ttbe ffatbcrs of Hnolfna *' 



swim from the invisible enemy ; the gander for one 

 moment losing, the next regaining his centre of gravity, 

 and casting, between times, many a rueful look at his 

 snow-white fleet of geese and goslings, who cackled 

 out their sympathy for their afflicted commodore. At 

 length victory declared in favour of the feathered angler, 

 who, bearing away for the nearest shore, landed on the 

 smooth green one of the largest pikes ever caught in 

 the castle-loch. The adventure is said to have cured 

 the gander of his propensity for wandering. 



That anecdote will, I think, suffice to show those 

 who care to follow Thomas Barker's recipe for pike- 

 fishing what delightful entertainment it is likely to 

 afford them. It seems to me to be on a par with the 

 duck-hunting by dogs in which I have seen men and 

 boys indulge in those dark days when barbarity and 

 cruelty were considered piquant adjuncts to sport. 

 But it is pitiable to think of so good an angler and 

 sportsman as Thomas Barker recommending such a 

 pastime. Perhaps he would not have done so had he 

 not deemed it politic to fall in^with the barbaric views 

 of sport entertained by that "noble gentleman in 

 Shropshire." Still, something must be allowed for the 

 age they lived in. It is only within the last fifty years 

 that we have begun to realise that brutality and cruelty 

 to man or beast are unsportsmanlike, and even now 

 we have not wholly shaken ourselves free from bad 

 traditions. 



An accomplished angler and genuine sportsman of 

 this period, to whom, I think, but scant justice has been 

 done by his brethren of the angle, is Richard Franck, 



