250 THE COUNTRY CLERGYMAN. 



how I love 



Upon thy flowery banks to lie. 

 And view thy silver stream, 

 When gilded by a summer's beam ! 



And in it, all thy wanton fry, 



Playing at liberty : 

 And, with my angle upon them, 



(The all of treachery 



I ever learn'd) industriously to try. 



CHARLES COTTON. 



DH. HASTINGS having shewed his friends what he 

 thought most deserving of notice in his immediate 

 neighbourhood, and beguiled the walk, as we have 

 seen, with his conversation, proposed that the next 

 morning should be devoted to the pleasures of the 

 angle. Not that they were masters of the rod, but 

 they had heard * that rivers and the inhabitants of 



* the watery element were made for wise men to 



* contemplate, and fools to pass by without contem- 

 ' plat ion." and therefore anticipated some intellec- 

 tual or actual gratification from the proposed 

 amusement. It has been remarked that anglers 

 are somewhat like poets they must be born so. 

 This may be true in some respects, but it is cer- 

 tainly a pursuit which supplies an inexhaustible 

 fund of innocent amusement and healthy exercise, 

 either to the novice, or to the more skilful angler. 



