FISHING— LAKE COMO 143 



a fishing syndicate than the country gentleman hving on his 

 place or river. 



Pliny the Younger possesses, in addition to his appreciation 

 of the various joys of country life, a passionate yet exquisite 

 feeling for beauty of scenery, especially for that round Lake 

 Como, to which his letters recur again and again. 



I cannot, however, conceive him much of a hunter, despite 

 the abundant game which the Apennine or Laurentine coverts 

 harboured, or much of a piscator, despite his notices of fishing 

 on his favourite lake. A letter {Epist., L 6) to Tacitus, who had 

 apparently been chaffing him as a sportsman, frankly admits 

 that although he has killed three boars his chief pleasure in 

 the chase consists of sitting quietly beside the nets, to which 

 the game was driven, wrapt in contemplation or jotting down 

 on his tablets the ideas which the solitude and silence demanded 

 by the sport were wont to produce. 



As a fisherman he took his pleasure, if not sadly, for the most 

 part vicariously. He joyed more, if I read him aright, in 

 watching from one or other of his villas the boatmen toiling 

 with their nets and lines than in a day's fishing, an impression 

 which seems confirmed by his appreciation of the joy of being 

 able to angle from bed ! 



Thus we read in Epist., IX. 7 : *' On the shores of Como 

 I have several villas, but two occupy me most . . . That one 

 feels no wave ; this one breaks them. From that, you may 

 look down upon the fishermen below ; while from this, you 

 may yourself fish, and lower your hook from your bedroom — 

 almost from your very bed — just as from a little boat." ^ 



If the site of the present Villa Pliniana is that of the ancient 

 Villa, as from Pliny's description ^ of the close proximity of 

 the spring (which even now preserves the unusual character- 

 istics specified in his letter) we may safely conclude, the feat 

 of throwing your hook from your bedroom is obviously of the 

 easiest. 



1 Cf. Martial, Epist., X. 30. 17, 



" Nee saeta longo quaerit in mari pra^dam 



Sed e cubili lectuloque iactatam 



Spectatus alte lineam trahit piscis." 

 • Epist., V. 7. 



