ttbomas TEo& Stobfcart 489 



Solomon's grim old saw, " He that spareth his rod hateth 

 his son." He had no belief in "the squeamish humanity 

 of the present age, which declares itself adverse to the 

 application of the lash as a deterrent and corrective 

 means of enforcing obedience." 



It is hard to say whether poetry or angling first 

 asserted its sway over the boy. At the age of ten he 

 was deep in tragedy, spending all his money in penny 

 dreadfuls, from which he extracted the materials for his 

 harrowing dramas. " Blood and battle were the powers 

 with which he worked, and no meaner tools." His 

 passion for angling he inherited from his father and 

 grandfather, both experts with the rod. And it was 

 fostered by a French prisoner of war, a M. Senebrier, 

 who had elected to remain in Edinburgh after the 

 declaration of peace, and from whom young Tom 

 Stoddart learned what we now deem the unholy art 

 of potting salmon-roe for bait 



After a brief and unhappy sojourn at a Moravian 

 school in Lancashire, Thomas Tod Stoddart returned to 

 Edinburgh, and with his brothers attended the High 

 School. They were all mad for angling, and every holi- 

 day was spent in fishing excursions. One delightful 

 adventure which befel them in the enjoyment of this 

 sport Miss Stoddart thus relates : 



" Often the boys started early on Saturday morning, 

 and came home late at night. Very late hours were 

 strictly forbidden, as next day was Sunday ; and it is on 

 record that one evening, being somewhat belated, and 

 finding an empty and driverless hearse standing at 

 a toll-door, the horses' heads turned towards Edinburgh, 



