ENGLISH POETS ON FISHING. 133 



the "versification" of the principal subjects of each of the 

 chapters in his British Angler runs off pretty well. This is 

 how he versifies on silk and hair lines : — 



" Choose well your Hair, and know the vig'rous Horse, 

 Not only reigns in Beauty, but in Force ; 

 Reject the Hair of Beasts, e'en newly dead. 

 Where all the springs of Nature are decay'd. 

 Be sure for single Links the fairest chuse — 

 Such single Hairs will best supply your Use ; 

 And of the rest your sev'ral Lines prepare. 

 In all still less'ning ev'ry Link of Hair. 

 If for the Fly, be long and slight your Line, 

 The Fish is quick, and hates what is not fine ; 

 If for the Deep, to stronger we advise, 

 Tho' still the Finest takes the Finest prize. 

 Before you twist your upper Links take care 

 Wisely to match in Length and Strength your hair ; 

 Hair best with Hair, and Silk with Silk agrees, 

 But mix'd have great Inconveniences." 



In 1774 an M.D., John Armstrong, in his Art of Pre- 

 serving Health, like Kirke White, hymns the Trent, and 

 the "Healthiness of Angling": — 



y 



" But if the breathless chase o'er hill and dale 

 Exceed your strength, a sport of less fatigue. 

 Not less delightful, the prolific stream 

 Affords. The crystal rivulet, that o'er 

 A stony channel rolls its rapid maze, 

 Swarms with the silver fry ; such through the bounds 

 Of pastoral Stafford runs the brawling Trent ; 

 Such Eden, sprung from Cumbrian mountains ; such 

 The Esk, o'erhung with woods ; and such the stream 

 On whose Arcadian banks I first drew air — 

 Liddel, till now, except in Doric lays 

 Tuned to her murmurs by her love-sick swains. 

 Unknown in song, though not a purer stream 

 Through meads more flowery, or more romantic groves. 

 Rolls towards the Western main. Hail, sacred flood ! 



