y a pleasant walk over sandy knells, covered
with short herbage, which you call Links, and we English, Downs.

But the rest of my adventure would weary out my fingers, and must
be deferred until to-morrow, when you shall hear from me, by way of
continuation; and, in the meanwhile, to prevent over-hasty conclusions,
I must just hint to you, we are but yet on the verge of the adventure
which it is my purpose to communicate.

LETTER IV

THE SAME TO THE SAME

SHEPHERD'S BUSH.

I mentioned in my last, that having abandoned my fishing-rod as an
unprofitable implement, I crossed over the open downs which divided me
from the margin of the Solway. When I reached the banks of the great
estuary, which are here very bare and exposed, the waters had receded
from the large and level space of sand, through which a stream,
now feeble and fordable, found its way to the ocean. The whole was
illuminated by the beams of the low and setting sun, who showed
his ruddy front, like a warrior prepared for defence, over a huge
battlemented and turreted wall of crimson and black clouds, which
appeared like an immense Gothic fortress, into which the lord of day was
descending. His setting rays glimmered bright upon the wet surface of
the sands, and the numberless pools of water by which it was covered,
where the inequality of the ground had occasioned their being left by
the tide.

The scene was animated by the exertions of a number of horsemen, who
were actually employed in hunting salmon. Aye, Alan, lift up your
hands and eyes as you will, I can give their mode of fishing no name so
appropriate; for they chased the fish at full gallop, and struck them
with their barbed spears, as you see hunters spearing boars in the old
tapestry. The salmon, to be sure, take the thing more quietly than the
boars; but they are so swift in their own element, that to pursue
and strike them is the task of a good horseman, with a quick eye, a
determined hand, and full command both of his horse and weapon. The
shouts of the fellows as they galloped up and down in the animating
exercise--their loud bursts of laughter when any of their number caught
a fall--and still louder acclamations when any of the party made a
capital stroke with his lance--gave so much animation to the whole
scene, that I caught the enthusiasm of the sport, and ventured forward
a considerable space on the sands. The feats of one horseman, in
particular, called forth so repeatedly the