316 Ik(n08 of tbe 1Rcto, 1Rffle t anb Gun 



interest in Scott's presence, did so with a degree of clear 

 energetic eloquence, and with a flow of imagery and 

 illustration, of which neither his habitual tone of table- 

 talk (least of all in London), nor any of his prose 

 writings (except, indeed the posthumous * Consolations 

 of Travel') could suggest an adequate notion. I say 

 his prose writings for who that has read his sublime 

 quatrains on the doctrine of Spinoza can doubt that he 

 might have united, if he had pleased, in some great 

 didactic poem, the vigorous ratiocination of Dryden, 

 and the moral majesty of Wordsworth ? I remember 

 William Laidlaw whispering to me, one night, when 

 their 'rapt talk' had kept the circle round the fire 

 long after the usual bedtime of Abbotsford ' Gude 

 preserve us ! this is a very superior occasion ! Eh, 

 sirs ! ' he added, cocking his eye like a bird, ' I wonder 

 if Shakspeare and Bacon ever met to screw ilk 

 other up?'" 



In 1820 Sir Humphry Davy was elected President 

 of the Royal Society, and held that distinguished post 

 till 1827, when, owing to failing health, he resigned. 

 He then devoted himself to travel and sport on the 

 Continent ; wherever he went he fished, and his 

 letters and diaries bear witness to his unabated 

 enthusiasm for angling and his minute study of the 

 habits and varieties of the fish inhabiting the different 

 rivers and lakes which he visited, with particulars of 

 the flies and artificial baits which he found most 

 successful in each case. 



It was at this time, during (to quote his own words) 

 "some months of severe and dangerous illness, when 



