CHAPTER VII. 



THE ANGLER IN IRELAND. 



" The miles in this country much longer be ; 

 But that is a saving of time you see, 

 For two of our miles is aiqual to three, 

 Which shortens the road in a great degree. " 



WHETHER Ireland be a better salmon country than Scot- 

 land, or Wales the best trouting land, is not the question ; 

 without any injustice to the bonnie Land o' Cakes, it may, 

 however, I think, be taken for granted that the Emerald 

 Isle is, on the whole, the Paradise of Anglers. Both Scot- 

 land and Ireland abound with beautiful streams and an 

 abundance of fish, but in the latter country they are much 

 more accessible to the passing stranger than in the former. 

 It is more fashionable for the wealthy merchant or citizen 

 to own an estate north of the Tweed than to possess one 

 across the Irish Channel, and so it happens that rivers which 

 in Ireland are absolutely free to the bond fide angler would 

 fetch a high price and be jealously guarded in Scotland. 

 Some day it may be that, in the revolutions of the whirligig 

 which produces manners and customs, the fashion may run 

 the other way, and then, while the bright charms of Ireland 

 are rapturously acknowledged, the salmon and trout now 

 free to the rodster may have as heavy a price put upon their 

 heads as have their finny brethren of North Britain at the 

 present moment. 



Indeed already there is a slow change in this direction, 



