LETTER VIII.

The subject continued. Anecdotes illustrative of the voracity of the Pike-Instances of their extraordinary size-A French dish recommended. As the pike is the fiercest and the most voracious of our river fish, Pope has thus well described the species:

"And pikes the tyrants of the watery plains." With reference to the well-known properties of other animals, they may be called water-wolves, or fresh-water sharks. Fishes of prey seem designed by nature to consume the superabundant produce of the waters, and particularly the sickly and the feeble; and as they are unlike the human race, who are designed to endure a course of trial and probation with reference to another world, they are best removed immediately out of the way by these ravenous devourers.

I proceed to give you a few well-attested anecdotes, to confirm the opinion you may have formed of the pike as the greatest glutton of all the inhabitants of fresh water:

But

The Glym I have before mentioned as one of the streams that feeds Blenheim Lake. It meanders round the beautifully situated vicarage-house at Glympton. There the worthy rector nourished a brood of ducks, and anticipated the pleasure of seeing them. one day adorn his table with the delicious accompaniment of green peas. how fallacious are the hopes of man! It was observed for several mornings, that the old duck had one less of her brood than she had the day before. This gradual decrease induced a gentleman, on a visit to the rector, to watch the place frequented by the ducks; and on looking at the spot brightened by the sunshine, he saw a large pike basking. He shot the pike, and when it was opened the disappearance of the ducklings was easily accounted for, as two were found in his belly undigested, and it was easy to conjecture in what way the others had been disposed of, and what fate awaited the old one.

The fisherman at Trentham, the seat of the Marquis of Stafford, saw the body of a swan with its neck and head under water. This position did not at first surprise him; but as he observed the swan in the same place and the same position the next day, his curiosity was awakened-he rowed his boat to the place, and to his astonishment saw a large pike adhering to the swan, The

ravenous fish had gorged the swan's head and part of his neck, and the swan and the pike were both dead.

That pikes will devour any of the finny, or the feathered race, and even each other, are facts so well ascertained that they require no proofs of their truth. An old angler informed me, that as he was playing a roach in deep water in the river Wensum, a small pike seized it, and as he was playing this small pike a much larger one did the like. The angler added, that if his companion had been alert with the landing-net, all three fish might have been caught. I assure you I met with a similar occurrence when fishing in Blenheim Lake.

A Yorkshire gentleman assured me that he had caught a pike of a good size with an artificial fly. I told him 1 knew so much of his general voracity, in taking any thing that moves upon the surface of the water, whether ducks, or frogs, &c. as to have no doubt of the fact.

In the fishing-tackle shops in London I have been shewn some large gaudy artificial flies; the wings were made of the eyes of peacocks' feathers, and the tails of pheasants' feathers, and they were armed with large hooks. There is a demand for them in Scotland and Wales, where the anglers will find the pikes will take them greedily when the weather is dark and windy.

But of all the proofs of the accommodating appetite of a pike, surely no one can exceed the following:-As a worthy brother of the angle was fishing for roach with red paste in the Thames above Godstow-bridge, he caught a small jack with that bait. I was present, and unhooked the fish. Was this the effect of hunger, squeamish appetite, or wantonness?

You will determine how unjustifiable it is to kill very small pikes, when you are told the size they will reach. They are taken in Whittlesea Meer of twenty pounds weight. Two very large ones in the course of one summer were found dead, floating on the surface of Blenheim Lake, each weighing twenty pounds. One that was 45 inches long, and weighed 22 pounds, was taken out of a piece of water near Nacton in Suffolk, March 27, 1780, by Mr. Stanley. He seized a small pike by the middle, that had been hooked in trolling, and which he would not quit, but suffered himself to be drawn to the bank, and was taken out with an iron hook that was struck into his side. Pike of the great weight of 35 pounds have been

taken in Winander Mere. Daniel; in his Rural Sports, says, "that pike are in great perfection in Lochdee in Kircudbright, they grow to the size of 20 to 30 pounds, and one of 57 pounds has been caught. They bite at the fly, or line baited with burntrouts, or frogs."

To complete the climax of pikes comes Colonel Thornton. He describes one he caught trolling in Loch Alva, that was five feet four inches long, and weighed nearly 48 pounds. He says it was so monstrous a fish that his land

ing-net admitted only the nose!! We are much indebted to the French for many additions to the luxuries of our tables, exclusive of ragouts and fricasees. They highly esteem various kinds of cold fish, and particularly cold pike. You will find it excellent, whether you eat it a-la-Française with oil, or with vinegar only. It has much of the flavour of cold turbot, or sole, and will be highly gratifying to your taste as an epicure, particularly if you have caught the pike yourself. Experto crede. Farewell.

"I SUPPOSE, Sir," said a London shopkeeper to the Earl of Marchmont, I suppose, Sir, you are an American." Why so, Sir?" said his lordship. "Because, Sir," replied the shopkeeper, "you speak neither English nor Scotch, but something different from both, which I conclude is the language of

America."

This is related by Boswell; and since that time, the Americans have been gradually making a decided progress towards the formation of a separate language.

Amongst all the mutable things of earth, language is perhaps the most unstable. Governments, manners, fashions, rise, flourish, and fade, but they revive again, the same in form and mould a language once changed or perished, can never resume its original character, or live again in its ancient shape. The change in language is certainly very gradual, but it is very sure; and though this progress may be accelerated by adventitious circumstances, centuries may frequently intervene before we perceive any radical alteration. Where the people who have formed one nation become divided into separate states, these discrepancies in language become the more remarkable-like the waters of a large stream, which flowing through the same channel are of one hue and clearness, but when separated into different courses become tinged with various colours, according to the nature of the channels through which they pass. Had America still continued a colony of England, the change would have been more gradual, but still it would have taken place; for we cannot suppose it possible that two

American Song.

countries so far distant from each other, though united by the same government, could have preserved the extensive and constant intercourse on which a community of language must always depend. The independence of America accelerated the change; and amongst the other privileges which her inhabitants claim, as the consequence of such emancipation, is the right to make new words.

The Americans have accordingly thought proper to exercise their ingenuity in this manner; and it will not perhaps be unentertaining to trace the progress they have made in the improvement of the English tongue. The task has certainly been begun, and will as certainly proceed, till the day arrives when Englishmen will read the works of some descendant of Cadwallader Colden, done into English from the original American: or according to the anticipation of Mr. Pickering, in his Essay on Americanisms, "when Americans shall no longer be able to understand the works of Milton, Pope, Swift, Addison, and other English writers, justly styled classical, without the aid. of a translation into a language that is to be called at some future day the American tongue." It is not necessary to say who would be the losers in such

an event.

The Americans have not, however, confined themselves to the coinage of new words, but they have retained the use of many which are obsolete amongst us, and to others they have attached new meanings. The taste for these useless innovations is said to be on the decline. It is only from the literature of a nation that a correct idea of the

language can be formed; for the conver sation of any class of society will not be a sufficient criterion. In the warmth or carelessness of friendly dialogue, words are used which the better judgment of a writer in the retirement of his closet would reject; and there is no class which is exempt from a certain slang, either of fashion or vulgarity. The "Lancashire dialect" would not afford a very accurate specimen of the English language; and it will not therefore be just to insist on certain representations which some travellers have given of the conversational language of America. The dialogues which Mr. Fearon has recorded, are certainly very facetious, but an American would collect without much difficulty, in almost any county in England, sentences equally ridiculous. In England, now ever, our authors seldom fail to produce what may be fairly termed English; but the language of the American writers is not always entitled to the same denomination. The use of words by some persons in a particular sense, to which others attach a different meaning, has sometimes a very ludicrous effect. In this manner the word awful is used in America to signify any thing which creates surprise; and we rather think that in the Scotch dialect a similar meaning is attached to it. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, tells us that in New England many people would call a disagreeable medicine awful; an ugly woman, an awful-looking woman; a perverse child that disobeys his parents would also be said to behave awfully. Indeed every thing that creates surprise is awful. What an awful wind! awful hill! awful mouth! awful nose! In a similar manner they pervert the word balance, (and, if we are to believe their commercial rivals, the thing itself,) using it for remainder: thus they would say, "I spent a part of the evening at a friend's house, and the balance at home.

Half the enemy were killed, and the balance taken prisoners." What a specimen is this last sentence of the attachment of the Americans to commerce! Besides giving a new sense to old words, the Americans have been very ingenious in the invention of new ones, some of them formed on the basis of old words, and others of a completely novel nature. Thus, for diminish, Mr. Jefferson uses belittle; an author is called a composuist; instead of a country being compromised, it is compromitted; so we find Christianization, constitutionality, consternated, customable, governmental, deputize, gubernatorial, happifying, lengthy, and thousand other similar improvements. At the meaning of these words, however, we can make a tolerable guess, for we hear something like them at home; but when we hear of reluct, and scow, and slangwhanger, and squiggle, and clush, and squirm, it certainly makes us look very awful, Anglicè, we feel somewhat surprised. We are at the same time reminded of Mr. Leigh Hunt's ship which swirls into the bay; but more respecting our own naturalization of these barbarisms another time.

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The lines which follow, and which are unfortunately only a fragment, will give a tolerable idea of a few of the slight peculiarities of trans-atlantic phraseology. Should we be enabled to complete our copy, and to obtain the remainder of the eclogues, which we are told amount in number to twelve, we intend to publish them with Souter, of St. Paul's Church-yard, who imports American books. We have heard that in one of these bucolics, the interlocutors are Mr. Birkbeck and all the Five Nations; while in another, Mr. Flower, a young Chikasi squaw, and a large brown bear contend for the prize of skill in the discovery of honey. We have with much labour and research added some explanatory notes to the pastoral.

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It is well known that the late Rev. Sir H. Croft was the author of the life of Dr. Young, among "Johnson's Lives of the Poets." An intimacy with Frederick Young, the son of the author of the "Night Thoughts," enabled Herbert Croft, at that time a young man studying the law, to learn particulars respecting the Poet, which Johnson, it is probable, had no means of obtaining from any other source. The Memoir furnished by Croft, being deemed by the biographer sufficiently correct for publication, he gratified the ambition of his young friend, and his own indolence at the same time, by giving it to the world as he received it from the writer. The following extracts from a letter of Sir Herbert Croft, independently of their coming from the pen of a man of learning, which he undoubtedly was, furnish some other circumstances relative to Young; and an anecdote of the late Lord Camelford, which is not uninteresting. Every incident relative to departed genius is deservedly dear to the public; and there is naturally a disposition to cherish such, in hearts open to the delightful impressions produced by the labours of the poet. A melancholy pleasure is always felt on reading or hearing any thing new regarding a genius who is "gathered to his fathers." The researches of many curious persons who endeavour to rescue from oblivion a jeu d'esprit, a stanza, or some trifle in itself of little moment but for its connexion with a great name, afford society a pleasure, or at least harmless entertainment.

It appears that Croft at one time projected what he denominated a Tour of Utility, during which he meant to have addressed letters to particular friends touching the history of the times; and

that idea was probably not relinquished when he wrote this letter. It is addressed to George H, Esq. at Husum in Denmark, and is dated Lisle, Tuesday June 5, 1804; the writer being at that time resident in France, among the English detained there at the com mencement of hostilities in 1802.

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It is most certain that, during fifteen or sixteen years at least, we have always had to say-"The present moment is more extraordinary than any of which history tells ;"—and, behold, we still find ourselves, on the present 5th of June 1804, in the incredible moment in which we make use of exactly the same wondering language. Bonaparte said, during the revolution of the 18th Bru maire, 'Rien, dans l'histoire, ne res semble à la fin du 18me siècle;" and every hour since has proved the truth of his words, applied to the beginning of the 19th century. We feel, day after day, like Pope's traveller in the Alps, in that exquisite and just simile in his "Essay on Criticism," which Johnson, in Pope's life, calls "the best comparison that English poetry can shew:"2 and perhaps even now, after all that we have seen for so many years after wandering amidst such moving rocks and yawning precipices, and meeting, at every turn, new and loftier mountains, which, if their heads touch the skies, may often be said to take root in Tartarus-our aching and astonished sight has still to discover fresh wonders, and mountains more gigantic and more threatening than those which have so repeatedly frozen the boldest blood. Alas! my friend, may no overwhelming avalanche detach itself, in mighty ruin, from these projecting Alps, and bury,

wood sodio b.

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