42 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



which the ploughman or harvestman takes his team ; or to a 

 simple hamlet, perfumed with wood-fire, thatch, and homeli- 

 ness, where morning newspapers are unknown ; thence into 

 the sheltered glade, and, by smiling homestead, away from the 

 haunts of man ; give me all this on a day when the larks 

 sing loud and untiringly, and the insects rehearse in happy 

 chorus ; when " waves of shadow " pass over the glad fields 

 and woods, and all God's beautiful earth seems to murmur 

 in grateful softness of spirit — give me this, and you present 

 to me one of the masterful attractions of what has been sa 

 appropriately termed the " contemplative man's recreation." 

 I shall like it all the better, to be sure, if my fly be not cast 

 upon the water in vain ; but in no case shall I bewail the 

 day as a positive blank. 



This is a type of happiness which often falls to the rambling 

 AValtonian's share, but seldom to the share of the Thames 

 angler. Indeed, the only envy I can remember entertaining 

 towards one of this fraternity was with respect to a gentleman 

 vi'ho had the leisure, the patience, and the good fortune to 

 whip his way from the source of the Thames through all the 

 lovely landscapes of Gloucester, Oxford, and Berks, to the 

 royal borough of Windsor, picking up a trout here, a chub- 

 there, and a dace you might almost say everywhere. Yet 

 what exquisite scenes are commanded by the Thames ! 

 Verily it were a work of supererogation to recount them, 

 since they have been the subject of poet's song and artist's 

 pencil from time immemorial. Thus : — 



" But health and labour's ■willing train 

 Crowns all thy banks with waving grain ; 

 With beauty decks thy sylvan shades, 

 With livelier green invests thy glades ; 



