contemptible in the days of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, and that they, in the midst of their wonderful glory, used angling as a principal recreation.* And let me tell you, that in the Scripture, angling is always taken in the best sense; and that though hunting may be sometimes so taken, yet it is but seldom to be so understood. And let me add this more: he that views the ancient Ecclesiastical Canons, shall find hunting to be forbidden to churchmen, as being a turbulent, toilsome, perplexing recreation; and shall find angling allowed to clergymen, as being a harmless recreation-a recreation that invites them to contemplation and quietness.

I might here enlarge myself, by telling you what commendations our learned Perkins bestows on angling; and how dear a lover, and great a practiser of it our learned Dr Whitaker t was, as indeed many others of great learning have been. But I will content myself with two memorable men, that lived near to our own time, whom I also take to have been ornaments to the art of angling.

The first is Dr Nowel, sometime Dean of the cathedral church of St Paul's, in London, where his monument stands yet undefaced -a man that, in the reformation of Queen Elizabeth, (not that of Henry VIII.) was so noted for his meek spirit, deep learning, prudence, and piety, that the then parliament and convocation both chose, enjoined, and trusted him to be the man to make a catechism for public use, such a one as should stand as a rule for faith and manners to their posterity. And the good old man, (though he was very learned, yet knowing that God leads us not to heaven by many nor by hard questions,) like an honest

* I must here so far differ from my author, as to say, that if angling was not contemptible in the days of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, that illus trious prostitute endeavoured to make it so. The fact related by Plutarch is the following:

"It would be very tedious and trifling to recount all his follies: but his fishing must not be forgot. He went out one day to angle with Cleopatra ; and being so unfortunate as catch nothing in the presence of his mistress, he was very much vexed, and gave secret orders to the fishermen to dive under water, and put fishes that had been fresh taken upon his hook. After he had drawn up two or three, Cleopatra perceived the trick; she pretended, however, to be surprised at his good fortune and dexterity; told it to all her friends, and invited them to come and see him fish the next day. Accordingly, a very large company went out in the fishing vessels and as soon as Antony had let down his line, she commanded one of her servants to be beforehand with Antony's, and, diving into the water, to fix upon his hook a salted fish, one of those which were brought from the Euxine Sea."

The fact respecting Whitaker is thus attested by Dr Fuller, in his Holy State, book iii. chap. 13. "Fishing with an angle is to some rather a torture than a pleasure, to stand an hour as mute as the fish they mean to take; yet herewithal Dr Whitaker was much delighted."

To these examples of divines, lovers of angling, I here add (1784) that of Dr Leigh, the present Master of Baliol College, Oxford, who, though turned of ninety, makes it the recreation of his vacant hours.

angler, made that good, plain, unperplexed catechism which is printed with our good old Service-Book, I say, this good man was a dear lover and constant practiser of angling, as any age can produce and his custom was to spend, besides his fixed hours of prayer, (those hours which, by command of the church, were enjoined the clergy, and voluntarily dedicated to devotion by many primitive Christians,)-I say, besides those hours, this good man was observed to spend a tenth part of his time in angling; and also (for I have conversed with those which have conversed with him) to bestow a tenth part of his revenue, and usually all his fish, amongst the poor that inhabited near to those rivers in which it was caught; saying often, "that charity gave life to religion:" and, at his return to his house, would praise God he had spent that day free from worldly trouble, both harmlessly, and in a recreation that became a churchman. And this good man was well content, if not desirous, that posterity should know he was an angler, as may appear by his picture, now to be seen, and carefully kept, in Brazen-Nose College, to which he was a liberal benefactor. In which picture he is drawn, leaning on a desk, with his Bible before him and on one hand of him his lines, hooks, and other tackling, lying in a round; and, on his other hand, are his angle-rods of several sorts, and by them this is written," that he died 13th February 1601, being aged ninety-five years, forty-four of which he had been dean of St Paul's church, and that his age had neither impaired his hearing, nor dimmed his eyes, nor weakened his memory, nor made any of the faculties of his mind weak or useless." It is said that angling and temperance were great causes of these blessings. And I wish the like to all that imitate him, and love the memory of so good a man.

*

My next and last example shall be that undervaluer of money, the late provost of Eton College, Sir Henry Wotton, (a man with whom I have often fished and conversed,) a man, whose foreign employments in the service of this nation, and whose experience, learning, wit, and cheerfulness, made his company

*Fuller, in his Worthies, (Lancashire, p. 115,) has thought it worth recording of this pious and learned divine, and that in language so very quaint, as to be but just intelligible, that he was accustomed to fish in the Thames; and having one day left his bottle of ale in the grass, on the bank of the river, he found it some days after, no bottle, but a gun, such the sound at the opening thereof. And hence, with what degree of sagacity let the reader determine, he seems to derive the original of bottled ale in England. Could he have shewn that the bottle was of leather, it is odds but he had attributed to him the invention of that noble vehicle, and made

his soul in heaven to dwell,

For first devising the leatharn bottel ;

as, in a fit of maudlin devotion, sings the author of a humorous and wellknown old ballad.

E

to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind. This man, whose very approbation of angling were sufficient to convince any modest censurer of it, this man was also a most dear lover, and a frequent practiser, of the art of angling; of which he would say, "it was an employment for his idle time, which was then not idly spent; for angling was, after tedious study, a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness;" and "that it begat habits of peace and patience in those that professed and practised it." Indeed, my friend, you will find angling to be like the virtue of humility, which has a calmness of spirit, and a world of other blessings attending upon it.

Sir, this was the saying of that learned man, * and I do easily believe, that peace and patience, and a calm content, did cohabit in the cheerful heart of Sir Henry Wotton, because I know, that when he was beyond seventy years of age, he made this description of a part of the present pleasure that possessed him, as he sat quietly, in a summer's evening, on a bank a-fishing. It is a description of the spring; which, because it glided as soft and sweetly from his pen, as that river does at this time, by which it was then made, I shall repeat it unto you:

This day dame Nature seem'd in love,
The lusty sap began to move,

Fresh juice did stir th' embracing vines,
And birds had drawn their valentines.
The jealous trout, that low did lie,
Rose at a well dissembled fly;

I may add to our author's list of distinguished anglers, Professor Wilson of Edinburgh, the late Dr Babbington of London, and the late Sir Humphry Davy, who has imitated Walton's work very closely, in plan and sentiment, in his Sulmonia. "If," says Sir Humphry," you require a poetical authority against that of Lord Byron, I mention the philosophical and powerful poet of the lakes, and the author of

An Oxphic tale indeed,

A tale divine, of high and passionate thoughts,
To their own music chanted. - COLERIDGE.

who is a lover both of fly-fishing and fly-fishermen. Gay's poem you know, and his passionate fondness for the amusement, which was his principal occupation in the summer at Amesbury; and the late excellent John Tobin, author of the Honey Moon, was an ardent angler. Nay, I can find authorities of all kinds, statesmen, heroes, and philosophers; I can go back to Trajan, who was fond of angling. Nelson was a good fly-fisher, and as a proof of his passion for it, continued the pursuit even with his left hand. Dr Paley was ardently attached to this amusement, so much so, that when the Bishop of Durham inquired of him, when one of his most important works would be finished, he said, with great simplicity and good humour, My lord, I shall work steadily at it when the fly-fishing season is over,' as if this were a business of his life." Salmonia, p. 7, 3d edit.

Sir Humphry taught Dr Wollaston fly-fishing. — J. R.

There stood my friend, with patient skill,
Attending of his trembling quill
Already were the eaves possess'd
With the swift pilgrim's

daubed nest;

The groves already did rejoice

In Philomel's triumphing voice;

The showers were short, the weather mild,
The morning fresh, the evening smiled.
Joan takes her neat rubb'd pail, and now
She trips to milk the sand-red cow;

Where, for some sturdy foot-ball swain,
Joan strokes a syllabub or twain.
The fields and gardens were beset
With tulips, crocus, violet:

And now, though late, the modest rose
Did more than half a blush disclose.
Thus all looks gay and full of cheer,
To welcome the new-liveried year.

These were the thoughts that then possessed the undisturbed mind of Sir Henry Wotton. Will you hear the wish of another angler, and the commendation of his happy life, which he also sings in verse; namely, Jo. Davors, Esq.

Let me live harmlessly; and near the brink
Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling place,
Where I may see my quill or cork down sink
With eager bite of perch, or bleak, or dace;
And on the world and my Creator think:

Whilst some men strive ill gotten goods t' embrace,
And others spend their time in base excess
Of wine, or worse, in war and wantonness.

Let them that list, these pastimes still pursue,
And on such pleasing fancies feed their fill;
So I the fields and meadows green may view,
And daily by fresh rivers walk at will,
Among the daisies and the violets blue,"
Red hyacinth, and yellow daffodil,
Purple narcissus like the morning rays,
Pale gander-grass, and azure culver-keys.

I count it higher pleasure to behold

The stately compass of the lofty sky;
And in the midst thereof, like burning gold,
The flaming chariot of the world's great eye;
The watery clouds that, in the air up-roll'd,
With sundry kinds of painted colours fly;
And fair Aurora, lifting up her head,
Still blushing, rise from old Tithonus' bed.

The hills and mountains raised from the plains,
The plains extended level with the ground;
The grounds divided into sundry veins,

The veins enclosed with rivers running round;
These rivers making way through nature's chains
With headlong course into the sea profound;
The raging sea, beneath the valleys low,
Where lakes and rills and rivulets do flow.

The swallow.

The lofty woods, the forests wide and long,

Adorn'd with leaves and branches fresh and green,
In whose cool bowers the birds, with many a song,
Do welcome with their choir the Summer's queen;
The meadows fair, where Flora's gifts among

Are intermix'd, with verdant grass between ;
The silver scaled fish that softly swim
Within the sweet brook's crystal, watery stream.

All these, and many more of His creation

That made the heavens, the angler oft doth see;
Taking therein no little delectation,

To think how strange, how wonderful they be ;
Framing thereof an inward contemplation

To set his heart from other fancies free;
And whilst he looks on these with joyful eye,
His mind is rapt above the starry sky.

Sir, I am glad my memory has not lost these last verses, because they are somewhat more pleasant and more suitable to May-day than my harsh discourse. And I am glad your patience hath held out so long, as to hear them and me; for both of them have brought us within the sight of the Thatched House. And I must be your debtor, if you think it worth your attention, for the rest of my promised discourse, till some other opportunity, and a like time of leisure.

Venator. Sir, you have angled me on with much pleasure to the Thatched House; and I now find your words true, "that good company makes the way seem short;" for, trust me, sir, I thought we had wanted three miles of this house, till you shewed it to me. But now we are at it, we'll turn into it, and refresh ourselves with a cup of drink and a little rest.

Piscator. Most gladly, sir, and we'll drink a civil cup to all the otter hunters that are to meet you to-morrow.

Venator. That we will, sir, and to all the lovers of angling too, of which number I am now willing to be one myself; for, by the help of your good discourse and company, I have put on new thoughts, both of the art of angling, and of all that profess it and if you will but meet me to-morrow at the time and place appointed, and bestow one day with me and my friends in hunting the Otter, I will dedicate the next two days to wait upon you; and we two will, for that time, do nothing but angle, and talk of fish and fishing.

Piscator. 'Tis a match, sir; I will not fail you, God willing, to be at Amwell Hill to-morrow morning before sun-rising.