68 RODS OF THE OLDEN TIME. 



subject, with which these dissenters will perhaps 

 be more inclined to agree. Cotton, the friend and 

 disciple of our patriarch Izaac, says : " For the 

 length of your rod you are to be governed by the 

 width of the river you chuse to angle at, and for 

 a trout river one of five or six yards long is com- 

 monly enough ; and longer it ought not to be, if 

 you wish to fish at ease, and, if otherwise, where 

 lies the sport ? " Aye, " there's the rub ; " and 

 we may ask these objectors if they know any 

 sport more easy, pleasant, and agreeable, than 

 that of flogging the water for a whole day with 

 a rod eighteen feet long, and not remarkable for 

 its lightness? Verily the modern lords of the 

 creation have lamentably degenerated from their 

 hardy and stalwart ancestors they have become 

 a weak and puny race. Yea, according to the 

 author we are about to quote, we moderns bear 

 no comparison, in muscular development, with 

 even those " weaker vessels " the ladies of the 

 " olden time." She of whom so honourable men- 

 tion has been made in a foot-note at the com- 

 mencement of this chapter the ancient sporting 

 Dame, we mean, was herself accustomed to use 

 (and she advised others to do the same) a rod full 

 fourteen feet long. It was composed of three 

 pieces, the joints of which were bound round with 



