X. BRIEF SKETCH OF DAVID FOSTER. 



From the numerous graceful tributes of respect 

 paid to the memory of David Foster, the following are 

 brief extracts : 



From the London Echo. 



" There was not a trout or grayling fisher from John o' Groat's to 

 the Land's End who did not venerate the name of David Foster. A 

 fly-fisher for half-a-century in and about the Derbyshire Vales, a genial 

 companion, full of information on matters of which the majority of men 

 know least, he was indeed the Izaak Walton of the iQth century." 



From the Field. 



" The sudden demise of this celebrated angler will be deeply deplored 

 by fishermen of every class." 



From the Fishing Gazette. 



" David Foster, the famous naturalist, angler, and fly-fisher, has just 

 died at Ashbourn, near to the banks of the Dove. His sudden death 



will be much regretted by anglers everywhere Right well 



has he earned the appellation of the Walton of the present century." 



From the Sportsman. 



" Mr. Foster's name is known and respected wherever a salmon, 

 trout, or grayling fly is thrown. Gentlemen from all parts of the United 

 Kingdom used to visit Ashbourn to put themselves under the piscatorial 

 guidance of ' old David.' No man was better informed about the art of 

 fly-fishing, which he loved with an ardour amounting to devotion. He 

 was a genial friend and companion, full of alternate wisdom and illus- 

 tration, and he well merited the title given him by a writer a short time 

 back, of ' the Isaac Walton of the nineteenth century.' " 



From the Ashbourn Parish Magazine. (Edited by the Vicar). 



" David Foster was in the habit of making long excursions in pur- 

 suit of his favourite amusement, and he obtained during these rambles a 

 knowledge of all the best waters in England and Wales. . . . He 

 was known as an acute and intelligent observer of nature in all her 

 forms, his observations of insects, their growth, habits, and develop- 

 ment, being wonderfully accurate. We understand that he has left 

 behind him a considerable number of MS. notes on Fishing and Natural 

 History." 



