12 



THE THAMES ANGLER. 



[Robinson is also overcome with his delight Jones is 

 feeling sovereigns in his pocket, and cant find a remark 

 to make.~\ 

 Piscator. You are brave gentlemen, each for your pleasure. 

 I cannot define my own before sucli eloquence, but I will, an' it 

 please you, win you over to my own joys. Let us make a 

 compact, I will indoctrinate you into the art of home angling, if 

 your leisure will permit. Sir (to Jones), let me try if I cannot 

 show you a pleasure which may rejoice you more than the 

 outlay of a heavy sum may command, and with much health, 

 content, and pleasant spirits to boot. ( To Brown.) Let me to 

 you, sir, offer a little relaxation, which, enjoyed in the open air, 

 and in the calm summer-tide of England, may lure you for a 

 few weeks from your continental peregrinations. ( To Robin- 

 son.) And I will cause you, sir, to be so bitten with a new 

 pleasure, that even your West-end delights shall fade before my 

 quiet recreation and enjoyment. You must study what I am 

 about to teach, and when you have tried it all, w T e will meet for 

 some fried Gudgeon and a baked Pike, some ham and peas, and 

 an apricot tart, at a Thames -side inn, and I hope you will not 

 find me so great a fool as an angler is generally supposed to be. 

 (Piscator advances to the brow of Richmond Hill, and ad- 

 dresses the world therefrom generally, as a " tag") And if 

 these kind friends will but smile upon our efforts, then shall we 

 be able to say, in the words of rare Ben Jonson — 



" Happy am I, in that I bought this book ; 

 Happy his studies who composed this book, 

 And fortunate the man who sold this book." 





