66 THE COMPLETE ANGLES. 



trout with a worm ; now I will put on a minnow, and try a 

 quarter of an hour about yonder trees for another ; and so 

 walk towards our lodging. Look you, scholar, thereabout we 

 shall have a bite presently or not at all. Have with you, sir ! 

 o' my word I have hold of him. Oh ! it is a great logger- 

 headed chub ; come hang him upon that willow twig, and let's 

 be going. But turn out of the way a little, good scholar ! 

 towards yonder high honey-suckle hedge ; there well sit and 

 sing, whilst this shower falls so gently upon the teeming 

 earth, and gives yet a sweeter smell to the lovely flowers 

 that adorn these verdant meadows. 



Look ! under that broad beech tree I sat down, when I was 

 last this way a-fishing. And the birds in the adjoining grove 

 seemed to have a friendly contention with an echo, whose dead 

 voice seemed to live in a hollow tree, near to the brow of that 

 primrose hill. There I sat viewing the silver streams glide 

 silently towards their centre, the tempestuous sea; yet some- 

 times opposed by rugged roots and pebble -stones, which broke 

 their waves and turned them into foam. And sometimes I 

 beguiled time by viewing the harmless lambs ; some leaping 

 securely in the cool shade, whilst others sported themselves in 

 the cheerful sun ; and saw others craving comfort from the 

 swollen udders of their bleating dams. As I thus sat, these 

 and other sights had so fully possessed my soul with content, 

 that I thought, as the poet hath happily expressed it, 



" I was for that time lifted above earth, 



And possess'd joys not promised in my birth." 



As I left this place, and entered into the next field, a second 

 pleasure entertained me : 'twas a handsome milkmaid, that 

 had not yet attained so much age and wisdom as to load her 

 mind with any fears of many things that will never be, as too 

 many men too often do : but she cast away all care, and sung 

 like a nightingale : her voice was good, and the ditty fitted for 

 it : it was that smooth song which was made by Kit Mario w, 

 now at least fifty years ago : and the milkmaid's mother 

 sung an answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh 

 in his younger days. 



They were old-fashioned poetry, but choicely good, I think 

 much better than the strong lines that are now in fashion in 

 this critical age. Look yonder ! on my word, yonder they 

 both be a-milking again. I will give her the chub, and per- 

 suade them to sing those two songs to us. 



