1 24 Rambles with a Fishing-Rod. 



Hampshire or seek some Scottish river, pass 

 by the excellent streams and lakes which 

 abound throughout the Continent. The angler, 

 with a martyr-like resignation, thinks only 

 with a sigh of the trout feeding beneath the 

 old grey willow -tree at home, but never 

 attempts to try that skill in foreign waters 

 which practice from boyhood has often ren- 

 dered almost perfect. It is singular, indeed, 

 how fishing is neglected on the Continent by 

 those who would find it a continual pleasure ; 

 for in whatever land it may be pursued, no 

 amusement is more refreshing to the brain- 

 worker, with its variation of gentle or strong 

 exercise, and its pleasant alternations of mo- 

 notony and excitement. 



The number of those who ever cast a thought 

 to the obtaining of their favourite amusement 

 when they have left Dover behind them, or 

 who seek to vary the regular tourist's round 

 by a day or two by the side of some little 

 stream, where the inhabitants look upon a 

 fishing-rod as quite an unusual sight, is sin- 

 gularly small. And yet many a man who, as 

 he drives along a Tyrolese valley, or passes 

 a sombre lake shaded by pine-trees, must in- 



