I make no pretence to have had any
glimpses of fairyland. I could not see Shriny when I was eight years
old, and I never shall now. Besides, no one sees fairies now-a-days. The
"path to bonnie Elfland" has long been overgrown, and few and far
between are the Princes who press through and wake the Beauties that
sleep beyond. For compensation, the paths to Mother Nature's Wonderland
are made broader, easier, and more attractive to the feet of all men,
day by day. And it is Mother Nature's Merrows that I have seen--in the
Crystal Palace Aquarium.
How Mr. Croker drew that picture of Coomara the Merrow, when he probably
never saw a sea crayfish, a lobster, or even a prawn at home, I cannot
account for, except by the divining and prophetic instincts of genius.
And when I speak of his seeing a crayfish, a lobster, or a prawn at
home, I mean at their home, and not at Mr. Croker's. Two very different
things for our friends the "sea-gentlemen," as to colour as well as in
other ways. In his own home, for instance, a lobster is of various
beautiful shades of blue and purple. In Mr. Croker's home he would be
bright scarlet--from boiling! So would the prawn, and as solid as you
please; who in his own home is colourless and transparent as any ghost.
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