A CRUSTY MILLER 5 



position, which he deems crowded, he backs out, 

 quits the ranks, and in evil hour trespasses on the 

 water below. Then was thy wrath awakened, O 

 jolly miller ! White in apparel, but rubicund in 

 complexion, you sally forth, portly and irascent ; 

 lofty is your language. 



"Who gave you toleration to fish in my mill 

 tail ? " In return, Mr. Miller, you are called an un- 

 civil brute, and yon well deserve it ; for, in civility, 

 you should first of all have remonstrated, and, in 

 prudence, should afterwards have endeavoured to 

 exact a handsome fine for the trespass. But you 

 did neither of these ; on the contrary, I am sorry 

 to say, you were personal and unpleasant, and 

 forcibly deprived our amiable friend Mr. John 

 Poplin of his rod ; so that he returned to London 

 with an accumulation of bile, and scolded his wife, 

 maid, and footboy. Hard was the fate of the caster 

 of the green granam ! 



Mount we now one step higher, nay, a goodly 

 stride or two ; and let us celebrate the real scientific 

 fly-fisher, to whom fortune has been more propi- 

 tious. Possessed of ample means, he roves from 

 river to lake, rich in rods of various dimensions, and 

 the joyful possessor of all the flies that have been 

 named or engraved in all the ninety -nine books that 

 have been published on the art of angling, not for- 

 getting that distinguished fly called the Professor. 

 We have a boundless respect for this young gentle- 

 man. We like his custom of roving about. He 

 does not scruple to mount his tilbury, and to flourish 

 his rod over the rivers and lakes of Wales, and to 

 lash also with zeal all the waters of Westmoreland 



