216 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



many lands. His book is of great value. As 

 a writer he suffers from using dialogue, which 

 none but a master should attempt; his 

 characters do not live, but are mere abstract 

 arguments personified, in Charles Lamb's 

 words. But he puts into fishing the same 

 forceful penetration he employed in science. 

 His book incidentally contains a fishing poem 

 which ought to be better known than it is He 

 says that it was written in his copy of Walton 

 by a noble lady, long distinguished at court for 

 pre-eminent beauty and grace, whose mind 

 possesses undying charms. Here is her invoca- 

 tion to Walton : 



Albeit, gentle Angler, I 



Delight not in thy trade, 

 Yet in thy pages there does lie 

 So much of quaint simplicity, 

 So much of mind, 

 Of such good kind, 

 That none need be afraid, 

 Caught by thy cunning bait, this book. 

 To be ensnared on thy hook. 



which is musical, and poetry. I have seen it 

 stated that the author was Lady Charlotte 

 Bury. It may well be so. That beautiful and 

 talented daughter of the fifth Duke of Argyll, 

 the friend of Sir Walter Scott and other men 

 of letters, was a voluminous writer, famous and 

 popular. She was known chiefly for her 

 anonymous Memoirs of George IV. 's Court, 

 which caused some stir; but her novels were 



