The volume contains twenty-four engravings; some of which, representing the interior views of the halls, are neatly engraved, and display a few interesting specimens of ancient architecture; but the greater portion of the plates are not only of uninteresting subjects, but so badly drawn and engraved, the t disgrace the book, though at the time they enhance its price. The a however, seem ashamed of their v and therefore have suppressed t names. ART. XIII. Picture of Worthing; to which is added, an Account of Arundel and S ham, with other Parts of the surrounding Country. By JOHN EVANS, A. M. Pp. 118. WORTHING, a small fishing-town on the coast of Sussex, has of late been resorted to by our summer idlers for relaxation and sea-bathing. It had not, however, attracted the notice of a topographer, till Mr. Evans visited the place in July last, and determined to become its historian. Worthing, in the space of a few years, has become an assemblage of lodging-houses, and is furnished with hot and cold sea baths and bathing machines; it possesses two circulating libraries, to supply the longings of the imagination, and two hotels kept! widows of the names of Hogsfles!. Bacon, to scare away the Jews, a.. nister to the cravings of Christia.. machs. The neighbourhood pre but few attractions either to the quary or lover of the picturesque. even Mr. Evans, diligent as he ha in gleaning every scrap of inform which was to be had, has not been to complete his little volume w wandering to Steyning and Arunde ART. XIV. Observations on a short Tour made in the Summer of 1803 to the W Highlands of Scotland: interspersed with original Pieces of Descriptive and Ep. Poetry. 8vo. pp. 208. THIS tourist commencing the account of his journey in Warwickshire, proceeded through Derbyshire, the Craven district of Yorkshire, the picturesque part of Cumberland, to the falls of the Clyde, near Lanark. Hence he went by Glasgow, Loch Lomond, and the West Highlands, to Fort William; then passing in an eastern direction, he coasted the southern shore of Loch Ness to Inverness, and proceeded through the Mid Highlands and Perth to Edinburgh, and re entered England at Carlisle, where journal ceases. We could not have thought it p for a man of education to descrite interesting scenes included in this rary in so tasteless and thorough' interesting a manner as characteriz work before us. The verses, for v not profane the name by calling poetry, are consistent with the re the book, being entirely worthless. ART. XV. A Sporting Tour through the Northern Parts of England, and great F the Highlands of Scotland. By Colonel THORNTON, of Thoraville Royal in Tor 4to. pp. 312. NO man is better known in the sporting world than colonel Thornton. In the republic of letters he is novus homo, an unknown candidate for fame, who has no previous claim to distinction, and must take his rank according to the manner in which he supports his new character. But ill would it become a bench of critics to refuse a stranger a courteous greeting. Stern and unrelenting must be the brow which can meet with a sul len frown, the good humour and hilarity, the frankness and ease, the unaffected politeness of heart, and the enthusiastic warmth in a favourite pursuit which appear in whatever that str says or does. He comes, mort without disguise. He assumes no learned importance, but fairly tel what he is. For the execution of professed design, he possessed every t sible advantage. His fortune enab and his spirit inclined him to cond in a princely style. That nothing be wanting to ensure its success, he b a house in the centre of the most e: sive native woods and the wildest m. tains of the Scotch Highlands, and gaged a cutter to sail from York to res, the nearest port to his intended mèr's residence. On board this vessel he embarked two boats to navigate the lakes, with a complete camp equipage, guns, dogs, hawks, fishing rods, nets, Beans, oatmeal, a captain or master, two sailors, a falconer, waggoner, groom, boy, and last, though not least, we will not say in love, but in esteem and usefulness, a female domestic," whose solicitations to go he could not resist, and who, he thinks it justice to acknowledge, outvied in spirit even the men." One of the boats he named the Ville de Paris, and the other the Gibraltar; for he loves to speak, as well as to act, upon a large scale. Through the whole of the expedition, he accordingly issued his orders in the language of a commander in chief, makes regular returns of the killed in each day's engagement, calls his horses cavalry, sleeps part of the summer under canvas, gives names in honour of his friends to some lakes which are too small to have a place in Ainslie's nine sheet map of Scotland, and speaks with as much exultation of having been the first navigator on one of them, as was elt by lieutenant Grant, whose voyage of discovery we have reviewed in a former part of our present volume, when e had made, what was never before athieved, a successful passage through Bass's Straits from the west. Nor does e forget to tell of what, how much, ed with what glee he eat, after the toils d perils of the day in imitation, no oubt, of Homer's heroes; Whose greatest actions we can find The colonel had originally entertained idea of being a party in the voyage mself, but afterwards preferred a land urney as affording more opportunities employing the talents of Mr. Gerrard, young artist, formerly pupil to Mr. pin, whom he had engaged to draw e different kinds of game, and "to ke views of such scenes as are best lapted to sport." On the 5th of June the campaign comenced, and the sporting army marched wards the place of its final destination, - a kind of circuitous route through dal, Kichmond, Darlington, Durham, wcastle, and Wooleshaugh-head, of all nich places colonel Thornton gives cone and lively descriptions. As yet he seen nothing to call his prowess into in: but when he came to the neightrhood of the Cheviot, which, by a Ass. REV. VQL. III. mistake probably of a transcriber, is mispelt Teviot, our eager sportsman could not resist the temptation to skirmish a little in a stream which takes its rise on the side of the mountain, and which he calls by the same name. Edinburgh introduces him to the society of some old friends; and Glasgow, where he had received part of his education, recals to his memory the studies and amusements of his youth. The neighbourhood of Loch Lomond is the scene of more active operations, and a kind of desultory warfare is carried on at Taymouth, Dunkeld, Blair Athol, and Dalnacardoch, till on the 10th of July the party arrived at Raits in Strath-Spey, opposite to Cairngouram, and not far from the venerable forests of Rothemurchus and Glenmore. The lovers of mountain scenery in all its savage wildness will deeply regret that since the time when this tour was made, the latter has been nearly stripped of its native wood, and in consequence the number of red decr greatly diminished. It was with equal mortification that we ourselves, a few months since, saw advertised for sale the charming woods on the banks of the Findhorn near Dulsie bridge, of which we had lately taken leave with a sigh, extorted from us by the thought that we should probably never see them again, but lightened by the fond persuasion that they would still flourish year after year, to brighten many a delighted eye, and to quicken the movements of many an enraptured heart. The jovial band continued at Raits, or encamped at no great distance, scouring the country with hawks and guns, fishing the streams and lakes, and closing the labours of the day with delicious dinners or suppers, prepared by the hands of "a good cook," and received with a peculiar relish, in consequence of appetites which had been whetted to extreme sharpness by the pure air of the highland mountains, till the beginning of October, when the weather becomiing less pleasant, and the grouse grow ing very wild, colonel Thornton began to think of his winter quarters at Thoru ville, and returned to England by the way of Inverness, the line of the forts, Inverary, Glasgow, Hamilton, Edinburgh, and Kelso. In this route he found some sport in pursuit of game, and much romantic scenery on which he bestows its merited applause; but unaccountably passes over in silence Luch Ee Leven and Loch Creran, which he must have seen, and which afford a more striking combination of beauty, gran deur, and sublimity than, perhaps, any other part of the western highlands. We have been diligent, or, as many of our readers will probably think, idle enough in our perusal of the work, to mark down with our pen the numbers of the killed as they stand in the returns which generally close the account of every day's exploits. And that our labour may not be altogether lost, we will lay the result before the public. Trout, 1063-pike, 135-perch, 191-salmon, 9 -char, 1, caught July 10, in a small lake near Dalnacardoch; an uncommon circumstance, colonel Thornton not hav. ing heard during his stay in the highlands of any fisher who had been so fortunate as to kill a fish of this kind either by fly or worm-eels, 10-moor-game, 882-black-game, 16-ptarmigans, 19partridges, 83--snipes, 6-wild-ducks, 66 mallard, 1-scart, 1-plover, 15-seagulls, 4--dottrel, 1-goat-sucker, 1-raven, 1-sea magpie, 1-hares, 6-rocbuck, 1. This, however, is not the whole amount, for there is no detailed return of some days, when it appears that considerable slaughter was made. As colonel Thornton saw no cocks of the wood (tetrao urogallus) in the forests of Glenmore and Rothemurchus, we may conclude, that Mr. Pennant is right in stating that there are none south of the river Beauley. We were disappointed in the number of black game and ptarmigans, the former of which, at least, we expected would have been found in dance. greater abun Colonel Thornton has a strong relish for every species of rural amusement, but his favourite diversion seems to be fishing; and we were not a little surprised when we read that he employed in it not only the usual implements, but such unlikely assistants as fox-hounds. . Our surprise, however, and the inclination to incredulity which attended it, entirely vanished, as is usually the case, when the matter was properly explained. Our readers shall have the explanation in his own words. "In order to describe this mode of fishing, it may be necessary to say, that I make use of pieces of cork of a conical form, and having several of these all differently painted, and named after favourite hounds, trifling wagers are made on their success, which rather adds to the spirit of the sport. "The mode of baiting them is, by plae i a live bait, which hangs at the end 1: only so slightly, that on the pike's strik line, of one yard and a half long, faste two or three yards more may run off to ena him to gorge his bait. If more line is u it will prevent the sport that attends his and carrying under water the hound; w being thus pursued in a boat, down w (which they always take) affords very e lent amusement; and where pike, or perch, or even trout are in plenty, befors hunters, if I may so terin these fishers, run down the first pike, others ate coming towards them, with a velocity: portionable to the fish that is at them. "In a fine summer's evening, with a sant party, I have had excellent div and it is, in fact, the most adapted, of for ladies, whose company gives a g*** all parties." As an instance of his ardour in t pursuit, and also because it is cnriou itself, we have selected his relation victorious contest with the monarch the stream. July 39.-Day changeable and ster After breakfast went again to Loch i having got a large quantity of five tre bait; but for many hours could not rise. Captain Waller baited the fox-h and as his boat was to be sent fors came down to him, having killed a ve pike of above twenty pounds, the or I thought we had left in the loch. TH tain canie on board, and we trolled to without success, for some tine, mining the fox-hounds, found no them. At length, I discovered one of which had been missing though anx sought for, from the first time of our c I was apprehensive that some pike had here: it was uncommonly well bans 1. 30. underneath a tree, by which means and hound would be lost. On coming » I clearly saw that it was the same one had been missing, that the line was r and, by its continuing fixed in the p the lake, I made no doubt but some strous fish was at it, I was desiror captain Waller, who had not met wo which he accordingly did, when, le success that morning, should take it below the stern of the boat, I saw a t fellow, whose weight could not be less between twenty and thirty ponads. notwithstanding the great caution the tain observed, before the landing-net be used, he made a shoot carrying or yards of cord. “As soon as we had recovered from the sternation this accident occasioned, I on. the boat to cruize about, for the char his taking me again, which I have 1 frequently to happen with pike, wh wonderfully bold and voracious: on il cond trip, I saw a very large fish com da , and collecting my line, I felt I had him terly hooked; but I thought he had run himself tight round some root, his weight seemed dead: we rowed up, therefore, to the at, where he soon convinced me he was at arty, by running me so far into the lake, test I had not one inch of line more to give m. The servants, foreseeing the conseuences of my situation, rowed, with great xpedition, towards the fish, which now rose bout seventy yards from us, an absolute wander! I relied on my tackle, which I tw was in every respect excellent, as I had, a consequence of the large pike, killed the before, put on books and gimp, adjusted great care a precaution which would e been thought superfluous in London, it certainly was for most lakes, though, ere, barely equal to my fish. After playing fe for some time, I gave the rod to captain Valler, that he might have the honour of nding him; for I thought him quite exausted, when to our surprise, we were in constrained to follow the monster early across this great lake, having the wind much against us. The whole party were in high blood, and the delightful Ville Paris quite manageable; frequently he w out of the water to such a height, that angh I knew the uncommon strength of Larkle, I dreaded losing such an extraorery fish, and the anxiety of our little crew equal to mine. After about an hour quarters play, however, we thought might safely attempt to land him, which as done in the following manner: Newret, a lad so called from the place of his vity, who had now come to assist, I ed, with another servant, to strip, and le in as far as possible; which they readily In the mean time I took the landnet, while captain Waller, judiciously nding the hill above, drew him gently ards us. He approached the shore very y, and we thought him quite safe, Wan, seeing himself surrounded by his eneses, be in an instant made a last desperate Curt, shot into the deep again, and, in the tion, threw one of the men on his back. immense size was now very apparent; proceeded with all due caution, and, beJa once more drawn towards land, I tried to get his head into the net, upon effecting which, the servants were ordered to seize his , and slide him on shore: I took all Laginable pains to accomplish this, but in Sad, and began to think myself strangely award, when, at length, having got his at in, I discovered that the hoop of the 1, though adapted to very large pike, uld admit no more than that part. He was, however, completely spent, and, in a few moments, we landed him, a perfect ster! He was stabbed by my directions in the spinal marrow, with a large knife, which appeared to be the most humane manof killing him, and I then ordered all the signals with the sky-scrapers to be hoist ed; and the whoop re-echoed through the whole range of the Grampians. On opening his jaws, to endeavour to take the hooks from him, which were both fast in his gorge, so dreadful a forest of teeth or tushes, I think I never beheld: if I had not had a double link of gimp, with two swivels, the depth between his stomach and mouth would have made the former quite useless. His measurement, accurately taken, was five feet four inches, from eye to fork. "On examining him attentively, I perceived that a very large bag hung deep below his belly, and, thinking it was lower than usual with other pike, I concluded that this had been deeply fed but a short time before he was taken. After exhibiting him, therefore, to several gentlemen, I ordered that my housekeeper, on whom I could depend, should have him carefully opened the next day, and the contents of his stomach be reserved for inspection; and now ordering the servants to proceed with their burden, we returned to Avemore, drank tea, and afterwards went on to Raits, where we produced our monster for inspection, to the no small gratification of the spectators, whose curio sity had been strongly excited to view a fish of such magnitude. July 13-Day warm, went to church, and afterwards had a large party to dinner. Agreeable to the orders of the preceding day, Mrs. C. opened the pike, and sent to us the contents of his stomach, which, to our sur prise, consisted of part of another pike haif digested. The tumour, or bag, arose from his having, no doubt many years since, gorged a hook, which seemed to us bettercalculated for sea than for fresh-water fishing. It was wonderfully honey-combed, but free from rust, so that I cannot doubt its having been at least ten years in his belly. Ilis head and back bone I ordered to be preserved in the best manner I could devise, and the rest to be salted down. "The weight of this fish, judging by the trones we had with us, which only weigh twenty-nine pounds, inade us, according to our best opinions, estimate him at between forty-seven and forty-eight pounds."' Of the sport afforded by hawking the following specimen shall suffice. "We rode, and the falconer attended with a cast and a half of hawks, one of which I took on my fist, and hunted, to oblige Mr. D. with a brace of my pointers. The road, as I imagined, he would find very indifferent: game abounded. I had long resisted the solicitations of Mr. D. to fly a hawk whenever we happened to mark in a poult near us, which was frequently the case. At length we came so near, that I could not deny him this breach of the law, in a country which requires none. I consented. Determined to follow up the bird, a tercel was unhooded, and took a very handsome place, and killed his bird at the first flight. Having once broken the law, grown bolder in iniquity, as is usually the case, we stuck at nothing, and had a very pleasant day's sport indeed; for the hawks were well broke in to ptarmigans, and flew well. We killed twentytwo birds, and had a most incomparable flight at a snipe, one of the best I ever saw, for full sixteen minutes. The falcon flew delightfully, but the snipe got into a small juniper-bush near us, her only resource. I ordered the tercel to be leached down, and I took the other falcon, meaning at any rate that they should succeed with this snipe. When flushing it, I flew my falcon from the hood, the other was in a very good place, and on the falconer's head. A dreadful, wellmaintained flight they had, and many good buckles in the air. At length they brought her, like a shot from the clouds, into the same juniper-bush she had saved herself in before, and close to which we were standing Pluto soon stood it, and so closely, that I fortunately took it alive; and throwing out a moor-poult to each falcon as a reward, and preventing, by this means, the two hawks fighting for the snipe and carrying it away, we fed them up, delighted beyond measure at this noble flight. We minuted them very accurately, both times, when they took to the air, and the last flight was eleven mi nutes; during which time, moderately speaking, they could not fly less than nine miles, besides an infinite number of buckles, or turns. "The falcons being hooded, and the tercel not quite fed up, it was proposed by the falconer, keen after blood, that I should give him a flight with the snipe. This we thought ungenerous, after having afforded us so much sport. We marked him so, that we might know him again, should he ever come into our hands, and gave him his reprieve, and turned him off. He flew very stiff indeed, but would soon recover, as he had received only a very slight stroke from one of the falcons. I once saw a falcon of mine hawking near Thornville, with captain Barlow, at one stroke cut a snipe in two parts, so that they fell separate." The description of the only raven which fell in the whole campaign we think worth transcribing. "As we thus sauntered along by a very lonely spot, a raven, ragged in his plumage, rose quite near me: I shot at him, and plainly saw I had wounded him severely, but he turned round the shoulder of a hill, so that I soon lost sight of him: as I knew he could not attempt to leave the island, I watched my opportunity anxiously, which he perceived, and moved on much cut. Determined, however, to destroy him, we hallooed, when Mr. Gerrard coming up to me, pointed out the place he seemed to light at, and having got near the spot, undiscovered, he rose, and I dropped bin. When we took him up, I think I never, in my life, saw such symptoms of decay, the consequence of extreme old age. All his joints were rotted, and on examining his plumage, we found, by some quills of the last year, that he had not had even sufficient strength of constitution to drive them to their former size. Every symptom convinced me that, finding his powers unequal to procure him his necessary subsistence, he had discovered this island, where he knew he night feed without much difficulty on the plenty of eggs and young water-fowl." But colonel Thornton is not a mere sportsman. He was, by no means, a careless observer of the rocks, the woods, and the waters, the delightful scenes of his diversion. We have, indeed, generally observed that the gentlemen who have a lively relish for rural grandeur are strongly attached to field exercise and beauty. This may in part be ac counted for by the strong association which is naturally formed in their minds between these objects and their favourite pleasures: but it is, perhaps, to be attri buted to the gradual developement of those internal senses which in many cases continue latent through life for want of objects and occasions to call them into action. Nor does the colonel possess merely a taste for picturesque scenery. He has also a talent for clear and distinct description which does not often fall to the lot of professed writers. By a few well selected master strokes he gives a lively picture of the view from Taymouth, which cannot fail to produce a pleasing recollection in all who have ever seen it. "To the west, the eye following the park. is obliged to stop and admire the very elegant subordinate village of Kenmore, and the bridge, over which is seen the noble Loch Tay, its banks covered with wood and comfields. Through these are indistinctly viewed the two excellent roads, leading to Killin, meandering on each side of the lake. At the end of this noble sheet of water, whose ter mination is happily interrupted by the bold breast of a hill pushing itself into the lake, and breaking the lines, is seen very faintly Ben Morc, and following the northern shore, arises the hill of Lawrs. Looking across the park, and appearing to ascend from the river, lost in foliage, rises, in variegated splendour, the smiling bill of Drummond, and above it, claiming pre-eminence over all surrounding objects, is seen the cloud-capt Shebel. lion." The description of the vale of Sper in the neighbourhood of Raits is more finished, and enriched with a greater variety of objects. |