Xlll. 



towns and cities which lie in the route of the 

 great sections of railway traffic in all parts of 

 the kingdom. 



It is a fact, and an agreeable one to con- 

 template that angling tourists have greatly 

 multiplied, and extended their travels, within 

 the last twenty years. And one of the direct 

 effects which have resulted from these occasional 

 wanderings from home, into picturesque and 

 romantic districts, has been to give a higher 

 tone to the literature of angling, and to impart 

 to it many of those pleasant and improving 

 influences which the exercise of the imagination 

 on external nature is fitted to produce. We 

 have only to cast an eye over the general 

 current of books which have issued from the 

 press within the last quarter of a century, to 

 recognise the intellectual advancement and 

 raciness of recent piscatory writings, and to 

 acknowledge that angling authors have indeed 

 made very rapid strides in imparting amuse- 

 ment, instruction, and rational inquiry and 

 discussion into matters of detail connected with 

 their peculiar art. We find wit and humour, 



