in the most abominable and anti-poetical style possible, that "Paddington canal contains roach "-"Camberwell canal is well stored with jack "- -"at Sydenham there are some pieces of water well stored with fine carp, in which an annual inscription entitles the angler to fish "Wellington water is a subscription pond, well stocked with fish, situated between the Bethnal-green and the Hackney roads"-" Hornsey-Wood-House pond contains tench; persons taking refreshment at the tavern, are allowed to angle in this water"r”—and " a few small tench may be taken in some pits called the 'tench pits,' on Bushy Heath."-May all the plagues of Egypt light on the Paddington and Camberwell canals,-Sydenham water, and Wellington water,-and Hornsey-WoodHouse pond, and the tench pits on Bushy Heath! Does the man think there is nothing in angling but to stand by the side of a canal, or a pond, or a pit, with a stick and a string, even if the fool at the end of it should catch a perch or a little tench? To the Thames in a "buck basket" with all such snivelling, thorough-going cockneys! Sir Humphry, in spite of his two hours in a light carriage, his preserved grounds, and his dressing for dinner, has a true notion of the thing:-"It carries us," says he, "into the most wild and beautiful scenery of nature; amongst the mountain lakes, and the clear and lovely streams that gush from the higher ranges of elevated hills, or that make their way through the cavities of calcareous strata. How delightful in the early spring, after the dull and tedious time of winter, when the frosts disappear and the sunshine warms the earth and waters, to wander forth by some clear stream, to see the leaf bursting from the purple bud, to scent the odours of the bank perfumed by the violet, and enamelled, as it were, with the primrose and the daisy; to wander upon the fresh turf below the shade of trees, whose bright blossoms are filled with the music of the bee; and on the surface of the waters to view the gaudy flies sparkling like animated gems in the sunbeams, whilst the bright and beautiful trout is watching them from below; to hear the twittering of the water-birds, who, alarmed at your ap

proach, rapidly hide themselves beneath the flowers and leaves of the water-lily; and as the season advances, to find all these objects changed for others of the same kind, but better and brighter, till the swallow and the trout contend as it were for the gaudy May-fly, and till in pursuing your amusement in the calm and balmy evening, you are serenaded by the songs of the cheerful thrush and melodious nightingale, performing the offices of paternal love, in thickets ornamented with the rose and woodbine."-(Salmonia; or, Days of Fly-fishing.)

Assuredly this Salmonia is a delightful book—we had almost said for all readers. The practical directions for taking trout in the Colne, and salmon in Loch Maree, and grayling in the Clun, are, however, of little use to the million. Wherever there are fish worth angling for, the rivers are preserved. The tackle may be of the best, and the hopes of the young fisherman of the warmest ; but in the open streams he will find no fish, and in the enclosed grounds he will get no footing. Even in the days of Cotton, the angler was a persecuted being: for, says he, "there are some covetous, rigid persons, whose souls hold no sympathies with those of the innocent anglers, having either got to be lords of royalties, or owners of lands adjoining to rivers;-and these do, by some apted clownish nature and education for the purpose, insult and domineer over the innocent angler, beating him, breaking his rod, or at least taking it from him." Heavens! what perils surround the soli tary trespasser in search of a trout! But since the time of Cotton, these dangers are prodigiously multiplied. In England, even amongst the wildest fastnesses of nature, the rights of property are poked into your face; and some caution, whose neglect involves "the utmost rigours of the law," scares even the purposeless rambler from his dream of picturesque beauty. As to strolling anglers, who do not arrive in a light carriage with two horses, the rich hate them, execrating the very memory of happy old Izaak, who profanely says, "there be many that have forty times our estates, that would give the greatest part of it to be

healthful and cheerful like us, who, with the expence of a little money, have eat and drank, and laughed, and angled and sung, and slept securely; and rose next day, and cast away care, and sung and laughed, and angled again: which are blessings rich men cannot purchase with all their money." All this is gall and wormwood to some bloated proprietor (the breed is getting scarce) who hates the rest of mankind, because they are happy without many lands; and is thus resolved to abridge their pleasures by extending the rights of property as far as they will stretch. Such grasping fellows, as Goldsmith, for instance, who says,

"Creation's heir-the world, the world is mine!”

-and old Izaak again, who impudently affirms, that the owner of the pleasant meadow in which he was fishing, had not leisure to take the sweet content that the stranger, who pretended to no title in them, then took in his fields, such fellows compel men of large properties to claim their own, by building walls round their acres, and stopping up the access to their rivers, and forbidding the wanderers, even in the most rugged and untameable paths, to give up an hour to the free impulse of beautiful scenery.

But now, reader, we must endeavour to find a little sport for you; even in these degenerate days of angling. Frankly, we shall be blind guides; and the only points upon which we can speak with any confidence of the art, are these:-1st. That if you catch no fish, you may obtain a great deal of fresh air and content by making the attempt once or twice in the summer; and 2ndly. That it will give a particular relish to success, if you be successful, and wonderfully dull the edge of disappointment, if the contrary be your fate (which all good spirits avert), if you never take punt (for we recommend that as the easiest mode of exercise) without stowing therein a sufficient basket of ham, tongue, veal pie, stilton-cheese, bottled ale and porter-sherry, if you are luxurious→ cigars, if you are of a pensive nature. You may have two companions-more are troublesome, and, above all,

*

secure a sharp and ready fellow as boatman, who, for an extra shilling, will let you into a few of the secrets of the Thames. You are going to fish for gudgeon, and roach, and dace, and perch even, if they should happen to bite. Do not be discouraged that Sir Humphry Davy speaks slightingly of this pursuit, for assure yourself it is the only fishing left you. If you reach as far as Windsor, you will walk down to the bridge, where you may espy a clean elderly man with a flower in his mouth; accost him. It is Jack Hall, well known to every Eton boy from the days of Canning; and who will tell you more queer stories about some of the mightiest in the land, than any autobiography-monger.* He will make an appointment with you for the next morning at Bray-reach, where a chaise will convey you to breakfast. Jack is ready with his punt and his easy bow, familiar but not impudent. You begin to fish, the well of the punt gradually fills, and you forget that the gudgeons are not more than three times as large as whitebait, and cease to sigh for trout of ten pounds. Jack will tell you there have been only two caught this summer between Maidenhead-bridge and Staines. Bless us! it is only eleven o'clock, and you are particularly hungry, even after such a breakfast. What an inviting nook for luncheon is that little creek, where the willows make a natural bower of the most impervious shade! The cheese and the porter are beyond measure excellent. But no time must be lost. At three o'clock you have caught forty dozen; and Jack will tell you how they are to be cooked. You land at Monkey Island; and while you are examining the sketches of monkeys on the dilapidated walls of

** Poor Jack Hall has perished, as well as his flowers. He came to a singular end for an old waterman. Living always upon the water, he yet could not swim; and one wintry day, fishing alone, he fell overboard and was drowned. He was eminent enough in his vocation to have his portrait engraved, in the best style of art. We would give it a frame, in preference to those of many greater men.

the old banqueting-room (from which, by the bye, all the designers of "Monkeyana" have been pillaging without acknowledgment), Jack is busy in preparing your fry. He is a better cook than Walton, and will, moreover, troll you a merry song, as well as the merriest of Walton's friends. Had you any notion that gudgeon were so fine? and is not the sherry cool, from the judicious application of a little Thames' water? and the flavour of that ham-does it leave a wish for venison ? And thus you laugh-and sing-till it is sunset before you are aware; and you glide down the Thames to sweeter music than even Cleopatra listened to-for one of you is a flute-player.

POPULOUSNESS OF LONDON.

It is impossible to turn to any of the ancient accounts of the populousness of London, without being satisfied that the number of its inhabitants has been the subject of the most extraordinary exaggeration. Fitzstephen says"This city is honoured with her men, graced with her arms, and peopled with a multitude of inhabitants. In the fatal wars under King Stephen, there went out to a muster men fit for war esteemed to the number of twenty thousand horse-men armed, and sixty thousand foot-men." Eighty thousand men fit for war living within walled London, and not only living within, but going out to a muster! If we suppose that only one-fourth of this number remained at home to carry on the business of the city, and assume (the general proportion) that half the population was under twenty years of age and half above, we have two hundred thousand males in London in the reign of King Stephen; and this calculation would give us a population of four hundred thousand. In 1821 London within its walls (a distinction which no longer exists for any practical purposes) contained only fifty-six thousand inhabitants. But if the statements of Fitzstephen may be