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Untitled Article
An Angler ' s Rambles . By Edward Jesse , Esq . F . L . S . Author of " Gleanings in Natural History , " London , 1836 , John Van Voorst , Jraternoster to w . This is a book of that class which deserves the name of " pleasant reading . " To enjoy it , one ought to be in the mood to loiter away the days near running streams , under green trees , among daisied fields , listening to the song of birds , and lazily watching the fish leap , and the insects sport . One may be in such a mood , and be confined to some crowded city , as unable to indulge it as if there were no fresh airs , no painted meadows in the world . In such a case it would be no baa substitute to sit down and
forget present realities in reading these " Rambles / ' As to the angling , we own it would be to us rather a hindrance to our enjoyment , but we do not quarrel with varieties of taste . Mr Jesse takes great pains to prove that it is not a cruel sport ; that fishes have no feeling in their mouths , and that a hook serves as a sort of " sauce piquante" to the delicate morsel it conveys there . Till fishes can taLk , and tell us what they think on this matter , we must be allowed to have our doubts about it , but we have none at all
as to the pleasures of a little country inn , or of sweet mornings and evenings , such as are described here very pleasantly . " I like , " says the author , " a little country inn , provided always that it has a civil host or hostess , is not very noisy , has a sunny aspect , and is , moreover , kept tolerably tidy . " We quite agree with him in this taste , and can remember something very like what he describes on awaking in the fresh , clean bed-room in the morning , and seeing the light through the small
casement-window" I arose , " he says , " and opened it , and saw the sparkling deW-drops on the grass , and heard the lark offering up its song- of gTatitude and praise . Every thing looked fresh , and gay , and smiling . "—p . 114 . If anything can be compared to this sensation , it is that which a summer evening conveys . We can feel with our author again in his description : —
" I delight in the tranquillity of a walk by the side of a beautiful stream in the stillness of an evening . The song of birds has ceased , with the exception only of the sedge bird , one of the prettiest of our warblers . The corn crake also now and then interrupts the silence , and the
chattering" of starlings is heard as they settle for the night amid some neighbouring alders . Something disturbs a bittern from the sedges , and hia boom seems to sound from afar as he takes his sullen flight . The beetle httms as it rapidly passes , and little white moths hover about the willows m every direction . *'—p . 12 ^ .
The river Test in Hampshire seems to be a great favourite with the author , and accordingly his descriptions of days spent there are among the pleasantest portions of the book . He Las given the " Rules and Regulations" drawn up by Sheridan for the Leckford Fishing Club , some of which are worth extracting for their playful humour . They are entitled , the
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650 CriHtbt Notices .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1836, page 650, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2662/page/62/
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