Salmon Fishing. 2 1 7 



would have done, which I richly deserved. 



Little did the recipient of the pheasants 

 think, when he saw them smoking upon his 

 board, and he engaged in the jolly task of dis- 

 pensing his hospitalities to the jubilant guests 

 of his supper-table, what penalties he might 

 have incurred, who had procured them for 

 him ! 



From this instance on my part of a wilful, 

 wayward transgression of the law, may we 

 not with some show of reason infer that, as 

 the love of sport, more especially when hard 

 to gratify, tempted me to commit so palpable 

 a bit of poaching, the majority of incipient 

 offenders in this respect have acted under no 

 very dissimilar circumstances ? 



To shut up then all open spaces of common 

 ground, once the familiar resort of youthful 

 sportsmen ; and to drive from the riverside 

 every humbler disciple of the gentle art ; so 

 far from being a corrective of the evil, must 

 it not carry an ugly appearance in the eyes 



