50 AA GLING IN GREA T BRITAIN. 



of the West of England, the sportsmen turn out with one 

 consent to take advantage of the seven devils of gluttony 

 which seem to enter into the strong-minded trout. 



It is a glorious time of the year in which to be abroad on 

 such a quest. The honey-suckle is oj^ening its buds in the 

 leafy lanes, the satin blossoms of the bramble are put forth, 

 the rich meadows are ready for the haymakers, the foliage 

 of the woods is developed upon nearly all our English 

 trees, the wild flowers are spangling field and hedgerow in 

 their glory, and the cuckoo, making the most of the little 

 time that is left for song, " Tells his name to all the hills." 

 But I should say that at no season of the year has the 

 sentimental angler less time than now to indulge in rhap- 

 sodies, for when the green and grey drake are what is 

 technically termed " up," sport will demand all his atten- 

 tion. Lucky he if it make him not a butcher. There 

 was a deal of human nature in that eminent divine who, 

 upon being asked by his friend the bishop when an im- 

 portant work upon which he was engaged would be 

 finished, replied — " My lord, I shall work steadily at it 

 when the fly-fishing season is over." Such a reference, 

 we may be permitted to believe, could only have been 

 prompted by an unusually exuberant " great rise " in the 

 May-fly season. 



And no one has in pithier words described the pecu- 

 liarities of this festival than Charles Kingsley, who, in his 

 ' Chalk Stream Studies,' says : — " For is not the green 

 drake on } And while he reigns, all hours, meals, decencies, 

 and respectabilities must yield to his caprice. See here he 

 sits, or rather tens of thousands of him, one on each stalk 

 of grass, green drake, yellow drake, brown drake, white 

 drake, each with his gauzy wings folded over his back, 

 waiting for some unknown change of temperature or some- 



