228 FISHING WITH THE FLT. 



bottom of his throat." Being quoted from memory, 

 these may not be the words exactly, as Toodles would 

 say, but the sentiment is the same. There is the true 

 poetical spirit pervading the very air, whispering from 

 the leaves, murmuring in the brook, and thus the sur- 

 roundings of the angler complete that which nature 

 began, and make him a poet. In common with other 

 sports of the field, though in greater degree : 



" It is a mingled rapture; and we find 

 The bodily spirit mounting to the mind." 



Bards have sung its praises, traditions have hallowed 

 it, and philosophers have revelled in the gentle pastime, 

 from the days of Oppian and Homer down to Walton, 

 Christopher North and Tennyson. 



Although the art of fly-fishing was not known to the 

 ancients, the poetry of angling has been enriched by 

 the bards of ye-olden-time to a remarkable degree. In 

 Pope's translation of the Iliad, the following passage 

 occurs : 



" As from some rock that overhangs the flood, 

 The silent fisher casts the insidious food ; 

 With fraudf ul care he waits the finny prize, 

 Then sudden lifts it quivering to the skies." 



One of the most familiar of ^Bsop's fables, in rhyme, 

 is that of the Fisherman and the Little Fish, while 

 Theocritus, who flourished about the year 270 B. c., 

 gives us a spirited idyl representing the life of a Greek 

 fisherman. Oppian and Aristotle each prepared a clas- 



