CHAP, iv.] GIPSY ANGLERS. 135 



The place to try an angler is a fine Border stream or a 

 grand Highland loch ; but I shall not presume to lay down 

 minute directions as to how to angle, for an angler, like a poet, 

 must be born, he can scarcely be bred, and no amount of 

 book lore will confer upon a man the magic power of luring 

 the wary trout from its crystalline home. The best anglers, 

 and I may add fish-poachers, are the gipsies. A gipsy will 

 raise fish when no other human being can move them. If 

 encamped near a stream, a gipsy band are sure to have fish as 

 a portion of their daily food ; and how beautifully they can 

 broil a trout or boil a grilse those only who have had the 

 fortune to dine with them can say. Your gipsy is a rare 

 good fisher, and with half a rod can rob the river of a few 

 dozens of trout in a very brief space of time, and he can do so 

 while men with elaborate " fishing machines," fitted up with 

 costly tackle, continue to flog the water without obtaining 

 more than a questionable nibble, just as if the fish knew that 

 they were greenhorns, and took a pleasure in chaffing them. 

 Mr. Cheek, who wrote a capital book for the guidance of what I 

 may call Thames anglers, says that the best way to learn is to 

 see other anglers at work which is better than all the written 

 instructions that can be given, one hour's practical information 

 going farther than a folio volume of written advice. It is all 

 in vain for men to fancy that a suit of new Tweeds, a fair 

 acquaintance with Stoddart or Stewart, and a large amount 

 of angling " slang," will make them fishers. There is more 

 than that required. Besides the natural taste, there is wanted 

 a large measure of patience and skill ; and the proper place to 

 acquire these best virtues of the angler is among the brawling 

 hill streams of Scotland, or on the expansive bosom of some 

 of the great Cumberland lakes, while trying for a few delicious 

 cliarr. A congregation of fish brought together by means of a 

 scatter of food and an angler's taking advantage of the piscine 

 convention over its diet of worms, is no more angling than a 



