CHAPTER VII 

 A FIRST SPRINGER AND SOME OTHERS 



THERE is no specific virtue that I ever heard of in a 

 first anything, yet you very often hear of it as a re- 

 membrance that may be pleasant, and is often other- 

 wise. The sportsman is as prone as anyone to such 

 references, and I defy the fishing or shooting editors 

 of the Field to count off-hand the number of MSS. 

 that they receive headed first salmon, first tiger, first 

 pheasant, or first something. At this moment I seem 

 to have a better understanding of the reason. The 

 heading is used to get rid of the difficulty as to what 

 exactly would be better, and in much the same way as 

 A. is made a member of the Cabinet lest there should 

 be awkwardness over the claims of B. and C. My 

 choice of a title of this sketch is not precisely so to be 

 explained. I simply plead sequence. 



In a previous chapter I wrote of my first Tweed 

 salmon, and in this chapter there is no reason why I 

 should not fall back upon the dear old formula for a 

 reminiscence of the Tay. The emphasis should be on 

 " springer," for I went northwards with a desire to 

 catch one that had taken the form of a longing, a yearn- 

 ing for many successive seasons. Besides, it was 

 February, when the springer is prized more positively 

 than at a more advanced period of the spring. You 



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