218 FLY FISHING FOE TROUT. 



what they are missing when spring comes 

 round, he goes on : 



'At such moments there surges within you a 

 spirit of resentment and indignation, kept in 

 abeyance during the actual hours of hard work, 

 but asserting itself at all other times, and you 

 pass through the streets feeling like an 

 unknown alien, who has no part in the bustle 

 and life of London, and cannot in the place 

 of his exile share what seem to others to be 

 pleasures. Work alone, however interesting, 

 cannot neutralise all this, because it is only 

 partly by the mind that we live. Mental effort 

 is enough for some of the satisfaction of life; 

 but we live also by the affections, and where 

 out-of-door things make to these the irresistible 

 appeal, which they do make to some natures, it 

 is impossible to live in London without great 

 sacrifice.' 



I might have quoted other passages : I quote 

 that because it moves me most. Every fisher- 

 man who lives in a town will know. 



The other three are dead. Francis Francis 

 was for many years fishing editor of the Field, 

 a devoted sportsman and fish preserver, and an 

 immense writer, with a jolly captivating style. 

 The only thing I shall quote is an epigram 

 attributed to him : Some fishing is better than 

 others, he said; but there is no such thing as 

 bad fishing. Which I suspect sums up the 

 man. It must have pleased both Walton and 

 Stoddart, when it reached them. 



