to the town of Orton, but no shelter could be 

 got there; and we had to walk a few miles fur- 

 ther to a little inn at a place known as Tebay. 

 Gladly did we sit down by the kitchen fire, and 

 dry our soaked garments, while a delicious fry 

 of ham and eggs cracked and sputtered on the 

 fire. 



It was while thus engaged, that I gleaned the 

 following information from the conversation of 

 two admiring rustics. Plovers, it may be pre- 

 mised, are very common on the fells in York- 

 shire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, espe- 

 cially such as partake of the moory cast; they 

 are very striking objects in a landscape, from the 

 graceful and unceasing undulatory motion of 

 their flight, while their plaintive cry, " tewit, 

 tewit!" falls with a half melancholy cadence on 

 the ear. In the county of Cumberland, the 

 common name of the bird is the Tew fit, and one 

 little tarn on the edge of Naddle Fell, from 

 being a common resort for them, is known as 

 Tewfit Tarn. In Westmoreland, the dialect dif- 

 fers, and plovers become Tewit, — both names 

 undoubtedly being derived from the cry of the 

 bird itself. 



The subject of conversation between the two 

 rustics, was the wonderful dexterity and prowess 

 of some egg-seeker. He is said to be a Norfolk 

 man, and to have been diiven from his own 

 county by the hardness of the times, or the force 

 of opposition in his employment. This indivi- 

 dual has gained such a knowledge of the bird's 

 habits, that he can tell by its flight whether it 

 has left a nest, or when it passes over it ; and so 

 makes his way at once to the spot, securing his 

 prize. The truth of this may be judged of, from 

 the fact that on the day previous he had sent off 

 thirty shillings' worth of eggs — which, at the rate 

 of two shillings a dozen, would require fifteen 

 dozen, and these were procured in two days. 

 This says much for the abilities of the collector, 

 and the quantity of birds. Nor are they easily 

 procured. I thought once that I was sure of the 

 spot from which a plover rose ; and desiring not to 

 rob it, but to examine the nest, I made for the 

 place, and carefully searched for two hours, but I 

 did not even then find one. The collector, or rob- 

 ber,has a regular system ; moving over such a space 

 of ground as will occupy his prowess for seven 

 weeks ; so that by the time he gets back to any 

 spot in his circuit, the birds will have laid again. 

 Thus for a second, third, aye even a fourth and 

 fifth time in a season, the bereaved mothers are 

 caused to utter their mournful wailings to the 

 unheeding winds ! Luckily he does not succeed 

 in robbing every nest, or one of the most inter- 

 esting of our fell birds would perhaps become 

 exterminated. 



This wholesale system of spoliation should not 

 be tolerated ; and I am happy to hear that more 

 than one landed proprietor has determined to 

 warn him off their grounds, and thns afford an 

 asylum for persecuted birds. It indeed says little 

 for the state of civilisation, or at least humanity, 

 that to satisfy the pampered appetite of some 

 gourmands, so many fond mothers should be 

 robbed of their embryonic charge, and such a 

 reduction made in the numbers of one of our 

 most charming wild birds! 



D. 



ON ANGLING. 



By Palmer Hackle, Esq. 



We love angling, because it takes us from 

 the confusion, the filth, and the social and moral 

 degradation of large towns and cities. It places 

 us in close contact with one of the most im- 

 portant divisions of human labor and skill — the 

 cultivation of the soil, which is the real founda- 

 tion of all national wealth and true social hap- 

 piness, and which the ancients held in such high 

 estimation, that they ascribed divine honors to 

 those who were successful inventors of useful 

 and practical modes of husbandry. 



Everything connected with the land is calcu- 

 lated to foster the best and noblest feelings of the 

 soul, and to give the mind the most lofty and 

 sublime ideas of universal nature. To men of 

 genius and contemplative habits, the roaming 

 along river banks, and beside placid waters, 

 gives rise to the most refined intellectual enjoy- 

 ments. Such persons move in a world of their 

 own, and experience joys and sorrows with 

 which the world cannot intermeddle. How lively, 

 then, how pure, how refined, how truly exqui- 

 site, must those delights be to the mind, which 

 can penetrate into nature's works, and gaze with 

 instructed eye on the woods, the rocks, and 

 waterfalls ! And how evanescent and worthless 

 does everything appear, which such a one leaves 

 behind him in the crowded and pent-up city! 



It must, in short, be obvious to the most 

 careless observer, apparent to the most preju- 

 diced antagonist of the " gentle art," that the 

 frequent opportunities afforded the angler, of 

 contemplating the ever- varying aspect of nature, 

 cannot fail to be attended with advantages of no 

 mean order; inasmuch as such contemplations 

 have a direct tendency to elevate the mind, and 

 subdue and purify the heart. Under the influ- 

 ence of those awful sublimities which mountain, 

 and rock, and tree, and torrent throw around 

 their united presence, the mind imperceptibly 

 assumes a tone which harmonises with these 

 striking scenes ; and as the giant shadows sweep 

 across the broad brow of the majestic mountain, 

 and the free breeze comes laden with mysterious 

 music through the waving boughs, which sob and 

 sigh in unison with the passing strain — the full 

 heart gushes over in its deep delight, and the 

 imagination teems with those shadowy phantoms 

 of unseen glory, to which the poet's soul owes 

 some of its loftiest aspirations. 



Amidst the calmness and repose of more quiet 

 and placid scenery, where the sublime gives 

 place to the picturesque and beautiful; where 

 the hills slope up from the rich green-sward, and 

 the river murmurs through the verdant meadows,' 

 and the village spire peeps over the trees, and 

 the tinkling-bell announces the hour of prayer; 

 where the flocks whiten the tree -less front of 

 some green promontory, and the distant mill- 

 clack just makes itself heard above the hum of 

 bees, and song of birds, and lowing of distant 

 cattle, and the thousand soothing sounds which 

 spring up from the ongoings of the village day; 

 the mind insensibly falls into a musing train of 

 gentle thought, and images of peace and tran- 

 quillity, and gentleness, rise unbidden on the 



