ject! and such masterly touches of art, that it is all like an excellent piece of painting. But now I have done my poor draught of the landskip, so let us forward; methinks Dove head is never to come.

ANGLER. Patience, brother, for you have, ere long, something more to see: and now we are passed over the bridge back again into the county of Derby, what do you think of this sudden change in the river? There are high rocks and crags on either side: some have been tumbled down to the bottom in confused heaps, and threaten they will block up the passage.

PAINTER. This makes the Dove more fretful and noisy, and rather than she will be detained in this stony wilderness, she vaults over the crags, and throws herself into a cascade underneath the bridge.-But look to your feet; for I like not this edge of the cliffs, that stand so high. How now! there is another glen joins itself; and, I declare, a rapid stream, as big, or may be bigger than the Dove, and to say the truth, I know not which is our own river.

ANGLER.Then make some guess before I declare it to you.

PAINTER. I cannot resolve you. Methinks that to the right is more like to come from Derbyshire

ANGLER.-Nay, the left hand is our course; the other water, that gushes in her channel with so singular a steepness, is Cooper-Brook; and if you listen, you may hear with what a sweet harmony she welcomes the approach of her future playmate, and pays her willing tribute

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into the streams of the Dove, and is happy to change her own name for another and a better, that is in so great esteem with all anglers.

PAINTER. Here is one of those spots of nature that I love to behold. This is the noblest architecture imaginable; for here are mountains, and rocks, and vallies disposed in a wild order, that is more excellent than the richest ornaments of all Greece: nay, I will not make an exception of the Parthenon at Athens, or the great Colosseum in Rome ;-nor the very pillars of the gate, which was called Beautiful, in the Temple at Jerusalem, nor all the once glorious Palmyra are able to contend for nobleness against these works of nature.

ANGLER. Which is not to be wondered at, since those were builded by man; but the hills have God for their founder: it is HE that weighs the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.' HE it is that can make them break forth into singing, or cause them to be desolate; that can remove them into the depths of the sea, as easily as He caused their highest tops to be covered with the flood, when He opened the gates of heaven.

PAINTER. And for that beautiful structure of the Temple of Zion which was ornamented with so many thousand talents of gold, and refined silver and brass, and a number of all manner of precious stones, that Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle says, was capable of impoverishing the Indies, - and those cherubims overlaid with gold within the oracle that stretched forth their wings, so that the wing of

the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall-where are they now?-they are dispersed as a dream but these mountains shall remain till that hour, when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 'heat.'

ANGLER.-And hath not He declared, (whose coming' shall then be) that Solomon himself, the builder of the first Temple, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one even of those heathy flowers you have in your hand? I beseech you give me that bunch you have plucked, and when I go home, I'll dry them in a book, that I may sometimes call back again to my mind this happy day's journey, and these sweet thoughts amidst the springs of the Dove.

PAINTER. Do so; and I am glad to think that in this manner I shall live the better in your memory.

ANGLER. Trust me for that, brother. But we must not tarry; we must be away for Dovehead.

PAINTER.—I am with you:-but here are more ups and downs than I expected; how long will they last? for I begin to flag

ANGLER.-Cheer up, heart, and follow me; and that I may beguile the length of the way along these mossy slopes that are so soft under foot,-and because you are won to the love of angling, I will perform my promise, and read you that epistle of Mr. Cotton to Mr. Izaac Walton.

PAINTER.- I shall be charmed to hear it.

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ANGLER.-Then listen,—

'Feb: y. 13. 1676.

My deare and worthy Father,

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Supposing you (who are ever so constant to your resolutions) to bee by this time return'd to London, I venture to give you the 'trouble of a letter to enquire how you doe, and whether I may hope to see you here this approaching summer: in truth I long for nothing more than to see you, and therefore if your affaires either invite you this way; or will permitt you to bestow some time upon 'your friends that love you, itt will, without complement, bee as great a satisfaction to mee, as I could allmost wish. In the next 'place, give mee leave to enquire how my Lords Grace of Canterbury does, and my Lord of Winton. The last of which was every where in these parts so confidently reported for dead; that in earnest, I concluded him so, till I received your last letter, which, though you did not mention him in itt, assured mee neverthelesse hee was still living, otherwise I suppose you had had no businesse at Farnham: your owne famyly I need not so strictly to enquire after, because I know you will tell me without asking, so that till I shall againe heare from you, I have little more to say, excepting to tell you y' I have here 'enclosed sent you a ridiculous song I made one day by the River side; that my Lady of

Ardglass is your servant, and joins with mee in the request of seeing you here, together with that old and constant truth, that I am, ' and must ever bee, whilst wee two live,

'Dear Father, Your most affectionate friend, Sonne and Servant,

We are all here very well, that is now wee begin to thaw again: for so nipping a winter has not been for these many years, and yett when the water was frozen up almost, and only a small gullet open in the sharp of the streams, I then killed several Graylings, 16, 17, 18, and 20 inches long with an Ash grub, and no 'more than one single hayre, as severall can wittnesse; and that in their full vigour and best season. My service I pray to Mr. Daniell Sheldon; to whom by the next returne of the carrier I will send some flies and direct them to Sir Joseph Sheldon.'

PAINTER. A very pleasant cheerful letter, and a sure witness to the love these two familiar masters of angling bear to each other's person.

ANGLER.-I would we had that 'ridiculous 'poem made one day by the River side;' which was inclosed in it: but that was not in the possession of my Aldine Scholar; and I am only permitted to hope Mr. Walton hath treasured it up with some others to be hereafter put forth to the world in print.