other vinegar. (Let me observe, by the way, that the chief art of dressing a salad consists in wiping perfectly dry whatever it is made with, and cutting off the flabby parts from the leaves of the herbs.) If you have no good butter, for your fish, you will find, that with a little cayenne, a spoonful of the liquor from your anchovies, and some lemon, or vinegar, olive oil, and mustard, it will be perfectly good. Nothing is better than a dish of small birds fried, and eat with oil and lemon juice; and if you have no good butter to fry them with, here again some oil must be your substitute. If you have no biscuits to eat with your wine, or, what you may drink for want of it, cut some slices of raw potatoe very thin; have them broiled, or fried, brown and crisp with your oil, and sprinkled with a little Cayenne pepper; but, in dressing them, let the slices lie independent of each other, or they will become soft by fermentation. If you wish for a hash, or any thing dressed by way of variety from plain cooking, you can always give it a flavour, if you have cayenne, lemon, and anchovy. In short, the ingredients here named, as general acquisitions to your eating in comfort, will be found, I trust, some of the most useful; and I therefore need add no more, as I neither profess, nor wish, to gratify the palate of an epicure; but have merely attempted to show, how one man could make himself comfortable, where another would starve, by the foregoing hints to young caterers and young sportsmen. Having now said enough as to taking care of, and providing for, my young readers, we will suppose one of them to have arrived at the miserable hole alluded to, and that the first salutation, after the knock at his bedchamber door, in the morning, is, "A wet day, sir!" and, instead of being able to pursue his sport, either after breakfast, or at noon (the most usual time for the weather to clear up, if it clears up at all), he is consigned a close prisoner to the pothouse; looking alternately to the windward clouds, and the plastered 548 FINISHING ADVICE. walls of the room; hearing, through a thin partition, the discordant merriment of drunken fellows; and inhaling the breezes of a smoky wood fire, with the fumes of their shag tobacco! In such a predicament, then, how can I prescribe for him? and in this predicament, I believe, there are very few sportsmen that have not often been. Why here again, then, I will endeavour to give him a little advice, though I hope he I will not think I am beginning to write a sermon. shall now first observe, that, of all things on earth, to make a man low-spirited, unhappy, or nervous, is to get into a habit of idleness: and, although there are many young people that would pay little attention, and perhaps laugh at me, if I told them that "idleness" was the "root of all evil," yet some, among those very persons, might listen most earnestly, when I remind them, that being nervous or low-spirited is of all other things the most likely to put even a crack sportsman off his shooting; or to make a young angler whip off his flies; or be too eager, and therefore unskilful, in killing his fish. Always, therefore, let him be employed, and think no more of the weather, till his man comes, with a smiling face, and says "Sir, it will do again now!" when, if he is a man of genius, and has proper resources, he could almost have wished for another hour's rain, in order to complete that in which his mind was become absorbed. Supposing the hole in which, for the sake of a few days' good sport, he is immured, contains neither books, nor newspapers, nor even stationery good enough to write a few letters in comfort (which, by the way, he should always be enabled to do, by carrying a quire of paper, and a few steel pens), still there is no ex cuse for his being in sheer idleness. The mere pocket will always contain enough to employ successfully many a leisure hour. If he is studying any thing particular, he may be provided with some little volume, the most useful to his subject. If he draws, he may, at least, make a sketch of the hole he is in, for a laugh when he gets home; or, if in another style, practise according to his fancy. If he is a "musician," and away from an instrument, let him study some exercises in harmony, for no man should be called a musician till he does know harmony. If he is an author or a poet, he can never be at a loss: or, if nothing greater, perhaps he may be a merry fellow, who sings a good song over his bottle, and therefore, on this occasion, by being provided with a "Pocket Nightingale," he may stock himself with songs enough to enliven all his associates on his return. If he is a dry fellow, an enemy to the Muses, and an admirer of only that which is tangible, he may, in his retreat, con over his pounds, shillings, and pence; and be amused with sketching his affairs, and thinking of what will be most to his advantage. But if he is an idler destitute of all resources-why I will not say "Lord help him!"-but- let him help himself. Let me advise him to embrace, in this day, a moment for reflection, and consider it as an example, perhaps of many hours and days he may have to spend, at an age when he has no longer youth and vigour to distinguish himself among the field of sportsmen; and make a determination to embrace some pursuit, that will be to him a source of future amusement; and he will then, I think, have reason to consider this as one of the most successful days on his calendar. LIST OF THE LONDON GUNMAKERS FOR 1844. Ashton, T., 15, Great Prescot Street. Baker and Son, 24, Whitechapel Road. Baker, T. K., 1, Stonecutter Street; and Bury Street, St. James's (patent). Barnett, J. E., and Sons, 134, Minories. Beattie, J., 52, Upper Marylebone Street. Beckwith, W. Andrews, 58, Skinner Street, Snow Hill. Bishop, William (agent to Westley Richards), 170, New Bond Street. Blake, J. A. and Co., 253, Wapping. Blanch, J., 29, Gracechurch Street. Braggs, Robert, 43, High Holborn. Braggs, Robert, 151, Strand. Cherrett, D., 3, Old North Street, Red Lion Square. Child, William, 280, Strand. Clunn, Robt., 2, Little Portland Street, Great Portland Street. Cogswell, Benjamin, 224, Strand. Collins, James, 115, Regent Street. Cook, John, 6, Well Street, Wellclose Square. Deane, George and John, 46, King William Street. Denyer, B., 11, Seymour Place, Camden Town. Dixon, Matthew, and Co., 35, Castle Street, Holborn. Egg, C. and H., 1, Piccadilly. Egg, D., 10, Opera Arcade, Piccadilly. Field, John, Johnson's Court, Lambeth Street, and 61, Leman Street, Goodman's Fields. Fisher, Charles, 8, Princes Street, Leicester Square. Grierson, John, 10, New Bond Street. Grimshaw, Thos., 48, Whiskin Street, Clerkenwell. Groom, Richard, 108, Cock Hill, Ratcliff. Harding, William, 69, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Harker, T.. 13, Bell Street, Vincent Square, Westminster. Hart, John, 14, Princes Street, Leicester Square. Hassall, John, 2, Mincing Lane. Hegley, William, 274, Gloucester Street, Commercial Road. Hill, John, 76, Tooley Street. Holland, James, 44, Great Prescot Street. Jackson, Thomas, 29, Edward Street, Portman Square. Jackson, Richard, 19, Princes Street, Lisson Grove. Keen, Job, 61, Gloucester Street, Commercial Road East. Lacy and Reynolds, 21, Great St. Helen's. Leigh, James, Duncan Street, Whitechapel. Ling, William, 61, Jermyn Street, St. James's. Lissant, John, 53, Drummond Street, Euston Square. London, Edward, 51, London Wall. Long, Daniel, and Son, 8, Old Cavendish Street. Long, John, 8, Allsop Place, Regent's Park. Marnes, J., 31, Cumberland Row, Walworth. |