AN EVENING AT THE RYE-HOUSE. 



fefc; 



friends Mr. William Simpson, of the firm of Simpson 

 and Co., a native of, and resident in, the great city; 

 and Mr. Alexander Tweddell, a far-away cousin of 

 our own, who happened to be in London on a visit 

 from the north. After a tolerable day's sport, we 

 spent the evening at the Rye House, when the con- 

 versation, as might be supposed, was chiefly about 

 angling. As none of the party expected that the 

 evening discourse would be made public, each was 

 unprepared to make a display; but just followed the 

 ball of conversation as it was bandied about, without 

 detaining it until he had deli vered himself of a long 

 set speech, which possibly might have been in pre- 

 paration for a month, and found, on being held forth, 

 to be both stale and dry. A gentleman of the press, 

 who, like ourselves, had come out to have a day's 

 fishing, at this dull time of the year, when parliament 

 is not sitting, and nothing interesting hatched either 

 at home or abroad, happened to occupy the small 

 parlour which was only separated from that in 





