4 8 



THE ANGLERS SOUVENIR. 



much since he became an R.A. Sir Walter Scott 

 has mentioned, but where I forget, Chantrey's par- 

 tiality to salmon-fishing ; and, as I have the words 

 down in my pocket-book, I will read them. " We 

 have ourselves seen the first sculptor in Europe 

 when he had taken two salmon on the same morn- 

 ing, and can well believe that his sense of self- 

 importance exceeded twenty-fold that which he felt 

 on the production of any of the masterpieces which 

 have immortalized him." 



TWEDDELL. I think I have heard you say that 

 you did not acquire your own knowledge of fly- 

 fishing in London, Mr. Simpson 1 



SIMPSON. True. When a boy, I was at school 

 near Cotherstone, in Yorkshire, and it was there, in 

 the Tees, and in a small stream which ran close to 

 our master's house, that I first commenced angler. 

 I did not commence fly-fisher at once, but regularly 

 advanced through a course of minnow-fishing, with 

 a line of packthread and a farthing hook ; and I 

 well recollect my first trial for perch, with a new 

 rod and a fine hair line, when I caught fifteen, and 

 thought myself a first-rate angler ; and certainly 

 felt myself one of the happiest of human beings. 

 After this successful commencement, with some- 

 thing like a regular angler's tackle, all my leisure 

 hours and holidays, when the weather allowed, 

 _ -i were spent in fishing ; and as I managed to take a 

 good many eels, perch, dace, and brandling trouts, 

 I became a favourite with the master's wife, who 



