—is an elegant and commodious structure, either circular or oblong, for the display of feats of horsemanship, poney races, fox hunts, and the exhibition of pantomimes. Mr. Astley's, near Westminster Bridge, has for many years been a favourite resort with the public; but he now finds a powerful rival in the Circus. Mr. Astley's skill in the military art of attack and defence, as well as his superior style of teaching in the MANEGE, have jointly increased his reputation, and encouraged him to transmit to posterity, "A System of Equestrian Education."
ANATOMY
,—the study and knowledge of the structure of the human frame in all its component parts; an accurate knowledge of which can only lead the practitioner in surgery to the most distant hope of eminence in his profession, or celebrity in his practice. A proficiency in the anatomical formation of the horse, is every way as necessary to the success of the veterinarian, as the utmost efforts of skill to the surgeon.
ANGLING
—is the art of catching fish by rods and lines, of different construction, with baits, natural and artificial, according to the season of the year, and the fish intended to be caught. As this sport (if it may with consistency be termed one) is not very eagerly sought, and enjoyed but by few, it will not be much enlarged on here; more particularly as those who enter into the minutiæ of enquiry, and spirit of the practice, will find whole volumes appropriate to this particular purpose. A writer of no small celebrity, in alluding to this subject, says, "FISHING is but a dull diversion, and, in my opinion, calculated only to teach patience to a PHILOSOPHER;" and this most likely is the echoed opinion of every fox-hunter in the kingdom; for it should seem that the simple sameness of angling, and the more noble, healthy and exhilarating sports of HUNTING and SHOOTING, were, in a certain degree, heterogeneous, as it has been but very rarely or ever known, that the enthusiastic admirers of one were ever warm or anxious followers of the other.
The kinds of fish which mostly attract the attention of anglers in the principal fresh water rivers and trout streams of the kingdom, (whether for the sport of killing, or the supply of the table,) are salmon, trout, pike, barbel, chub, perch, roach, dace, and gudgeon: CARP and TENCH may also be taken into the aggregate, upon the score of attraction; but instances are few where any great quantity has been taken in this way, as they are, in general, particularly in ponds, motes, and still waters, too shy and cautious to become the hasty victims of human invention.
Upon the subject of ANGLING, it may not be inapplicable to term it a most unfortunate attachment with those classes of society who have no property but their trades, and to whom time alone must be considered a kind of freehold estate: such time lost by a river side, in the frivolous and uncertain pursuit of a paltry plate of fish, instead of being employed in business, has reduced more men to want, and their families to a workhouse, than any species of sport whatever. Racing, hunting, shooting, coursing, and cocking, (destructive as the latter has been,) have never produced so long a list of beggars as the sublime art of angling; in confirmation of which fact, the eye of observation need only turn to any of those small country towns near which there happens to run a fishing stream, when the profitable part of the pleasure may be instantly perceived by the poverty of the inhabitants.
ANISEEDS
—are the produce of a plant cultivated much more in France, Spain, and Germany, than in any part of England. Those from Spain are preferred; they have a fragrant smell, a warm pleasant taste, with some degree of sweetness. When reduced to powder, they form a principal and efficacious ingredient in the preparation of the pectoral cordial balls for horses, where their virtues are fully admitted. They yield, by expression, an aromatic essential oil, containing all the medical property of the seeds, and is mostly imported to us from other parts ready prepared. Being an article of some expence, it is very much adulterated with sperma-cæti, and other articles, for the profitable purposes of retail, by the secundum artem abilities of the parties concerned. Those who expect any efficacious effects from the aniseed powder, should grind (or see ground) the seeds themselves; for the article sold in the shops under that name, is neither more or less, than the aniseed cakes reduced to powder in the common stock mill of the druggist, from whence the essential oil has been previously extracted.