the most useful are the easiest to be made, and with them I advise you to begin to try your hand. The flies I al lude to are the palmer and the may-fly. When I speak of the superiority of home-made flies, I presume that they possess the following advantages. They ought to be composed of the best natural materials; no dyed wool, or dyed feathers, will answer the purpose, for the artificial colours will be washed off hy frequent wetting. They ought to be made strong, and to be neatly set upon the hook; and particular care must be taken that the gut or hair be so firmly whipped upon the hook as not to draw, or it may slip when pulled by a fish, and then you will lose your labour, and your expected prize-fly, hook, fish and all.

In making artificial flies, do not indulge your fancy, but follow nature. Always lay some natural fly before you as a pattern, and work according to its form and colours. Beat the bushes and boughs of trees that grow near the water, and catch and copy the flies you find upon them at the various seasons of the year. To succeed in this ingenious species of deception, you must provide a copious store of materials, as suggested by the poet Gay, who shows, by his accurate description of fly-fishing in his "Rural Sports," that he was an ardent lover of the amusement. "To frame the little animal, provide All the gay hues that wait on female pride; Let nature guide thee; sometimes golden wire The shining bellies of the fly require; The peacock's plumes thy tackle must not fail, Nor the dear purchase of the sable's tail : Each gaudy bird some slender tribute brings, And lends the growing insect proper wings; Silks of all colours must their aid impart, And every fur promote the fisher's art. So the gay lady, with expensive care, Borrows the pride of land, of sea and air; Furs, pearls, and plumes, the glittering belle displays,

Dazzles our eyes, and easier hearts betrays."

And when you are furnished with a stock of well-made artificial flies, you must, as I have before hinted, strive to be expert in throwing them, and like a good shot, learn to be an accurate judge of distances, and take your aim correctly. This art is to be acquired by frequent exercise, and observing and imitating a good practitioner. Herein books are of no use; and the various treatises on fly fishing can no more make you perfect in this elegant branch of our amusement, than Reynolds's Discourses can make a good painter, or Phillidore's book a good player at chess.

In most works on angling a particular

kind of fly is assigned to each month, in the same manner as particular weather is attributed to each season in an almanack; but I venture to assert, that no fly, except perhaps the palmer and the May-fly, will continue to be favourites with the fish so long as a month. No certain rule, I presume, can be laid down in this case, and your own observation will prove your best guide, when each fly is the most welcome dainty to each fish. Various soils, trees, and shrubs produce various kinds of flies; yet these differ in colour or shades of colour, from those bred in other places. Your accurate eye must mark the distinctions, and make allowance for each locality, or as the naturalists term it, the habitat of each respec

tive insect.

Some Ay-fishers cover the point of their hook with a gentle, and find it succeed. In the early fly-fishing months, when gentles are not to be procured, an Embden grit boiled soft has been found an excellent substitute for a gentle. The grit, observe, must not be so soft as to burst.

Of the nice appetite of the trout I can give you a remarkable proof, which may furnish you with a very useful hint. As Mr. M. and myself were fly-fishing in the Kennet we saw some good fish rise. My companion threw his fly with his accustomed skill, exactly in the range of one of them, but the aquatic epicure was too squeamish to be thus tempted. The fly offered to him was a lightish brown palmer. I suggested it had better be changed for another a shade or two darker. My companion followed my advice, made an adroit throw, and instantly had a rise from a capital fish, which he caught. He was a two-pounder, and in high season. I made a throw with his rod and line, and caught another as large. I am convinced the first fly might have been tried for any length of time without

success.

How successful the fisher may sometimes be in the use of artificial flies I can give you a very remarkable instance. I was not long ago fishing in a beautiful stream at Nunnington in Yorkshire, for trout. My end fly was a natural one, which I caught near the stream, and of course I concluded would be the favourite; my dropper was an artificial black gnat. I saw some fish rise near the willows on my own side; I made a throw, and moved a fish. I concluded he had risen at the natural fly, and so I

tive style; but I was mistaken, for he rose at the artificial fly, and took it. I instantly, on striking him, felt that pleasing kind of electric shock well known to an angler, the instant he has hooked a good fish. He dashed into the deep, then rose impetuously to the surface, leaped out of the water, displaying his elasticity, comely figure, and brilliant colours, and at last I landed him, and ascertained him to be a trout of nearly two pounds. I had the same success with another of equal size, that likewise gave the artificial fly the preference. My friends gratified me by the assurance that these were a brace of as fine fish as they had known to be caught in that stream. They were remarkably thick in their dimensions, and when dressed they were as firm as a salmon, and as red as a rose.

From this anecdote I wish you to conclude, that when the water is a little discoloured, as was the case in the above instance, you may spare yourself the time of catching and the vexation of fishing with natural flies, as it appears that the artificial will answer a much better purpose.

As a word to the wise is said to be enough, and example is more striking than precept, these instances of my experience may supply the place of a long detail of instructions. They may convince you how necessary it is to study the palates, and even the caprice of these fish, and that he who exercises the most judgment and takes the greatest pains will be the most successful.

termined by the shape and size of the head; if the head be long, large, and flabby, the body is generally lean, blackish, lank, and the fish is not worth killing. If the head be short, small and firm, the colours of the body bright, and the crimson spots distinct and lively, the fish is then in perfect health, his flesh is firm, and he is worthy of a place in your basket, and a dish at your table. The same qualities in the fish are requisite for your good sport, as for your gratification in eating.

Of all river fish none are more delicious when fresh, and none more insipid when stale. You will find in angling and cookery books various receipts for dressing them. One of the best is plain boiling, with sauce composed of cavice, catsup, and boiled anchovies. Dress your trout the day they are caught, to give this method its whole advantage.

The following is an approved receipt for pickling trout. Take half water and half vinegar, a handful of salt, black pepper whole, cloves and mace; put in the trout, and boil them altogether over a gentle fire. When sufficiently boiled take them off, and let them stand to cool, and when cold, take them out, and they are ready for the table.

As I am convinced of your unabating curiosity respecting all such subjects, make no apology for writing to you so much in detail relative to the trout, which is certainly one of the most beautiful natives of our streams, and one of the most interesting objects of an angler's pursuit.

as the multitude are wholly incapable of attaining; and even the few whose opportunities are more favourable, can only approximate to the truth. But the social and domestic conduct of such eminent persons is a matter of less difficult investigation; people in general agree in their notions of the filial, conjugal, and paternal duties, the claims of friendship, and the obligations resulting from the various relations of civil life: while the conspicuous stations of public men render their conduct in those relations liable to general observation. Whenever this conduct is such as to command universal applause, the public and official acts of the same individual will usually be approved, or at least attributed to honourable and patriotic

motives; Thus loyalty to the sovereign is strengthened by attachment to the man; and thrones are secured by the virtues of the possessors. Our late venerable sovereign and his consort were, happily for the nation, the most exemplary instances of these principles that ever graced a throne. They now be long to history, and every day new proofs of the excellence of their characters are discovered. We have been particularly gratified by the numerous instances of their benevolence and condescension, as well as delightful pictures of their well-merited domestic happiness, in the Letters of Mrs. Delany, lately published, from which we sub join some extracts; previously to which, however, it will be necessary to state some circumstances respecting the author.

Mary Delany was born May 14th, 1700. She was the daughter of Barnard Granville, of Coulton, Wilts, esq. and niece of George, afterwards Lord Granville. She was first married, in the seventeenth year of her age, to Alexander Pendarves, of Roscrow, in Cornwall, esq. and after his decease to Dr. Patrick Delany, well known as the friend and intimate of Swift, and as a

literary character of some celebrity. Upon his decease, in May 1768, she intended to fix herself at Bath, and was in quest of a house for that purpose. But the Duchess Dowager of Portland, hearing of her design, went down to the place, and having in her early years formed an intimacy with Mrs. Delany, wished to have near her a lady from whom she had necessarily, for several years, been much separated, and whose heart and talents, she knew, would, in the highest degree, add to the happiness of her own life. Her grace succeeded in her solicitations; and Mrs. Delany now passed her time between London and Bulstrode. On the death of the Duchess Dowager of Portland, His Majesty, who had frequently seen and honoured Mrs. Delany with his notice at Bulstrode, assigned her for her summer residence the use of a house completely furnished, in St. Alban's-street, Windsor, adjoining to the entrance of the Castle; and that the having two houses on her hauds might not produce any inconvenience with regard to the expense of her living, His Majesty, as a farther mark of his royal favour, con ferred on her a pension of three hundred pounds a year. On the 15th of April, NEW MONTHLY MAG, No. 80.

1788, after a short indisposition, she departed this life, at her house in St. James's-place, having, nearly completed the eighty-eighth year of her age. Mrs. Delany, among her other accomplishments, excelled in embroidery and shellwork; and in the course of her lifet produced many elegant specimens of her skill in these respects. But what is more remarkable, at the age of seventyfour she invented a new and beautiful mode of exercising her ingenuity: this was, by the construction of a Flora, of a most singular kind, formed by applying coloured papers together, and which might not improperly be called a species of mosaic work.

Extracts from Mrs. Delany's Letters to Mrs. Hamilton.

Bulstrode, June 28. 1779

What a task you have set me, my dear friend; I can no more tell you the particulars of all the honours I received fast autumn from the King and Queen, and eight of their royal progeny, than I can remember last year's clouds,-a simile, by-the-by, ill adapted to the grace and benignity of their manners, that gave a lustre even to Bulstrode, superior as it is to most places. I had formed to myself a very different idea of such visitors, and wished the day over; but their affability and good humour left no room for any thing but admiration and respect: for, with the most obliging condescen sion, there was no want of proper dignity to keep the balance even. They were delighted with the place, but above all with the mistresst of it, whose sweetness of manners, and knowledge of propriety, engage all ranks.

The royal family (ten in all) came at twelve o'clock. The King drove the Queen in an open chaise, with a pair of white horses. The Prince of Wales and Prince Frederick rode on horseback, all with proper attendants, but no guards. Princess Royal and Lady Weymouth, in a post-chaise; Princess Augusta, Princess Elizabeth, Prince Adolphus (about seven years old), and Lady Charlotte Finch, in a coach; Prince William, Prince Edward, Duke of Monta

gue,

and Bishop of Lichfield, in a coach;

Dorothea, daughter of James Forth, esq. of Redwood, and widow of the Hon. and Rev. Francis Hamilton, son of James Earl of Abercorn.

+ Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley,. Duchess Dowager of Portland, en mes མས【 VOL. XIV 2 L

yet" upon which the King came up and asked what we were talking about? which was repeated, and the King replied to the Queen, "You may put Mrs. Delany into the way of doing that, by naming a day for her to drink tea at Windsor Castle. The Duchess of Portland was consulted, and the next day fixed upon, as the Duchess had appointed the end of the week for going to Weymouth.

We went at the hour appointed, seven o'clock, and were received in the lower private apartment at the Castle: went through a large room with great bay windows, where were all the Princesses and youngest Princes, with their attendant ladies and gentlemen. We passed on to the bedchamber, where the Queen stood in the middle of the room, with Lady Weymouth and Lady Charlotte Finch. (The King and the eldest Princes had walked out.) When the Queen took her seat, and the ladies their places, she ordered a chair to be set for me opposite to where she sat, and asked me if I felt any wind from the door or window?-It was indeed a sultry day.

At eight the King, &c. came into the room, with so much cheerfulness and good humour, that it was impossible to feel any painful restraint. It was the hour of the King and Queen and eleven of the Princes and Princesses' walking on the terrace. They apologized for going, but said the crowd expected them; but they left Lady Weymouth and the Bishop of Lichfield to entertain us in their absence: we sat in the baywindow, well pleased with our companions, and the brilliant show on the terrace, on which we looked; the band of music playing all the time under the window. When they returned we were summoned into the next room to tea, and the Royals began a ball, and danced two country-dances, to the music of French horns, bassoons, and hautboys, which were the same that played on the terrace. The King came up to the Prince of Wales and said he was sure, when he considered how great an effort it must be to play that kind of music so long a time together, that he would not continue their dancing there, but that the Queen and the rest of the company were going to the Queen's house, and they should renew their dancing there, and have proper music.

I can say no more:-I cannot describe the gay, the polished appearance of the Queen's house, furnished

with English manufacture.-The Prince of Wales dances a minuet better than any one I have seen for many years; but what would please you more, could I do it justice, is the good sense and engaging address of one and all.

Bulstrode, Nov. 17. 1780.

And now, as I know you take pleasure in what gives me pleasure, and does me honour, I must tell you of our amiable, gracious Queen's politeness, and I may presume to add, kindness to me. She was told I had wished for a lock of her hair; she sent me one with her own royal fingers: she heard, (for she was not askeď for either,) that I wished to have one of Mrs. Port's boys in the Charter-house, and she gave her commands that one of my little nephews should be set down in her list: you will easily believe I was anxious to make my proper acknowledgements, and under some difficulty how to do it, as I am unable to pay my duty in the drawingroom. Fortunately an agreeable opportunity came in my way.

Last Saturday, the 11th of this month, about one o'clock, as I was sitting at work at my paper mosaic, in my working dress, and all my papers littered about me, the Duchess Dowager of Portland very intent at another table, making a catalogue to a huge folio of portrait prints, her Grace's groom of the chambers announced the Queen and Princess Royal, who were just driven into the court: I retired to change my dress and wait for a summons, should her Majesty send me her commands. The Duchess kept her station to receive her royal visitors, and I was soon sent for, which gave me the opportunity I so much had wished, and my acknowledgements were most graciously accepted. The Queen staid till past three, and left us (though no strangers to her excellencies) in admiration of her good sense, affability blended with dignity, and her entertaining conversation. So much propriety, so excellent a heart, such true religious principles, gave a lustre to her royalty that crowns and sceptres cannot bestow. I tell you, my dear Madam, these particulars, that you may partake of that admiration which I know your good heart will feel and enjoy. At the moment you are struck with her superiority, you love her as a friend, which is very rare : though I have long experienced that happy union,

* Mrs. Delany's niece,