sir tmtnpbrs s>at>s 



Phys. I am satisfied with your poetical authorities. 

 II aL Nay, I can find authorities of all kinds- 

 statesmen, heroes and philosophers. I can go back to 

 Trajan who was fond of angling. Nelson was a good 

 fly-fisher, and as a proof of his passion for it, continued 

 the pursuit even with his left hand. Dr. I'alcy was 

 ardently attached to this amusement ; so much so that 

 when the Bishop of Durham inquired of him when one 

 of his most important works would be finished, he said 

 with great simplicity and good humour, ' My Lord, I 

 shall work steadily at it when the fly-fishing season is 

 over. As if this were a business of his life." 



Sir Walter Scott, in his picturesque and entertaining 

 article on " Salmonia " in the Quarterly Review, appends 

 this interesting note to his comments on the passage I 

 have quoted : 



" The author of * Salmonia ' mentions Nelson's fond- 

 ness for fly-fishing, and expresses a wish to see it noticed 

 in the next edition of ' that most exquisite and touching 

 life of our Hero by the Laureate, an immortal monument 

 raised by genius to valour.' We believe neither Haliceus 

 nor the Laureate will be displeased with the following 

 little anecdote from a letter of a gentleman now at the 

 head of the medical profession with which he favoured 

 us shortly after perusing ' Salmonia' : ' I was' (says our 

 friend) ' at the Naval Hospital at Yarmouth, on the morn- 

 ing when Nelson, after the battle of Copenhagen (having 

 sent the wounded before him), arrived at the Roads, 

 and landed on the jutty. The populace soon surrounded 

 him, and the military were drawn up in the market-place 

 ready to receive him ; but, making his way through the 



