INTRODUCTION. 25 



indiscriminately with each other ; drink copiously out of 

 the same varied fountain of fun, frolic, and contemplation ; 

 and each class can throw its modicum of delight into the 

 common stock of enjoyment. Among the class of our 

 conservative principles, there is one which we hold in deep 

 veneration, viz., the social and individual advantages of 

 the old system of English sports. We dwell upon the 

 remembrance of these with a reverence bordering on 

 idolatry. The pastimes and sports of our forefathers were 

 manly and generous exercises, giving at once health to 

 the body, and firmness and elasticity to the mind. The 

 whole train of amusements in old days was calculated 

 to render the youthful generation active, sprightly, 

 nimble, vigorous, and courageous, and to rear them up to 

 useful and honourable manhood. With what enthusiasm 

 and right good-feeling do we ponder over the pages of 

 Fitz Stephen, wherein he tells us, that in the year 1130, 

 " In the holidays, in the summer, the gents are exercised 

 in leaping, dancing, shooting, fishing, wrestling, casting 

 the stone, and practising the shield; and the maidens trip 

 with their timbrels, and dance as long as they can see." 



But angling is not only a most agreeable and delightful 

 amusement it also imparts health and long life to its 

 zealous and devoted disciples. We have witnessed its 

 powerfully healing virtues, even at the very gates of 

 dcjith itself. When we have seen a poor wretch aban- 

 don himself to habits of unmitigated intemperance 

 when he has thrown off every feeling of decency and de- 

 corum when we have perceived the reddened eye, the 

 blotched face, the trembling hand, the tottering step, the 

 dull and idiotic air ; when he has endured repeated attacks 

 of " delirium tremens," and his liver has become enlarged, 

 and as hard as a Norfolk dumpling when he has shivered 



