26 FISHING TACKLE. 



trouble is its own reward. Pant-fishing and perch-fishing, 

 baiting-holes, and baiting-hooks, appear to the mountain 

 fisherman so utterly worthless, that I do not wonder at the 

 sovereign contempt with which he regards the unprofitable 

 pursuits of the city angler. * 



What a contrast to the Cockney bustle of a Londoner does 

 my cousin's simple preparation for a morning's sport exhibit ! 

 If the wind and clouds are favourable, the rod, ready jointed 

 and spliced, is lifted from beneath the cottage eave, where it 

 "lay like a warrior taking his rest," on a continuation of 

 level pegs. The gaff and pannier are produced by a loose- 

 looking mountaineer, whose light-formed but sinewy limbs 

 are untrammelled by shoe or stocking. Fond of the sport 

 himself, he evinces an ardent interest in your success ; on 

 the moor and by the river he is a good-humoured and 

 obliging assistant ; traverses the mountains for a day, and 

 lies out on the hill-side through the long autumnal night, 

 to watch the passage of the red deer as they steal down 

 from the mountain-top to browse on the lower grounds by 

 moonlight. 



How different from this wild and cheerful follower are the 

 sporting attendants of the unhappy Cockney ! he must consort 

 with " bacon-fed knaves/' be the companion of your brawny 

 jolter-headed porter-swollen waterman, who in sulky silence 

 paddles his employer into some phlegmatic pool, where the 

 disciple of Walton is secure of the lumbago, but by no means 

 certain of a sprat. 



In truth, dear George, I am half ashamed of myself: I 

 came here loaded with rods, flies, and baskets, with the 

 " thousand and one" nameless et cetera furnished from a city 

 tackle-shop, in their uses and appearance various as the cargo 

 of the ark. When I displayed yesterday this accumulation 

 of " engines and cunning devices/' my cousin burst into a 

 roar of laughter, and inquired if I intended to annihilate the 

 fishery?" Then, turning, leaf by leaf, three immense -fly- 

 books over, he praised the pretty feathers, commended the 

 brightness of the tinsel, and good-naturedly assured me 



* " To induce fish to come to any particular spot, boiled wheat, grains 

 of malt graves (from the tallow-chandler's) cut small, should be thrown 

 in plentifully two or three times. A composition of ground malt, blood, 

 and clay is the best for salmojt. ami tro^t : to which some add ivy- 



