At Misterton we had a cold north-easterly wind, but a warm reception and a very good field. The Quorn contributed one or two; and, amongst others who came from afar, Sir H. Goodricke, on Mr. Payne's Merry Shepherd. You can scarcely conceive a more magnificent animal. Mr. Rolt was on a grey, in every respect a hunter of the first class. To speak of him as a bottle of champagne, he was " Kenchpremière qualité." We had about ten minutes' real hunting from Sir H. Goodricke's Stick Cover to Kimcote, and on to Little Peatling; it has been magnified to sixteen minutes, but that must include a little fancy work." Whilst drawing the gorse at Misterton, the day opened well for fun, for a Quornite "got off" on his back from a rearing horse, and another having let his horse go, only caught him again by getting him driven into a pit full of water. As Belcher told a nobleman it was a pity he was a gentleman-" such a loss to the prize ring"-Nature never intended that horse for a quadruped; he very nearly cleared the field in a most scientific display. 66 It is nothing new to say that a fox is an "artful animal," but of all the precious dodgers I ever saw I think the gentleman who went away from the Stick Cover was the cleverest. I watched him closely in the gorse; the hounds were not on him, but all round him; he knew where he was going to break, so seating himself in a furze bush, he allowed first one hound to cross before him, then another, till he saw an opening; he then slipped along from bush to bush, ever and anon stopping short as a hound crossed his path, and looking out of the corner of his eye as he saw the pack crowding on his deserted line; having given them all the slip, he took boldly to the open, and we lost him, as I told you, at Little Peatling. The two last fixtures for the open season were on Thursday-Braybrooke, and on Saturday-Lilburne. I was unable to go to Braybrooke, and many who got there in the morning were unfortunate enough to go home before the brilliant termination to the day's sport. I know the country every line of it, and a run across it is a treat not to miss in a hurry. After ill luck during the early part of the day, when even good sportsmen began to yawn, and talk about " outlying foxes" and "as likely to be here as there at this time of year," they drew the covers at Cottesbrook, the seat of Mr. Herbert Langham, an excellent supporter of Mr. Payne's hounds, and whose lady does us the honour of ornamenting our field occasionally. A fox was found, and went away before an unusually small field. O! patience, patience! what a virtue you are! and how you reward your votaries at last! Mr. Payne, a farmer near Harboro', and Mr. Clark, of (I think) near West Haddon, were not the last over the large fields at Naseby. Messrs. Rolt, sen. and jun., with Mr. Payne and his brother, Lord Bateman, and some others, were on quick ones, and went through the racing part of the business-for it was racing, I hear, over the Naseby country. Very little time on the road could be found for catching your second wind. Pug led at a rattling pace on to Guilsboro'; leaving that village on the left, he took very kindly for the Long Buckby country, and was run into in the open, three fields from Vanderplank's, after forty-five minutes of real galloping. Mr. P. Rolt had the best of it, I believe, on his grey horse, which I mentioned just now, with our worthy master, of course; and the whole muster might have included about twenty-five or thirty, who stuck to the hounds throughout. 366 INTERCEPTED CORRESPONDENCE FROM NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. Lilburne, our forlorn hope, proved a failure, for we drew it blankblank as our faces on finding it so. Scott's Hill, or Cott's Hill, afforded a fox, but Hemplow Hill afforded shelter for him. We stuck to our work this time, notwithstanding, and found in Cank late in the day; it proved to be a vixen, and Mr. Payne, like a good sportsman, reluctantly wished her and us good afternoon. Mr. F. Villiers has returned to Sulby; Sir Thomas Hesketh was talking of Guilsborough for next season. May they both be with us, and " may I be here to see." In spite of all the obstacles to hunting, the non-residents must have seen enough of the Pytchley this season to come back again next year. May Mr. Payne long continue the master of this country. You know, my dear fellow, what a pleasure it is to hunt with a gentleman, as well as a sportsman, and though Mr. Payne sometimes expresses his admiration of hard riding in what he himself calls "ambiguous language," long may he continue “ spargere voces ambiguas" over the heads of his followers. It is almost a positive pleasure to be censured by him, from the certainty of the good-humoured gentlemanly manner in which he makes the amende at the earliest opportunity. The hopes of the Pytchley, like every other country, are centred in their resident gentry and nobility, and where amongst them all, good as they are, shall we meet with one like George Payne? He knows his own affairs best, but I believe it to be to him as great a pleasure, as it is to us, to preside over the best hunting country in England. By the way, there was a talk of the covers wanting doing up. Nobody can be done up with money-nothing can be done up without it. There are many in our country who cannot afford to give £25 subscription, and from whom it is never expected, but who, with their one or two horses, get four days a fortnight, and plenty of sport, gratis. I've a great mind to suggest to some valuable periodical, as the N. S. M. for instance, that they should down with a fiver or two or three pounds, according to circumstances, and feel honoured by its acceptance. If you know any of the officers in the district, or parsons in the diocese, give them a line to that effect, or send an anonymous £5 note yourself if you're a gentleman. Perhaps you like a good wind up at the end of the hunting season. Where can you have it in such perfection as at Northampton? and it will be difficult to rival the brilliancy of the late meeting. If you like racing, it was a glorious spectacle to see Frank Butler, on Wolfdog, outride the " poor little boy" on the Euclid colt for the Handicap; two young ones at the end of two miles are no use against him on such a course, though the colt is quite worth backing for the Newmarket Handicap at 4st. 10lb. And if you like beauty, you may stay to the ball in the evening, and see a brace of foxes killed at Nobottle Wood at six o'clock the next morning, as I did not. I confess the beauty overpowered me, and I dreamt of it till twelve o'clock the next day. Our horses are now retiring into the grub state, and our men coming out as butterflies; but when anything occurs worth mentioning, a secret worth knowing, something for your private eating, you may depend upon Yours, very sincerely, SCRIBBLE, April 3rd, 1847. A WEEK'S FISHING IN SOUTH DEVON. (Continued from page 227.) "The team trots merrily o'er the road, Charles." Hollo, George! You seem recovered from your fatigues of yesterday, if I may judge from your merry mood this morning. For my own part, I cannot say I am, for I found following the windings of the Cherry Brook in its precipitous and headlong course rather trying to my muscles. Come along! I have ordered breakfast-trout and Devonshire cream; a better dish I am sure her Majesty never tasted for breakfast; that, together with a mutton chop and some fried potatoes, will help us to eke out the day till six." George." I pray you, Charles, take me where I can indulge my fancy in a pretty sketch. I also wish, if you will allow me, to take a throw with your rod. I have not yet, you know, displayed before you my dexterity. I will not, however, deprive you of it long. Waiter! Charles." That I will right willingly; and now, as we have had our breakfast, let us call for our reckoning, and proceed. bring me the bill. I will pay this, George, as you paid the last... What! 2s. a bottle for cider! In Devonshire, too! Prodigious! Why, waiter, I could buy this cider, even out of Devonshire, for 1s. 6d., and in the county for 1s. anywhere. What is the meaning, also, of 1s. for candles?" We never Waiter.- -" We never had any one complain before, sir. charge less, sir. Our cider is first-rate." Charles. ་ And so also are your charges. If you insist on my paying this, I shall not only never come again to this inn, but I shall also dissuade my friends from coming here; and as I always pay Ashburton a visit once a year, if not twice, you will be the losers. Come, George, let us trudge. Did you ever hear of such exorbitant charges? What could the man mean by charging 1s. for candles? Why, they were not lit two hours altogether! Well, I will never again put up at the Golden Lion,' Ashburton. Newton is seven miles off.' George." You say, Charles, you are going to Newton. Pray, are there any jack there, as I consider jack-fishing better fun than catching these small trout with a fly; the jack are so much larger, and take more time to kill." Charles." I am very happy to say that there are very few jack in Devonshire. There are a few in the river Exe, above Exeter, and in a canal near Topsham. I am not aware of any other river that contains them, and I am very glad of it, too, for wherever you find pike you will find few trout; and let me tell you, also, that trout do not breed in 6 great numbers in rivers that contain dace, roach, or chub, as these fish devour the spawn before it is vivified; chub will even feed on young trout, and are often caught by spinning a minnow. Pike will destroy every kind of fish it can seize hold of, excepting tench and perch; the former is called by Walton and old fishermen the physician of fish,' but on what grounds I cannot say. On the back of a perch is placed the dorsal fin, which has, I think, if I remember rightly, 13 sharp bones in it, which the fish erects at the approach of an enemy. I remember when I was an under-graduate of Oxford, on one of our open days, when we had no lectures, which occurred once a fortnight, going over with a fellow-collegian to Ensham, five miles from Oxford; we carried a tin full of live baits-minnows and roach. I had no strong rod with me at the time, only a slight 10 feet fly-rod, similar to the one I now use, and totally unfit for jack-fishing. On account of previous rain, we found the Isis full and muddy, so we determined to fish in a slack or back water; out of this we killed 11 jack and four perch; the jack were small; I do not think the largest was above 4lbs. I hooked one about 3lbs., and called my friend to hoist it out of the water for me, as the bank was rather steep; he accordingly stooped down, and just as he was about to lay hold of the fish, it sprung out of the water and snapped at his hand. George." A friend of mine, H-(by the bye, you know him) told me that after a flood in some river, in which were numerous pike, the water on subsiding left several little ponds in the hollows of a field; in one of these H- saw a pike of about 8lbs., whose back the water was just deep enough to cover. Our friend thought this an opportunity not to be neglected, so he straddles over the fish, and, stooping down, was in the act of laying hold of it, when the fish, indignant at the insult, springs up and catches our friend by the seat of his breeches. H, terribly frightened, runs off with the fish attached luckily only to his trowsers, and actually pulled the jack out of the puddle. This is a clear case of the biter bit. But, come, what tower is that before us?" There Charles." That tower at the bottom of the hill is Newton. are two parishes, each with a church; a bridge separates them; one is called Newton Bushell, the other Newton Abbots. We are to sleep here to-night, and fish the river Teign nearer its mouth, where I hope to catch a salmon it is the same river that you crossed over at Chudleigh on Tuesday; we are seven miles further down, and you see the river is wider and deeper, with deep pools at the end of the streams. Now, let me see, you fish for half an hour. Ah! you must throw finer if you fish for trout-that splash would frighten them away. There! you had a rise. Strike! Ah! only a lastspring. Try again—another. Below that stub I saw a fish rise, that if you can hook it, will give you some fun. Throw a yard above him, and let your fly float down. Sce! you have got him. Do not be in so great a hurry. Give line, but not too much. Keep the but of your rod as much towards him as you can. See! he turns up. Now, wind up and retreat, and roll his speckled sides over the shingle. Well done! a nice trout of about three quarters of a pound. Now for a dozen lastspring, and then you may make a sketch of a very pretty bridge, with ivy creeping down the arch and overhanging the water. Let me have my rod, and when you have finished your drawing join me below. I shall not fish down more than a mile." George." Well, Charles, here I am. I have made too sketches. Pray what have you killed ?" Charles." Twenty-six lastspring and five trout. I have not seen a salmon rise. It is not yet four o'clock-too early in the evening; however, between seven and eight I may be more fortunate. We will now return to Newton and dine. I do not think you have yet tasted any lastspring; you shall to-day. Come along." you 66 I thought George. I wonder you have killed so few lastspring. told me you could kill any number you liked." Charles." So I did, and so I can; but then I must put a maggot or gentle at the end of my fly, and I am sure to have one. To-morrow we will go up to Chudleigh, where you left your rod; I will supply you with flies, and I dare say my friend Trewman will give us some maggots. Now, let us to dinner. Well, how do you like these little fish?" George." I think them much sweeter than trout, and more delicate. They are so small, too, that you can eat them without fear of the bones sticking in your throat.' Charles.—“ I can tell you that there is as much art in dressing trout as in catching them; and though it is very simple, yet nine cooks out of ten invariably spoil their trout in cooking, because they treat them like other fish. I will give you a few simple rules, which are the very best-Imprimis, trout ought never to be boiled; the fryingpan is the thing. When they are brought home, they should be taken out of the basket, and if they are twisted, straightened; put them on the cold stone floor of the larder singly, not one over the other; to protect them from flies, &c., you may put over them a sieve cover, such as cooks put over cold meat; half an hour before they are to be dressed let the cook cut them open, and after taking out the inside, wipe them clean with a damp towel; care should be taken that a dark line on the back bone should be removed, as otherwise they would taste bitter-I mean the line that appears after the inside is taken out; they should then be laid in a clean dry towel for half an hour previous to dressing. When put into the frying-pan they should be swimming in lard; they will, when sufficiently dressed, come out as dry and brown as soles; if there is not plenty of lard they will be greasy. Cooks should never wash them-it makes them taste watery; scrape them, or cut their fins off. I have tried various methods of dressing them, but never found any succeed so well as the one I have just mentioned. If you will wait five minutes I will come back. I am going to borrow a salmon-rod. Here it is. We will now try a pool or two below Newton-there is a nice breeze, and I may be fortunate enough to have a rise." George." Did you ever catch a salmon, Charles ?" Charles." Yes, I have, and the first I caught was in a very extraordinary manner, too. I was fishing for trout and lastspring in the river Wye, in Herefordshire, in March; the wind was rather cold, and I did not catch much. I saw an old fisherman who lived at Winforton, a village close by--I think he was a blacksmith, come down to the river at a place called Turner's Boat,' a noted salmon catch; he fished over |