JASPER ST. AUBYN. 299 



a chapter of a novelette now in course of publication in 

 Graham's excellent magazine, entitled Jasper St. Aubyn. I do 

 this not egotistically, nor altogether to save time and trouble, 

 but rather because it contains as correct an account of the 

 mode to be pursued in casting for the Salmon, hooking, playing, 

 and killing him in an English river, as I am capable of writing; 

 and because the variety of the narrative style may possibly 

 prove a relief to the reader, after the drier routine of more 

 didactic writing. 



It is scarcely, perhaps, necessary to add that the mode of 

 fishing for the Salmon in England and America are identical, 

 the tackle and implements the same, and the same flies the 

 most killing in all waters, of which singular fact, and other 

 matters connected with which, I shall say more hereafter. 

 Nor, I presume, need I apologise to my reader for the shght 

 anachronism which has attributed to an ideal personage sup- 

 posed to live in the age of the Second James all the modern 

 improvements and advantages possessed by the anglers of the 

 present day, and all the skill and science which were certainly 

 not to be found at that time in any Salmon-fisher, not except- 

 ing even good quaint Father Izaak, whose maxims on Salmon- 

 fishing, and indeed on fly-fishing in general, savour far more of 

 antiquity than of utility. 



" It was as fair a morning of July as ever dawned in the blue 

 summer sky ; the sun as yet had risen but a little way above 

 the waves of fresh green foliage which formed the horizon of 

 the woodland scenery surrounding Widecomb Manor; and his 

 heat, which promised ere mid-day to become excessive, was 



