fkill--This work, and the long walk the author took in order to cull materials to compofe it, have united themselves as the two moft honourable lines of defcent from whence he derived the title of ATHENIAN STUART, accorded to him by all the learned in this country. Upon his arrival in England, he was received into the late Mr Dawkins's fa mily; and, among the many patrons which the report of his extraordinary qualifications acquired him, the late Lord Anfon led him forward to the reward moft judiciously calculated to fuit his talents and purfuits: it was by his Lordship's appointment that Mr Stuart became Surveyor to Greenwich Hofpital, which he held till the day of his death with univerfal approbation.-He conftantly received the notice and efteem of Lord Rocking ham, and most of the nobility and gentry of tafte and power. Befides his appointment at Greenwich Hofpital, all the additions and rebuilding of that part which was deftroyed by the fire there were conducted under his direction; he built feveral other houses in London-Mr Anfon's in St James's Square, Mrs Montague's in Portman Square, &c. &c. Whatever new project he engaged in, he pursued with fuch ayidity, that he feldom quitted it while there was any thing further to be learnt or underftood from it: thus he rendered himself skilful in the art of engraving; likewife of carving; and his enthufiaftic love for antique elegance made him alfo an adept in all the remote refearches of an antiquarian. But in this display of his talents, let me not omit to offer auft tribute to his memory as a man. Those who knew him intimately, and had opportunities of remarking the noblenefs of his foul, will join in claiming for him the title of Citizen of the World; and, if he could be charged with poffeffing any partiality, it was to Merit, in whomfoever he found it. Raifed by his own abilities and integrity, from the utmost abyfs of penury to the moft pleafing condition of refpectable affluence, without fervility, without chicane, without any ftratagem, but by the bold efforts of unconquerable per feverance, prudence, and an independent mind! Reader, can we refrain from his praise ! But with fuch a mind so occupied, and fuch an expedition in the younger part of his life, it is no impeachment to his feelings if they escaped fo long the influence of the belle paffion. We have now conducted him to his 72d year; a time when moft men have fallen fo long into their own ways, as to dread the thought of female interruption, and content themselves with rallying the fmiles of the world upon their fullen celibacy. Mr Stuart on the contrary now found himself the mas ter of a very comfortable income, which he longed to divide with a companion, to whom his long feries of events would be amufing, and whofe fmiles would add comfort to his latter days, of which he always reflected, but did not feel the ap. proach. About the year 1781, being on a visit at Sittingbourne, in Kent, he became acquainted with a young lady there about twenty years of age, whofe perfonal qualifications were the universal admiration of every one who had ever felt the happinefs of feing her. The old Athenian having always ftudied the fine arts, was a fenfible judge and difcriminator of the juft line of beauty. Though the experience of years had increased his knowledge, yet it had not impaired the vigour of his robuft conftitution.-Dif parity of age was no obftacle with the la dy; and Mr Stuart, at the age of feventytwo, felt and returned all the happiness of an accepted lover. The parties were foon after married; and the lady and her father and mother accompanied Mr Stuart to his houfe in Leicefter fields, where the parents found a welcome beyond their utmoft hopes. The fruits of this marriage are four children. Mr Stuart died poffe fled of a confiderable fortune, amafled, as we have feen, by upright affiduity alone, and has left an example to his family and the world to be for ever revered. ་་་ H.A. An An original Letter to F. C. Efq; London, on the Salmon Fishery on the Tweed. Dear Sir, THE Berwick, Oct. 30. 1761 favour of yours, of the 9th inftant, gives me the more pleasure, as it presents me with an opportunity of fhewing with bow much respect I fhall employ my small abilities in answering your inquiries on our Salmon Fishery. Query I. What number of fish may the river Tweed produce yearly? Af. The produce of this river is variable, being feldom two years alike, and for many feasons together unproductive, or the rents ill paid, while another time, for many fubfequent seasons, the falmon are remarkably plenty. To obtain an account of the number of falmon caught in the river Tweed in one year with tolerable accuracy, I have, by the affiftance of a well-informed perfon, collected a rental of every feparate fishery in the river for about fourteen miles from its mouth (in all about fortyone), the rents amounting to about $4001. annually *. The fame perfon also, thoroughly ac quainted with the yearly expences neceffarily attending each individual fishing water, moderately computes the whole charges at 5000l. which together make 10,4001. Now, the number of falmon to pay these annual rents and charges cannot be less than twenty times that fam, viz. 208,000, exclusive of the gil fes and trout. The gilfes are the falmon fry, and therefore of the fame fpecies: for by the best-informed people, this is an admitted fact, that they return from the fea well-grown falmon. In the latter end of the year, the falmon make as far up the river as poffible, in order to spawn; and, when they meet with a place fuitable, the he and fe conjunctly form a hole in the fand or gravel, about 18 inches deep, wherein they caft their sperm together, and carefully cover it over with the fame mate • This rental was taken in the year 1761, Lace which time moft of the leafes have been renewed at an advanced rent. In one inftance, at the mouth of the Tweed, the fac is well known; the leafe, which expired on y a few years ago, was, with avidity, fecured at more than double its old rent, in the propo con, if i mistake not, of three to seven and a half. rials, where it continues till the fpring, if not difturbed by the winter's floods. One of the two roes of the she-fish will, at this feafon, be fometimes twelve inches in length, and fix in circumfeAs to the fize of the milt of the rence. he-fifb, I cannot fay. About the latter end of March, or beginning of April, the young fry thew themselves alive, very fmall at first, but gradually arrive at the size of about four inches in length, and are then termed here fmowtes, or rather, properly, fmelts? though they certainly have no affinity, in shape or hue, to that delicate morfel with which you decorate a dish of Tweed salmon at your London tables. This young fry haften to fea with no fmall expedition. About the beginning of May, the river feems to be all alive. You cannot conceive any idea of their numbers. If a land flood then happens, they are swept away to fea more effectually, as, after it, scarce any are to be seen. Near the middle of June, the earliest of them take the river again; they are then, in this fecond ftage, called gilfes, and are about 12, 14, or 16 inches long. Thus they increase in numbers and fize till about the middle of July, which is, as we call it, the middle of gilfe time, a period much looked for by the induftrious and laborious poor. The method of fishing for falmon is by a net of confiderable length, which the fisherman coils up on the fquare ftern of a flat-bottomed boat, nine or ten feet long, and four feet wide. The net is loaded, to fink at bottom, and buoyed up with cork at top, and in the center of which is a pouch or bofom for the fish to be retained in. With his boat thus arranged, the fisherman, at the proper times of tide, which muft be confulted, pufhes off, and makes his circuit equal to the length of his net, while his friends on thore, or mounted on temporary ftands in the river, are on the watch, with their advice, and with their affiftance, to forward his withes, by helping the fish to, and keeping them in the nets. The number of falmon gilfes and trout taken in this manner is almost incredible. They fwim together in fhoals promiscuoufly, but generally a large falmon leads the van. While they take the river or advance to fea, this remark is the more obfervable, for then the light troups troops appear to be kept under the convoy of the captain of the squadron. Prodigious numbers are every day caught in fome part of the river; sometimes a boat-load or two, on a stand, at one tide. Nay, there was no less than 37 fcore (the way of counting among fishermen), viz. 740, taken fome years ago at one haul or draught. It is common to take near 100 thus at once. It is an object of regard for the far. mer of the fishing-water to procure fervants, with whom he contracts for the season as sharers of, or co partners in a small degree with him, in the profits. As they must often work while their mafter fleeps, interest and advantage will neceffarily excite in them care and vigilance. Qu. II. What methods are used in preparing and vending them? Anf. Moft of, or generally all, the falmon taken till April, or to the fetting in of warm weather, is fent to London in baskets, fresh, or, more properly, raw, unless now and then a vef fel is prevented failing by contrary winds, and then the fish is fetched from on board to the cooper's office, boiled, pickled, and kitted. When the feafon changes, and the weather becomes warm, the falmon is all boiled, and pickled, and fent up to London in kits * of about 18 pounds weight, and in half kits, when it often fetches a very high price. About the middle of July, the London market being overstocked, and the demand lefs, they fend only a part thi ther, thus boiled, pickled, and kitted†. The Berwick coopers, about twenty in number, during this plentiful feason, falt down the overflow of fish in cafks, for a foreign market. They have also another way, which they have newly adopted, of preparing * The fish-cooper selects fome of his best fifh for kits and half kits, as presents, or, as we call them, token kits. A half-kit ufually confifts of two joles, four middle pieces, and a tail piece; that is to fay, a whole fish fplit down the chine. The fame method of filling is, I believe, attended to in the kit ̧ To make which lie compact in the fmall compafs of this kit, he takes from off the edge of the chine of the fresh fish a flice, or as it is called, pleeten, quafi fplitting. This offal, when well dreffed, and garnished with the roe, or rowen, makes a difh in the early part of the feafon much admired. falmon with fpi es, and other aromatics, which they alfo fend abroad under the name of spiced falmon. The dried falmon should also be mentioned, by which they dispose of very many. They are fplit down the chine, laid open, and falted for many days; then tied by the head, and hung up in an airy place, shaded from the fun, till quite dry. They are dried with the head upward, for one obvious reason, viz. that the effential oil and the juices of the fish, more abundant in the head and jole, and on which its true favour depends, are thus preserved in its inte. rior fubftance. In a contrary pofition, it would, from the head, foon be loft, and much injure its preservation, if not, in clofe and warm weather, even prevent its cure. They have the name of kippered falmon, and are fold in London for 9d 10d. and I. per pound. Qu. III. What is the fishing season in the Tweed? Anf. The feafon for fishing commences on the 30th of November, the feaft of St Andrew, and ends on Michaelmas day, though the corporation grant the indulgence of a fortnight longer, on account of the change of the ftyle; but it may be observed, that the fishing feafon begins much too early, as the interval of fix weeks is furely too fhort a time for the operations now carried on in the obfcure receffes of our prolific river, by which means we fee brought to market, what is not only in itself unwholfome, but injurious to the commerce and advantages of this eorporation. N. B. The season is now altered; it commences the 30th of January, and ends the 30th of October. Qu. IV. What is the general price of falmon at Berwick? Anf. As to the price of falmon at feafon they are very high; a good found the river-fide; in the beginning of the will fetch IS. 15. 3d. and Is. 6d. per fish (for fome at this time are not fo) pound: if a veffel is ready to fail for London, with a fair wind, for every thing here points to the metropolis, the buyer will fpeculate very high, and even advance upon Is. 6d. Moft of the time that falmon is fent away fresh, the prices are from 9s. down to gs. per ftone, dependent on the profpects of a tair wind for London, and the plenty of fish caught. When When the hot feafon comes in, and falmon can no longer be fent fresh up to town, and even pickled salmon is lefs in request there, we have it here fold for 12 d. 10 d. and 8 d. per ftone, which is less than one halfpenny per pound, as a stone of falmon is 18 lb. 10 oz. Averdupois; for 4 ftone, or 56 lb. Averdupois, is only 3 ftone or 42 lb. fish weight; though I must obferve, that this last year they were never less than 16 d. a-stone, and mostly 2 s. and. 2 s. 6 d. through the year. [P.S. Jan. 1788. For some years paft the Tweed Fisheries have been thought to be on the decline, but this laft feafon has lighted up joy and chearfulness on the banks of the Tweed. They have taken more fish; but for thefe twenty years, in a good feafon, they never had better prices.] Qu. V. Are not what we call falmontrout the young falmon? Anf. I am now to answer your enquiries on our trout, which you commonly call falmon-trout, from a popular opinion that they become falmon. This idea is univerfally deemed ill-founded. They are called here whitlings, and are certainly a diftinct fpecies of fish. The proprietors of our London fmacks fend them thither in the wells of their veffels, being apartments fo conftructed in the bottom of the fhip as to convey them to Billingsgate alive. The whitlings are contracted for by the feafon with the farmers of the fishing waters at the rate of 6 d. a-piece large and small, when they provide corves, or small hulks, full of holes, to He at the water's edge, for the fishermen to keep them in, till they are sent for by a double, or boat with a well in it, to convey them to the fmack's well, which they do not fail to do once every day, if not every tide. The whitling is like the falmon in the fcales, fhape, and colour of the fish. Their flavour, when fresh taken, and well dreffed, is most delicious; and, I am told, much fuperior to any trout in this kingdom; the much-talked-of Ford wich trout, of the Stour, near Canterbury, not excepted. They are thought here to be peculiar only to the main body of the river Tweed, and not generated in, or frequenting, its branches, as they are feldom feen in the Whitater, the Till, or any of the higher branches of his river. There is in the Tweed another kind VOL. L. of trout, called the bull-trout, of a large fize and proportionably longer than the whitling. This trout is only found in the months of January and February; it is often a dozen of pounds in weight, and is fold in London, in these early months, for falmon. It is inferior in quality to the whitling, being lefs firm, and of a paler colour. From the above sketch of the hiftory of the falmon, it would appear, that he arrives at a state of perfection and maturity in twelve months. To accomplish which, he goes down twice to refresh and depurate himself in the fea; first, as a fmowte, he becomes a gilfe; fecondly, as a gilse, he becomes a falmon. Studious as I am of informing myself from the old and judicious fishermen, I do not find that it can be queftioned, whether a fish of a year old is not ma ture enough to ftore the river with its own fpecies. This at beft is matter of conjecture only. But, were it not the cafe, when we confider the torrents of rain, hail, and fnow, to which our northern climate is exposed in the win ter months, and during which those beds of half-formed embryo are so liable to be fwept away, it must be many years before our rivers could be replenished. May not the bad feafons we have for. merly had be attributed to the injuries the river has sustained in the winter? Gent. Mag. Obfervations on an ASYLUM for NATU RAL CHILDREN SIR, IT is much to be lamented that perni. cious inftitutions are generally fuffered to prevail for a confiderable length of time, and confequently to do infinite mifchief, before any attempt is made to fupprefs them. It feems to be thought below the dignity of the legislature to interpofe but where fome very dreadful effects have appeared, and nothing less than a very extensive evil is esteemed dignus vindice nodus. And yet this false dignity is as ridiculous as would be that of a phylician, who should never condefcend to administer a remedy to his patients, till he difcovered in them the moft alarming symptoms, and who would deign to refcue none from death, but those to whom life was become a burden. I have been led, Sir, to make thefe reflections by reading an advertisement, which appeared on the first day of the prefent year, and may, for aught I know, K have 66 Afylum for Natural Children. have appeared much oftener, in one of the morning papers; and which, that I may be guilty of no misrepresentation, I will ftate in the very words in which I find it. "TO THE PUBLIC. "There is opened an asylum for the reception of natural children, where the parents of fuch children may have an opportunity of placing them out for life, by paying a premium of fifteen guineas with the delivery of the child. Farther particulars may be known by applying to ****." The place at which the inquiry is to be made, is an alehouse in Whitechapel; and left the fum of fifteen guineas fhould. be a larger confideration than fome parents are able immediately to pay for being relieved of their children for life, a poftfcript is subjoined, hinting, that means are adopted for the accommodation of those who are not able to pay down the premium in ready money. What is intended to be done with the miferable infants for whom a price is thus bid, is not difcovered; but what may probably be done with them muft be obvious to those who confider, that the more children so purchased die, and the fooner too they die, the better for the proprietor of this inftitution; and that the public has no kind of fecurity, that he who is to have thefe children wholly at his mercy, and to whom their deaths will prove fo fortunate, is likely to have much fcruple about becoming faber fuæ fortunæ. Perhaps it will be faid, that this inftitution is not likely ever to have much fuccefs, and that therefore it fafely may be left to die away of itself. But furely, however fmall be its fuccefs, if only twenty children, nay, if but a fingle child is likely to fall a victim to it, there is fufficient reafon for its being crushed in its origin.- And why are we to fuppofe that this project, if tolerated, will meet with no encouragement? Is it upon the romantic idea, that no parents can be fo unnatural as to become accom. plices in the deftruction of their own Children? If this be an idea fit to be adopted by the legislature, why have they made laws to punish the murder of children by their mothers? Laws which unfortunately feldom remain for any long period of time unexecnted. And if there be found parents capable, not only of confenting to the deftruction of their offspring, but of becoming them Lord Defkford's Studies. Vol. fo. felves the immediate authors of that deftruction, how many more may it not be reasonably fuppofed there are, who would be glad to attain the fame ends by means less direct and less revolting to human nature? This inftitution is indeed the more dangerous for this very reason, that all its danger is not immediately apparent, and that its fatal tendency will not neceffarily ftrike all who hear of it. Thofe parents who in fome of the ancient republics were permitted to expose their children, frequently ad opted that practice, because they always faw a poffibility of their childrens being faved from deftruction, although they were exposed; and it is more than probable, that if in those states a law had been made, forbidding the expofition of children, but empowering parents to murder them at their birth, it would have been the cause of saving many lives. But admitting, for the fake of argument, what a melancholy experience difproves, that parental affection is in all cafes a better fafeguard for the lives of infants than any which the law can provide, ftill the objections to this inftitu. tion are by no means removed; becaufe there are many infants who are wholly dependant upon remote relations or total ftrangers. Thofe who know in what manner the poor-laws of this country are commonly executed, will eafily un derftand my meaning; but I forbear to explain it farther, left I should fuggest crimes to those who would have no fcruple to commit them, and cause the very evils which I am most anxious to prevent. Short HINTS given to Lord Defkford, go ing to begin his education at Oxford. N. B Befides the books mentioned in the body of the page, thofe fet down in the notes may be of use. Should be diffident in giving my ad vice to a young Nobleman where my affections are concerned, for fear of drawing him into a mistaken course of ftudy. But yet, as my affections urge me strong, ly, I will hazard even my judgement, though I may fail, notwithstanding my earnest defire to be of fome fort of fervice to a friend and a relation. My judgement, as far as it goes with regard to a young Nobleman who is a ftranger to public education, to Greek and compofition, is this: that his ambition fhould be carried forward towards the greater lines of public life, by fuch methods |