THE ANGLERS SOUVENIR. 



chance of hooking an angler from the title. There 

 is a capital blunder in his first volume, where he 

 gives a quotation from Nemesian, as illustrative of 

 the instinct of a bitch. He must have picked the 

 passage up somewhere, ready cut and dry, for it is 

 evident ha cannot have read the context. The 

 poet means that a bitch, when her whelps are sur- 

 roundad by a circle of fire, will rescue the best first, 

 from an instinctive knowledge of its excellence. 

 The original passage, 



" rapit rictu primum, portatque cubili, 

 Mox alium, mox deinde alium. Sic conscia mater 

 Segregat egregiam sobolem virtutis amore," 



ha ignorantly renders : 



" with opening jaws, first one, 

 And then another, to her hutch she bears ; 

 The mother, conscious of their danger, thus 

 With an instinctive fondness saves her young." 



Conscious of their danger ! What a wonderful 

 instance of instinct in the bitch, and of sagacity in 

 the plumeless biped or unplumed rather, for he 

 appears to have been feathered once who dis- 

 covered such a meaning in the lines ! Send the 

 bottle round. Sandy, why are you looking so glum] 

 Angler in Wales, whoever thou art, Valeas ! 



TWEDDELL. I am not looking glum, I am only 

 getting weary of your lengthy criticism on the 

 " Angler in Wales." I have read some very clever 

 extracts from it, and I think every author has a 

 right to prefix what title he pleases to his book. 



