392 TROUT AND ANGLING. 



the greatest delicacies of the table. It was there 

 they were once taken in great numbers and eaten 

 in the highest perfection. It was there that the 

 hot air of the city was exchanged for the pure and 

 piny fragrance of the Cape. It was there the com- 

 forts of a public house were once realized to the 

 heart's content. But alas ! the glory of Sandwich 

 has departed, and " FessendenV exists no longer, 

 except in the remembrance of those who have en- 

 joyed its luxuries and the Idnd attentions of its re- 

 spected host. 



Besides this lamentable change from what was 

 once justly considered the best house in the coun- 

 try, to its opposite extreme ; the corrupting influ- 

 ence of a foreign population has proved, in this in- 

 stance, the usual scourge of a village, so that now it 

 may be said, Sandwich fuit, and even " John," the 

 guide of the young angler, has seen his best days ! 

 Deep as our regret may be for this deterioration, 

 occasioned less by the diminution of the fish than 

 the substitution of a low tavern, we do not say grog- 

 shop, for a public house, which from its superior 

 excellence under its former landlord, was of itself 

 sufficient to give character and celebrity to a vil- 

 lage ; we have yet the consolation left us of chang- 

 ing our head-quarters to that beautiful oasis in 

 the desert of pines, called Cotuit. This charming 

 settlement, which to its honor be it said, was nev- 



