AND ANGLING SONGS. 189 



nature of the stream, the elastic properties of the rod, the size of 

 hook, and the strength of the tackle employed by them. They 

 want, in their desired combination those powers which can decide 

 at once upon the degree of resistance they are justified in offer- 

 ing. The proper management of a large trout or salmon on 

 slender tackle, when there are hazards to encounter, is as much 

 an art, and as capable, so viewed, of being improved upon as any 

 of the allowed arts, for example, the art military. To approach 

 perfection in it, practice is no doubt required ; but practice goes 

 only a certain length. A natural aptitude is essential to boot. 

 This aptitude lay with Christopher North. You saw at a glance 

 that his superiority as an angler was at one with his genius as a 

 poet and philosopher. To bring it into comparison with the skill 

 of an every-day practitioner, one of those pretenders so often 

 met with, whose sphere of action has been solely confined to his 

 native stream, is not the legitimate way of testing this supe- 

 riority. To such a vaunter, any exploit with the rod performed 

 away from this arena, forms the subject of a sneer, and is listened 

 to with impatient incredulity. He refuses to believe, in the ful- 

 ness of his conceit and ignorance, that there is room for skill 

 elsewhere than at his own doors, or that it can be acquired 

 without his advice and special superintendence. For one, an 

 entire stranger, to appear armed with a rod and assert his inde- 

 pendence as an angler, would be considered the height of pre- 

 sumption. Any degree of skill such a one may exhibit is 

 slightingly spoken of, and put into comparison with some tradi- 

 tionary capture, accomplished on this or that pool, three-fourths 

 of a century back. I don't know how it was, but until I came 

 to mix with the rod-fishers in a certain vexed district of our 

 Borderland, I always fancied that a kindly feeling prevailed 

 among anglers. No doubt, this notion met primary encourage- 

 ment from the beautiful pictures of the fisher's life drawn in the 

 pages of old Izaak ; but it was aided, and on the point of being 



