Marble was excessively delighted with the behaviour of the
Wallingford. The latter was a sloop somewhat smaller than common,
though her accommodations were particularly commodious, while she was
sparred on the scale of a flyer. Her greatest advantage in the way of
sailing, however, would have been no great recommendation to her on a
wind; for she was nearly start light, and might not have been able to
carry full sail in hard November weather, even on the Hudson--a river
on which serious accidents have been known to occur. There was little
danger in mid-summer, however; and we went gliding up on the quarter
of the Gull of Troy, without feeling concern of any sort.
"What sloop is that?" demanded the skipper of the Gull, as our
boom-end came within a fathom of his rail, our name being out of his
view.
"The Wallingford of Clawbonny, just out of port, bound up on a party
of pleasure."
Now, Clawbonny was not then, nor is it now, what might be called a
legal term. There was no such place known in law, beyond the right
which usage gives; and I heard a low laugh among the passengers of the
Gull, as they heard the homely appellation. This came from the
equivocal position my family occupied, midway between the gentry and
yeomanry of the State, as they both existed in 1803.
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