INTRODUCTORY. 3 



Both are, nevertheless, good in their places. I ask the angler in all 

 cases to prove by experiment, if possible, all that I try to teach by words. 



After all this explanatory matter, which, albeit necessary, is eminently 

 dry to the reader as it is to the writer, I come to touch upon a much 

 more agreeable topic, viz., the position angling holds as a sport, and the 

 reason why it exerts such a fascination over its votaries, for this 

 comes properly under the heading " Introductory." To the initiated I am 

 fully aware that a disquisition on this is unnecessary ; but to the unini- 

 tiated, who have probably read or heard quoted Johnson's snarl about 

 " a worm at one end and a fool at the other," it is desirable to show 

 succinctly why presumably sane men follow such an apparently inane, 

 senseless occupation. Even Plutarch has spoken against it as a " filthy, 

 base, illiberal employment, having neither wit nor perspicacity in it, nor 

 worth the labour." Think of that, brother anglers ! Let this man be 

 anathema, maranatha, likewise all others who rail against the most 

 gentle of crafts ! 



Man, and indeed all animals, seem to have an innate desire to hunt, 

 i.e., to acquire by personal exertion. In the lower animals this desire is 

 put in action primarily for the sake of the food it brings ; in man, the 

 hunting, whether of fish, flesh, or fowl, or good red herring, may 

 exist, as in angling, without the desire for the food acquired. The 

 exercise of all or any of man's powers or desires gives pleasure, and 

 the fact that the desire to hunt in angling is accompanied in its exercise 

 by the employment of more skilled and varied accomplishments and 

 subtleties of manipulation than any other sport is the chief reason why 

 so many practise it. That the influence of the spell is lasting is also 

 demonstrated in the truth that few (none, I might say) give it up until 

 the latest possible minute. The angler has the same undying steady 

 affection as the litterateur is said to have for his profession. A hundred 

 chances may deprive a man of his cricket, shooting, or hunting, but 

 angling may be and is often pursued till the veteran " goes over to 

 the many." Indeed, instances of the ruling passion strong in death 

 in connection with the gentle art are not wanting. Jesse, in his delight- 

 ful "Angler's Rambles," says that the answer to the captor of a 

 beautiful Thames trout, who had sent over to his friend to come 

 and see it, was, that the friend was dying, but " that it would 

 be a vast satisfaction to him if he could see the fish, provided it would 

 not be injured by being conveyed to his house for that purpose." This 

 wish was gratified, and Jesse remarks, " Mr. T. feasted his eyes upon 

 it, and soon afterwards closed them for ever." This " ruling passion " 

 has been very beautifully expressed by Mr. Westwood, in the "New- 

 castle Fishers' Garland" for 1863. He represents an old angler dying, 



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