118 TEE OPEN AIB. 



Westminster and the Houses of Parliament, right up 

 to Mortlake. It is really a wonderful thing that 

 a denizen of the sea, so large and interesting as a 

 porpoise, should come right through the vast City of 

 London. In an aquarium, people would go to see it 

 and admire it, and take their children to see it. What 

 happened ? Some one hastened out in a boat, armed 

 with a gun or a rifle, and occupied himself with 

 shooting at it. He did not succeed in killing it, 

 but it was wounded. Some difference here to the 

 spirit of John Kussell. If I may be permitted to 

 express an opinion, I think that there is not a single 

 creature, from the sand-marten and the black-headed 

 bunting to the broad-winged heron, from the water- 

 vole to the otter, from the minnow on one side of the 

 tidal boundary to the porpoise on the other — big and 

 little, beasts and birds (of prey or not) — that should 

 not be encouraged and protected on this beautiful river, 

 morally the property of the greatest city in the world. 



II. 



I looked forward to living by the river with delight, 

 anticipating the long rows I should have past the 

 green eyots and the old houses red-tiled among the 

 trees. I should pause below the weir and listen to 

 the pleasant roar, and watch the fisherman cast again 

 and again with the ^' transcendent patience " of genius 

 by which alone the Thames trout is captured. Twist- 

 ing the end of a willow bough round my wrist I could 

 moor myself and rest at ease, though the current 

 roared under the skiff, fresh from the waterfall. A 



