ROBERT BLAKEY xiii 



it Greenock, so as to enjoy rambling excursions for 

 tingling in Dumbartonshire ; yet the autobiographical 

 paragraph which speaks of the entrancing delights of 

 the country, the wild and barren heath, the mountains, 

 the pure and rippling streams, is significantly succeeded 

 by another beginning " About the middle of the month 

 I began my Historical Sketch of Logic." This was 

 finished at the end of the next year. It was the night 

 before Christmas Day, and he felt "an inexpressible 

 sense of relief," as if a great load had been taken off his 

 shoulders. The Memoirs, however, are irregular and 

 incomplete, but it may be gathered from them that Blakey 

 conversed with, or had correspondence (in addition to 

 those already mentioned), during his distinguished career, 

 with Dugald Stewart, Edmund Kean, Kobert Mont- 

 gomery, Mrs. Siddons, Joanna Baillie, Thomas Campbell, 

 Samuel Kogers, Louis Blanc, Colley Grattan, Joseph 

 Conder, Sir William Hamilton, Southey, Pusey, and 

 Newman. He had come in contact with the two latter 

 while foraging in the Oxford libraries, and saw Newman 

 when he was residing at Littlemore, in that memorable 

 transition stage between the two Churches. Blakey 

 probably did not think highly of his works on angUng, 

 for on January 11, 1853, he indites this single entry — 



"Jan. 11. — Caught a severe cold; bought some woodcuts 

 (blocks) for a small work I purpose getting out soon, to be called 

 The Angler's Complete Guide to the Rivers im, Ungland and Wales. 

 I obtained ten blocks in excellent order for twenty-three shillings. 

 They would have cost nearly twelve pounds from the engraver's 

 hand." 



By and by (March 20) we find him receiving proofs 

 of this Guide, which he says " looks well, and will be 

 a useful and agreeable pocket volume to the disciples 

 of the gentle art." We can therefore estimate the 

 time which Blakey devoted to this work. Then he 

 sends a " Sketch of Angling Literature " to the editor of 

 the Eclectic Review — a study, probably, of the fuller 

 work published three years later. The Guide to the 

 Rivers and LaJces of England and Wales was published 

 in 1853, and there were two subsequent editions, revised 



