doubtless exceeds both the Earth and the Water; for though I fometimes deal in both, yet the Air is more properly mine. I and my Hawks use that most, and it yields us most recreation; it stops not the high foaring of my noble generous Falcon; in it she afcends to fuch a height as the dull eyes of beafts and fish are not able to reach to their bodies are too grofs for fuch high elevations. In the air my troop of hawks foar up on high, and when they are loft in the fight of men, then they attend upon and converfe with the gods; therefore I think my Eagle is fo justly ftyled Jove's fervant in ordinary; and that very Falcon that I am now going to fee deferves no meaner a title, for fhe ufually, in her flight, endangers herself, like the fon of Dædalus, to have her wings fcorched by the Sun's heat, fhe flies fo near it; but her mettle makes her careless of danger, for fhe then heeds nothing, but makes her nimble pinions cut the fluid air, and fo makes her highway over the steepest mountains and deepest rivers, and in her glorious career looks with contempt upon those high Steeples and magnificent Palaces which we adore and wonder at; from which height I can make her to defcend by a word from my mouth (which she both knows and obeys) to accept of meat from my hand, to own me for her master, to go home with me, and be willing the next day to afford me the like recreation."

There is a story told of a depofed Scottish queen, who, anxious to preserve her fon from the traitors who had made herself a widow and her child an orphan, exchanged him with the daughter of a faithful friend; and in order to avoid detection in any communica

tions which they might have with each other relative to their children, the parents agreed to adopt the terms used in hawking,—

And you shall learn, my gay goss hawk,

Right well to breast a steed;

And so will I, your turtle dow,

As well to write and read.

And ye shall learn, my gay goss hawk,

To wield both bow and brand;

And so will I, your turtle dow,

To lay gowd with her hand.

At kirk or market when we meet,

We'll dare make no avow;

But "Dame, how does my gay goss hawk?”
"Madame, how does my dow?"

The accomplishments which Roland Graeme avowed to Catherine that he poffeffed, were that he could "fly a hawk, halloa to a hound, back a horse, and wield lance, bow, and brand;" and every one is familiar with the good and honeft old Adam Blackcock the falconer, introduced in the story of "The Betrothed." Highly exhilarating was this fport of falconry, as the company went galloping over hill and dale, with many daring feats of horsemanship; or, when on foot, leaping with the hawking-poles over ditches and watercourses in order to follow the flight of the hawk. Oh! 'twas royal sport

Then for an evening flight,

A tiercel gentle, which I call, my masters,
As he were sent a messenger to the moon,
In such a place flies, as he seems to say,

See me, or see me not! The partridge sprung,
He makes his stoop; but, wanting breath, is forced

To cancelier; then, with such speed, as if

He carried lightning in his wings, he strikes
The trembling bird, who even in death appears
Proud to be made his quarry.

The grand falconer, too, in full drefs, with his falcon perched on his wrift, was a moft picturefque-looking individual; and his attendants, bearing the perches for the hooded birds, made up a bufy, animated, and excited group. But the sport of hawking, like that of archery, gave way to other purfuits; and the fowling-piece fuperfeded the hooded hawk, which, fince the days of Alfred, had been held in such high efteem by the gentle-born and chivalrous fpirits of "Old England."

ANGLING.

MONG the varied amufements and occupations of our ancestors, there are none which has more votaries in the present day than that to which Izaak Walton was so devotedly attached, and which he described on the title-page of his "Com"the con

pleat Angler," of 1653, as

templative man's recreation."

Many a

pleasant picture of this fport is to be found fcat

tered among the poets and profe wiiters of paft

times; but towering above them all stand the works of that great master of his craft, whom "neither blandishment nor obstacle could fwerve from his mighty end when he went forth to kill fish". old Izaak, fo gentle and fo good, who entreated his difciples always to put the worm "tenderly" on the hook :

He was the great progenitor of all

That war upon the tenants of the stream;
He neither stumbled, stopt, nor had a fall
When he essay'd to war on dace, bleek, bream,
Stone-loach, or pike, or other fish, I deem.