FISHES AND FISHING. 201 



But a change came over the spirit of my dream ; 

 I was to see a new phase in the art of angling. A 

 physician who had married a lady of large fortune, 

 several years previously, came on a visit of a few days 

 to our house ; this gentleman was a fly-fisher, and 

 almost thought any other way of angling derogatory 

 to him, though he did condescend, on one or two 

 mornings, to go out in a punt, gudgeon fishing. In 

 the evening, the fisherman took him nearly down to 

 an ait on the opposite or Middlesex side of the river, 

 about two-thirds of the way across ; a square stone 

 with a ring in it was then dropped, attached by a 

 rope, from the stern of the punt, which caused the 

 punt to move slowly down stream, and enabled the 

 angler to throw his fly near the osiers ; he caught a 

 great number of chub, from one to four pounds, and 

 one trout of three pounds. I was delighted with this 

 mode of angling, the ne plus ultra of that fascinating 

 art, but I had neither tackle, or knowledge suffi 

 cient ; and other busy scenes of life awaited me, dis 

 tant from my peaceful, paternal home, which I never 

 again inhabited, except upon a visit of a few days 

 at a time. 



In 1805, I became acquainted with a "Welsh gen- 

 tleman, Mr. L,, whose description of fly-fishing for 

 trout and sewin, fired again my imagination ; and I 

 determined to become a fly-fisher. I bought a rod, 



