The Sun.
London, England, 1834-01-01 00:00:00

FRASER'S MA GAZINE.

Poor Captain 'Ross ! Here he is again—
figuring full length i❑ Fraser's Portrait Gallery,
and exhibiting a phiz which might justify a Polar
she bear in mistaking him for her husband, and
a walrus for its next of kin. What with being
petted— paragraphed caricatured —catechized
—squeezed to the flatness of a pancake in this
drawing-room—stared at as a half tamed mon-
ster in that—our brave Arctic voyager must
have had a sad time of it lately ! Go where
he will, he can hear of nothing—see nothing
but himself. At dinner parties he supersedes
even the weather—at Covent-garden he figures
in a Pantomime—at Leicester-square, he is in
process of painting for a Panorama. How often,
when thawing in some crowded assembly, he
must have sighed for the cold comforts of an
iceberg ! We wonder he has not cut his throat,
or hanged himself to the Admiralty lamp post,
in his seal skin breeches. Of all his public
admirers, however, Fraser has served him the
worst. He has caricatured him to a degree
approaching the miraculous, and squibbed him
in prose of at least equal originality.
" State and Prospects of Toryism" is drawn
up with much skill, by one who has tasked his
utmost faculties to make the worse appear the
better cause. The essay is a failure, of course,
but an amusing one. " The Wanderer's Ro-
maunt" contains one cr two pleasing descriptive
passages, but is modelled somewhat too servilely
on Milton's Il Penseroso. " Thames Fish-
ing," though tamely written, will yet amuse a
large class of readers. The writer is a warm
lover of angling, and strives hard to persuade
us that a fish, with a hook in its gullet, feels just
as happy and comfortable as a fish without one !
He dwells also at some length on the extraordi-
nary fascinations of the sport, though we cannot
for the life of us find out in what these consist.
We have fished ourselves upwards of a dozen
times in the Thames ; but, though we have sur-
prisingly diminished its stock of weeds, we never
hauled up any thing else—with the exception,
indeed, of one remarkably small minnow, which
must have caught itself, for we have not the
vanity to suppose we caught it. Yet we have
heard men speak of angling, just as if it abounded
in all the fierce excitement of a tiger-hunt—just
as if " dabbing for chubs with cock-chafer,"
under an umbrella, ankle-deep in mud, without
even the prospect of a nibble ; or trolling for
pike with an icicle at one's nose, five red sausages
for fingers, and a keen January blast, pricking
cne's face like a pin, were a pastime fit for gods
or sages ! We subjoin an extract from this
strange rhapsody :

I regret to say that the good old times for Thames
fishing are fast declining. This may be attributed to
steam-vessels, which disturb the water so much, that a
considerable quantity of spawn is loosened and washed away
from the places where it has been deposited ; and also to
cas and other nuisanc?s, which are suffered to poison the
water ; and the numerous locks, which prevent the free
passage of fish. Much mischief also may be attributed to
the illegal nets which are used, and to the negligence
of th,se whose duty it is to detect them, and who are
frequently open to bribery. For these reasons the fish in
the river Thames are decreasing in number every year, and
some sorts have quite disappeared—the salmon, for instance,
and the skegger trout, which used to be abundant. Even
gudgeons are much fewer in number ; and those which
have been caught this summer (1832) are of a very small
size. Perch also are rarely to be procured ; and the lovers
of water-soucHe make great complaints. Much might
still Ise done to improve the Thames fishing, if the Lord
Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London would expend
the twentieth part of what a civic feast costs in having the
river staked in many more places than it is at present, and
by having the nets properly looked after. So many per-
sons enjoy the amusement of angling in the river Thames,
who can get it no where else, and so much benefit is
received from their presence at the several villages on its
banks, that I trust something will be done for the protec-
tion of the fish during the earlier edges of their existence.
Persons of every class seem to participate in the amusement
of Thames angling, from the Dike of Sussex to the little
fat cobler of Hampton. His Royal Highness was at one
time a determined angler, and kept a punt at Shepperton
for the purpose. Here he was attended by the famous
' Peter Purdy (poor Peter ! a better fisherman never poached
the Thames), and who invariably answered Yes,' or
No, your Royal Rodney,' to any questions which the
Duke asked. Peter, on being reminded of the great mis-
takes he thus committed, said that for the life of him be
could ❑ot help it. He had heard so much of Lord Rodney
from his father, who was one of his crew, that be could
think of no other name when he spoke to a great man."

" Extraordinary History of a Border Beauty,"
is an interesting story told in his most piquant
manner by the Ettrick Shepherd. " Labourers
in Cities and Towns," puts forth much valuable
practical information. " Notes written on the
Last Day of 1833," will amuse by their
sprightly, desultory spirit. The writer closes
with the following couplet :
Adieu! adieu ! fast wanes the year away,
Soon shall the bell toll forth its parting chime."
That bell is now chiming in our ear. We
have just laid clown our pen to listen to the last
stroke of twelve sounding forth the knell of
1833. Hark ! it has ceased ; and we stand
upon the threshold of a new year !