64 FLY FISHING FOB TROUT. 



feel this, and I know there are some, will they 

 take a word of advice from one who has 

 travelled the same road ? Let them go back to 

 the Compleat Angler itself, or to one of the 

 Lives, that of Sir Henry Wotton for choice, and 

 they will find that they read it with delight and 

 refreshment. Walton is not one of the great 

 English prose writers, but he is one of the most 

 pleasing. The charm of his style lies in the 

 revelation which it gives of the man. Behind 

 the printed page there always stands Walton 

 himself, shrewd and critical, but also tolerant 

 and kindly. As we read he seems to be watch- 

 ing us with wise and steady eyes, to fathom 

 our wishes before we know them ourselves, and 

 to instil into our minds a harmony for which 

 we have been searching unconsciously. No one 

 has better adapted style to matter, or has 

 known better how to show what is best and 

 deepest in his subject, even when dealing with 

 what appears transitory or trivial. For him 

 love of fishing was woven inextricably with love 

 of books and love of English country life. Every 

 fisherman is deeply in his debt, for there are 

 certain aspects of fishing difficult to express 

 which no one has shown better than he. He 

 himself owes a debt, it is true, to the Treatise, 

 from which or from a source common to both he 

 took both his presentation of the subject and 

 his mental attitude towards it. But to admit 

 this is no disparagement : he assimilated its 

 spirit and remoulded it, he handed on more 



