10 



THE ANGLERS SOUVENIR. 



r-^ji- -- , 



US 



such as our friend here will enjoy after he has 

 landed the salmon, which has held him in work 

 for this last hour and a half. 



Though the love of angling is generally acquired 

 in youth, yet it sometimes attacks persons of more 

 mature age ; conveys a maggot into their head, 

 and then they dream of gentles ; tickles their nose 

 with a May-fly, and straight they talk of palmers, 

 red and black, dun-cuts, granams, coachmen, pro- 

 fessors, gnats, moths, March browns, and peacock 

 hackles ; shows them a salmon in a fishmonger's 

 shop, and then they think of landing an eighteen- 

 pounder ; makes them dream, speak, and think of 

 nothing but angling ; and 



" winna let the puir bodies 

 Gang about their business ! '' 



Few persons who have been educated in tho 

 country, except the peevish or sickly, and such as 

 have had a brute for a master, can look back upon 

 their boyish days without bringing to mind many 

 recollections of real, heartfelt, unalloyed pleasure ; 

 amongst which that of angling, with an episode of 

 bathing or bird-nesting, is not the least delightful. 

 On a fine summer afternoon when the new-mown 

 hay smells sweet, when the trees are in full leaf, 

 and wild-flowers in full bloom, the corn in the ear, 

 and the bean in blossom ; when there are trout in 

 every burn, and nests in every hedge and thicket 

 happy are the schoolboys who obtain a half- 

 holiday ; and few of the pleasures of life, either for 

 present enjoyment or after-thought, exceed those 



