xxiv THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



his knowledge on the printed page. Throughout the 

 volume there are sentences that could be analysed 

 opprobfiously by any grave boy fresh from school ; 

 but what of that ? Mr. Pinkerton, in " The Wrecker? 

 an amiable youth with a passion for culture, was 

 inclined to sniff at a certain newspaper report of a 

 mishap at sea ; and Mr. Loudon Dodd, his mentor, 

 through whom spake Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, 

 assured him that the report was " a good, honest, plain 

 piece of work" telling the story clearly. So is tl The 

 Practical Angler." It stands in relation to literature 

 as pleasantly as a well-thrown fly-line to the sport 

 itself. It has that peculiar and complete sincerity, 

 the secret of which seems neither communicable nor to 

 be dejined, which marks all works that live beyond 

 their day and generation. 



On reading lt The Practical Angler" we perceive 

 cause for being fairly well pleased with the state of 

 the trout-streams. Mr. Stewart, when he Jished and 

 wrote, was obviously disposed to think that the sport 

 was destined to decline. He lamented the agricultural 

 drainage, which fl was less extensively m operation " 

 fifty years before. " So long as drainage was con- 

 fined to the rivers'* banks, its effects were not so observ- 

 able ; but now that it has extended to the recesses of 

 the mountains, whence most of our rivers receive 

 nine-tenths of their water, and every hill, glen, and 

 moor is drained, it tells severely upon the streams and 

 their inhabitants. The water, which used to find its 

 way to the rivers gradually, keeping them large and 

 full for a considerable time, is now conducted to them 



