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CHAPTER VI. 



AUTHORS ON FISHING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



The nineteenth century list of English piscatory authors is 

 very different to that of the last, both in quantity and 

 quality. A recent writer on angling bibliography has said 

 that " originality is scarce among them." But we venture 

 to differ with him. The subject-matter of angling, as has 

 been before remarked, is necessarily of a somewhat limited 

 range ; and there must, of course, be some similarity in the 

 works of those writers who treat mainly of it in its purely 

 practical aspect, and especially in reference to the more 

 common branches of the art. Bearing this in mind, we should 

 be inclined, notwithstanding the multitude of angling works 

 which have been published during the present century, to con- 

 sider the diversity of style and matter as a marked feature 

 in the angling literature of that period. Authors, gene- 

 rally speaking, have taken a variety of lines, as they them- 

 selves differ from each other in their fancies for this or that 

 particular variety of fishing, in their variety of experiences 

 and variety of literary bent. Thus readers have a vast 

 choice of works put before them to suit their different wants 

 and tastes — works scientific, descriptional, " informational," 

 and humbly didactic. Moreover, hardly any two anglers 

 will be found to agree as to which are their favourite 

 authors ; at one time, or rather for one purpose, prefer- 

 ring one, and at another time, and for another purpose, 

 another ; or, finding that different authors suit their different 

 moods at different times, or supply the particular reading or 



