84 FLY FISHING FOE TKOUT. 



The classical style is a bad medium for field 

 sports : Gay's merit is that his love of the 

 country and knowledge of its pursuits triumphs 

 over the conventions of his age. At first sight 

 it is not a little surprising that the eighteenth 

 century, with its amazing literary and artistic 

 fertility, produced no great angling prose 

 writer. It cannot have been a matter of chance, 

 for neither did it contain many great works on 

 hunting; indeed, I can recall none, save that 

 of the admirable Peter Beckford. On the 

 other hand, the first half of the nineteenth 

 century is wonderfully rich. Sir Humphry 

 Davy and Fitzgibbon, Bainbridge and Ronalds, 

 Pulman and Penn, Stoddart and Colquhoun 

 were all fishing and writing : Christopher 

 North was living as well as describing his 

 Ambrosial Nights : whilst one greater than 

 them all was content to subscribe himself as 



No Fisher 



But a well-wisher 



To the game. 



and to do so in the words of a seventeenth 

 century writer. It is difficult to imagine Scott 

 quoting an eighteenth century poet, even one 

 so good as Gay, and it is impossible to imagine 

 him quoting Pope, though he did write on 

 fishing. 



The patient fisher takes his silent stand 

 Intent, his angle trembling in his hand. 



We have got a very long way indeed from the 



