Hunting Lore. 457 



fished, nearly every day. I entered it, not so high up as we sometimes 

 do, between 7 & 8 o'clock, & at 12 was hardly more than half 'way down 

 to the meeting house path. You see I did not hurry. The day did not 

 hold out to fish the whole brook properly. The largest trout I took at 

 3 P.M. (you see I am precise) below the meeting house, under a bush on 

 the right bank, two or three rods below the large beeches. It is singular, 

 that in the whole day, I did not take two trouts out of the same hole. I 

 found both ends, or parts of the Brook about equally productive. Small 

 fish not plenty, in either. So many hooks get everything which is not 

 hid away in the manner large trouts take care of themselves. I hooked 

 one, which I suppose to be larger than any which I took, as he broke 

 my line, by fair pulling, after I had pulled him out of his den, & was 

 playing him in fair open water. 



Of what I send you, I pray you keep what you wish yourself, send 

 three to Mr. Ticknor, & three to Dr. Warren ; or two of the larger ones, 

 to each will perhaps be enough — & if there be any left, there is Mr. 

 Callender & Mr. Blake, «&: Mr. Davis, either of them not " averse to fish." 

 Pray let Mr. Davis see them — especially the large one. — As he promised 

 to come, & fell back, I desire to excite his regrets. I hope you will 

 have the large one on your own table. 



The day was fine — not another hook in the Brook. John steady as 

 a judge — and every thing else exactly right. I never, on the whole, had 

 so agreeable a day's fishing tho the result, in pounds or numbers, is 

 not great ; — nor ever expect such another. 



Please preserve this letter ; but rehearse not these particulars to the 

 uninitiated. 



I think the Limerick not the best hook. Whether it pricks too soon, 

 or for what other reason, I found, or thought I found, the fish more 

 likely to let go his hold, from this, than from the old fashioned hook. 



Yrs. 

 H. Cabot, Esq. D. Webster. 



The greatest of Americans, Washington, was very fond 

 of hunting, both with rifle or fowHng-piece, and especially 

 with horse, horn, and hound. Essentially the representative 

 of all that is best in our national life, standing high as a 

 general, high as a statesman, and highest of all as a man, 

 he could never have been what he was had he not taken 

 delight in feats of hardihood, of daring, and of bodily 



