IN ONE YEAR'S ANGLING. 213 



1762. Fish taken in the counties of Gla- 

 morgan and Caermar then - - - 3183 



1763. Ditto in the county of Caermarthen 3158 



1764. Ditto in the county of Caermarthen 

 to 23d July, being my last day's angling 

 in the principality - - 



The whole given to the public - 47,120 



" The rich, the poor, the sick, and the healthy 

 have tasted of the labour of my hands. In the first 

 nine months in the year 1751/1 took, in the counties 

 of Pembroke and Caermarthen alone, above a thou- 

 sand trouts ; and, though I have taken trouts in every 

 month of the year since, yet I could not in any one 

 year reach that number. Perhaps I have done it 

 before 1751 ; but I did not then keep an account all 

 the year round, only noted those days in which I 

 had diversion more than common. 



" N.B. There were some pike and chub, eel and 

 flounder taken, which are not noted in the above 

 account." 



Had I the honour, says Sir John Hawkins, of 

 being acquainted with this laborious sportsman, I 

 would possibly have reminded him of that excellent 

 maxim, " Ne quid nimis," i. e. " Nothing too much" 

 The pleasure of angling consists not so much in the 

 number of fish we catch, as in the pleasure of an 

 art, the gratification of our hopes, and the reward 

 of our skill and ingenuity : were it possible for an 

 angler to be sure of every cast of his fly, so that for 

 p 3 



