tTbomas Uob Stofcfcact 497 



Stoddart had been admitted to the Faculty of 

 Advocates in 1833, but he had never made the slightest 

 attempt to practise. In literature, however, he had 

 begun to dabble. He had already given the world the 

 first-fruits of his pen in " The Art of Angling," a series 

 of papers reprinted from Chambers 's Journal. In 1847 

 appeared " The Angler's Companion to the Rivers and 

 Lakes of Scotland," of which Christopher North, in one 

 of his big, glowing rhapsodies in " Maga," wrote : " The 

 companion we want is ' The Angler's Companion.' As a 

 teacher of practical angling in Scotland we look on Mr. 

 Stoddart to be without rival or equal. What does the 

 book lack ? Anything ? No, not even ' a simple recipe 

 for cooking a whitlingor good trout by the river side' What 

 a smack there is here of inimitable and beloved Izaak ! " 



And, in good sooth, if ever the mantle of " the 

 Father of Angling " can be said to have fallen on 

 the shoulders of any of his disciples, it was surely on 

 those of Thomas Tod Stoddart. Indeed, his daughter 

 modestly makes this claim for him : 



" A follower of Izaak Walton, my father was his heir 

 in exclusive devotion to the sovereign art to which he 

 paid tribute of all gifts he owned, of time and talents 

 and enthusiasm, pressing into its service, like his master, 

 such powers as have availed to crown it with a literary 

 distinction no other sport has gained." 



It is by his "Angling Songs" that Stoddart is best 

 remembered, and by virtue of these he takes high rank 

 among the bards of the " gentle art." But that he had 

 poetic stuff in him of a higher order than his songs 

 indicate is proved by his weird and ghoulish poem " The 



VOL. II. II 



