A GENERAL SURVEY. 27 



mended for the successful prosecution of the art, and which 

 have of late multiplied to a bewildering extent. I have 

 already declined the duties of guide to localities, and in 

 the same spirit I must put aside the pleasant functions of 

 tutor in the rudiments. Nor would such a role be neces- 

 sary even if it were expedient. There is nothing new to be 

 said about practical angling, after such past masters as 

 Francis Francis, Stewart, Stoddart, Cholmondeley Pennell, 

 Manley, Greville F., Keene, Foster, Alfred, Martin, and 

 others too numerous to mention have had their say. 



Easy, therefore, is my conscience in shaking off the 

 temptations which have beset me to attempt a technical 

 disquisition upon the best method of tying a fly, making 

 and fitting up rod and line, handling it from bank or boat, 

 impaling a worm, or compounding ground bait, except so 

 far as may point a moral or adorn a tale. These are most 

 essential subjects to study and master let no man gainsay, 

 but I will courteously ask the reader to permit me to deal 

 with the subject, in what space remains, in the spirit — if I 

 may employ the expression — rather than in the letter. 

 This, after not a little cogitation, I have resolved to do by 

 endeavouring, so far as in me lies, to conduct the reader 

 through the Angler's Year, making spring, summer, autumn 

 and winter develop the essential types of angling in Great 

 Britain. 



