Laybach, in Styria, is interesting, for having been the retreat of Sir
Humphry Davy not long before his death: he resided in an hotel here, and
the pretty daughter of the hostess relates several anecdotes of him. He
was a most indefatigable angler: his extraordinary success in
transferring the trout to his basket procured for him the title of "the
English wizard;" and the scared peasants, who could never understand by
what artificial means he caught the fish, shunned him as if he had been
his Satanic majesty. He spent the greater part of the day in angling, or
in geologizing among the mountains; he generally passed his evenings in
the company of his hostess' pretty daughter, who made his tea, and was
his antagonist at écarté, or some other light game; and the maid of the
inn played her cards so well, that she secured a handsome legacy from
the philosopher in his will.
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