TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

WILL our Correspondent, at Bishop's Stortford, favour us with similar communications during the season? We shall be always happy to hear from him.

The Hunting Song is quite inadmissible: we cannot undertake to preserve and return short articles forwarded upon the chance of their being accepted.

W. C., Edinburgh.-Owing to the peculiarly inconvenient way in which the past month concluded for periodical publications, the paper arrived too late: it shall be attended to forthwith, and we will write to the author.

Whale Shooting reached us long after the portion of the REVIEW for February was made up, set apart for such communications.

We have not forgotten our friend's article on the sports of Ceylon.

Vol. VI. bound in fancy cloth boards, and lettered, is now ready.

HYDE MARSTON;

OR, RECOLLECTIONS OF A SPORTSMAN'S LIFE.

BY THE EDITOR.

CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH-IRELAND IN 1821 (CONCLUDED).

"If noble princes, from foreign places,

Should chance to visit the Irish shore,

Oh! sure it's there that they would be feasted,

As often heroes have been before."

BALLAD OF SWEET CASTLE HYDE.

SUCH an event, it will easily be supposed, threw gloom and melancholy over a party, whose first scene of pleasure was visited by so awful a catastrophe. But the folly of fretting is an axiom in support of which the practice of every man, woman, and child, from the Giant's Causeway to the Old Head of Kinsale, might be quoted as examples. By degrees the clouds that lowered upon our company cleared away, and though I am satisfied all felt in a manner creditable to their humanities, they presently ceased to exhibit any palpable evidences of grief.

Truly, as beautifully, has Gray poured forth his melodious lament, that many a flower is born to bloom unseen.-Unseen, save through the senseless film, the caitiff cataract of a gaping clown, and lavishing a treasury of loveliness on a crew of savages in bitter satire denominated "country gentlemen." If ever there were—

"Cheeks that would shame the morning's break,

And lips that might for redness make

Roses look pale beside them,"

ne.

they were those that gave magic to the smiles of Martha CHer eyes I will say nothing about her eyes-neither of her form (moulded by the Loves, and moved by the Graces); nor of those glorious raven tresses, which, while they shaded, added deeper charms to the alabaster paradise whereon they reposed. I hold my peace about these, lest some malevolent reader-all authors are exposed to the hazard of misinterpretation-might suppose that they had more interest for me than I was entitled to take in them, as a philosopher of Nature. We danced together, and I felt, as she floated through the mazes of the quadrille, that Camilla was, of necessity, no being of fable: we waltzed together, and I felt-but I had rather not state what I felt when we waltzed together.

There is one peculiarity attending Irish society in general-and country parties in particular; namely, that while one feast, or fete, is under discussion, another is being arranged. From morning till night, and from night till morning we did nothing but junket: how we bore it was a miracle. Girls, as ethereal as sylphides, did more hard labour than would have turned a parish of ploughmen to dust; while men and youths impersonated perpetual motion, whereof the medium of action was animal spirits-and whisky. The scene of all this festivity was as sylvan a spot as can be imagined: the house, a villa on a large scale, was replete, with a fair share of comfort, and abounded in the appliances of hospitality. It was situated on a lawn of resplendent green, washed by the bright waters of Loch Melville, while behind, and on either side, spread magnificent woods of oak. In these, at the beginning of winter, owing to their proximity to the Atlantic, muster flocks of woodcocks, of which we have no examples in England. My host told me (without putting any emphasis on the achievement) that the last day he was out, in three hours, he bagged two-and-twenty couples to his own gun. The surrounding mountains of Donegal, Cavan, and Leitrim, were populous with grouse, and, happily for me-seeing it was as yet but July-the waters were by no means without tenants. The lake in front of the house was well supplied with the gillaroo trout, the taste for which cost poor C his life; and Loch Erne, but a few miles distant, offered the best salmon-fishing in Ireland. This magnificent sheet of water is dotted with fairy islets, laid out by the hand of nature for feastings and flirtings al fresco, and if the general practice might be estimated by the example which we furnished, their arrangements had not been made in vain.

Every fisherman has heard of the salmon leap at the falls of Ballyshannon, where the waters of the Erne throw themselves into the Atlantic. The fish are taken with the fly in the still stream, above the falls; and there, at a lovely little retreat, called Laputa, I spent some of the pleasantest hours associated with my reminiscences of the angle. The great fishery, where the salmon are netted in the weirs, is below the falls, and, at the period I write of, was farmed by one Doctor Shiell, who cured both fish and flesh, and scorned not to put his hand to anything that turned the penny. The winter of 1820-1, had been unusually mild in the west of Ireland, and when spring should bring the luscious fish to the Doctor's nets, it became manifest there would be no means of preserving them for transportation to the great markets. Our doctor was no sooner aware of this, than he chartered a vessel of some two or three hundred tons, and straightway dispatched it to the North Seas. The bark duly returned, after as many icebergs had been captured, as it could conveniently stow away, but the collector would not permit

the freight to be landed, until the duty was paid. Now, no cargo of the kind had ever before entered the port, and, as the Ballyshannon tarif contained no sliding scale, reference was made to the Commissioners of Customs in Dublin, and those functionaries being in doubt, again referred the question to the authorities in London. In this state the affair remained, when, one broiling July day, I was introduced to the Doctor, who stood upon the quay while his irreparable chattels were pouring through the scuttles of a brig moored alongside. Drops of agony stood upon his forehead; tears were in his eyes; poor fellow, he was melted, and so was his ice! At the end of a month, when the merchandize had

"Thawed and resolved itself into a dew,"

instructions were received that it might be "landed;" it had already watered itself.

During these rambles, our party was frequently joined by a remarkably handsome roué-looking personage, with coal-black moustaches, and eyes as bright and mischievous as the tiger's. He was a lieutenant on half-pay of the 10th Hussars; rode ruthlessly; would have gone down Niagara with Scott, or up the Jungfrau for a morning lounge. He shot, fished, swam, and skated, better than any other man in the province; in short, he was a rural Crichton, second to none, save in a duel, in which he would be second to any one. His name was A, or rather "Kit" A-, for the prenomen was never omitted, the enfant cheri of his neighbourhood, and probably as finished a specimen of the wild Irishman of condition as these degenerate times have produced. Although generally courteous, with a joke for all people and all occasions, he affected my society more than that of any individual of the company, and seemed solicitous of detaching me from all others, and engrossing me to himself. His horses were at my service; his escort, when I felt inclined to angle; and his suggestions, in every case where his local knowledge or experience promised, in any way, to forward my objects. I was no churl to baulk or reject kindness; so I rode his stud, every individual of it, and we did not spare them. If there was a wall stiffer at one spot than another, or a drain wider or worse at taking off in one place than another, over these "Kit" shewed the way, and I, as in politeness bound, followed him. Trout we compassed by scaling precipices and descending into gullies of mountain streams, where the foot of man had never before ventured, and, finally, he proposed that we should assist ourselves to a sample of young eagles, by robbing a nest in the face of a cliff, about as accessible as the balcony of the monument from the foothpath on Fish-streethill. Now, eager as I was for adventure, and facile of persuasion, this latter proposition "brought me up," as the sailors say, "all standing;"

so, over our wine in the evening, I opened my mind on the subject, to my host. "Not a bad sort of fellow in the main, that friend of yours with the moustaches," said I; "but somewhat too much disposed to vice in general, and to break my neck in particular. I have come to the conclusion that his desire is to bring me to a violent end." "There cannot be a doubt of it," replied my entertainer, helping himself, and requesting me to pass the decanters, "he has had his eye on your attentions to Martha C- -ne, and has never made a secret of his determination to put an end to any man that might cross him in that quarter: everybody here, as well as myself, was aware that he had marked you out from the night of your arrival.” . . . . I felt, for an instant, the sensation one experiences in passing quickly from a warm and cheerful room into the dark, damp cold of a winter's night. It lasted, however, but a moment; so, taking up the spirit of the society into which I was thrown, I continued, "Well, as there is no mystery between us, I may as well declare to you my intentions with respect to him. I have come to a resolution to drown Lieut. A— in the course of this week or the next, as the state of the tide may make it most convenient. I'll trouble you for a few of those strawberries."

...

Preparations had been for some time in progress for a public breakfast at the village of Bundoran, a pretty little watering place on the adjacent coast. The day was very propitious, and as our party descended from the carriage at the door of the hotel, there, lounging on the steps, stood A-, to be gratified by the sight of his mistress supporting herself on my arm, to ascend them. He bowed-we entered, and I presently returned and joined him. "Awfully warm,' said I, "hot enough to grill one; what say you to a bath before we begin business? the tide serves admirably." "With all my heart," was the answer, a capital move" and we departed in friendly community towards the shore.

The broad waters of the Atlantic, as if studded with diamonds, saphires, and emeralds, sparkled far as the distant horizon before us, as we prepared for our bath. We were soon breasting the bright ripples which, breaking in dreamy stillness upon the beach, marked the advance of the tide with a line of white foam that

"Scarcely surpassed the froth of your champagne."

My adversary, for he had not made a dozen strokes when it became manifest to me he was bent on mischief, was a fine swimmer, au fait to the art, and possessing uncommon power and buoyancy in the water. With lusty vigour he stood out gallantly to sea, while I watched his progress and purpose in a spirit that put thews and sinews to the test. I could swim well; better than all with whom I had