TROUT THE FISH MOST SOUGHT AFTER. 7 



brated Doctor of Divinity who has taken it in hand ; 

 but if any one has any scruples, or thinks angling 

 slow and stupid, or has any other objections, let 

 him keep clear of it by all means. There are plenty 

 of anglers already, and every year adds to the list a 

 number who are not to be deterred either by the 

 sneers of this world, or by terror of the punishment, 

 which, the poet thinks, should be reserved for the 

 master, and we suppose for all his followers, in the 

 next ; and our purpose is not to make more anglers, 

 but to make successful anglers of those unsuccessful 

 at present. 



Some fish afford more sport in their capture than 

 others ; but for whatever kind necessity may compel 

 the angler to fish, its capture will always afford him 

 amusement, provided he has not been accustomed 

 to anything superior. The juvenile cockney who 

 bobs for gudgeon and eels in the dubs and ditches 

 in the neighbourhood of London, and whom a trout 

 of a pound weight would scare out of a year's 

 growth, plies his lure as unremittingly as the 

 sportsman who captures the monarch of the streams 

 in some noble river, such as Tweed or Tay. 



Of all the inhabitants of the fresh water, no fish 

 is looked upon with such favour by the angler, 

 and none affords him such varied and continuous 

 sport, as the common fresh-water trout. This is 

 owing to its being the most difficult to capture of 

 all the finny tribe, not excepting the salmon itself, 

 to the sport it affords when hooked the trout 



