THE TROUT. Ill 



Note, the provincial Angler must not imagine that 

 the London Angler is disappointed of a dish of Trout 

 for want of the necessary skill to take them : neither 

 should he too hastily jeer or challenge the Cockney 

 sportsman, for the fact is, that the greatest adepts, in 

 the art of angling, are to be found among the inha- 

 bitants of the metropolis. Although Trout are not so 

 numerous near London, as in the rivers northward or 

 westward, yet there are several killed by angling, 

 every season, in the river Lea, weighing from three 

 to more than ten pounds each. Every other species 

 of fresh-water Fish are found in the rivers and waters' 

 within a few miles of the capital, and thousands are 

 caught annually, with the angle, from one ounce 

 weight to Fish weighing more than twenty pounds 

 each. Here the most experienced and ingenious me- 

 chanics are employed in furnishing the various tackle 

 for the Angler's use. The tackle shops also, for a 

 few pence, supply him with different kinds of choice 

 worms, gentles, greaves, &c., for baits ■■, and there 

 are stage coaches going and coming every hour of 

 the day, near several waters, frequented by hundreds 

 who delight in angling } those facilities enable the 

 London Angler to pursue his amusement of angling 

 with very little trouble or expense, and with the best 

 chance of improvement, from the number of his asso- 

 ciates. Angling has ever been a favourite sport 

 with the Londoners, or, at least, since the time the 

 worthy and respected Father of Anglers, Isack Wal- 

 ton, wrote his admired work en Fish and Fishing ; 



