to the palate. And now lest you should deservedly carp at me, for being rather prolix, although enlarging upon the subject of so noble a fish can require no apology to an amateur like yourself, I shall reward your patience by giving you two excellent and economical methods to dress a carp, that would have gratified Apicius, or Darteneuf himself. Let your carp be plain boiled, and sent to table with common fish-sauces. Or if you must have a more lúxurious dish, stew your carp, and use cyder instead of claret, and enrich your gravy with spices, onion, and anchovies, and garnish the dish with sippets and horseradish. Provided your cook acquit herself well in the execution of either of these receipts, and the vicar and the squire of the parish should both be your guests, they will give her as much praise for dressing, as they will give you for catching a carp. Adieu.

LETTER IV.

The Barbel-Directions to angle for Barbel-Sport in a Thunder-storm-The Diver, &c.

I MUST again call your attention to a subject which I am confident you will think not tiresome but very agreeable, and that is the gently-flowing stream of the Thames; because it is the best river with which I am acquainted for the diversion of angling for barbel. This fish, I allow, is of little intrinsic excellence, being of a very coarse nature; but, as you profess yourself to be very keen and eager in pursuit of your aquatic amusements, and are fond of sport, for sport's sake, and not like a fishmonger, who estimates his fish merely for the money they will procure, the barbel shall be the subject of this letter. This love of sport, you may observe, is the ruling passion by land as well as water. The hunter pursues the fox, as the angler seeks for certain fish, merely on this account. Each is at tracted by the pleasure of the pursuit, rather than the value of the acquisition. The barbel is very strong, active, and sagacious; so, like crafty reynard, he stimulates the art and the diligence of the angler to catch and to kill him, and the longer the chase, the greater the triumph, of every scholar of Walton, as of every follower of Nimrod.

Barbels are leather-mouthed, handsome in shape, and are covered with very small silvery scales exquisitely formed. They have barbs or wattels at

their mouths, from which they take their names; their back-fin is armed with a remarkably strong thorn or spine which is serrated, and with this natural weapon they can inflict a very severe wound if they are handled incautiously.

and

They grow to a considerable size, sometimes reaching three feet, eighteen pounds in weight. I saw a barbel at Godstow that was nearly that length; and another taken in the Thames near Oxford, that weighed 14 pounds.

They are gregarious fish: in the winter they retire into deep water; in the summer they frequent sharp streams, that run over gravelly or sandy bottoms, or they lie in strong and deep currents, near bridges, flood-gates, or weirs.

When you angle for barbel, your tackle must be very strong. Put a reel upon your rod, and fish with a silk line; your bottom link should be three lengths of gut twisted together. Your hook should be of a middling sise, and your float large to carry your bait not more than half an inch from the ground. The best baits are well scoured lobworms that are tough; for if not, the fish are so cunning, that they will suck them off the hook. Your worms must be fresh and good, or you will not please so nice a feeder as the barbel. If you hook him, you are likely to hold him fast; as I have before observed, he is leather-mouthed. He will show you great sport: you must keep your line tight to prevent him from running among stumps and weeds, for there he will strive to retreat, and if he succeeds, he may disengage himself from the hooky or break your tackle. Be provided with a large landing-net; it should be deep. as well as wide, or he will by a sudden spring leap from it into the water.

Be careful never to throw your bait into the water at a great distance from you, so as to make a splashing, and let your lead sink into the water with as little noise, and as gently as possible. Large fish do not always frequent the middle of a river. The water near the banks, particularly if it be hollow, is the most likely place to find them; and you never stand a better chance of sport than by being very quiet. This caution is applicable to all kinds of angling.

They spawn at the beginning of May, and are then at the worst: their prime season is in August and September, and then you cannot angle for them too early in a morning, or too late in an evening.

Now for an anecdote peerless, pithy,

and pleasant, to convince you of the hardihood that angling can inspire. At the end of July my cousin Peter, a young Etonian and myself angled for barbel, in the still deeps near Chertsey Bridge. Our baits were well-scoured lob-worms. We began to fish in the evening, and persevered during some part of the night, although a violent storm came on: rain poured down in torrents, flashes of lightning were frequent and very vivid, and thunder rolled in loud and awful peals,

'Intonucre poli, et crebris micat ignibus æther." We endured for some hours the pelting of the pitiless storm, for we had excellent sport, and caught some remarkably fine barbel. We were armed with those requisites recommended to anglers in an old fishing-book, "the courage of David and the patience of Job," and we reaped the rewards of those essential piscatory virtues. I must confess, however, as I am much more delighted with the beautiful of a fine day, than with the sublime of a stormy night, and greatly prefer the prospects of Claude Lorrain to those of Salvator Rosa, I shall neither repeat the experiment, nor recommend its imitation to you.

You will be pleased to be informed of one of the most extraordinary of all methods to take barbel. You may recollect having seen old Darcey, who kept a music-shop in Oxford. Although he was so bulky as to appear as if he was one of the family of Falstaff, he was a very expert swimmer and diver. Like the knight, he had a "great alacrity in sinking." He used to dive into a deep hole near the four streams, a bathing-place well known to the Oxonians. He remained under the water for a minute, and came up with a brace of fine barbel, holding one in each hand. The report Darcey made was,

that many of these fish lay at the bottom of the hole with their heads against the bank, in parallel lines like horses in their stalls. They were not disturbed at his approach, but allowed him to come close to them, and he selected the finest of them all, with which this intrepid diver emerged from the deep, to the wonderment of all the spectators.

That this method of taking sea-fish, a much more perilous exploit, was practised by the antients, is evident from the description given by Oppian in his poem called Halieutica.

The diver harden'd to the dreadful toil
With artless force attacks the finny spoil;
Boldly he plunges from ethereal day,
Springs to the deep, and treads the fluid way,
Firm as on land along the vaulted shores
The secret chambers of the deep explores,
Revisits safe the long-suspended air,
And grasps with loaded hands a captive pair;
The sargo thus, and tim❜rous shade-fish dies,
Nor this his fears secure, nor that his size.
Jones's Oppian.

The author of "The Angler's sure Guide" says, that a barbel roasted makes an excellent dish, and when properly pickled will eat little inferior to a sturgeon. Another method recommended by a good cook is to bake a barbel with a pudding like a jack.

P.S. When I related the anecdote of old Darcey to the Etonian, he said it reminded him of the descriptions given by Homer and Virgil of Neptune and the river gods Scamander and Tiburinus emerging from their crystal caverns in the deep, and raising their placid heads above the surface of the waters. Is it not probable that the notion of such beings as Neptune, the Tritons, the Naiads, and even of Venus herself, to say nothing of Mermaids, might originate from the appearance of some skilful divers, being indistinctly seen by distant spectators, who were ignorant of the art these proficients had acquired of sinking and rising in the water? Adieu.

I Now directed my course to Fort William, in order to cross the Highlands in the direction of the remarkable lakes, which, as has been justly observed, seem destined by nature to form a junc tion between the Atlantic and the North Sea. That stupendous work, the Cale donian Canal, formed by the union of the Lakes Ness, Oich, Lochy, Eil, and Linnhe, will no doubt be shortly open NEW MONTHLY MAG.-No. 79.

to navigation. In future, the long and difficult voyage round Cape Wrath may be avoided; for vessels of any size may now sail direct from one sea to the other, the canal being about 100 feet broad and 20 feet deep. I travelled through the whole extent of Invernessshire. This county, which is the largest in Scotland, is likewise remarkable for the great public works it contains. VOL. XIV. T

a view both

Fort William is situated at the foot of Ben Nevis, the highest hill in Scotland, and the only one on which I observed flakes of snow. It requires six or seven hours to ascend Ben Nevis ; and in clear weather its antic and the summit commands North Sea. Though the road from hence to Fort Augustus is rich in the beauties of nature, yet all is exceeded by the charm of Loch Ness. The hills hereabouts have not, it is true, the grandeur of those in other parts of Scotland, but their contours are uncommonly picturesque. At a short distance from this lake is the Fall of Fyers, the most beautiful cascade in Scotland; and when the river happens to be swollen, which was the case when I saw it, it may certainly be accounted the grandest in Europe. The river Fyers rushes down in two distinct divisions, one from a height of seventy feet, and the other, about a quarter of a mile distant, from a height of about 200 feet. If natural phenomena, such as this, can be described by words, the following beautiful lines of Burns may perhaps afford some notion of this astonishing waterfall:

"Among the heathy hills and ragged woods The roaring Fyers pours his mossy floods, Till full he dashes on his rocky mounds, Where, through a shapeless breach his stream resounds.

As high in air the bursting torrents flow

As deep recoil the surges from below,

from a mountainous to a level country is extremely curious. Inverness is a very neat little town, and the most important in the north of Scotland. Though it consists chiefly of two the inns are supported in a style of elestreets, which cross each other, yet gance not to be met with in many capital cities of Germany. My travelling companions and I put up at the Geddes Hotel, and next morning we procured guide to conduct us to a neighbouring hill, where we might view some remains of what are called the vitrified forts, concerning which so many conjectures have been formed. Our guide was a man belonging to the poorer class, yet he spoke English with a degree of purity not very common in Inverness. I did not fail to enter into conversation with him on a subject, respecting which I had vainly sought information in Scot land, and which I was frequently laughed at for mentioning in Edinburgh namely, the gift of second sight. man looked proudly at me, and replied: "Sir! we look upon such things at Inverness at nonsense." What a happy proof of the advancement of informa tion, and this in the 58° of north latitude. At a short distance from Inverness, is the field of Culloden, on which the last hopes of the house of Stuart were annihilated.

The

I visited a little hospital which has been for some years established in the

And viewless echo's ear astonished rends.
Dim-seen, through rising mists and ceaseless
⚫ showers

The hoary cavern, wide surrounding, lowers.
Still thro' the gap the struggling river toils,
And still below the horrid cauldron boils,”

At the solitary inn, near the cascade, where I passed the night, I made acquaintance with three young Scotch gentlemen, who, like myself, had travelled over the hills on foot, and we agreed to continue our journey in each other's company. Our road from hence to Inverness lay through woods composed of the most beautiful trees. How absurd was Dr. Johnson's sally, when he observed that the only trees to be seen in Scotland were the gallows, and what a wilful misrepresentation on his part, as he had visited not only the western, but the eastern coast, which abounds in fine vegetation.

The fertile plain in which Inverness is situated forms a singular contrast to the hills by which I had lately been surrounded. The sudden transition

tained but few beds, there were more than sufficient, for the majority were empty. This is the only establishment. of the kind in the Highlands; but the people entertain so much dislike of an relief. The two wings of the building hospital, that they seldom apply to it for

The Scotch, as well as the English, now-a-days treat the belief of second-sight magnetism. When I conversed with the with as much derision as they do animal celebrated Professor Leslie, of Edinburgh, on animal magnetism, I found he knew nothing of the matter. The gift of secondsight is now regarded merely as a subject on which a poet may exercise his fancy. It has been happily treated by Walter Scott, and particularly by Thomas Campbell, in his beautiful poem of "Lochiel," It is worthy of observation, that in the East a similar superstition prevails respecting a which the Highlanders believe to exist in the pre-sensation through the organ of hearing, organ of sight. Lord Byron terms this gift second-hearing :-See his notes to "The Giaour."

are set aside for insane patients, who receive no medical aid, but are merely maintained and kept apart from the rest of the inmates. Insanity is very common in this part of the country; the reason assigned for it is, that so many people are obliged to separate from their families to go to the West Indies. Considering the strong attachment of the Highlanders to their country and their home, this is certainly not improbable.

From hence we proceeded to Fort George, the most important of the three fortresses of the Highlands. Here I changed the plan of my journey; and instead of proceeding further north to visit the county of Ross, as I originally intended, I accepted the invitation of one of my travelling companions, to accompany him to the residence of Mr. Brodie, his grandfather, near Forres. However much I wished to form an idea of the mode of living in the family of a wealthy Scotch gentleman, yet other reasons still more strongly urged me to accept the proposal of my young companion. I had been informed that on Mr. Brodie's estate was situated the spot where, according to popular tradition, as well as on the authority of Shakspeare, the witches first appeared to Macbeth and Banquo. We departed from Fort George, and taking an easterly direction, arrived that very morning at Cawdor Castle, said to be the ruins of the old fortress, with which Duncan rewarded Macbeth for the victory he had gained thus the second witch salutes him with the words" Hail! Thane of Cawdor!" This castle is most strikingly situated; its battlements are seen towering above the trees, from an immense distance, and the nearer one approaches it the more beautiful it appears. The various styles of architecture of several different centuries, are here united together, though it is very certain there are no remains of any thing that might have existed in Macbeth's time, The square tower in the middle, which appears to belong to the age of chivalry, is surrounded by buildings of more recent date. At Cawdor Castle the bed is shown, in which it is pre tended that King Duncan was murder ed, though the murder was committed in Macbeth's castle near Inverness, no trace of which now remains. An old woman, who shewed us over the castle, and who was herself not unlike one of the weird-sisters, cut off a piece of wood from Duncan's bed and gave it to us as

a particular favour. In the park adjoining the castle we visited the hermitage, namely, a hut surrounded by hills a little murmuring brook flows through it, and it is altogether one of the most romantic spots I ever saw. We passed the night at Nairne, a little town pleas santly situated on the sea-side. On the following morning we set out on our way to Brodie-house. We had scarcely proceeded four miles when my companion drew my attention to a hill planted with young fir-trees, which rose above a heath of immeasurable extent; the latter is called the hoar-moor, and the eminence Macbeth's-hill: it is situated

at a short distance from the main road.

Mr. Brodie has cut down the trees which formerly grew here and there on the moor, and has judiciously planted only the hill with fir-trees, so that it is visible at an immense distance. The whole district has so gloomy and dismal a character, that it has ever inspired the common people with a kind of horror, and few would be bold enough to cross the hour-moor after night-fall. Macbeth's history is not confined merely to the readers of Shakspeare, but is universally known. The hour-moor extends as far as the eye can reach; behind it lies the sea, and in the blue distance the steep rocks, between which is the entrance to the Frith of Cromarty; and in the back ground tower the lofty hills of Rossshire. To the left, on a hill near For res,* Nelson's monument rises like a beacon. On another plain are the ruins of two old castles, and Brodiehouse appears rising above the surrounding trees.

Only in the country which may be called the home of hospitality, can a wandering stranger hope to experience the hearty welcome with which I was greeted at the house of Mr. Brodie. Though a pedestrian traveller, after the German fashion, could make but a sorry figure at the residence of a Scotch gentleman of fortune, where all the ele gance and even luxury of the capital prevailed, yet the kind owner of the mansion warmly urged me to extend my visit to a longer period than two days. For my gratification, Mr. Brodie ordered several dishes peculiar to the North of Scotland, to be prepared for his table. I was particularly fond of the

Shakspeare was well acquainted with the region in which he has laid the scene of his great tragedy; "How far is't called to Forres?" says Banquo on his entrance.

moor-fowl, a kind of partridge, far more delicate than ours, which is only found in the Highlands. They live entirely on the heather, and no one is permitted to shoot them before the 12th of August, under pain of a severe penalty. After that period, however, a general war is waged against them, and the hills resound with the reports of fowling pieces. Oatmeal-porridge is also a favourite mess with the Scotch, but I admired it as little as I did their singed sheep's heads.

On the 16th of August I left Brodiehouse, and its amiable owners, whose kindness will ever remain engraven on my memory. I proceeded only two miles further North, namely, to Forres, from whence I proposed returning to Edinburgh. Forres is a pretty little town, commanding a view of the numerous inlets of the North Sea, along the coasts of Cromarty and Ross-shire, together with a part of the Highland hills. The most remarkable object in the neighbourhood of Forres, is an obelisk covered with bas-reliefs called King Sweno's stone, which is supposed to have existed since the period when the Danes invaded this part of Scotland. The obelisk at present mea sures about 23 feet in height, but it must have been originally much loftier, as in the course of eight centuries the ground may be supposed to have risen considerably. It consists of a sandy kind of stone, and the sculpture with which it is adorned has been greatly obliterated by the rough sea winds. Among the figures only two are now distinguishable: they appear to be extending their hands to each other, beneath a crucifix. The most probable conjecture respecting this monument is, that it was erected to commemorate the peace between Canute and King Malcolm, when the Danes retired from Scotland in the year 1012.

Notwithstanding all that I had hitherto seen in the Highlands, I was not prepared to meet with so desert and barren a district as that between Forres and Blair Athol. Along the road be tween Pitmain and Dalwhinny, a distance of 90 miles, it is only at intervals of 15 miles that any thing in the form of a village is to be met with. The fine road runs across hills on which no ve

getation but heather is visible. The only pleasing objects are the mountainstreams, which unite with the numerous brooks that flow in every direction, and at length assume the form of rivulets.

4

None but the traveller who has wan dered for three days through this barren tract of country, can form an idea of the delight experienced on entering Blair Athol, where he is suddenly transported; to a region fertile as Paradise. The hills which line the banks of the Garry are clothed with luxuriant vegetation, and excellent roads lead from one village to another, which is not the case in any other part of the Highlands. If any man may be accounted happy for what he possesses, certainly it is the Duke of Athol, who owns a spot thus blessed by Nature and human industry. One might almost suppose that the sublime aspect of his domains had imparted an unusual degree of benevolence to his mind. Other men of fortune shut up their parks, and affix to their gates noti fications that steel-traps and spring-guns are kept in readiness, or that trespassers shall be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law*. The Duke of Athol, however, holds out no such inhuman threats. The river Bruar has received celebrity from Burns, who, in the name of the stream, has addressed a poetic petition to the Duke of Athol, entreating him to plant its banks. Dunkeld, about 20 miles distant, through which I passed on the following day, also belongs to the above-mentioned nobleman. From its romantic situation it has justly been pronounced the finest town in Scotland. About two miles from Dunkeld, on my way to Perth, I saw Birnam-wood, which, in fulfilment of the prophecy of the Weird-sisters, advanced to Macbeth's castle at Dunsinnan:-the wood now consists merely of a young plantation of oak trees. It has been thought singular that Shak speare, in his Macbeth, should have confined himself solely to popular tradi tion, without regard to historical truth. According to history, Macbeth died at Lumphanan, in the county of Aberdeen; but this fact does not correspond with

As

* This unsocial excluding spirit of the English was sufficient to render a residence among them insupportable to me. England is an island, so the house and estates of an Englishman form an island in miniature. Richmond, in the neighbourhood of London, is one of the most delight

ful spots imaginable; but here an admirer of threat of spring-guns. The owner of a park Nature is deprived of all enjoyment by the on the banks of the Thames, has gone so far as to fix up a board with the following inscription, "Parties are not allowed to land and dine here!"