Discuss'd the fashion which might next prevail,

And settled bonnets by the newest code,
Or cramm'd twelve sheets into one little letter,
To make each correspondent a new debtor.

CV.

For some had absent lovers, all had friends.
The earth has nothing like a she epistle,
And hardly heaven-because it never ends.
I love the mystery of a female missal,
Which, like a creed, ne'er says all it intends,

But full of cunning as Ulysses' whistle,
When he allured poor Dolon :-you had better
Take care what you reply to such a letter.

CVI.

Then there were billiards; cards, too, but no dice ;-
Save in the clubs no man of honour plays ;-
Boats when 'twas water, skating when 'twas ice,
And the hard frost destroy'd the scenting days:
And angling, too, that solitary vice,

Whatever Izaak Walton sings or says:

The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it. (1)

(1) It would have taught him humanity at least. This sentimental savage, whom it is a mode to quote (amongst the novelists) to show their sympathy for innocent sports and old songs, teaches how to sew up frogs, and break their legs by way of experiment, in addition to the art of angling, -the cruelest, the coldest, and the stupidest of pretended sports. They may talk about the beauties of nature, but the angler merely thinks of his dish of fish; he has no leisure to take his eyes from off the streams, and a single bite is worth to him more than all the scenery around. Besides, some fish bite best on a rainy day. The whale, the shark, and the tunny fishery have somewhat of noble and perilous in them; even net fishing, trawling, &c.

CVII.

With evening came the banquet and the wine;
The conversazione; the duet,

Attuned by voices more or less divine

(My heart or head aches with the memory yet). The four Miss Rawbolds in a glee would shine; But the two youngest loved more to be set Down to the harp-because to music's charms They added graceful necks, white hands and arms.

CVIII.

Sometimes a dance (though rarely on field days,
For then the gentlemen were rather tired)
Display'd some sylph-like figures in its maze;

Then there was small-talk ready when required; Flirtation-but decorous; the mere praise

Of charms that should or should not be admired. The hunters fought their fox-hunt o'er again, And then retreated soberly-at ten.

CIX.

The politicians, in a nook apart,

Discuss'd the world, and settled all the spheres: The wits watch'd every loophole for their art, To introduce a bon-mot head and ears;

are more humane and useful. But angling!-No angler can be a good

man.

"One of the best men I ever knew, -as humane, delicate-minded, generous, and excellent a creature as any in the world, was an angler: true, he angled with painted flies, and would have been incapable of the extravagancies of I. Walton."

The above addition was made by a friend in reading over the M3."Audi alteram partem."—I leave it to counterbalance my own observ ation.

Small is the rest of those who would be smart,

A moment's good thing may have cost them years Before they find an hour to introduce it,

And then, even then, some bore may make them lose it.

CX

But all was gentle and aristocratic

In this our party; polish'd, smooth, and cold, As Phidian forms cut out of marble Attic.

There now are no Squire Westerns as of old; And our Sophias are not so emphatic,

But fair as then, or fairer to behold.

[Jones,

We have no accomplish'd blackguards, like Tom But gentlemen in stays, as stiff as stones.

CXI.

They separated at an early hour;

That is, ere midnight—which is London's noon: But in the country ladies seek their bower A little earlier than the waning moon.

Peace to the slumbers of each folded flower

May the rose call back its true colour soon! Good hours of fair cheeks are the fairest tinters, And lower the price of rouge—at least some winters.

DON JUAN.

CANTO THE FOURTEENTH.