28 THE TROUT 



are as follows : 1. A good rod, and adapted to the kind of angling 

 it is for the time being to be employed upon. 2. A line possessing 

 the same qualifications. 3. Good gut, and properly fitted up for 

 the purpose. 4. A good reel sound in all its parts. 5. Good flies 

 or baits, as the case may require. 6. That the waters be of the 

 proper height and colour. 7. That they contain plenty of fish. 

 8 A knowledge of where to find them. 9. A skilful hand, and a 

 quick eye. 10. A good day. 11. Good temper. 12. A consti- 

 tution that will endure cold, wet, and fatigue. 13. Perseverance. 

 And 14, good luck. With all these requisites much patience will 

 not be required, but in proportion as these fall short, in an equal 

 degree will an increased proportion of that most christianlike vir- 

 tue become necessary. 



In order, also, to become an angler, it is not sufficient to follow 

 one branch of the art only, though nineteen anglers out of twenty 

 are content to do so, and style themselves as practised fishermen 

 accordingly, with about the same pretentions as many men of the 

 present day who have attained a slight smattering of Latin and 

 Greek set themselves down in their own imaginations among the 

 learned in languages, esteeming the vulgar modern tongues now 

 spoken throughout the continent as utterly beneath their notice ! 

 And as there is a fashion in all things, so one particular branch of 

 angling has its most fastidious votaries. Casting the artificial fly 

 being now to be the only style of fishing the exquisite professors 

 of the science will condescend to follow, every other mode being 

 utterly disclaimed by them, particularly that of contaminating their 

 well-ringed fingers with any thing in the shape of bait, and even 

 requiring the assistance of an attendant to unhook their fish, should 

 they chance to catch any. Others equally coxcomical in their 

 way, effect great sympathy for the sufferings of worms and frogs, 

 and even go so far as to revile honest Izaak's memory with the 

 charge of cruelty, because he advised his scholar when he baited 

 with a frog, to "use him as if he loved him;" and yet many of 

 these folks feel not the slightest scruple in impaling May flies in- 

 numerable, or perhaps out of mock humanity get a servant to per- 

 form that office for them. Now can any thing be more disgusting 

 than this monstrous humbug, which is very like the sentimental 

 philosopher who wept with the most pathetic and fraternal sympa- 

 thy over the body of a dead Jack ass, whilst he left his aged 

 mother to starve, and sent the natural children he was sinner 



