DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20917#0055
DOVER. 39
mencement of that beautiful speclacle, the railing
of a vessel from the very depths of the sea, that
gradual consequence of motion which emanci-
pates the eye from a strange delusion, the effect
of distance and the rotundity of the earth. Ere
the top-sails os the foremost ship had escaped
from the water, other and still other sails
glanced in the sun, and sull two hours elapsed
besore the hulls ssoated on the surface of the
Channel within my visual powers. At this
inslant a white volume os smoke issued from the
side of the larger!, and her head put about,
announcing her to be a man-of-war, or an admi-
ral, making a ngnal. Thus situated, five iru-
men se castles intersered the horizon, and pre-
sently a flotilla of merchant-ships hovered near
them, reduced by comparison to mere pleasure-
boats. With a strong breeze and swelled
Canvas they advanced, and by four' o'clock had
breasted Dover. The reader, on recurring to
the view, will find them so situated ; and stati-
onary as they are on the paper, equally so did
they appear in reality. A ship of the line, with
every sail set and a fair wind, sailing at the rate
of seven or eight miles an hour, observed from
these, or any other clisss, at thirteen miles dist-
ance, appears totally motionless, and the change
of her sttuation can only be ascertained by look-
mencement of that beautiful speclacle, the railing
of a vessel from the very depths of the sea, that
gradual consequence of motion which emanci-
pates the eye from a strange delusion, the effect
of distance and the rotundity of the earth. Ere
the top-sails os the foremost ship had escaped
from the water, other and still other sails
glanced in the sun, and sull two hours elapsed
besore the hulls ssoated on the surface of the
Channel within my visual powers. At this
inslant a white volume os smoke issued from the
side of the larger!, and her head put about,
announcing her to be a man-of-war, or an admi-
ral, making a ngnal. Thus situated, five iru-
men se castles intersered the horizon, and pre-
sently a flotilla of merchant-ships hovered near
them, reduced by comparison to mere pleasure-
boats. With a strong breeze and swelled
Canvas they advanced, and by four' o'clock had
breasted Dover. The reader, on recurring to
the view, will find them so situated ; and stati-
onary as they are on the paper, equally so did
they appear in reality. A ship of the line, with
every sail set and a fair wind, sailing at the rate
of seven or eight miles an hour, observed from
these, or any other clisss, at thirteen miles dist-
ance, appears totally motionless, and the change
of her sttuation can only be ascertained by look-