370 Ikfn05 of tbe 1Rofc, IRifle, ant> (Bun 



of them, yet never could find either taste or time for 

 the disposition of sentiment while sallying out on a 

 fishing excursion ; and however romantically beautiful 

 the branch overhung its shadow in the water, I no sooner 

 hanked my hooks on it than, if within reach, crash down 

 it came, whilst a wish hurried over my mind that all 

 river-skirting trees were removed. I would hardly 

 except the bordering willows of Dryburgh, or those 

 skirting the waters of Babylon, where the Israelites 

 hung their harps in the days of their captivity. 



By no poetical feeling whatever should the free swing 

 of line be interrupted. Let sketchers put imaginary 

 trees in their landscapes as they please, yet such are 

 ever the true angler's real feelings, disguise them as he 

 may ; keep tree y rock> and ivy full line-swing from the 

 margin of lake and stream. One truth is worth fifty 

 of these fishing authors' sickly preachments. If our 

 tractates on the subject should never sell, let us not 

 heap disgrace on our own poor head by feigning sanctity 

 we never feel. Such would be worse than prevalent 

 superstition or common hypocrisy. I can see no more 

 sentimentality in angling for fish than in the rural sports 

 of Fox or Otter hunting. The excitement is kept up 

 by the solicitude of success, and this the same in fishing 

 for reputation in the sport as in fishing for a dinner ; the 

 true angler being always intent in the pursuit, however 

 passive he may appear." 



There! that's frank and true. And I should have 

 liked to grip the Scottish cobbler's horny hand and tell 

 him that I admire the vigorous strokes with which he 

 thus " nails a lie to the counter." 



