Str twmpbrv 



monstrous picture wai never drawn of humanity than 

 this. Half a pint of claret ! Poor devils ! Wading 

 to-morrow in Hancock's boots ! Cold feet ! Apoplexy ! 

 Palsy! ' Be guided by meneither drink nor wad 

 'Remember old Bocrhaavc's maxims of health, I 

 act upon them " Keep the feet warm the head 

 cool and the body open ! ! ! " ' A maxim on a fish- 

 ing excursion equally despicable and disgusting. Really 

 'Salmonia' smells like a dose of Glauber salt in a 

 tea-cup, and Sir Humphry is unpleasantly strong of 

 the shop." 



For myself I can only "say ditto" to Christopher. 

 But stiff, stilted, and often priggish as the talk of 

 Haliceus and his friends is, and unreal and artificial 

 though their surroundings are, nevertheless, the book 

 is full of interest for the angler and the student of 

 natural history. And I think Haliceus justly sums 

 up its merits in his farewell remarks : 



" Hal. But our horses are ready, and the time of 

 separation arrives. I trust we shall all have a happy 

 meeting in England in the winter. I have made you 

 idlers at home and abroad, but I hope to some purpose ; 

 and, I trust, you will confess that the time bestowed 

 upon angling has not been thrown away. The most 

 important principle perhaps in life is to have a pur 

 a useful one if possible, and at all events an innocent 

 one. And the scenes you have enjoyed the contem- 

 plations to which they have led, and the exercise in 

 which we have indulged, have, I am sure, been very 

 salutary to the body, and, I hope, to the mind. I have 

 always found a peculiar effect from this kind of life ; 



