lIC SIIllS VI iici SpuhtASs
SHIPS IN REVIEW.
We had not expected to "be let in"
for so much of treat when we came
to Cowes. but only the second day af-
| ter our arrival there, what should greet
our astonished eyes upon rising. but
| the yhole of Her Majesty's CHANNEL
| fleet riding at anchor across the bay
from us in Spithead Roads-great,
dark, silent and formidable some forty
odd awful ships whose business in life
is to protect the English channel and to
maintain England's supremacy on the
high seas at the entrance thereof. We
soon heard that they had been brought
up for inspection by the queen and Lii
Hung Chang, the great Chinaman, who
| visited her in state at the castle that
same day. We Just had the good luck
to see the queen board her yacht, the
Alberta, from one place on a boat, and
then when her craft ran in at the land
| ing stage all those ships were silent
and still no longer. Ropes of flags were
run up as if by magic, converting the
| whole fleet into a fluttering mass of
colors, and from the sides of each ship
there belched forth quick puffs of
smoke, as each and every one of them
! fired off its salute of twenty-one guns.
| There was q noise for you; long be-
fore ii was finished / wished that
queens did not exist to be greeted by
royal salutes.
Ii Hung Chang of the yellow silk dol
man and the dropping peacock's feath-
er / did not have the luck to see, sad
to say. How / wish I could have eX-
changed one of my many glimpses of
fat and pOdgy queenliness for a little
look at this Acknowledged ambassador
from the howery kingdom, be it ever
so small squint, but it was not to be,
| it seems.
LOCOMOTTON BY BOATS.
| We came home at last by boat. Boats
indeed, are one of the principal means
! of locomotion here. There are no such
| things as busses or trans on this isle.
| No, indeed We are much too sweet
and unspoiled here, for that, and even
the all-pervading hanson cabby, who
| gaily cracks his whip and his joke all
over England even to the Businesses
of little Wales. is conspicuous here by
his absence, the hills being too step for
a two-wheeler ! fancy. So we travel
| mostly by. boat and coach, while for
| those who do not wish to 90 so high
up in the world as the top of a four
| in-hand. there are on hire little Vic
| torias, or ''hys," as the divers call
them. besides brakes To be sure there
| is tiny, incompetent little railway
| line on the isle, which charges thr1ca
| the fares of decent English railways,
! and never runs on time, either, but
| that is beneath the notice of tourists
who wish to see the place properly,
and nobody travels on it, unless he
can't catch the coach or hire a donkey
| or pony And so the hills and dales
] Of The Icln of Mimht rGsnund with tn,