208 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



philosophy asserting its dominion over the poetry of one's nature. 

 I cannot believe, at least, that without some struggle of this sort, 

 a zealous and accomplished angler, who at one time took a pas- 

 sionate delight in the practice of the art, could be brought to 

 look upon it, all at once, with a subdued and meditative eye, and 

 to scan its disciples only as curious subjects for anatomical inves- 

 tigation. On the occasion I refer to it extended over a period 

 of nearly three weeks in the month of April 1835, the weather 

 cold and otherwise disagreeable my friend's lingerings of devo- 

 tion to the sacrificed idol of his boyhood were displayed solely in 

 the pleasure with which he accompanied me to the water-side, 

 and contemplated my proceedings in the way of starting and 

 landing trout, his fine expressive features becoming more and 

 more radiant as the sport improved. 



A list, confined solely to the enumeration of literary lions and 

 scientific celebrities whom Tibby's thatch from time to time has 

 given shelter to, would occupy a large space in these reminis- 

 cences. Her visitor's book, a superfluity of several years' stand- 

 ing, which some busy-body must have provoked our simple 

 hostess to indulge in, teeming as it does with hieroglyphs, and 

 impressed here and there with the signatures of august presences, 

 can give no idea of the run of intellect upon the pastoral habita- 

 tion at the head of St. Mary's. Of the trysts and festivities held 

 there, the fun and frolic, the wanton waste of wit and wisdom, 

 the wealth of song and eloquence poured out, the loves whispered, 

 the hopes cherished, the great thoughts and gigantic projects 

 entertained, not a record is left. Nor is there any memorial 

 which circumstantially and statistically condescendeth on the 

 feats of the mighty anglers who were wont to count their spoils 

 beneath its porch. I have seen emptied into the big tub (which 

 Tibby, who well knew the days when fish were merrily inclined, 

 and judged of the occasion by the company she happened to en- 

 tertain, was in the habit of producing as the common receptacle) 



