33aafe Malton anfc Cbarles Cotton 37 



men arc free from those high, those restless thoughts 

 which corrode the sweets of life." 



Or take this bit of angling, picked out at random : 

 " About four of the clock in the afternoon repair to 

 your baited place : and as soon as you come to the 

 water-side, cast in one half of the rest of your ground- 

 bait, and stand off: then whilst the fish arc gathering 

 together, for there they will most certainly come for their 

 supper, you may take a pipe of tobacco ; and then in 

 with your three rods as in the morning : you will find 

 excellent sport that evening till eight of the clock : then 

 cast in the residue of your ground-bait, and next morning 

 by four of the clock visit them again for four hours, 

 which is the best sport of all : and after that, let them 

 rest till you and your friends have a mind to more 

 sport." 



It is not exciting, that picture of sport, but the restful- 

 ness and the lazy indifference to the lapse of time which 

 it suggests are refreshing to those who suffer from 



This strange disease of modern life, 

 With its sick hurry, its divided aims, 

 Its heads o'er-taxed, its palsied hearts. 



And then those mild symposia at " the honest ale-house 

 where we may have a cup of good barley-wine, and sing 

 ' Old Rose/ and all of us rejoice together," the hostess 

 " handsome and civil," the " cleanly room, lavender in 

 the windows and twenty ballads stuck about the wall " 

 how sweet and wholesome and refreshing it all is ! 

 how it breathes the scent of honeysuckle and wild roses ! 

 I love that " honest ale-house," and often come the times 



