4 MR. JOHN POPLIN. 



you to resume your tranquillity. We grant you our 

 sympathy, but deny you our company. 



Pass we on to the more ambitious angler, even to our 

 adventurous acquaintance, Mr. John Poplin. He cannot 

 submit to the worm, paste, or float — not he. . His 

 skilful arm is practised to wave his rod gracefully, with 

 nothing less at the end oT the line than the green 

 granam fly. Reclining on his sofa, and tinted with a 

 slight suffusion of bile, he has seen on one auspicious 

 morn a seductive advertisement, headed " Trout Fishing." 

 With eager pen he responds to A.B. ; pays a guinea for a 

 ticket to enable him to angle for trout during a whole 

 season, in a part of the river Wandle that is strictly 

 preserved. How very cheap ! After pulling about mon- 

 strous fish in his dreams all night he pays his guinea, and 

 drives off to the Elysian fields : there he beholds the 

 whole extent of the fishery lying before him, — a mill- 

 pond full seventy yards long, one side only belonging to 

 the advertiser in right of a small water meadow. The 

 spot seems a favourite one ; for a goodly company of 

 citizens are extended along the bank in line at three 

 feet asunder — a similar number on the opposite bank. 

 Now three feet is a liberal allowance, for only two are 

 granted for a soldier standing in close order. With 

 graceful obeisance and skilful tact he apologises, and 

 wedges himself into line ; hooks his neighbour's tackle 

 on the right the very first throw, whilst he on his 

 left hooks his. They remonstrate, and extricate with 

 proper courtesy. Not particularly admiring his position, 

 which he deems crowded, he backs out, quits the ranks, 

 and in evil hour trespasses on the water below. Then 



