xiv ELEMENTS OF ANGLING. 



necessary ; the fact that he had made such inquiry 

 would prove that he knew for himself what was to 

 be gained. He sighed after some interest to take 

 him out of a troublesome world, after refreshment 

 for his tired spirit, after a tonic for body and soul, 

 and he asked whether angling would prove to be 

 all this, not because he doubted it, but because he 

 doubted himself. I should tell him not to doubt, 

 but to begin fishing at once. One novice of my 

 acquaintance, no longer in his first youth, bought 

 his first rod (not a fly rod) about two years ago ; he 

 now ties his own flies, bristles with theories as a 

 porcupine with quills, and advises meaboutpike baits. 

 But at the beginning he doubted like anything. 

 Which shows once more that Walton was right, and 

 that I am right too. 



The second question, how a would-be angler is 

 to set about it, is more complicated in its issues, 

 for it opens the road to those component parts of 

 the sport which I have admitted to be mysterious, 

 and it requires an answer which must be lengthy 

 if it is to be effective. From the frequency of the 

 question, however, I believe that an answer would 

 be of some small use, and, as one who has been 

 painfully through the mill of apprenticeship, I have 

 set down a few hints for the young angler (youth 

 in angling matters is not, I take it, a question of 



