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CHAPTER XXV. 



GAZWAT BBIDGE. 



The cockney sportsman from time to time has had to 

 put up with a good deal of chaff from facetious writers, 

 which no doubt he fully deserved, and we will hope has 

 duly profited by; perhaps he may be considered to 

 have done so, for the absence, at the present time, of 

 skits such as " Mr. Briggs in the Highlands " and 

 " Seymour's Sketches," lead one to infer that the 

 sporting cockney has lost much of his individuality. 



Most of usj especially those who chance to be anglers, 

 will have sympathized with dear old Mr; Briggs in his 

 struggles so amusingly described and illustrated in the 

 pages of ' Punch,* and after visiting Galway we have 

 always thought that subsequent to the enthusiastic old 

 gentleman's troubles on the Tay (for there the sketches 

 were taken) he should have been indulged with a few 

 days' angling at the bridge of the old Irish town, for 

 there he would have at once been in his element, and 

 his cockney nature would have readily grasped the 

 requirements of the situation. 



