THE BRIM.'

Ir you take up the map of Ireland, yen will see Lough Erne lying a little way inland from Donegal Bay, and be able to trace the channel by which the surplus waters of the lake discharge them- selves into the sea by the town of Ballyshannon. The piscatorial topography of the river Erne, with the country, and lakes of the vicinity, and certain fishing exploits thereupon, form the " gentle craft" substance of Rector and Vicar Newland's volume on the Erne. To this are added various legends, some discussions on the religion, manners, and traditions of the peasantry, and several ap- propriate miscellaneous topics. The dramatis personte, through :whom the Matter is presented to the reader, are a parson, a cap- tain, a squire, and a scholar (piscatorially), with sundry subordi testes ; the mode is by dialogue, discussion, and description of ad- 'venture, with enough of narrative to connect the other parts. The Erne has some of the -first requisites of a book—a know-

• The Erne, its Legends and-its Pty.-Fishing. By the Bev. Henry Newland, Hec- tor and Viear of Westbourne. Published by Chapman and Hall.

ledge of the subject derived from experience, and earnestness about the pursuit treated of. The author has a ;lice perception of Irish character, the power of embodying it without exaggeration, and a spice of quiet satire, which he distributes impartially. He is also a man of active habits and vigorous mind ; which will generally be found to give a vigorous tone to writing : and if his ideas and language are not exactly of the kind which a Tractarian divine would approve of, there is no affectation about him. The very term by which the " Rector " of the title designates himself is redolent of old-fashioned simplicity. " Parson " is no longer gen- teel enough for the English Church ; and we suppose a Romanist who called his " priest " by such a name would be subjected to penance, if he escaped excommunication.

The elements of the book are various : the theory and practice of fly-fishing, but rather in reference to general principles than positive rules ; travels, so far as regards description, adventure, and local observation ; legends of a fairy kind ; and that species of writing which is called sketching. The nature of the topics, and still more the dramatic consistency. of the plan, render the manner somewhat free-and-easy, with an intermixture of sporting slang : but the trebling of the scholar is shown in the clear and orderly arrangement which presents the fishing features of the Erne dis- tinctly to the reader; a critical mind is indicated in some judi- cious observations on the peculiar characteristic of genuine legends, and in remarks which display some learning in this class of litera-

ture. The following is a specimen.

" What have the Fairies to do with Friday ? ' asked the Squire : 'in one way or other, that day seems to be worked up with much of their history.' " Why, they have nothing to do with it, said the Parson.; 'and that is the cause of all their wo and all their mischief. There, is a tradition re- specting the Fairy tribes so universal that it would really seem as if it had some foundation to rest upon. It belongs not only to the Irish Fairy and her sister in the Highlands of Scotland, but to the Cornish Pixie, and the German Undine and Gnome, and the Scandinavian Nyssen and his brethren ; and, what is more singular, to the Persian Pen also.' In the war in heaven, at the rebellion of the angels, it is said that the particular circle of angels which belonged to our earth stood neuter • and, consequently, at the final victory, they had neither earned the blessedness of the victorious host, nor did they partake in the condemnation of the vanquished. To earth they had chosen to belong, and to the destinies of earth they were consigned. They are not subject to death like man, but they are not immortal. Their

i

life is limited to the duration of their abode. The hills, the plains, the woods, the springs, the waves, and the breezes, all 118,70 their inhabitants. Some of these localities perish even while the earth exists, and their Fairies perish with them ; but all must be destroyed at the great final crash of the world, and then, when Man rises into life, the Fairy sinks into annihilation. "'From the blessings of Friday, therefore, the day of redemption, the Fairy is excluded ; and the consciousness of this operates in one way or other on the minds of them all. Moat of them indulge in malicious, some in vin- dictive feelings, against the favoured race of man, whom they consider their inferiors, but whose privileges, nevertheless, they envy. The Fairies of the Erne are of a milder and better nature. They exhibit no envious feelings whatever ; but on Fridays they retire into their subterraneous halls, and pass the day in weeping and bemoaning their fate. In few eases they do mischief intentionally except in defence of their privileges or their property, in none maliciously ; but since on that day the upper air is deprived of their presence and influence, on that day their gifts and their curses alike must lose their:power.' "

The subject of angling naturally introduces Irish life appropriate to the locality. There is an outbreak at Ballyshannon : the people, with the approval of the gentlemen anglers, destroy the nets of a company who, taking advantage of an act of ParB.ament, were unfairly capturing the salmon. It is not an English insurrection, where the spirit of determination pervades everything, but a rol- licking, jovial, witty, Irish row. Then there is -a fight between two septs to settle the title to 'an eel-weir, and a description of the feast of drowning the lilies.

"'Drowned a lily ? ' said the Squire, interrogatively. "'Ay, drowned a lily,' said the Parson, quietly ; 'a religions no oeremony in these parts.'

"'What the Devil I' said the Squire ; this is the first I have heard of it

" The Parson loved to get a rise out of his Orange and Protestant friend; so, drawing himself up in his chair in the attitude of a professor delivering a lecture, he began didactically—' The country of Ireland is divided into two religions : that of the higher classes is Anythingarianism ; that of the lower, pure Popery. For further particulars on this subject see Swift, from whom I quote this passage. The principal difference between these two sects is, that the latter worship a multiplicity of saints, (being onlytooglad of any pretext whatever for keeping holyday and being idle,) while. he former, like the Mahometans, worship one only. This saint is William, King and Confessor. St. William was duly canonized by act of Parliament, and in England has had half the fifth of November dedicated to him, but in Ire- land the whole of the twelfth of July. On this latter day, his worshipers walk in solemn procession to the church, where the pulpit (which is the Anythingarian High Altar) is profusely decorated with lilies' the flower sa- cred to the saint in question. This flower is not white, like that dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, indicating her purity, but of a strong brimstone co- lour : what that indicates I do not know • it is, however, always regarded with high esteem and veneration. These lilies, duly consecrated by the ser- mon, which generally is a pretty strong one, are distributed to the worship- ers, who immediately proceed to drown them. This part of the ceremony is, I believe, seldom or never performed in church ; the bell of the flower is stripped from its stein, and is placed, stalk uppermost, in an empty tumbler, where it is immediately surrounded with lumps of white sugar. It is then drowned, or covered with whisk,y, the national spirit, which, when the bells are large, generally fills about three-fourths of the tumbler; water is poured upon the top of this, particular care being taken by the celebrants that it be screeching hot. The whole then is solemnly drained to the very bottom; the leader first pronouncing a set form of words, which, like most religious

mysteries, is totally unintelligible to the uninitiated.' * *

"The author has been furnished with a copy of the oommemoration ser- vice of the great Anythingarian saint, by a correspondent from the North of Ireland. It would be altogether foreign to the tolerant spirit which so hap- pily characterizes the nineteenth century were he to seem to condemn the religious observances of any denomination of Christians ; moreover he is not quite certain that he entirely understands one word of it. Nevertheless. he thinks it advisable to suppress certain parts, which a harshly-judging public might think blasphemous or indecent. The remainder is as follows. The

glorious, pious, and immortal memory-of the great and good King William, who delivered us from Popery, slavery, brass money, wooden shoes, and warming-pane. May he who refuses to drink.this be rammed, and damned, and double-damned, and crammed into the great gun of Athlone, and fired up into the elements, and blown to smithereens, to make sparrow-bills for Orangemen's shoes. May his soul be in the Pope's belly, the Pope in the Devil's belly, the Devil in hell, hell in flames, and the key in the Orange- man's pocket . . . . and a fig for the Bishop of Cork !' "

There is a capital character of Inglis's book, and an exposure of the manner in which most Irish tours are of necessity made up, from the character of the people; but it is long, and away from the subject of The Erne. We will close with the rationale of salmon fly-fishing, which we believe solves a problem upon the matter of artificial flies.

It is strange that such things as this can catch a fish,' said the SSqquire, coming to the window to examine critically a yellow parson which r owan had just turned out. What fly in the whole world is at all like this ? They say that the mixed wing is the dragon-fly, and the butterfly the imita- tion of some possible butterfly; but this is like nothing in heaven or earth. A Mineulman might paint it without offending against his Koran.'

" ' No,' said the Parson, it is not like anything in heaven or earth • but it is very like something in the water—it is like a shrimp, which I imagine to be the food of the salmon when at sea : he comes into the river, is uncommonly at s loss for his usual dinner, when he sees a little dancing fellow with all these sharp-pointed wings, as we are pleased to call them, jumping about in the running water; and he thinks, of course, it is one of his old Mends.'

" I should not wonder,' said the Squire.

" ' I am sure of it,' said the Parson. 'Remember how you fish with twenty yards of line out ; nothing that you could do would keep your fly on the surface of the water, as you do keep your trout-flies, which really are flies, and not shrimps. 'You do not try to keep your salmon-fly in such a position ; half your line is in the water, and your fly six inches under it. And think, too, how you fish a trout-fly : you draw it across the stream quietly, but to your salmon-rod you give a waving motion ; and it is to ena- ble you to do this without wearing a hole in your trousers, that the salmon- rod is fitted with that round wooden button at the butt, instead of a spike. And what effect do you suppose this motion has upon the fly ? It moves in a succession of jumps, like nothing whatever that has life, except a shrimp, but exactly like that. Depend upon it, your fly is a shrimp.'

" I should not be surprised if you are right,' said the Squire. I was remarking the strange, lifelike,jumping motions of my fly the other day, from the top of that rock at the Captain's Throw, and was thinking, that,

though they were the motions of an animal, they were not the motions of a fly."