MAfiiii 



FINE old grayling fisher stood for his portrait in the 

 ,, illustration to this sketch. The author of the " Quaint 

 Treatise"* is well beknown on most of the Derby- 

 shire streams and valleys, having done good service in 

 getting protection placed upon many a splendid stretch 

 of water, long time left to poachers and other vermin. 



I remember my first introduction to this fish in 

 Izaak Walton. It was in that " quaint " but insuffer- 

 able " treatise " of Moses Brown's — and a more conceited, 

 twaddlesome old duffer than the author of " Piscatory Eclogues " 

 never edited dear old Izaak; and, bad as his original notes 

 are, the engravings are worse ; indeed, they are so bad as to 

 be extremely funny. The costumes of the subjects, being a 

 century too late, are perfectly absurd. Hawkins restored them to the 

 clothes of the period not long after ; but Hawkins did not restore them 

 to the fishing and shooting toggery of the period. Imagine a modem 

 picture of hunting, let us say, with a gentleman going at a bullfinch in 

 patent leather shoes, straight black bags, a swallow tail, and a best cream- 



* W. H. Aldam, Esq. 



