INTRODUCTORY. 17 



dit able antiquity. We are not informed who was 

 the first baronet of that name, or upon what occa- 

 sion the title was conferred. The entailed estate, 

 however, dependent upon it, was by no means large ; 

 and were not Sir Amalek a bachelor, and in some 

 respects a thrifty one to boot, the world, that is, all 

 who knew him, might have reckoned his circum- 

 stances to be distressingly narrow. As it was, there 

 was no reason to form any opinions about the mat- 

 ter; the baronet being a firm adherent to celibacy, 

 and parsimoniously renouncing a whole catalogue of 

 small comforts, under the titles of equipage, liveries, 

 fox-hounds, horses, and champagne. 



That Sir Amalek was a doughty angler, no mem- 

 ber of the C h club, save ourselves, ever dis- 

 puted. He was accustomed to talk them all into a 

 sort of belief of his prowess ; and the strong impres- 

 sion which his narrations made upon our boyish mind, 

 immediately after our admission into the club, de- 

 termined us to watch out an early opportunity of 

 beholding some of these wonderful feats we had 

 heard vaunted of by the worthy baronet. Right 

 fortunate we were in pitching upon one among the 

 very seldom occasions, when Sir Amalek thought 

 proper to set up his standard of war against the 

 finny tribes ; right fortunate we were in beholding 

 his huge brawny person, armed with an eight yard 

 measure, denominated his fishing rod, which (al- 

 though even to wield it was quite impracticable for 



