387 "PLAYING OUT. THE PLAY." ENGRAVED BY J. H. ENGLEHEART, FROM A PAINTING BY J. D. COOper. "Now through the trees there comes a breeze,⚫ The pool the gale is curling; Beneath the beam the glitterin' stream Is oure the pebbles purling. We're no' the sort to lose our sport "The gleg-e'ed trout, we'll pick him out, Our flees shall fa', the verra snaw, Can come nae down sae saftly We'll 'tice them here, we'll 'tice them there What though they loup but sparely? Wi' a cast of line, far aff an' fine,' All in the morning' airly. "When floods come down, a callant loon But gi'e to me the light midge flee, -Coquet-Dale Fishing Song. Despite the cold north-easter and ungenial temperature generally, which we take by courtesy now for spring weather, the summer fashions are still forcing themselves upon us. Even in our line you may take the turn of the tide without going very far from home to ascertain it. That is, of course, supposing we were not alive to every move on the board long before it was made. However, here we have a couple of green-and-gold bound volumes, fitting in happily enough with Mr. Cooper's subject, and assuring us, wind and weather notwithstanding, that the plate could never come in better season. The first of these we open on has "second edition" and Messrs. Blackwood's name impressed on the title-page-either, some recommendation for the worthy man who is fortunate enough to command them. And Mr. Stoddart, we must say, is well-deserving of all the introduction his volume enjoys. He is, to begin with, one of the first flight men amongst fishers. Beyond the salmon, trout, and pike, he appears to have little care, but strides on throwing his fly, or trolling his minnow, with hopes and encounters far above "the ken" of the humble bottom-fisher. Take this, for instance, from his passing notice: "I have no intention to enlarge upon the subject of perch *The Angler's Companion to the Rivers and Lochs of Scotland. By Thomas Tod Stoddart. Blackwood and Sons. fishing....A boy armed with very indifferent fishing gear-a hazel wand, a string, a bait-hook, a cork, and a handful of earth wormsmay without the slightest exercise of skill or wariness, in some places, fetch them out as fast as he can drop his bait." No, the Angler of the North cannot bring his experience down to this; and he evidently touches of nothing but what he has long practised. It is seldom either you get so many original hints and notions from an Angler's Companion as you may from Mr. Stoddart. He always thinks and speaks for himself-with the confidence of one who feels he has well-tested what he advances, but still with nothing unbecoming in the support of his own opinions. As a guide to the rivers and lochs of Scotland, and as such was it written, the value of the book is already well appreciated. But it is more than this. The man who flies at high game, be his stream where it may, will get many a wrinkle as to how he may catch his fish-and cook him afterwards. What a public benefit it would be if, for instance, an act was passed to enforce the dressing of salmon something in the way our author recommends. One might then be allowed to enjoy the full rich flavour of this king amongst fish in its own purity; instead of having him, as now, smothered in that horrible mess called "lobster-sauce," or the more doubtful" anchovy" of other evil spirits. People have yet to learn how true an epicure simplicity may become. Mr. Stoddart always writes well-that is, in a style just suited to his subject; scarcely ever with anything like effort, and never laboriously erudite even in his most technical detail and directions. We offer, as a sample, the following from the lighter passages, keeping, as it does, very good time with our own illustration : "Fly-fishing, considered as a branch of the angler's art, possesses peculiar advantages. As an exercise, it is healthy, and just to the proper degree exciting. It braces the muscles, enlivens the spirits, gives rise to an agreeable alternation of hopes and fears; calls into activity the judgment as well as the fancy, the good taste and discrimination of the artist, not less than his ideal and creative powers. It affords room, also, as has often been remarked, for the display of elegant motions and graceful attitudes-impersonations of earnestness and intense enthusiasm, of hope, of anxiety, of joy, of disappointment, of admiration, of pity, of content, of love, of holy feeling, and of crowning felicity. "Is it not, for instance, in the attitude of hope that the angler stands, while in the act of heaving out his flies over some favourite cast? Of hope increased, when he beholds, feeding within reach of his line, the monarch of the stream? But now, mark him, he has dropt the hook cautiously and skilfully, just above the indicated spot; the fish, scarcely breaking the surface, has seized it. A fast, firm hold it has; but the tackle is fine, and the trout strong and active. Look! how the expression of his features is undergoing a change. There is still hope, but mingled with it are traces of anxiety-of fear itself. His attitudes, too, are those of a troubled and distempered man. Ha! all is well. The worst is over. The strong push for liberty has been made, and failed. Desperate as that summerset was, it has proved unsuccessful. The tackle-knot and barb-is sufficient. Look now at the angler. Hope with him is stronger than anxiety, and joy too beams forth under his eyelids; for, lo! the fish is showing symptoms of distress. No longer it threatens to exhaust the winchline; no longer it combats with rapids; no more it strives with frantic fling or wily plunge, to disengage the hook. It has lost all heartalmost all energy. The fins, paralyzed and powerless, are unable for their task. So far from regulating its movements, they cannot even sustain the balance of the fish. Helpless and hopeless it is drawn ashore, upturning, in the act of submission, its starred and gleamy flanks. The countenance of the captor-his movements (they are those which the soul dictates) are all joyous and self-congratulatory. But the emotion, strongly depicted though it be, is short-lived. It gives way successively to the feelings of admiration and pity-of admiration, as excited on contemplating the almost incomparable beauty of the captive, its breadth and depth, the harmony of its proportions, as well as the richness and variety of its colours-of pity, as called forth in accordance with our nature-an unconscious, uncontrollable emotion, which operates with subduing effect on the triumph of the moment." Our other friend has a rather gayer appearance, although he belongs to the class of cheap dandies after all. We say this, as far as he is concerned, in no disparagement, forming as he does a very tastety addition to Messrs. Ingram and Cooke's Illustrated National Library. This, too, is another edition-of a very old acquaintance; no less a one, in fact, than Izaak Walton, who now appears under the auspices of Ephemera, so favourably known as the fishing authority of Bell's Life in London. A cheap, but at the same time well turned-out copy of "The Complete Angler" has long been, it would seem, one of the fancies of this gentleman; and Messrs. Ingram and Co. have, at length, gratified his whim to the very full. With sound discretion he has left the text of dear old Isaak intact; while he has still supplied notes and additions that must serve to make the book as a guide far more perfect than it has been for some considerable period. We live to learn day by day; and the after-experience of Ephemera corrects or enlarges on many points that were but imperfectly understood in the age when Walton and Cotton fished and wrote. The lover of a pure healthy English style may, like Washington Irving, still dally over the book with but little ambition of himself becoming an angler; while the more practical sportsman will turn to it with increasing interest and attention, from the new and useful matter so judiciously introduced. Ephemera, we should add, tones down his own manner for the occasion. Master Izaak has evidently made a new man of him—" a lover of virtue and quiet, as all should be who go a angling." The volume is profusely illustrated with wood-cuts of fish and flies; all executed in that superior manner for which the publishers have become deservedly famous. The Complete Angler of Walton and Cotton. Edited by Ephemera. 227, Strand. 390 STATE OF THE ODDS, &c. SALE OF BLOOD STOCK. By Mr. R. Johnson, at York, two yearlings, the property of the late Mr. Bell: colt by Pompey, out of Amazino, for 50 gs.; and filly by Pompey, out of Argan Lass, for 21 gs. Anne Eliza, put up at the same time, was bought in for 1,000 gs.; the last bid being 950 gs. Baron Rothschild has bought Hungerford, of Mr. Morris, at a long price: the horse goes into W. King's stables at St. Albans, no doubt to show the way for Orestes. Mr. Wilkins has sold his brood mare Venus, the dam of Eryx, with a colt foal by Windhound at her foot, to Lord John Scott. Deceitful has been sold to go abroad. The stallion Colwick, sire of Attila, died a short time since. He was standing in Ireland, and had reached the mature age of twenty-five. Mr. Brown's three-year-old Broth-of-a-Boy, by Fancy Boy, died early in the month, at Beverley. HARRY HIEOVER'S NEW WORK. We are reluctantly compelled to post- ROUGH SKETCHES ON THE COMPARATIVE STATE OF CHASSE IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE AT THE PRESENT A WORD TO THE IGNORANT-BY SCRIBBLE ERNEST ATHERLEY; OR, SCENES AT HOME AND ABROAD THE TURF REGISTER: LINCOLN SPRING MEETING-CATTERICK |