THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY 



ANGLERS, unlike excisemen, have no ground of com- 

 plaint against the definition given of their occupation 

 in Johnson's Dictionary. Angling, the world is there 

 informed, is " the art of fishing with a rod." This 

 may be imperfect may need a little filling up (the 

 task, indeed, which we propose to ourselves) but it 

 is perfectly fair and unprejudiced. Not so, however, 

 another definition, dropped from the lips of the same 

 great authority in private, and which has ever since 

 passed from mouth to mouth with a sneer. " Angling," 

 said Dr. Johnson, u means a rod with a fly at one end 

 and a fool at the other." Nothing has rankled so 

 deeply in the angling mind as this obiter dictum of 

 the Mitre. It came from one, however, who knew 

 nothing whatever about the pursuit at which he 

 threw his sarcasm, who, short-sighted and hypo- 

 chondriacal, probably could not have enjoyed it had 

 he tried, and who (the fact is sufficient for us) openly 



