truth of the whole beyond all dispute, as there was no miracle that God wouldn't do for his own clargy." 66 The wake, the whiskey, and the old stories, clearly accounted to me for Billy's vision; but, out of the belief of its reality, not all the philosophers on earth could reason my honest oars-man. "I suppose, said I, that your fright prevented your killing any game." "O! no, sir, although the old master was one of the pleasantest and best gentleman in the world, his own way, I knew that I might as well follow the black funeral and sink to the bottom of the lake myself, as disappoint him; so I thought I might as well recover myself, and watching my opporilled four h of ducks and mallards at T смину, 1. one shot. When I got home to my cabin, I found myself very ill, and was obliged to keep my bed all the next day; for all the world knows, that any one who sees a spirit isn't well for some time after”. "Yes, and I believe drinking spirits has pretty much the same effect." Oh! you may be as pleasant as you please, sir; but it wasn't that any how, for I'm sure, if it was all put together, I didn't drink more than three half-pints of whiskey that night." I felt perfectly satisfied of the justice of my conclusion from Billy's own evidence, and questioned no farther the vision of the "Sughread Dhu," or, "Black Funeral." A ludicrous circumstance took place this day on the lake. A Dublin tyro of the angle, who probably never had a larger fish at the end of his line than the sprat-sized fry of the river at Bray, in the county Wicklow, was slashing the waters of Lough Sheelan, with the unaccustomed labour of a two-handed rod, when, by one of those chances that run before the results of system and skill, he hooked a bully of a trout: holding his rod nearly in a horizontal position, his line was soon run out, and the weight and strength of the fish bearing wholly on the foot-line, must have soon carried all away. At this juncture, his companion in the boat earnestly vociferated to him, to "throw in the butt," as is the term of the sport, when it becomes necessary to bear on the fish, by maintaining the rod in a more perpendicular position, inclining the butt forward, and throwing the weight and play of the struggling fish upon the clas ססי A tic action of the rod. This instruction our Dublin cockney accepted in a literal sense, and actually threw the rod and all into the lake! By the activity of the row-men and his companion, together with the assistance of a boat, close in company, the rod was recovered, but the trout was lost. This incident provoked a hearty laugh at the stranger's expense. My companion complained heavily of the injury done to this and the neighbouring lakes from poachers, and the neglect of the resident gentry in not adopting the precaution necessary for preventing netting, cross-fishing, and the destruction of the mother fish in spawning season. From the information afforded to me by the local knowledge of my friend, I strung together, in a day or two afterwards, the followiug doggrel rhymes, which possess no merit but their connection with the general subject, and the truth of their local description :— THE ANGLER'S ADDRESS. TO ALL THOSE WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. On the lakes of Lough-Sheelan, Lough-Lane, and Donore, At Mill-castle-brook, that runs out of Lough-Glore, I haste to that lake which, from all, bears the prize The wind all south-west, and a dark cloudy day- That the lake seem'd alive o'er its whole surface wide, -n, H And for catching the poachers, meet no such fit man -h. There's Whirren so merry, when the wind in full west, Where the trout are the largest, the most, and the best; And Colure, and Dara, Cranlaballa, Donore, Might be guarded by Indians+ from Cloneave's lone short: Ye Lords of the Lakes, to my counsel attend- With the DRAKES and the OLIVES, the monkey and crottle,§ Full many a six-pounder trout may you throttle. At present no more, of all poachers the hater, I am yours, as you merit, an honest-PISCATOR. Called also Kiltoom and Donore. Applied to the rude inhabitants of Cloneave-Island, insulated by lake and river Inney. A note of exultation used by an angler on hooking a fish. CHAP. VII. "Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, SHAKSPEARE. SINCE the publication, originally, of Mr. Greendrake's Westmeath Excursion, in the WARDER, we have been looking over the remaining manuscript in our possession, and discovered the following papers, which before escaped our notice :— ACCUSTOMED as I have been to the well-ordered state of society in England, where a certain degree of comfort, neatness, and plenty, attaches to the very last link of the social chain, I could not but be more sensible to the melancholy and afflicting contrast, which this country furnishes. My great love of the angle, and the excellence of the sport which the lakes here afforded me, could not altogether so occupy my |