PRELIMINARIES. 3 



kind of angling which is easiest and most likely to give 

 them a little sport as an encouragement, and they 

 will wish to equip themselves first for that kind 

 before they think of higher flights. In this modest 

 frame of mind they will invade a tackle-shop. Here 

 I would give a word of caution. A frontal attack- 

 on the establishment is to be deprecated, for it can 

 only result in great slaughter. Tackle-shops, like 

 salmon fishing, are dangerously fascinating, and 

 the novice who enters one on foot without a plan 

 of campaign is liable to leave it in a four-wheeled 

 cab surrounded by enough impedimenta to supply 

 an angling club. Therefore, he should make his 

 dispositions with care. 



He should spend some minutes gazing in at the 

 window, so that his eye may grow accustomed 

 to the glitter and panoply, and he should have 

 supports at his elbow in the shape of an angling 

 friend (a cynic if possible), who can explain to him 

 how unsuited to his immediate purpose most of the 

 things displayed in the window are that delightful 

 bottle of pink prawns, for example, that shark hook 

 on its glittering chain, that tin box full of 

 resplendent salmon flies, that fly-dresser's cabinet 

 of polished wood those things are not for him yet 

 When he has digested these facts the shop may be 



entered, and the supports should be sent in first, a 



B 2 



