"My visit to Ireland was altogether one of pleasure; the particular indulgence of my favorite amusement of angling, which, I had often heard, could, in no part of the united kingdom, be so well enjoyed as in Ireland; where the rivers and lakes abound with the finest trout, pike, and salmon. My little tour, therefore, not having been undertaken with the deliberate purpose of making a book, my readers would be unreasonable and, indeed, unjust, were they to expect all from me that they have a right to from a man pre-determined to make them pay for his amusements and his observations. What of Irish scenery and living manners that have fallen under my observation, I describe as I felt them at the moment, and my pen, faithful to those impressions, will probably best shew what an Englishman thinks of Ireland and its people, on his first acquaintance with them.

"Although angling was my first object, it will appear but secondary in the following pages, and occupy but a small proportionate share of their contents. The subject has been so largely and variously treated by numerous writers, from the venerable and delighting Isaac Walton, our great father of the angle,' down to Bainbridge, that little remains to be said upon it. Whatever has appeared to me novel in the art, or

interesting in the exercise of it, I have not neglected to notice; and the peculiar scenes of that novelty, and of sport, with which nothing in England can compare, are the lakes of Ireland.

“I am aware that it is dangerous to deal honestly with the prejudices, ignorances and habits of any people; and, from what I have seen of the Irish, they are less disposed to hear the truth spoken of themselves than are even my own sturdy countrymen. To this day, they are indignant at the truths told to them more than half a century back, by the tourist, Twiss, and yet, half a century has not removed from the lower orders the reproach which excited their unjust resentment. I have dared to be faithful to truth, and may suffer in her cause; but I am confident that the liberal, cultivated, and truly patriotic Irish reader, will approve of observations made in the spirit of honest correction, and a good-natured feeling for the improvement of a country, wherein I experienced pleasures which I hope to repeat, and hospitalities which shall ever fill my heart, and dwell on my grateful recollection.

"The Irish are a good, warm-hearted, noble people; the better known the more are they loved and esteemed, and they want but a perfect identity of feeling with their fellow-subjects of England, to be really exalted to the standard of their own self-estimation.

"The English gentleman, seeking amusement in the sports of the field, and the wild and genuine beauties of nature, would recollect with pleasure a visit to Ireland, and be tempted often to repeat it. The amusement that induced my visit, being of a quiet and con

templative nature, favorable to observation, it enabled me to see much of the manners and dispositions of the people, and the topographical capabilities of the island, for manufacturing pursuits; and I am really astonished that much of the redundant capital, the ingenuity, and the industry of England have not been transferred to it.

"Some of my readers may be of opinion that, in the following pages, I have dwelt too minutely upon humble and apparently unimportant subjects; but I conceive that this minuteness is essential to a correct and familiar portraiture of manners and character; and the tourist who only introduces his readers to the drawing-room, and subjects of high rank, will, doubtless, shew that he has kept good company, but he will have conveyed a very defective picture, or, properly speaking, no picture at all, of that numerous class, which constitutes the people of a country.

"To my kind and intelligent Irish friend, Mr.-, I am indebted for many aids afforded by his knowledge of his native tongue. I beg him to accept my acknowledgments, and that he will recollect, in the spirit that I do, and ever shall, the happiness we enjoyed together in our angling excursions, and in the bosom of his amiable family.

"To him, and all honest brothers of the angle,' whose unobtrusive worth and innocent lives redeem the human character from the selfish and wicked vices which load and obscure it, I dedicate the following pages.

"GREGORY GREENDRAKE.

London, Feb. 13, 1817."

CHAP. II.

"Now, by the mass, but here's a dainty blade!
Th' acquaintance of an hour, and yet would tell
More of our matters than we know ourselves."

OLD PLAY.

THE observations of our excursive angler, Mr. Gregory Greendrake, were communicated in a series of letters to a friend in London; and every thing, in Ireland, appearing new to him, he has noticed, and dwelt minutely on many objects too familiar to our readers to excite, in them, a correspondent interest: much of this sort of matter we shall, therefore, omit altogether, and, instead of the epistolary form, we shall adopt that of unbroken narrative in the first person.

"I hasten to announce to you my arrival in the Irish capital, deservedly considered the second city of the British empire in Europe. In a place, and among a people, collectively so new to me, it will require some time to elapse before my mind can settle down to that composed tone, necessary to the formation of just opinions on the objects that surround me. First impressions are strong, and incline to exaggerated conclusions, and, therefore, should be received with caution.

BAY OF DUBLIN.

"We arrived in the bay of Dublin, about seven o'clock of a fine morning. I had often heard of its beauties, but I must confess, that the most favorable and elaborate descriptions of this combination of land and water, fall far short of their actual beauties, when viewed by the eye of taste, and by the lover of nature. On one side, the varied line of shore presents a view of Bray Head, a bold and lofty promontory, about eleven miles from Dublin; the triple-coned hills of Killiney; the lower and rocky shores of Dalkey, Dunleary, Black-rock, &c. all richly studded with villas and villages; and, behind these, the receding lines of the county of Wicklow and Dublin mountains bound the delighting view, and mingle their assimilating tints with the horizon, while directly in front, and behind the clustered masts of the shipping in the river, rise the domes and spires of the capital which we were approaching. On the other side, the bold, bare, and almost insulated hill of Howth challenges attention, and forms the other boundary of the bay. Beyond it are seen the picturesque islands of Ireland's Eye and Lambay; and onwards, towards the city or mouth of the river, the eye relieving itself from the sterile and iron-bound shores of Howth, reposes, with pleasure, on the assemblage of white houses, called the sheds of Clontarf, and the rich and beautiful plantations of Marino, the villa of the Earl of Charlemont.