2 THE PRACTICAL ANGLER 



proclaimed his preference for the tumult of Fleet 

 Street to the finest rural scene in England. Still we 

 are bound to confess, that the British public is to a 

 considerable extent divided as to which definition is 

 the more correct. There are few amusements which 

 the uninitiated look upon as so utterly stupid ; and 

 an angler seems generally regarded as at best a 

 simpleton, whose only merit, if he succeeds, is that 

 of unlimited patience, and whose want of success 

 should he not succeed is only attributable to his 

 want of that virtue, of which people seem to take 

 fully more credit for the want than for the possession. 

 Such impressions can only have originated in very 

 confused ideas of both angling and patience; and 

 though it may suit the unsuccessful to abuse angling 

 as " slow " and monotonous, and to quote Dr. Johnson's 

 famous saying which, so far as they are concerned, 

 is certainly correct angling, as we hope to show, is 

 by no means either slow or simple, and requires just 

 the same qualifications as are required for success in 

 any other pursuit viz., energy and skill, and those 

 in no small degree. 



If, however, on the one hand, angling is looked 

 upon with little favour by an unenlightened multi- 

 tude, on the other hand, there is no amusement to 

 which those who practise it become so much at- 

 tached. Nor do we think that anglers generally can 

 fairly be accused either of stupidity, or, let us say, 

 patience. They have certainly in their ranks a larger 

 proportion of men of literature and science than can 

 be found among the followers of any other field sport ; 



